Asus Announces Transformer T300 Covertible

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

Asus' new Transformer hits the show floor at IFA in Berlin.

Asus on Wednesday debuted a brand new Transformer ultraportable called the T300.

 

Measuring 13.3 inches in size, the T300 is based on Intel's latest Core i-series generation of processors, and true to its Transformer name, features a detachable display that can be used as a standalone Windows 8 tablet.

 

Specswise, you're looking at anything from a Core i3-4010 CPU to an Intel Core i7-4500 CPU, as well as 8 GB of RAM and between 64 GB and 256 GB of solid state storage, a full HD camera on the back, a 720p camera on the front, stereo speakers, USB 3.0, microSD card slot, and micro-HDMI. The full HD (1920 x 1080) display features 10-point multitouch with a multitouch digitizer that measures a 6 mm contact point. The device measures 11.5 mm thick and weighs 2.4 lbs. Including the keyboard dock adds another 11 mm in thickness and an additional 2.1 lbs in weight.

No word on pricing or availability just yet, but we'll keep you posted! In the mean time, check out the hands-on from our sister site, LAPTOP.

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Jane McEntegart
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • teh_chem
    Wow, the "tablet" alone weighs 2.4lbs, and the tablet + dock weighs in at 4.5 pounds total? And the source says that Asus says that the tablet will last up to 8 hours when connected to the dock. Jesus, with 2 batteries, it will only last 8 hours. That's abysmal IMHO.
    Reply
  • wemakeourfuture
    teh_chem: you're spot on, way too heavy and battery life is terrible for its weight
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    You know, while this is heavy compared to the ARM family of tablets, for a Windows Pro tablet, its not that far out of line. The 10'ish inch Surface Pro weighs 2 pounds, the 11'ish inch Iconia W700 weighs 2.1, and this 13 inch tablet weighs 2.4. The Surface Pro itself only lasts about 4.5 hours and, while the Iconia lasts around 8, the higher end specs on this Asus device blows either of these other tablets out of the water - more RAM, more storage, better processor. The screen is also 2 inches larger than the Iconia's so a 15% increase in weight makes a degree of sense.

    I love my light devices these days and I'm actually using a Surface RT for work just because it is so light while doing all I need, but.. The specs/weight on this thing are not horribly out of line for hardware of this type. Price these things between $500 and $1000 depending on which hardware profile you're looking at and I could see some people going for these.
    Reply
  • BringMeAnother
    While this device looks interesting, the problem with it for me is that it's right on the crossroad between a production machine and consumption device. For a production machine, I'd like it to have a bigger screen, although the proper keyboard dock is awesome. For a consumption device, I'd like it to weight less although the pure slate mode it awesome. If it was absolutely imperative for me to have one device, I'd consider this to be my leading candidate, but I think it would be better to get a great ultrabook for work and a cheap 8in for play. The Sony Vaio Fit 15 and the Toshiba Encore seem to fit the description.
    Reply
  • BulkZerker
    Too heavy. Win 8... fail
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    11489564 said:
    Too heavy. Win 8... fail

    I'm guessing you'd prefer Windows 7 on a portable touchscreen device with a tablet mode? If so, all I've got to say is WOW.
    Reply
  • BringMeAnother
    Edit: dunno why, but the system doubled my previous post
    Reply
  • teh_chem
    11489772 said:
    Edit: dunno why, but the system doubled my previous post

    Because Tom's forum has been broken in a way that if you refresh the page that you previously replied to, it re-posts your previous post. Been like this for months, no one has fixed it. Before I understood why my posts were getting reposted, I would refresh the page a few times to see what new comments had been made, and it looked like I was spamming the forum with 2-3x my posts. It's really annoying, I don't know why it's so hard to fix.
    Reply