When we first saw Asus's revolutionary new Transformer Book Trio at Computex earlier this year, the laptop-tablet hybrid was off limits on the show floor.
As with many Asus products announced at Computex, we didn't expect to see a working model of the Trio until early next year, but last night Asus announced it would be launching the Transformer Book Trio in the UK for £899 from mid-November. Here are our hands on impressions.
When asked to describe the Trio, Asus called it the world's first "three-in-one laptop tablet fully functioning keyboard base". It's a bit of a mouthful, but the Trio really is three devices in one thanks to its dual operating systems.
It comes with both Windows 8.1 and Android 4.2.2, the former being built into the keyboard dock and the latter in the tablet. This means you can use it as either a full Windows laptop, a standalone Android tablet, or even an Android-powered laptop.
We were a little disappointed we weren't able to use Windows in tablet mode, as the Trio automatically switches to Android when you detach it from the keyboard dock. It's a small complaint, though, as the tablet itself is gorgeous.
Weighing 700g and measuring 9.7mm thick, its rear panel is made of sturdy brushed aluminium. We didn't see any signs of flex whatsoever and its slim tapered edges were very comfortable to hold. That doesn't mean the Trio's short on ports, though, as you'll find a microSD card slot, a micro USB port and a headphone jack on the tablet's flat underside.
The 11.6in screen uses an IPS panel for bright, accurate colours, and its viewing angles were superb. We could see the screen clearly from every angle and its responsive ten-point touchscreen was a joy to use.
The tablet is powered by a dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z2760 processor and paired with 2GB of RAM, it handled Android 4.2.2 very smoothly. We recorded a Sunspider Javascript benchmark score of 1,359.8ms, which is around the same as the current Google Nexus 10. It's not quite as quick as the Asus MemoPad FHD 10 though, and falls well short of the fastest devices in this test.
You only get 16GB of storage in tablet mode, but the 500GB hard disk in the keyboard dock more than makes up for it.
Oddly, the tablet doesn't automatically switch back to Windows when you clip it back into the keyboard dock, but Asus has included a dedicated Windows/Android button to let you switch easily between the two operating systems. It happens in an instant, too, meaning you won't have to wait while it changes.
Luckily, you won't have to rely on the tablet's tiny Atom processor when using it as a Windows laptop, as the keyboard dock has its own dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U processor that can Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz when there's enough thermal headroom and 4GB of RAM. This is the same chip that powers the Microsoft Surface Pro 2, so it should provide plenty of raw processing power for both everyday office tasks and more demanding media applications.
The keyboard dock also has a much wider variety of ports, including two USB3 ports, a micro HDMI output and a mini-DisplayPort, and a combined headphone and microphone jack. This is in addition to the tablet's micro SD card slot, which you can still access from the back.
The whole system is quite chunky when both parts are combined, but it still weighs a collective 1.7kg and measures approximately 22mm thick. It never felt top-heavy while we were typing either - a common flaw of many tablet-keyboard dock combos - and this is no doubt due to all the components housed inside it.
The keyboard was very comfortable to type on. The keys were well-spaced and a good size for its meagre dimensions, and the extra elevation afforded by its wedge-shaped hinge provided a good angle for our hands.
The smooth all-in-one touchpad, on the other hand, was quite small and trying to use it for Windows 8 short cuts was a little frustrating. It was perfectly responsive when we used it to navigate the desktop, but multi-touch gestures were definitely one of its biggest weak points.
The Asus Transformer Trio is one of the most interesting and intriguing devices we've seen all year, but even more surprising is its price of just £900. This is still expensive, but we were expecting it to cost around the same as a Zenbook Prime Touch, which is roughly £600 more. At this price, the Transformer Trio is a serious contender for not only one of the best laptop-tablet hybrids of 2013, but also one of the most innovative thanks to its dual-operating systems. Be sure to look out for our full review of the Transformer Trio in the coming weeks.
Andoid Games
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