I had hands-on with the new version of the ASUS Transformer Book at IDF13 this week and while it excites me to see Haswell pushing down into this form factor I’m of the opinion that, for now, Baytrail-based 2-in-1’s will better meet the average requirements in this space. Price is one factor but weight of tablet is a huge problem for consumers – the type of customers that should be targeted by 2-in-1’s to help turn round the PC business.
Having said that…
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The ASUS T300 with Haswell was kind of a known factor back in June but today ASUS made that official with the Transformer Book T300 announcement. This 13.3” 2-in-1 will benefit greatly from Haswell but it looks like ASUS haven’t done any re-design around it. It still weighs 1.9KG
The Samsung ATIV 500 and 700, also known as the SmartPC [details] and SmartPC Pro [details] haven’t haven’t been the easiest devices to track through tradeshow and launch events. First highlighted as the Series 5 and Series 7 slates the device names have been cleaned up a little now but we’re sure there’s at least some confusion remaining. Maybe that’s why Samsung have produced an infographic to guide us through the features and differences.
ASUS doesn’t appear to have revealed much online about the Transformer Book this evening as their events take place in London and New York but there’s enough so far to confirm it’s coming and to fill out some of the specs. A 13.3” 1080P IPS display, CPU options up to Core i7 and there’s a 128GB SSD in the tablet. Up to 500GB hard drive sits in the keyboard dock. More specs below…
Asus has prepared a full device assault to coincide with the launch of Windows 8. Tomorrow at 2PM EST the company will be unveiling their Windows 8 lineup at their Windows 8 touch teaser site. Though Asus is trying to tease the identity of the lineup (see icons below with no names) a quick look into the website source reveals the names of these devices: TaiChi, Transformer Book, Zenbook Touch, Vivo Book, and Vivo Tab (not that we couldn’t have guessed before!) [there’s also an AIO touchscreen desktop but that doesn’t really concern us!].
I really liked the look of the HP Env X2 I tested at IDF 2012. The size and weight proportions are more conducive to mobile operations than some of the Core-based solutions and in addition, there’s a battery life advantage to be had over Core but it’s not quite up to replacing a desktop for most people so there’s a big trade-off. The ASUS Vivo Tab is the same, but looks even better!
I got hands-on at IDF and you can see that in the video below. I walked away very impressed and definitely interested in testing it further, especially as I’m a huge fan of ultra-mobile solutions.
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I hadn’t intended to write about Atom-based devices while at IDF this week but the HP Envy X2 caught my eye in a very good way and after a hands-on I came away thinking how far Atom has come and how this device represents something for those wanting the full flexibility of a modular PC and a focus on battery life.
Sascha joined me in the studio last night for a full-on 3.5hr marathon testing and discussion session with 10 different tablets. The iPad2, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Acer Iconia Tab A500, HTC Flyer, Blackberry Playbook and Samsung Galaxy Tab were the focus of our efforts and we recorded three parts of the live session for you to view below.
The Blackberry Playbook impressed with its smooth UI, video handling and gestures. The Flyer beat the other 7 inch tablets in a browsing test (and is as fast as any Tegra2 + Honeycomb browser I’ve tested.) The Galaxy Tab was crowned the value-for-money king and in the 10 inch category, we couldn’t really find a winner. The iPad2, of course, just sits in a special space all on its own and isn’t truly challenged by the 10 inch Android devices although as Honeycomb and Honeycomb-optimised apps start for mature, that could change., especiall when we look to lightweight hardware like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Anyway, here are the videos. We hope you enjoy them. All products are owned by Sascha or myself.
Don’t forget the detailed HTC Flyer Live Review tonight, May 18th, at 2100 CEST (Berlin) on Carrypad.com/live. Follow @chippy for more on that.
The first video is an overview of all the tablets Two 10″ Devices were tested in detail in Part 2 Three 7″ devices were tested in detail in Part 3
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