The Gen XY Lifestyle

Twice the Laptop, Half the Price

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Remember the netbook? It was not too long ago that the low-cost, diminutive laptop was all the rage. They fell by the wayside as laptops started to shrink and become almost  as portable as netbooks. The ASUS Transformer Book T100HA is an example of a new-fangled, low-cost hybrid that doubles up as both tablet and laptop in a form and weight similar to the old netbook of the past – and not to mention, its price as well.

The T100HA even looks like a netbook, but it’s a more polished product. The tablet component is aluminium-bodied and weighs under 600 grams. Even with the keyboard attached it weighs under a kilogram, although the compact size makes it feel somewhat dense.

t100ha34

The bright, 10-inch display has a relatively low resolution (1280×800), but the colour gamut is fairly decent for a device of this price. By the way, if we haven’t mentioned it yet, the T100HA is priced at S$499 – similar to the old price of netbooks. However, due to the combination of screen size and resolution, you may need to increase the size of the fonts in general, which in turn may reduce the usable or overall space available for you. Crucially for some of you, this might be the deal breaker.

While it’s hard to be too critical when you consider that’s cheaper than many smartphones, there are some significant quirks, one being that the speakers are located on the rear, rendering them ineffective particularly when using the T100HA in laptop mode.

Netbooks 2.0?

The T100HA uses an Intel Atom processor (X5-Z8500), and while the combination of the Z8500 processor and 2GB of RAM is actually not very powerful, it’s not a handicapped setup either. It’s well-designed for its intended purpose – to be used like a tablet, but one that has the ability to stretch itself and function as a regular laptop when called upon. Windows 10 can be set up to switch between tablet and desktop modes automatically depending on whether you have the keyboard attached or not, and this makes it viable as a true hybrid for all intents and purposes.

Removable

Likewise, the physical action of attaching and removing the tablet from the keyboard is painlessly simple, and the mechanism is secure enough that you can hold either half of the laptop and not worry that the other half will plunge horrifyingly to the floor. The keys, although small by conventional laptop standards, has a fairly deep travel and is comfortable enough for long periods of typing. The keyboard adds a full-sized USB port to complement a single mini USB port on the tablet, but little else – not even a battery. That’s also why the ensemble may feel a little top-heavy because most of the weight resides in the tablet. Even so, its battery life of roughly 9-10 hours average is decent enough.

ports

The tablet itself is fairly well-equipped. For starters it has two cameras; a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel camera, which aren’t great shakes but ultimately you can describe them as functional if you need them to work for say, Skype calls or as an emergency camera. In addition to the 64GB of storage, you can expand that through its microSD card slot, or just use it as a means to transfer data from your Android phone. Asus also provides one micro HDMI-out for an option to hook up the T100HA to a monitor. One micro USB and one new-fangled USB Type-C port round up its connectivity options, which is quite extensive for something in this price range.

Front

Does it work?

Windows 10 in tablet mode is quite different from what you might expect from say an iPad or an Android-based tablet, so we prefer to think of it as a laptop interface that can be carried with you onto the sofa. It’s far more comfortable to use (as a tablet) in landscape mode, so it might not be the best solution if you’re intending to get one to read e-publications most of the time as it’s rather unwieldy in portrait mode. If it’s a more of couch-based thing then perhaps it’s not so bad. As previously mentioned there’s little to complain about given the budget nature of this device, although you may have to think twice if you need a good camera and speakers, as they are merely functional. But all things considered, if you need a simple, portable laptop that can double up as a tablet-like device, the T100HA deserves some consideration given its bang for your buck value.

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