Asus Transformer Book Trio Review

Introduction

Having an established presence in Android and Windows, Taiwan based Asus has been relentless when it comes to developing a wide array of products for its portfolio. Seriously though, they have their arms in everything! From standalone tablets, to snazzy convertible ones, they’re not afraid to experiment with the form factors. Well, the Asus Transformer Book Trio TX201LA is one of the company’s latest projects that’s aiming to be an all-in-one solution. Featuring three different modes, it’s part laptop, part tablet, and giving us the choice of running Android or Windows 8. Is it the Swiss Army knife of mobile computing? Let’s dive in and find out.

The package contains:

• microUSB cable
• Wall charger
• Keyboard dock
• Keyboard dock charger
• Slip cover
• Wire management ribbon
• Owners manual
  

Design

Premium is the name of the game here, but it’s not as svelte or daring with its approach.

Looking at the tablet portion by itself, there’s no questioning that Asus is generous with its design. It’s not cheap at all, but in fact, it’s very far from it – mainly because it’s sporting a solid metallic casing, brushed aluminum from the look and feel of it. There’s a chrome bezel around the side that gives the tablet a decent contrasting accent, however, the tablet by in large is bigger and heavier (26.69 oz) than the 10-inchers we're used to. Well, that’s due to the larger 11.6” screen it’s boasting.

Overall, we’d go as far to say that the design is somewhat typical from Asus. It’s neither bland nor daring, but right up there with some of its more established models – like the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity.

The top, left, and right sides of the tablet are clear of anything, but the bottom edge is home to all of its ports – these include the microSD card slot, microUSB port, docking port, docking hinges, and 3.5mm headset jack. Along the top-right section in the rear, its power button and volume control are raised and easily accessible.

Sporting both a front-facing 1-megapixel camera and a rear 5-megapixel auto-focus one, we’re just confused as to why Asus decided to place the rear camera in such an odd location. It’s actually sitting in the bottom right corner in the rear, which is an inconvenient spot because our pinky finger is constantly getting in its way.

Keyboard Dock

A timeless practice, it’s not a shocker to know that the Asus Transformer Book Trio comes with a keyboard dock. Not only does it feature a full-sized QWERTY keyboard and delivers an extended battery life to the tablet, but it’s the brains of the Windows 8 portion of the entire system. Meaning, it’s tucking along the Transformer Book Trio’s 4th generation 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-4500U processor, 4GB of RAM, and 500 GB HDD. Along the left and right sides, it’s blessed with all the usual ports that any laptop is given – like the audio jack combo, 2 USB 3.0, proprietary charging, microHDMI port, and Mini Display ports.

Setting the tablet into the dock is a painless process, as the hinges line up and lock into place. The keyboard has large sized keys, good travel, and clicky responses, but it doesn’t have any backlighting whatsoever – so it’s challenging trying to type in the dark. There’s a trackpad too for laptop style interaction.
Looking at the entire system, it’s thicker and bulkier than other tablet/keyboard combinations out there. Compared to Asus’ prestigious Zenbook Prime Touch line of ultrabooks, the Transformer Book Trio’s design isn’t as impressive, but then again, we have to bear in mind that it’s a convertible style mobile computing system.

Display

1080p goodness is in tow with this 11.6-incher. However, its weak brightness makes it ineffective outdoors.

For a tablet, its 11.6-inch 1080p IPS LCD display is highly regarded as above average in size. Needless to say, it’s more than spacious, but for a Windows 8 laptop, it’s tiny and puts it in the below average size. Nevertheless, its 190 ppi pixel density count is effective enough to enable us to view miniscule text without too much strain.

Unfortunately, the display’s brightness output is rather weak, as it falls a little short of 350 nits, which makes it ineffective when viewing under sunny conditions. For an IPS LCD screen, there’s a hint of saturation with color – albeit, we can adjust its color temperature to our liking.

Interface and Functionality

Switching between Android and Windows on the fly is neat. Power users will especially enjoy that functionality.

The “trio” in its name actually pertains to its physical modes. As for the software, it’s running both Asus’ customized Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean experience and full blown Windows 8.1. Now you’ll need to pay extra attention here, because the platform it’ll be running is dependent on what mode we’re using. Essentially, there are 3 distinct modes with the Asus Transformer Trio – tablet mode (Android), laptop mode (Win 8.1 & Android), and PC Station Mode (Win 8.1).

Starting with the first, if we’re to use the tablet exclusively without the keyboard dock, we’re only able to run the Android experience. There’s nothing out of the ordinary here, since it’s basically more of the same from what we’ve been seen with the last few tablets from Asus. Sadly, it won’t run Windows 8.1 because all of the necessary hardware needed to do it is found with the keyboard dock – so it isn’t a dedicated Windows 8.1 tablet.

In order to have the best of both platforms, we need to attach the tablet to the keyboard dock, which puts it into laptop mode. Now with this configuration, we can seamlessly switch between Android and Windows 8.1 by clicking on the button on the keyboard, which is to the right of the F12 key. Generally speaking, the switch is pretty instantaneous – with no reconnection needed with Wi-Fi. Obviously, power users will appreciate the deep productivity aspect of Windows 8.1.

And lastly, there’s the PC Station mode, which turns the keyboard into a compact Windows 8 desktop PC. On one hand, the tablet by itself will run the Android experience, while connecting the keyboard dock to a monitor/HDTV via its microHDMI or Mini Display ports, allows us to use it independently as a compact Windows 8.1 desktop PC.

Okay, so as we’ve seen, there’s a huge advantage having two operating systems running –we have a work-play kind of experience here. Naturally, it’s neat being able to switch between the two platforms on the fly in laptop mode, but in all practicality, we’re more inclined to sticking with one at a time. With the tablet aspect, the Transformer Book Trio has access to the wealth of optimized apps in the Google Play Store. And with the laptop side of it, we have the power and productivity of a real desktop OS.

Processor and Memory

The Android experience suffers from some choppiness, but there are few issues with Windows 8.1 thanks to its mightier CPU.

If you’re reading through the specs, it’s a little bit confusing with this one. Specifically, it’s packing along two Intel processors – a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor with 2GB of RAM in the tablet (Android), and a 4th generation 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-4500U processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and the Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU in the keyboard dock (Windows). Basic tasks are handled well with the Android tablet part of the Transformer Book Trio, but it strains under the pressure with more intensive ones. Not surprisingly, the Haswell chip is an effective piece of silicon that rarely exhibits any delay or choppiness with its performance.

Storage isn’t a problem with this one, just because our review unit has 16GB in the tablet, and a 500GB HDD with the keyboard dock. Asus offers the tablet in 32GB and 64GB capacities as well, while the keyboard dock’s configuration can substituted for 750GB or 1TB. Of course, it helps that a microSD card slot is there to supplement things.

Internet and Connectivity

There’s nothing out of the ordinary with the web browsing experience, but it has multiple connectivity features in tow.

Whether it’s the stock Android web browser or Internet Explorer in Windows 8.1, the web browsing experience is spot on in every aspect. Complex pages load up in a timely manner, which is complemented by its smooth controls and quick page rendering.

Yet again, depending on what you use, there are different connectivity features. For example, the Android tablet part features single-board 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0 – while the Win 8.1 laptop packs dual-band 802.11 as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

Camera

The placement of the camera is in an inconvenient spot, but the quality is tolerable.

Indeed, there are two camera apps available with the Transformer Book Trio. Between them, the Android one is undoubtedly deeper with its offerings, as it features several shooting modes (including panorama and HDR), manual controls, and some additional fun modes that show off its diversity. Regrettably, we don’t have access to the rear camera while in Windows 8.1 laptop mode – so we’re only able to access the front-facing one.

Catching the moment is something that this is capable of doing, since the quality from its 5-megapixel snapper is pretty decent for most people to swallow. Details are average looking from what we gather, but focusing is a bit finicky at times. Colors outdoors under sunny conditions might have a dull tone, but indoors under artificial lighting, it has a more prominent level of saturation. With low lighting though, it’s by far the camera’s weakest category, as noise and diminished details soften its quality.


Likewise, the 1080p videos that it produces are acceptable as well – though, it exhibits an over-exposed look when shooting outdoors while it’s sunny out. Audio recording is mostly clear, exposure adjustment is tight, and it records smoothly at 29 FPS. However, it lacks continuous auto-focus, which means we’re left to rely on manually adjusting it by tapping the screen.

Multimedia

Speakers are everywhere with this, but it’s sadly weak with its output.

Listening to music is done with the Google Play Music app on the Android side, and respectively, the XBOX Music hub in Windows 8.1. Two speakers line the sides of the tablet, while the keyboard dock has its own pair too. However, when running Android in laptop mode, the audio only comes out of the speakers on the tablet. Neither set of speakers are that great mainly because of their weak output.

The Windows 8.1 experience supports the playback of all the popular video codecs, whereas with the Android part, it only allows us to play those encoded in MPEG-4 and H.264, so you may have to download a third-party app from the Play Store. As is the case with most things nowadays, video playback is smooth and enjoyable. Fortunately, the SoundMaster Technology with the speakers kick in when playing videos, as it’s able to cast more robust audio.

Battery

Ouch. Battery life is a strong asset of the Transformer Book Trio. Running Android and relying on our battery benchmark test, it shamelessly inches out under 3 hours from a full charge. Although the keyboard dock is rated to offer an additional 8 hours of juice, but nonetheless, the result from the tablet is by itself disappointing.

Conclusion

Before you go out thinking that this is the dream setup, you’ll want to know its pricing first. Considering that this is stuffed with hardware that’s akin to some high-end laptops, its price reflects that to the teeth, as the Asus Transformer Book Trio retails normally for around $1,500 right now. Yikes! That’s one steep cost, even though it’s a hybrid device running both Android and Windows. It’s a power house for sure, but at that cost, it’s going to be difficult convincing consumers. Power users, though, will especially drool over the flexibility of running two operating systems, but sheesh, you can still probably pick up separately an Android tablet and Windows 8.1 laptop for cheaper.

Software version of reviewed unit:
Android Version: 4.2.2
Build Number: JDQ39.US_epad-V3.10.3-20131111
Kernel Version: 3.4.34-00003-g4acee2b
Windows Version: 8.1