The Asus Transformer Book T100 line of 2-in-1 laptops have been pretty popular over the last few years, thanks to a combination of compact size, decent performance, and a great price. Originally priced at $399 and up, these days you can often find this 10 inch tablet with a detachable keyboard dock for around half that price.

Now Asus is getting ready to launch the biggest update to its Transformer Book T100 since it launched nearly two years ago.

In June the company unveiled the Transformer Book T100HA with an Intel Atom Cherry Trail processor and a USB Type-C port. Now it’s up for pre-order in France for €299 ($340)and up. It’ll probably be cheaper when it comes to the US, where there’s no VAT attached to prices.

t100ha_03

The entry-level model features 2GB of RAM and 32GB of solid state storage, but there are also models featuring 4GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of storage. Each comes with Windows 10 Home pre-installed.

The Transformer Book T100HA has a 10 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display, an Intel Atom x5-Z8500 Cherry Trail processor, a micro USB port, a full-sized USB 2.0 port, and a USB-C port, along with a micro HDMI port, stereo speakers, a 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, a microSDXC card reader, and a 30 Whr battery that Asus says should provide up to 12 hours of battery life during video playback.

The 2-in-1 tablet supports 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0.

The tablet measures 10.4″ x 6.9″ x 0.3″ and weighs about 1.3 pounds, while the keyboard dock is 10.4″ x 6.8″ x 0.4″ and weighs 1 pound.

via UMPC Portal

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39 replies on “Asus T100HA 2-in-1 with Atom x5 coming soon for €299 (in Europe, obviously)”

  1. 1080p IPS panel please. Also, we really have to get these manufactures to cut down the bezel size on these tablets OR increase the size of the panel. I’m going down to Bezel city…

  2. Way too expensive, 300 euros for 2gb of ram and 32 gb of storage. ASUS is definitely , not a favourable brand in mobile department, from personal view point at least

    1. Expensive? You’re kidding, right? Name a single Windows Tablet product that gives you more for the price that doesn’t skimp on other features, size, and build quality?

      1. it pretty much depends if you need that keyboard
        it’s a great feature, making this not just a tablet, but a great netbook too. I wouldn’t sacrifice that even it it’d meant half the price

        but if you really just look for a cheap tablet, throwing that away instantly, then you might be able to find cheaper priced devices. It’s not something i’d do, but there might be people who think that way.

        1. You can find cheaper tablets, but I can bet you that none of them have that Intel Cherry Trail quad-core processor or 4GB of RAM inside of them. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this machine since it was first announced… gonna jump on it the moment it can be bought in the US.

      2. There is one: Cube i7 Stylus… Windows tablet with:

        – 10’6 ” FHD IPS Screen with Wacom active stylus support (exactly Samsung’s same Surface Pro 2 screen)

        – Intel Core M 5Y10c

        – 4 GB double Channel LPDDR3 RAM

        – 64 GB SSD Sata3 (550 MB/s read, 160 MB/s write) M.2

        – MicroUSB 3.0, MicroHDMI, MicroSD reader.

        – Excelent optional Dock/Keyboard with 2 extra USB 2.0 and stylus compartiment.

        – 620 gr.

        – Windows 8.1/Windows 10

        Here is a review: https://www.htcmania.com/showthread.php?t=1041782

        1. Sorry but I said an example that doesn’t skimp in any way… The Cube i7 Stylus is a cheap China tablet that you’re not going to get the same level of support from the company selling it and the build quality while not terrible isn’t quite as comparable either.

          For example, they use cheaper methods of bonding the glass and digitizer layers to the screen, among other things… This usually leaves a more noticeable gap that could, among other issues, cause a depression area to form while shipping if anything applied pressure en-route… It’s easy enough to fix by applying counter pressure but shows you’re not paying for top build quality…

          Also, on support, note that review you linked noted it came with a pirated copy of Windows instead of a legitimate copy as another example where you can’t be sure of getting everything as you should out of the box… It’s not consistent issue but it’s one of many examples to show this isn’t on par with support…

          Generic installs also means the OS isn’t optimized for the hardware and that usually means you get a little less than peak performance and you may have to worry about issues like throttling, etc.

          And that’s not something you’d know from just a basic benchmark… The reviewer seems to failed to realize that the Core M performance can be all over the place as well because it depends on multiple factors how it performs at any one time and sometimes the lower clocked version can perform better under burn in tests because it remains cooler longer.

          Besides, we’re talking about a mainstream product here from a big name company that competes against other big name company products… Also, the Asus is still cheaper than the Cube i7 Stylus, which has a starting price point of around $350, vs $279 starting price for the Asus T100HA… and the Asus comes with the Keyboard dock for added value…

          There’s also other differences like the Cube i7 Stylus would only be usable for around 5 hours with moderately light usage but the Asus T100HA is claiming up to 14 hours and should at least get double the use time…

  3. Looking forward to it, and I’m glad to see support for wireless “a” (even though it’s a cheaply priced device, they’re not skimping on the less obvious details). I hope Asus UK don’t do something stupid and only make the cheaper model available here (like they did with the original T100, for ages you could only get the 32GB model).

    The resolution is a dip from the T100 Chi’s full HD – I find the 1366×768 of my T100 fine, but it does seem a step back from the current latest model. I wonder if we’ll see a Cherry Trail upgrade to the Chi?

  4. Waiting on my Teclast X98 Pro to arrive, payed $268 for 4GB RAM 64GB eMMC Cherry Trail Z8500 and it comes with that awesome 2048×1536 IPS display from LG-Phillips.
    At least the old Bay Trail Transformer Book were somewhat competitively priced, now it’s half the RAM half the storage a quarter the resolution and they want $100 bucks on top ?

    1. I’m in the same boat. I want to order the X98 Pro. Far better specs for the same price. But My biggest complaint is lack of USB 3.0. It only has a Micro USB 2.0 connector.

      1. Depends on what you need that 3.0 for, The TechTablets review shows that the MicroSD slot reeds at speeds exceeding USB 2.0

        1. I want 3.0 for a USB HDD. It would also be nice for gigabit ethernet, but it wouldn’t account for much of my overall use.

    2. No, it’s cheaper! UK pricing includes VAT and their currency isn’t the same value as the US… The US starting price is closer to $279…

      When the T100TA first came out it was priced $349 (32GB) to $400 (64GB)… So don’t confuse the discounted pricing you can find it now at either as those are like clearance prices… and doesn’t represent the actual competitive pricing of a new product…

      While up to 4GB of RAM is double what they offered before with the previous T100TAs, which only offered 2GB of RAM… These just still have a starting price model with 2GB of RAM… and storage now goes up to 128GB, which is double the previous 64GB max…

      The resolution is also still the same HD range with a not noticeable dip in pixel density, as it’s mainly just more square for a closer to 16:10 ratio instead of 16:9, trading horizontal pixels for more vertical pixels… The USB-C port is USB 3.1 spec, which you won’t find on most models yet, the battery life is better with up to 14 hours, the rate of charge is faster… and of course the new x5-Z8500 offers much better graphical performance…

      Btw, the Teclast X98 Pro is a pretty good tablet too, but at least one reviewer has reported that it runs rather hot and will throttle… So you may want to get a cooling pad for it if you’re going to work it hard.

      While you shouldn’t compare a cheap China tablet to a mainstream product, Teclast tablets can have issues like the glass can be pressed against the screen and you’ll need to apply pressure to get rid of that pressure point that can develop when it gets shipped to you, among other QC issues… Mind, China tablets are made for a different market where the average customer doesn’t have as much money to buy gadgets with… So, sure, you can get a bargain but that doesn’t mean you’re necessarily getting the better deal, especially when it comes to getting support for the product…

      1. I don’t agree with your views about quality, It’s all Shenzhen assembly across the board, with few exceptions like the high end Surface and iPad’s everything is about the same. In fact on more than one occasion the white box tablets have superior eMMC’s and outperform the big brand devices in overall performance. As far as product support goes, most of them step up quite a bit considering you get most tablets with dual boot nowadays.

        1. You may not to agree with me but I have been covering these devices for years, including taking a look at their insides, and the quality is not all the same.

          Some come close but there is a range of quality.

          Some may have better resolution but cheaper screen construction that can lead to secondary issues.

          Some simply aren’t designed to be as compact, usually because they’re using a cheaper plastic that is more fragile at thinner thicknesses.

          Some may offer similar ports but usually not the latest standard.

          While products made for international markets are usually better quality than products only made for local and emerging markets.

          Sure, Asus isn’t the highest quality but they’re nowhere near the bottom either and what they offer is competitive for the pricing.

          As for dual booting, this is a feature that neither Google or MS support, so you invariably can’t update those models, among other reasons why they’re not really comparative…

    3. You’re comparing US prices to France – if you read the article, the US price will be cheaper due to no VAT attached to the prices.

      While the Teclast looks nice as a pure tablet, but it’s not comparable if you can’t also use as a laptop, that’s the thing I love about the Transformer Book. Also the T100HA supports wireless A compared to wireless N.

      And if it’s true that the Teclast is only USB 2, that’s awful for a 2-in-1, even the original T100 has USB 3, the new one has USB C.

      1. Yes, it’s not only just USB 2.0 but it only has the micro USB port… Only caveat is that it has a separate charging port and separate micro HDMI port… So you can set this up for a desktop setup fairly easily but there’s no high speed ports for external drives, etc.

        Though, on the plus side, the microSD card slot is very fast. So it should support UHS class speed cards.

        While the x5-Z8500 tends to run hot in the Teclast X98 Pro, it’s basically a upgraded Air but seems they didn’t modify it enough to handle the more powerful Cherry Trail SoC, so has some throttling issues when working it hard… noticeably, especially, if you’re running something that uses all four cores…

        The T100HA hasn’t been tested yet, so don’t know yet how well it handles heat but if it handles it better then that’s another strike against the Teclast…

        Though, to be fair, the review unit I saw was a first run release and they may yet fix the thermal issues on a second run model, as putting in a better heat spreader should be fairly simple and not require a re-design…

    4. Another thing to keep in mind with the X98 Pro, is that the version that is up for sale currently is the Chinese model. With Windows 8.1, you didn’t really need to worry about that, you would just install the English language pack.

      With Windows 10, you need a non-Chinese install of the OS, and the product key will not work on a non-Chinese Windows 10.

      Essentially, you need to buy your own copy of Windows 10, unless you read Chinese.

    5. a) you compare prices of different regions
      b) X98 has no keyboard at all? so you compare a tablet to a 2in1-device?
      That might be no feature you use, but it’s an important feature for some of us (and clearly isn’t free to implement)

      1. There’s the X98 Air BT keyboard if you really need physical keys, it’s like $30 bucks.
        Even if you hate the X98 Pro for various reasons, the T100HA is still a very poor choice when you consider the Core-M Chinese offerings like the vastly superior Cube I7 Stylus for $360. I’m simply put not a fan of courageous pricing or fanboy tax.

        1. “Air BT” – uh.. you do see that there’s a difference between a physical connected device (that allows you to use your tablet as a laptop) and some random device that sends every one of your keystrokes per radio?

          1. it wobbles already while just beeing placed on a table, before the tablet is even inserted… what a great build-quality! )m

            I don’t really care much for backlit, never had a use for that. Your mileage may vary.

            Then there are some more (and pretty obvious) points:

            a) no touchpad – yes, you have a touchscreen, yes you can connect a mouse – but in truth i use the touchpad on my T100 pretty often because some crappy website is too stupid to accept touch-input or because i want to trigger title-Tags/Hover-Effects

            b) you have another device you need to charge. No need for that with a passive keyboard that comes without it’s own battery

            c) the keyboard of T100 allows for another, full-size USB-Port in the base. While that can be replaced by inserting such a port into the tablet itself i don’t see many manufacturers doing such.

          2. Ok, I get it, you don’t like the x98, so then what’s wrong with the Cube I7 Stylus I suggested earlier ? They make a very decent “connected” keyboard for it, it’s not like that Asus one is the best ever.
            Can you honestly justify this T100HA over a FHD Core-M 4GB/64GB SSD (upgradable internal m2 SATA*) USB 3.0 touch pen input for $358.99 ?
            You’d take that $340 1280×800 2/32GB Asus ? For what, Hover-Effects ? Please… with the justifications already…
            You work for Asus don’t you ? 🙂

          3. from what i’m seeing currently, that Cube I7 uses a magnetic dock? That’s nothing I’d like to use, but there seem to be people that even prefer that.

            It’s got 2 full-size USB-Ports, so that’s an advantage. And yes, a “true” SSD, exchangable and attached by mSATA is another good thing to have.

            As to the price: you still compare apples and oranges.

            If i’m ever going to see that Cube or X98 anywhere buyable from germany, _then_ i’m gonna tell you what of those devices is cheaper.

            All I’m currently seeing is a value from asus for “the cheapest version MIGHT be so much” and your claim how much those other devices should be. Those aren’t even the same currency and we won’t even start to consider different VATs in different countries.

            > You work for Asus don’t you ? 🙂

            I bow to your deductive skills. )m

          4. References please for those prices, for devices sold in the same country?

            I’m sure the ones you’ve mentioned are great products too, but you’ve yet to prove anything based on cost, when you’re comparing different countries.

          5. Banggood (CN warehouse) ships everything in their own polystyrene boxes so there’s no retail box, and if you request it and sometimes even if you don’t, they specify parcel value at $20 so I don’t have to pay import tax which is exempted from parcels valued at less than 45 Euro, or those declared as gift or prize, (Legislation for imports from outside the European Union) so all I have to pay is 24% Value Added Tax on the declared $20 which Is something like 3-4 Euro.
            (To get away with this you have to avoid DHL or other shipping agents that are not based in China, so only China Air Mail with Expedited Shipping Service which is always less than $0.50 and is 1-7 days as opposed to 7-25 without)

          6. Like I said before… Chinese vendors know the drill and are the initiators of such measures, because they understand the EU is the largest economy and the largest common marketplace in the world, and they can’t afford to have their competitive pricing destroyed by shady engineered monopolies for EU companies who simply relabel those same Chinese goods and try to sell them to the EU market at a ridiculous markup, based exclusively on the principal “hey look they make more money over there, let’s see how much we can get them to spend on garbage that’s half spec to what the rest of the world gets, for the same money”
            Everyone does it, and has been for at least 5 years now. Ask European based youtube reviewers if they’ve ever payed any notable Import taxes (something over $5-$10).

          7. so then it must be clearly legal )m

            i don’t care how you evade tax, but arguing it’s better, because it’s cheaper than legal stuff is just stupid. Of course it’s cheaper. And if customs notices, then you will get nothing and and have some walking to do.

            And for what? For the chinese vendor to look cheaper than the taiwanese one. o/

          8. Okay, now we know you simply don’t understand how prices vary per country… The only Asus model around $340, by the time it gets sold in the US, would be the highest end model that gives you 4GB of RAM and 128GB eMMC! You’re confusing the Euro with dollar value when the fact is that includes 20% VAT, but when it gets sold in the US it’ll be closer to $325 for the highest configured model and around $279 for the lowest…

            While the price you’re quoting for the Cube i7 Stylus doesn’t include the pen and keyboard dock that have to be bought separately for additional cost! Along with the price being the discounted price, as it’s suppose to retail for $499.20… and has no full size USB ports, only caveat is it comes with a micro USB 3.0 to USB 3.0 Adapter but no additional ports, meaning you need a HUB to use multiple devices…

            Eventually, the T100HA will be discounted too… it didn’t take long for the previous T100TA to be discounted by about $50 and that’s likely to repeat with this new model as well… So you’ll still be paying more for the Core-M tablet, much more if you get the optional accessories, and while it has better performance it has shorter battery life, less than half what the T100HA offers, as the trade off…

            While, since there’s no fan, the Core-M does throttle when you push performance… and the touch screen has been noted to be slow to wake up…

            So you’re comparing apples and oranges here… you can debate that the Cube i7 Stylus is more worth it, even with the higher additional pricing because of the better performance it offers but the Asus T100HA is a even cheaper offering with a different set of caveats but also strengths, like the included Keyboard dock, that some people prefer and is added value that further separates it from other products in its price range as you would usually have to pay extra for a good Keyboard dock…

          9. To be fair the T100 Chi was Bluetooth too, I don’t know if they’ve gone back to a physical connection for the new model.

            But the important difference is that the T100 keyboard is physically attached (whether or not it uses Bluetooth for the data), and can be used just like a laptop – compared to most tablets that need a stand as well, and can only really be used on a desk. (And I agree the touchpad is really important too on a 2-in-1).

        2. That’s because the Chinatab has bootleg Window to cut down on price.

  5. would buy that 4gb ram/128gb version instantly, if it weren’t for my T100TA still filling most of my needs pretty well…
    nice device though!

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