Transformer Book T100 - First Impressions

So I've now had my ASUS Transformer Book T100 for a couple of days and it's time to gather some first impressions.

The build quality is not iPad grade, but that shouldn't be a surprise when the price is considered. It's still good enough and my only major gripes are with the loud touchpad and minor backlight leak in the bottom right corner.

The keyboard dock is usable although the layout is a little bit cramped and especially the right shift's location takes a little time to get used to, but I got familiar with it rather quickly and I'm writing this post on it even though I'd have a full-size Bluetooth keyboard available in the next room. The touchpad could be better, but still it's something that gets the job done when touch isn't optimal (i.e. in the desktop mode). If ASUS chooses to improve the touchpad in some manner, I hope they start from the insanely loud click noise. But in general the keyboard dock feels maybe even little bit sturdier than I thought it would.

Software-wise Windows 8.1 was nothing new for me, but the T100 was the first time I really got to use the Modern UI on the full tablet mode and that works quite well. The new UI definitely makes sense in the tablet mode, although I'm still not that convinced that we should have it on desktops and especially servers too!

What I especially like about this little machine is its versatility. Thanks to the full Windows 8.1 running on it, I can do pretty much everything I can imagine needing to do on the road without denting my wallet too badly. What's more, even though it's the full Windows, the battery life seems quite good. Looks like the Bay Trail Atom strikes a good balance between performance and power consumption.

I'll be writing more about this machine once I get to use it a little more, but so far the machine has lived up to the expectations I had for it.