“Though it flawlessly manages to pair Android with Windows, the Asus Transformer Book Trio stumbles in other areas.”
- Solid build quality
- Switching between Android and Windows is painless
- Tablet is easy to dock and remove
- Strong CPU performance
- Heavy and bulky for its size
- Battery life is average at best
- Slow storage performance
- Fidgety touchpad
- Not a good value
In general, whether you’re talking about PCs, peripherals, TVs or audio, tech usually matures over time. They start out as innovative ideas, often hatched by a bright-eyed, young enthusiast in a garage or dorm room, grow into a business within a cocoon of investor interest, and eventually emerge as a diverse industry, full of competitors playing by an established rulebook.
We admire the Trio’s engineering, but whether we’d actually get one is another matter.
The ASUS Transformer Book Trio is a perfect example of this. Though it qualifies as a PC, it’s quite different when compared with what was on the market just a few years ago. The display, which is also a tablet that docks into the keyboard, runs Android independently of the keyboard, which runs Windows 8.1. You can even attach the dock to a monitor, using it as a desktop while the
Confused? We don’t blame you, but there’s some sense to the voodoo Asus has used to make this possible. Everyone knows that
Hands-on review
A match made in heaven?
Asus arguably invented the 2-in-1 with its original Transformer, which was released in 2011 as an Android-only machine. The benefit of the company’s experience is obvious. The hinge connecting the tablet to the keyboard is sturdy, yet simple to use, and releases with the press of a single button. Asus considered balance as an issue when making the inaugural Transformer, meaning that, unlike other competitors, this 2-in-1 doesn’t have a tendency to flip backwards when jostled.
Both portions of the device look and feel sturdy on their own, as well. The keyboard dock is stiff as a board and panel gaps are small, which makes the Trio feel fit to handle rough-and-tumble travel. Materials consist of a silver metal exterior and silver plastic interior, and while both look a bit plain, everything about the device’s construction is thick and sturdy.
That’s also a downside, however, particularly for the tablet. While the device’s 1.5 pound weight doesn’t seem like much on paper, it’s four-tenths of a pound heavier than the new Samsung
Most of the Trio’s ports are on the keyboard dock, and includes two USB 3.0, mini DisplayPort, mini-HDMI, and a combo headphone/microphone jack. Remove the tablet, and you’ll find a MicroSD card slot, a mini-USB port and a headphone jack. However, these options are available only when the tablet is used separately from the keyboard because the latter obstructs them when docked.
Agh! Why did that happen?
By mashing a tablet and a keyboard together, it couldn’t have been easy to fit a decent set of keys on the dock. While the Trio’s keyboard offers reasonably good tactile feel, individual keys are quite small, which leads to frequent typing errors. There are also a few quirks; the power button, for example, is right above the backspace key, and we accidentally put the PC to sleep more than once.
Everyone knows that
Keyboard backlight is absent, which is an obvious deal-breaker for people who work in the dark. The exclusion of this feature is understandable given how much hardware Asus has crammed into the tiny keyboard base, but that doesn’t change the fact that more competitors offer it at this price point.
The real frustration lies with the touchpad. It’s fidgety, sensitive, senses taps and gestures that don’t occur, and is a source of constant frustration. Eventually we gave up entirely, turned if off, and used the touchscreen instead. This worked well enough because the small keyboard dock puts the screen close to the user, but the fact that we switched to it says volumes about the touchpad.
A blaze of glory
We were nearly blinded by the Trio’s incredibly bright display, which blazes at over 360 lux. Though a few
Once we adjusted the backlight, we found the screen to be a pleasure to use. However, we stop short of calling it exceptional. Our tests indicate that the display can handle 96 perecent of the sRGB gamut while managing a contrast ratio of 600:1. Both figures are respectable, but can’t match leaders like the Acer Aspire R7, which boasts a ratio of 780:1.
Black levels are the display’s only noticeable weakness. Dark areas never look dimmer than a hazy gray, which saps movies and games of some depth. However, the Trio is still an acceptable performer in this regard, and only looks sub-par if put up against stand-outs like the Acer Aspire R7.
It’s a good thing that the display is one of the Trio’s redeeming qualities, because the speakers aren’t. Distortion becomes evident even at moderate volume when bass-heavy music is played. Even dialogue, when spoken with a deep voice, can muddy the mid-range and rattle portions of the chassis.
Windows performance
While the base Trio packs an Intel Core i5 processor, our review unit was equipped with a Core i74500U CPU and 4GB of RAM. This beefy dual-core served up strong benchmark scores; 45.6 GOPs in SiSoft Sandra’s Processor Arithmetic test and 7,995 MIPS in 7-Zip’s de-compression bench.
These numbers rival high performing Ultrabooks, like the Acer Aspire V7, which scored 45.35 GOPs, and the Lenovo ThinkPad E431, which scored 43.16 GOPs. Only the Asus Zenbook UX301, which scored 54.17 GOPs, offers better performance while wielding a dual core processor.
While the Trio’s keyboard offers reasonably good tactile feel, individual keys are quite small, which leads to frequent typing errors.
Intel integrated graphics come standard, and ASUS offers no discrete alternative. This led to a 3DMark Cloud Gate score of 4,379 and a Fire Strike score of 620, both of which are above average numbers. This helps the Trio hang with larger systems like the Acer Aspire R7, which scored 600 in Fire Strike, and the Dell Inspiron 14 7000 Series, which scored 649 in the same test.
To test real-world gaming, we played a couple of League of Legends games, testing the Trio with two 5v5 matches on the Summoner’s Rift map. We found that at medium detail, the Trio put out an average of 66 frames per second, with a minimum of 47 and maximum of 74. Ramping the settings up to very high lowered the average to a still enjoyable 47 frames per second with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 57. While not a gaming rig, the Trio can handle basic 3D titles.
Android performance
The
We also ran Peacekeeper on the Trio’s tablet, which serves as both a performance and a battery benchmark. It produced a maximum score of 640, which is better than an original iPad Mini or Google Nexus 10, but significantly behind the iPad Air, which scores as high as 951, or the new Samsung
In short, the Trio’s
Portability, with options
The Trio weighs a hefty 3.7 pounds, much of which is due to its dual batteries. Unfortunately, this does not translate into outstanding battery life. In Windows, the Peacekeeper browser benchmark took the Trio down from a full charge in five hours and two minutes, while the
That’s disappointing given that the Acer Aspire R7, a much larger convertible, lasts five hours and thirty-nine minutes in Peacekeeper. However, the Trio does best the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro in this area, which managed to stay alive for only three hours and fourteen minutes.
We were nearly blinded by the Trio’s incredibly bright display.
As for the
It’s worth noting that Asus includes a feature called Smart Charging, which makes it possible to use the battery in the tablet to power the notebook, or vice versa. The user can choose which device should have priority as well, which means you can plan ahead to conserve battery for the tablet or notebook. In total, Asus claims this can make for up to thirteen hours of endurance, though our tests show nine to ten hours is a more realistic figure.
Software
Melding
You can switch between the two at any time using a function key found in the upper right, and the changeover takes only a few seconds. The device also switches to
All of this assumes, that both portions of the device are already turned on, which leads to the only source of confusion; if you try to jump from
Asus also throws in a software utility called PC Tool which is meant to help the user transfer data between the tablet and the keyboard dock. Unfortunately, we found it to be of limited use. The calendar, for example, can only import from Outlook on the PC side, and while importing or exporting videos and photos from one device to another is is not difficult, it’s not any easier than using a Dropbox account or Google Drive.
While the Windows install doesn’t include many other significant software additions, the story is different for
Conclusion
The Trio is the result of three years of creative thinking and innovation from Asus, and in some ways it’s an excellent device. Transitioning from
Yet there are significant problems. The skittish, unreliable touchpad is the biggest among them, and it can make using Windows a real chore. Weight and thickness are too plentiful for a system of this size. The
All of this means that the Trio is a device we respect more than we like. Asus deserves applause for painlessly pairing
Highs
- Solid build quality
- Switching between Android and Windows is painless
- Tablet is easy to dock and remove
- Strong CPU performance
Lows
- Heavy and bulky for its size
- Battery life is average at best
- Slow storage performance
- Fidgety touchpad
- Not a good value
