Price: £1,119 inc VAT • From http://shop.asus.co.uk
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Asus’s Transformer PI801 is aspect extra-large Android os tablet and part Windows 8 all-in-one pc. When docked, the product is an 18.4in IPS display for the PC, but it becomes a stand alone tablet with a Tegra 3 processor when you remove it. Smartly, it lets you use Windows 8 via a remote desktop client when the tablet portion is undocked.
As an all-in-one PC, the Transformer is unique, with a bulging backside that contains all the components. Both tablet and the PC docking station have a choice of ports, but they are not fully built-in. If you place a microSD card into the tablet’s card slot, for instance, it is not attached as a new drive, butt seems to be as a subfolder of the tablet’s storage. Irritatingly, the volume buttons on the tablet cannot be used to control the PC’s volume when docked.
WELL CONNECTED
The PC has all the ports you’d anticipate. At the right of the dock you will discover four USB3 ports, an SDXC/MMC card reader and 3.5mm microphone and headphone ports. At the rear, there is an HDMI output for a second display screen, as well as a Gigabit Ethernet port, while on the right-hand side there is a DVD-RW slot drive and a USB port developed to house the wireless mouse and keyboard’s USB dongle. Gladly, the built-in speaker is amazingly loud and clear, creating this one of the best-sounding all-in-one PCs around.
The thin, Chiclet-style keyboard has a elegant brushed-metal finish and informs us of Apple’s latest iMac keyboards; it also seems a little cramped and is not really responsive. Luckily, we could type on it perfectly, though. The mouse is an odd-looking silver wedge. It is a lengthy way from being ergonomic, and it took a while for us to become acquainted to its touch-sensitive scroll wheel, but it does the job fairly well.
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The PC part of the Transformer is quite highly effective, thanks to a 3.7GHz Intel Core i5-3550P processor, which provided us an overall score of 84 in our benchmarks. It has only 4GB of RAM, but that is a lot for basic desktop tasks under Windows 8. The Nvidia G730M mobile graphics processor indicates you can even play games on it. At a resolution of 1,280×720, with 4x anti-aliasing and graphics quality set to Good, Dirt Showdown provided a smooth average frame rate of 50fps. Unfortunately, we could not get anything close to a playable speed when we ran Dirt Showdown at a 1,920×1,080 resolution with 4x anti-aliasing and Super configurations. We did, however, accomplish a just-playable frame rate of 31.5fps when we reduced the configurations from Ultra to High.
ON REFLECTION
Although the PC has an excellent graphics chip, the screen is reflective, and looks dull at all but the very brightest configurations, so you will probably want to modify the brightness to 20 and leave it there. This is a pity, considering it is an IPS panel. Configured like this, it is not an amazing display, but it is certainly a perfectly functional one. You can also choose from three preset colour modes and adjust the colour temperature via a utility.
The Transformer’s main attraction is that it can be used as a regular PC while you are at a desk and as a tablet when you shift to your bedroom or the living room. We’d choose the tablet to run Windows RT when it is undocked from the PC so that it keeps continuity of os. However, you can use a remote desktop application within Android in order to proceed using Windows 8.
A simple Windows application helps you set up the tablet before you undock it, and asks you to deliver it with your Wi-Fi network password so it can get connected to your PC. Before removing the tablet from the dock, you should also run Asus’s Splashtop Streamer, which associates the Android os remote desktop app with the PC and allows you make a security code for the connection.
PICK AND MIX
It seems very natural to pick-up and use the tablet portion of the Transformer for playing games, surfing around the web or even working. Just as with any other Android os tablet, you can associate a Bluetooth keyboard with the product if you want to be able to use keyboard shortcuts to Windows’ Charms bar and Start screen, as well as the capability to work with other, less touch-friendly programs.
The dock and the tablet must be on the same network for the remote desktop function to work, so if the tablet is out of range of your network’s Wi-Fi signal it switches to regular Android mode. You can also do this at any moment using the Mode switch on the side of the product. If you use the switch when the product is docked, it will switch to Android and still allow you use the dock’s keyboard and mouse to manage it. This is a particularly awesome touch.
The device also has a 3.5mm headset jack port, built-in mic and speaker, a front-facing digital camera and physical standby and volume switches. The tablet also has a flip-out stand on its backside that allows it to be propped up in landscape mode only, as well as a small carrying manage that pulls out from the top of the system. There is also an exterior power connector so you can charge it or run it off the mains even when it is not docked. This is a worthwhile function, as it has a estimated battery life of just five hours.
The tablet’s Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) set up has full access to the Google Play store, so you can set up all your favourite applications. The tablet’s 1,920×1,080 resolution means that some apps developed for a smaller screen and lower resolution can look rather blocky, but you are given the option of reducing them back to a smaller size. In practice, most of our applications seemed great and ran perfectly. The product is pretty powerful, thanks to its Tegra 3 processor, and scored 985.8ms in SunSpider. That is faster than Google’s Nexus 7 and almost as quick as the Apple iPad 4.
Although it is technically very amazing, it is difficult to see the actual niche into which the Transformer fits. The tablet’s a bit I \ too big to be truly practical for use on your lap in front of the TV, but a smaller screen size would not work so well as a display for a full Windows PC. It is fine if you want to brace the tablet up on its built-in stand to use in the kitchen, amuse the kids or watch a movie in bed, but we could not come up with a must-have usage scenario for it.
At £1,049, the Transformer P1801 is costly, which is easy to understand given how impressive it is. Alternative requirements with Core i3 or Core i7 processors, more RAM and built-in TV tuners are also available.
Similarly priced all-in-one PCs have much larger screens, concentrating on being capable home pc’s, while the Transformer is built to be flexible. We appreciate the technology, but we are not sure if anyone needs an all-in-one with a small display screen that transforms into a big and bulky tablet.
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU: 3.7GHz Intel Core J5-3550P
RAM: 4GB
STORAGE: 1TB hard disk
VIDEO CARDd: 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 730M
OPTICAL DRIVE: DVD+/-P.W +/-DL
DISPLAY: 18.4in widescreen IPS touchscreen
OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 8/Android 4.1.1
DIMENSIONS: 400x470x165mm
POWER CONSUMPTION: 1W standby, 41W idle, 64W active
WARRANTY: One-year RTB
DETAILS: www.asus.com