Design and Features
The T200TA$459.00 at Amazon is quite compact, even with the keyboard dock connected. It measures about 1 by 12 by 8 inches (HWD), and weighs 3.36 pounds. Undock the tablet, and it loses about half its thickness and pares its weight down to 1.69 pounds. Like the Asus T100TA, our Editors' Choice entry-level detachable-hybrid tablet, all you need to pop the screen off is to push a single button in the center of a one-piece hinge. The tablet screen reattaches almost as quickly. Since the hinge has a mechanical lock on it, it feels more secure than the magnetic latch on tablets like the Acer Aspire Switch 10$399.96 at Amazon and the Microsoft Surface 2$369.99 at Amazon.
Connectivity is excellent for a detachable tablet. There's a full-size Ethernet port, one USB 2.0 port, and one USB 3.0 port on the keyboard dock. The tablet itself has a headset jack, a micro HDMI port, a micro USB 2.0 port, and a microSD card reader. I'd prefer full size ports on the tablet itself, but still that's many more ports overall than that of the competition.
View all 
Like most sealed tablets, the T200TA doesn't have an upgradable solid-state drive (SSD) or memory, but you can install a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive or SSD in the keyboard dock. All you need is a jeweler's Phillips screwdriver, and 15 minutes to add extra storage. You need to dock the tablet to access that storage, but installing a drive in the dock bay lets you carry your media files with you and supplements the included 64GB SSD in the tablet portion. Good thing, since the system only has about 40GB of that storage free after you run through the initial setup on the T200TA.
The full-size, non-backlit keyboard is comfortable to use, as is the large touchpad centered on the keyboard deck. The 11.6-inch screen has a 1,366-by-768 resolution and 10-point touch capability. The IPS panel lets you view the action from virtually any angle. YouTube videos and Web pages look good, and the touch screen is responsive. Volume from the built-in speakers is a little soft. You'd be more satisfied listening to music and videos through headphones.
Bloatware is minimal, though the tiles on the Start screen are larger than normal. You'll find Flipbook, Fresh Paint, Line, Music Maker Jam, Netflix, Wild Tangent Games, Zinio, and a few Asus utilities pre-installed. The system comes with a one-year warranty.
Performance
The T200TA comes with an Intel Atom Z3795 processor with built-in Intel HD Graphics. Its performance on the PCMark 8 Work Conventional test (1,719 points) is equivalent to that of a system with an Intel Celeron or Pentium processor, like the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series (1,1712) and the HP Stream 11$199.99 at HP (1,757). Multimedia scores are also a good, if leisurely, 6 minutes 22 seconds on Handbrake and 14:13 on Adobe Photoshop CS6. You'll want an Intel Core i3 or i5 processor if you do a lot of work with pictures and videos. Gaming tests predictably produced single-digit frame rates. Don't even think of playing games like Diablo III or anything more complicated than Angry Birds on this system.
Battery life for the T200TA is adequate, if a little short, when compared with that of its peers. It lasted 5 hours 25 minutes on our battery rundown test. That's usable, but far behind the 11:20 of the Asus T100TA and the 9:23 of the HP Stream.
The Asus Transformer Book T200TA-C1-BL is a decent enough detachable-hybrid tablet for a reasonable price, but systems like the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 (3147), our top pick for convertible-hybrid laptops, give you a lot more storage space and battery life for about the same money. If you can live with one inch less screen size, the compact Asus Transformer Book T100TA (64GB), our Editors' Choice budget detachable-hybrid tablet, gives you twice the battery life and a $100 cheaper price tag.
No comments:
Post a Comment