It’s a hybrid, but neither one thing nor the other
This affordable laptop is hardly a walk on the wild side, but it does come in white, pink, blue or a flattering grey . The name refers to the way it converts from notebook to tablet by detaching its magnetically connected keyboard. So will the T100HA give you a perfect day?
We should point out at the start that very few of the low-value Windows 10 portable laptops have fully convinced us. But being able to unclip the touchscreen and use it by itself is undeniably useful.
Chest-level YouTube watching is hard on the arms with a conventional laptop, but if you love to watch things on TV , holding the T100HA at that height is quite practical: without the keyboard, it ’s only slightly heavier than an iPad.
The display is decent, though not Retina-sharp , with good brightness, high contrast and acceptable colour. There’s a camera on the back and a webcam on the front, so you can take pictures and videos. Forget about doing so at night, though, because photos get hopelessly grainy in low light.
Getting the keyboard on and off is simple, and Windows 10’s Tablet mode means software works as intended in both formats. As well as small magnetic horns that bend from the hinge to clip the two halves together , there is an electrical docking connector.
This combination keeps everything firmly attached, but the interface only transfers data from the keyboard ’s USB 2.0 port, into which you might plug a mouse; the keyboard itself connects via Bluetooth, so won’t work if you turn off Bluetooth to save battery or for use during flights.
Talking of battery life, the keyboard unit uses very little power, but if you forget to charge it along with the tablet it’ll eventually run out. The ta blet lasted us 11 hours, or nine using Wi-Fi.
Where the keyboard really fails is, simply , in not being a good keyboard. While the screen section has a metal back, the keyboard is plastic, and the slippery, rattly keys and unresponsive trackpad certainly aren’t very much fun.Although the stiff hinge lets you adjust the relative angle of the screen and keyboard as you would with a laptop, the heavier tablet section tends to make the whole thing tip backwards.
Performance is also a mixed story . The Intel Atom processor is a fairly new model that promises to cope both with Windows 10 and even a bit of gaming, though not the most demanding 3D action. In our benchmark tests, it wasn’t far off the capability of Apple’s A8 chip , as used in the iPad Air 2, for most purposes.
In practice, though, it seems to be held back by the T100HA ’s flash storage, which is generously large, at 64GB, but so slow it could almost be a mechanical hard drive. It ’s like putting a wagon wheel on a Porsche. So there are stutters and pauses where an iPad would be smooth.
Ultimately these flaws were all too much. Although it’s an achievement for Asus to offer a machine such as this for such a lo w price, we wouldn’t advise you to ignore the drawbacks.
SPECS
• 1.44GHz Intel Atom Z8500 quad-core processor
• 2GB memory
• 64GB flash storage
• 10.1in 1280x800-pixel screen
• 2-megapixel webcam
• 5-megapixel rear camera
• 802.11n Wi-Fi
• USB 2.0 port
• USB Type-C port
• Windows 10 Home • 20x265x175mm (HxWxD)
• 1.04kg
• One-year warranty
VERDICT:
Many people say that it’s impossible to produce a desirable Windows 10 hybrid for $350. This doesn‘t prove them wrong
You can buy this Gadget on amazon
