The ASUS event was exemplary when it came to tech events in one very key matter: lots of hands-on time. Plenty of devices were available, and the showcase was open for a while, so we got to get a bit intimate with some of the new gear they announced today. So let's have a look. 

 

VivoBook

 
We'll start with the VivoBook, the most mainstream product that was announced today. The emphasis on affordability is notable, but the design doesn't suffer in the looks department. SKUs will start around $499 and while there was a clear lag in opening apps, owing in large part to the mechanical storage, the interface was easy to navigate and scrolling around images and websites was a breeze. Plenty of color options will be available, and that S400 SKU should bring a vast performance improvement, for not much more scratch. 
 

Transformer Book

I touched on this in the announcement post, but the Transformer Book is really something strange to behold. I've never considered my 13" notebook something I'd want to hold in one hand, but despite the comic proportions, the 13" Transformer Book has a good in the hand feel. The 16:9 aspect ratio of the 1080p screen makes it awkward in one-handed landscape use, but there's a certain strange appeal. I don't see this as a tablet to take on the road, but rather a notebook, whose screen can be untethered from the base. If nothing else, it's the fastest tablet device I've played with, running Sunspider at a scorching 145 ms. No surprise, though; a dual-core Core i7 processor will best anything ARM based. 

There's another aspect to the Transformer Book that I hadn't touched on: software. Though Windows 8 is the OS, ASUS has provided their own hub, called Asus Home. It's unclear what plans ASUS has to expend this hub, for now it mostly serves as a resource for modifying various device settings. A chief concern for Windows 8 and RT is the changes to configuration menus, and so it's not surprising for OEMs to try to simplify that with hardware specific apps. ASUS solution is innocuous enough, we just hope that OEMs don't feel the need to add too much to these layers. 

Once docked, the Transformer Book doesn’t look so different from the Zenbook line, the keyboard is comfortably wide, with well spaced keys and a broad touchpad. Docking the screen allows it to leverage the included USB 3 ports, mechanical storage and two additional speakers. If you're torn between a small notebook and a large tablet, you might have met your match. 
 

Zenbook

We've met the Zenbook line before, and come way pleased. The form factor remains the same: attractive, sleek and slim. Tapering at all of the edges gives the illusion of an even thinner body, though even at its thickest it's not close to portly. The main addition to the Zenbook line is the optional touch screen on the UX31A and UX500VZ. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about a touchscreen notebook, but it was amazing how quickly I adapted to the paradigm, forgetting so completely about the touchpad that I neglected to test multitouch gestures on it. Unsurprisingly, the touchscreen outperformed the touchpad. 
 

VivoTab RT

There's way more detail in Vivek's review, but in short, the VivoTab RT is the mainstream Windows RT tablet we'll see everyone release. The ASUS variant hits all the specs you'd expect: 10.1" display, Tegra 3 processor, 2GB RAM, a slim, lightweight body. Where it breaks new ground is in the inclusion of the Icera LTE baseband. They didn't have any Icera packing units on hand, but we'll hopefully see those before the holidays. 
 

VivoTab Smart

As the Clovertrail entrant into the Windows 8 Tablet space, the VivoTab Smart carries the burden of Atom. Anand has covered this many times, the Atom core is generations old, and due for a refresh in a big way. Despite this, it has always held an IPC lead over its ARM-based competition, and their efforts have been to bring its power envelope as low as possible. The result, though, is that it felt a hair slower than some of the other hardware on hand. Final software and a trip through the bench may prove me wrong, but for now, I was most dissatisfied with this device, today. The deficit was most evident when switching between apps or opening the app drawer; any long-time Android user will recognize that long pause after hitting the button and actually seeing the drawer open. 
 

ASUS ET2300 All-In-One

The days of the big beige box  are long past us. No one misses those days, but are touchscreen all-in-one PC’s the future? ASUS thinks so, and has a stable of models that stretch from 21.5” to 27” and spruces them up with some software flourishes. Touchscreens aren’t new to PC’s, but their adoption hasn’t been rapid, and so software that takes advantage of them is lacking. With Windows 8’s very touch-focused UI, the impetus to incorporate these panels is high, and hopefully so will the impetus to create software for them. For now, in addition to the OS experience, ASUS is featuring a music creation app, more an exhibition than say GarageBand. More software from ASUS should follow, and all Windows 8 Metro apps should work well with the panel. Where questions remain is productivity use cases; when we work on PC’s we use keyboards and mice/trackpads, will that change? 
 
Time will tell on that, but this all-in-one is well appointed, though disappointingly doesn’t come with an SSD. The ET2300 has a 23” 1080p display, and Intel Core i7 processors. The inclusion of Thunderbolt, Intel WiDi 2.0, HDMI input and USB 3.0 give the ET2300 a satisfying degree of future proofing. And while we’d like to see a more impressive discrete GPU, we’re glad to at least see a 2GB video RAM option. The chassis boasts more versatility than pure aesthetics. The dual-hinged design does make manipulating the screen easy, and the chunky display and base leave plenty of room for the aforementioned ports and optical drive. 
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  • CeriseCogburn - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link

    Bullhockey. It's only complicated for the dweebs who sit around musing the horrors of not knowing all the differences.
    People actually buy a device and use it, and when they do that, all the horrors you speak of with differences don't matter one whit.
    Not just you, it's a common theme here, for the membrains, the retarded, the failing critics, the comedy of fraud the whiners pull.

    Clearly not one of them mentioned a single thing they like about this or that version, because they haven't got a freaking clue, they haven't used a single device let alone two that are not exactly the same. If they have, it still proves almost complete brain death, as no ins or outs are shared.
    Another faux nightmare brought to you by the "cool critics without a clue".
  • Impulses - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link

    So the touch enabled Zenbook really felt that natural to use? I'm surprised, I've never felt it was natural to reach out and touch my display when using my Transformer docked, I only did it when I had no mouse (mostly because the touchpad is pretty mediocre and Android is obviously evenlmore touch centric). I guess if it's no more than a $150 bump over the regular model then it's a worthy experiment...

    I think if I pony up $1,000+ for any kind of 13"+ device it's because I want a high res display for serious desktop workloads, I might as well just accompany it with something like a cheap Nexus 7 than try to awkwardly shoehorn it into a tablet usage model. Too many of these devices seem like jack of all trades wannabes...

    I guess they're either banking on upselling anyone who ever bought a netbook (with many of the <11"hybrid devices) or hoping people buy into pairing the smaller devices with external displays when they need to work for hours? That's the only scenarios where I see one of those devices being better than a separate laptop and a tablet, at least for people who use a laptop as their main work station.
  • frozentundra123456 - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

    I guess I would look at it just the opposite way. I have a 7 inch Acer A100, and find it almost useless for anything more than web browsing, and even for that it is very slow, locks up, and the touch interface is very inconsistent. Sometimes you can touch something you want to and it will not register the touch, and other times you can barely touch something by accident and it thinks it is a command. So if I had a nice ultrabook, I probably would have no desire for a tablet.

    I really hate Android, at least on this device. Slow, buggy, poor wi-fi and no 3G or 4G. Just a very limited device. I only bought it to check e-mail when at a different lab than the one I normally work in, but it barely picks up the wi-fi signal even for that, while a regular laptop has a very strong signal in the same lab. I only paid 200.00 for it on close out, so for that price, I can deal with it. But if I had paid 400.00 or more for it like some tablets, I would be furious.
  • blackbrrd - Sunday, October 28, 2012 - link

    Low-end hardware performans worse than the high-end hardware, even if both are using Android. Take me, I bought a cheap Huawei U8800 for 200$ while my girlfriend bought the Samsung Galaxy SII for 700$ (yeah, it was that expensive here in Norway). My phone locks up once in a while, is slow, the touch is unresponsive now and then and all that. Her's never do that. Why? The better hardware.

    In other words, your complaints isn't about android, but on products with anemic hardware matched to a more demanding OS or software. The reason Apple has a good reputation is among other things that they don't release mismatched hardware/software.

    From a review of the A100: "Like so many other tablets on the market, the A100 packs a 1GHz Tegra 2 processor. In general, we think the SoC has performance limitations, with some visible lags being fairly typical. "
  • Visual - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

    Important details are missing....

    Is the VivoBook ARM, Atom or IVB? Does it support touch?
    What are the resolutions on the devices? I see you specified it only on the Transformer Book and the AIO.
    Do any of the tablets (and especially the Transformer Book) have a digitizer, and what kind? A pen silo?
    Do any of themy have an option for 3G, GPS, accelerometer?
    Does the Transformer have an additional battery in the keyboard dock? Is there an option for a backlit keyboard?
    What are the weights?
  • Visual - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

    Oh well, I see now that you have another article with more specs and details. You could've linked to it to reduce confusion a little.
  • powerarmour - Monday, October 29, 2012 - link

    So where the hell are these Clover Trail tablets?, are the graphics drivers that bad?!

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