![]() ![]() The body and display are both precision-crafted, all-aluminum one-piece designs that eliminate the need for ugly seams and screws. Transformer Book T300 Chi looks smooth, slim and sophisticated, and it's tough at heart. Time to relax? Detach the keyboard and it's a handy tablet. It's a simple idea that's elegant and convenient, too. Chi is a 2-in-1, which means exactly what it says - it's a Windows laptop with a keyboard that detaches, turning it into a Windows tablet. Let's admit it: carrying both a tablet and a laptop is a nuisance. The 2-in-1 that lets you have everything you dreamed of Right now, I don’t think you’d be totally happy with the T300 Chi unless you’re a very specific individual with very specific needs.The official marketing text of ASUS Transformer Book T300CHI-DSM2T notebook M-5Y10 Hybrid (2-in-1) 31.8 cm (12.5") Touchscreen Quad HD Intel® Core™ M 8 GB LPDDR3-SDRAM 128 GB SSD Windows 8.1 Black as supplied by the manufacturer And companies are working on wireless tech that could allow a keyboard dock - like this Chi’s keyboard dock - house the ports and battery that it’s missing. We’re on the verge of ditching all those stupid miniature ports for sensible USB Type-C instead. Apple just showed the entire industry how to cram a day’s worth of Lithium-ion batteries into a razor-thin laptop. Today’s Core M might not be right, but tomorrow’s will surely be better. The only reason to go Core M is if you want ridiculously thin, and yet the T300 Chi isn’t thin enough to overcome the disadvantages. Both are stylish and thin, and while neither has nearly as much battery life as they claim, both go twice as long as the Chi while offering full-size ports and stutter-free experiences. If you want portability and performance, you can get it in a thin Core i3 or i5 laptop like the Dell XPS 13 (2015) (starting at AU$1499), or a backflipping touchscreen machine like the HP Spectre X360 (we’ll have a review soon) from AU$1499. And for some reason everything - I mean everything - starts stuttering when the Chi’s battery is on its last legs. I saw a decent amount of stuttering when I tried to run my usual hefty collection of Chrome tabs, and the computer doesn’t seem to have enough graphical muscle to pipe steady video over that micro-HDMI port to a connected TV. That Core M definitely capable of handling any single general purpose computing task you throw at it - even a bit of multitasking - but the Chi is no Core i5 machine. So how does the T300 Chi stack up? I tried the $US900 model with the 1.2GHz Intel Core M-5Y71 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a beautiful 2560 x 1440 screen… and honestly, it’s about the same. The only upshot was having a thinner machine, and in the case of the Yoga it didn’t feel like enough of a trade. I’ve tried a couple of them so far, and I’ve gotta admit I haven’t been all that impressed: with the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, for example, I got a slightly slower experience than with a normal Intel Core processor, yet no more battery life for my trouble. It’s a lower voltage processor designed specifically for thin fanless computers. The T300 Chi is one of a very few new products - including Apple’s new MacBook - using an Intel Core M chip. Of course, it probably would have been warmer if it had a full-blown Intel processor. The computer had stayed awake in my bag the whole time instead of going to sleep. While it usually works properly, there was one occasion I closed up the laptop and stuck it in my bag, only to find the chassis disturbingly warm when I pulled it out again. Putting it to sleep by closing the lid isn’t completely foolproof either. There’s not much to grab onto to help pry the lid and base apart, and while I’ve never needed to step in to make sure the Bluetooth properly pairs, there is a slight delay before you can use the keyboard and touchpad every time you wake it from sleep. Overall, it’s passable, but I can’t say I actually enjoy using it.Īctually opening and closing the laptop can be a little finnicky too. The touchpad also feels surprisingly good at first blush - a slick surface, fairly quick two-finger scrolling and zooming - but it is pretty damn tiny and extremely stiff to click. I’m typing this whole review on the T300 Chi’s keyboard, and so far it’s been an absolute breeze. It’s fast, precise, the keys have a reasonably deep throw, and they’re all cushioned properly. Way the heck better than you’d think for a machine this price and size, particularly when a number of Asus’s pack-in keyboards have been of the utterly cheap variety. On the plus side, that keyboard is excellent. ![]()
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