Asus Transformer Book Trio Unboxing and Initial Review: Asus’ Ultimate Transformer Yet?

Meet the Asus Transformer Book Trio

Today, we’ll be unboxing the Asus Transformer Book Trio. The Transformer Book Trio is an intriguing device, as it’s one of the first devices to have the ability to transform from a Windows PC to an Android tablet. It’s also one of the few devices out in the market that can seamlessly switch from Windows 8 to Android Jelly Bean with a simple press of a button. How does it do that? Well, read on to find out.

Asus Transformer Book Trio specs

Android Tablet

1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560
2GB RAM
11.6-inch full IPS full HD display, 1920 x 1080 pixels
powerVR SGX 544 MP
16GB internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 64GB
5-megapixel rear camera with AF and full HD recording
Android Jelly Bean 4.2
WiFi 802.11ac dual band, Bluetooth, GPS

PC Dock

1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200 processor
4GB DDR3 1600MHz memory
Intel HD Graphics 4400
500GB storage
WiFi 802.11ac, dual band, External cable supports10/100Mbit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0
Windows 8

Packaging and Contents

The Asus Transformer Book Trio comes in a nice Asus box that has a handle on top so you can transport it easily.

Once you open the box, you’re greeted with the device itself, hidden behind a flap that contains the company’s tagline, In search of incredible.

Aside from the actual device, you’re also given two chargers (one for the PC Dock that also charges the Android tablet, user manual, extra cable ties to keep things organized plus a nice soft carrying case for the device itself.

Initial impressions: Extremely well built, innovative design

One thing we’ve come to expect from Asus when it comes to their products is that they have elegant, handsome designs, especially in their top-end. The Transformer Book Trio is no exception – it’s easy on the eyes, and the nice brushed aluminum shell of the device looks as elegant as their other hi-end devices. Build-quality is obviously top-notch, though we did notice that the Transformer Book Trio was a bit on the heavy side, considering it’s the same size as a typical 11-inch notebook.

The Transformer Book Trio has a number of ports on it, which you’d expect from a normal Windows machine – HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, 2 USB ports and a 3.5mm jack.

While there’s a power button on the keyboard, there’s a separate power button on the back of the display as well, along with a volume rocker. The 5-megapixel camera lies on the back of the display, near the upper left side.

One of the main selling points of the Transformer Book Trio is that you can immediately switch the device from Windows 8 to Android Jelly Bean with a simple press of a button on the keyboard.

Other dual-OS solutions in the market requires a restart to switch OSes, the Transformer Book Trio achieves the OS switch in less than 3 seconds.

To detach the display, you press on the silver button in between the hinge of the Transformer Book Trio and yank the display upward to free it from the dock. The OS automatically switches to Android only though – that little fact clued us in how Asus was able to do the whole OS switch so quickly without rebooting.

The answer is that there are two distinct sets of hardware for the Transformer Book Trio. The display has an Android SOC, while the keyboard dock holds the Windows part of the equation. That explains why you’re not able to switch to Windows 8 in tablet mode, since you’re leaving the Windows part of the machine behind every time you yank out the display. Both parts of the Transformer Book Trio has their own battery cells, though plugging the keyboard dock with the tablet attached charges both devices at the same time.

The Windows PC component of the device has an Intel Core i5-4200 processor running at 1.6GHz, paired with 4GB of RAM and an Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU. The tablet on the other hand, runs Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom Z2560 processor along with 2GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX 544 MP GPU. Navigating the device, both in Windows and Android mode is a breeze, with very fluid UI transitions. The Android component of the device scored 15572 points in AnTuTu.

That’s it for the initial unboxing. We’ll have the review up of the device later in the week. The Asus Transformer Book Trio goes for Php 49,995 (Core i5).