Hands on: Asus Transformer 3 Pro review

Hands on: Asus Transformer 3 Pro review    

OUR EARLY VERDICT

Asus Transformer 3 Pro is a competitor that takes almost all of its cues from the Microsoft Surface Pro 4. It offers more bites for your buck, with faster specs as its entry-level price, making it an attractive offer.

   FOR

Cheaper than Surface Pro 4 Core i5

Looks and feels like a quality tablet PC

A bit thinner than Microsoft's 2-in-1 

AGAINST

No even cheaper Core-M3 model

Small battery

Asus Transformer 3 Pro lives up to its 2-in-1 PC label in ways besides its convertible design, as I learned at Computex 2016.

For example, here's another 2-in-1 trait: it has twice the specs we usually see from similar detachables and one goal in mind: to be a better value than the Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

Starting at $999 (£899), the look, the feel and the performance of this Windows 10 hybrid device is nearly identical to Microsoft's flagship tablet, right down to the versatile kickstand hinge on back.

I got a chance to test out the Transformer 3 Pro in Taipei, Taiwan to see if it lived up to the "more for less" 2-in-1 promise. Here's what I've found so far.

Design and display

The exciting Asus booth at Computex wasn't far from Microsoft's booth in the corner, so you'd be forgiven for mistaking the Transformer 3 Pro demo station for a Surface Pro exhibit.

The Transformer 3 Pro touts a 12.6-inch display that's slightly bigger than the Surface Pro 4 at 12.3 inches, which makes for a small but meaningful difference.

Asus also ups the resolution to 2880 x 1920 pixels, giving it a 3K device with 121% RGB. All of this fits into a frame that weighs 795g and measures 289 x 211 x 8.35mm. That's a bit wider, but shorter and noticeably thinner than what you'll get from Microsoft.

The Transformer Pro 3 has a polished, metallic design and Asus made sure to point out its diamond-cut-lid during my Computex demo session. It sounds more fancy than it is, but the chamfered edge looks nice enough.

The keyboard is outfitted in a soft PU leather and sports a large glass trackpad, and I'm told that the keyboard is included. That's a big perk over the Microsoft Surface series.

Asus designed the Transformer 3 Pro keys to be the opposite of my 12-inch MacBook low-pile keyboard. They're nice and springy with plenty of feedback.

There are accessories to splurge on, however. There's an Asus Pen, XG Station 2 external graphic dock, expansion dock and audio pod.

Specs and battery life

This is where the Transformer Pro 3 gives you more bits for your buck. It starts with a Intel Core i5 processor, but of course Asus showed off the faster Core i7 chip in its demo unit. Of course.

It also tops out at a more-than-satisfying 16GB of LPDDR3 2133MHz, though things start out at the 4GB of RAM level. Internal storage, likewise, maxes out at a mighty 1TB with a PCIe x4 SSD.

What's important here are not that the top-of-the-line specs necessarily beat the Surface Pro 4 - you can customize Microsoft's 2-in-1 with the same high-end configuration. It's that Asus starts you out with more for less money.

There's no Core-M3 version, for example. Asus cut right to Core i5. Its 2-in-1 also filled with ports, leading with a USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 2 connection supporting Thunderbolt 3.