Transformer Book T100

[rogdodge]

I have just seen reports that the T100 will be on sale in October. Windows 8.1 and Bay Trail. Sufficient for my limited needs.

I am assuming this is the US date. Just hope it is not long before it is on sale in UK/europe.

[zeo]

Hopefully, it's looking to be a really good product release...

About double the performance of the previous ATOM tablets, and much better pricing as the 32GB model will only be $349 and the 64GB model only goes up to $399, and both include the keyboard dock!

Asus can be funny about its release schedule though... They won't be the only ones releasing a model though... Toshiba already announced their Encore 8" Windows 8 Bay Trail tablet and Dell also has announced a 8" Venue Bay Trail Tablet... and more should arrive before the end of the year.

However, these will all be 32bit devices at start... While the architecture is 64bit, Intel doesn't plan on pushing 64bit support until the beginning of 2014. Partly because they're still perfecting the drivers and also because the higher end models with more than 4GB won't come out till then. These mobile centric devices will still be getting 2GB or up to 4GB max for now...

[rogdodge]

Thanks zeo. Not too fussed over 32bit or 64bit. I prefer the 10" screen to an 8" though. ;-) Will await reviews and release date.

[turbinea]

I remember those netbooks with atom processor were just awful. is this new Bay trail any better? i mean translated to today. is it something one can use for light office work and serious entertainment/movie watching? similar what android can offer performance wise?

[zeo]

I remember those netbooks with atom processor were just awful. is this new Bay trail any better? i mean translated to today. is it something one can use for light office work and serious entertainment/movie watching? similar what android can offer performance wise?

Yes, much better... Basically, Intel didn't do much upgrading the first 5 years because the ATOM was put on a long 5 year product cycle instead of the normal Tic-Toc two year cycle Intel keeps their other processors on... Also, they focused on improving power efficiency and lowering costs rather than increasing performance for that time as well... Though, depending on when you sampled netbook performance, the difference now may be even more dramatic as Netbooks started with lower max clock speeds and just single cores and now they can offer quad cores with much higher clocks...

Anyway, up till the first ATOM SoCs the performance never really improved much besides going dual core and increasing clock speeds... Though, power efficiency got a lot better... the Clover Trail even beats out some ARM SoCs like the Tegra 3 for power efficiency and despite still not being improved much in CPU, the dual core Clover Trail still beat the Tegra 3 for CPU performance too...

Now Bay Trail is the first complete redesign of the ATOM... Think of it as the equivalent of when Intel first introduced the Core Processor... It's really impressive improvement with a whopping 2x on average better CPU performance.

Mind, just doubling core count can only account for up to about 50% max improvement... So most of that is from the improved architecture...

They also basically adopted some of the technology already being used in the Core series processors, most notably the GMA is based on the same execution units as used in the Ivy Bridge HD4000... Just scaled down, maybe a bit too much as the graphical performance won't be beating the top of the line mobile options available now but it's still 3x better than what the Clover Trail offered, and some the features like Quick Sync is supported...

A form of the Turbo Boost was also adopted, which Intel calls Burst Technology for the ATOM... So there's base clocks and short term max clocks for these Silvermont based Bay Trail SoCs. Along with other improvements...

But Anandtech's did both a early analysis of the potential of the Silvermont Architecture and a review on the Z3770 that Intel let him look at and run his own benchmarks on... So check those out for more detail...

Suffice to say, CPU wise Bay Trail is top of the line for Mobile now... Despite being a tablet optimized SoC, it basically can rival a AMD quad core Kabini A4-5000 15W TDP SoC for CPU performance, Graphical performance could be better but aside from PC gaming you won't be missing out on anything but you can still play games like Torchlight 2 at 1080P and minimum settings... and while the resolution may never go higher than 2560x1600, it can play up to 4K videos scaled...

[turbinea]

Thanks for explanation! i was considering buying tegra4 transformer but now this option is on the table, i need to do some serious research. i want to use it as my traveling computer, and android usually fills that need nicely, only occasional problem was finding comparable app for program i use on PC. going to check that anandtech article. anyway, thanks again!

[Aus]

Hi,
As a noob to the forum, I just want to thank Zeo for the above post which is written in a way that I can understand and is very informative.I came on this forum to find information regarding the new TF701 but its a changing game.
I am now going to look at the new TF100 first before making a final decision.At least at the time of writing there is a release date for the new Bay Trail tablet. The TF701 has been a long time coming with still no firm indication of price.
Thanks Aus

[zeo]

Hi,
As a noob to the forum, I just want to thank Zeo for the above post which is written in a way that I can understand and is very informative. I came on this forum to find information regarding the new TF701 but its a changing game.

You're welcome, and welcome to the forum... we're pretty friendly and helpful here, so feel free to ask whatever questions you may have that aren't covered by any previous topics.

I am now going to look at the new TF100 first before making a final decision.At least at the time of writing there is a release date for the new Bay Trail tablet. The TF701 has been a long time coming with still no firm indication of price.
Thanks Aus

Well, Asus suggested it'll be $399 and initially at least only be offered in 32GB capacity... but right now they're having problems getting it ready.

Original problem was with power optimization, the new Tegra 4 is a very high powered SoC... The Nvidia Shield for example requires active cooling with a case fan for example. So they had to do some extra work to optimize power usage to keep it fan-less and still provide both good performance and good battery life... the later being the main issue as they also put in a 2560x1600 and those high resolution screens can consume a lot more power.

When Apple first introduced the so called retina screen for the iPad, for example, the screen alone accounted for a 30% increase in power consumption because the high resolution meant it was harder to backlight and thus needed to generate more intense light to properly illuminate the screen and is also why Apple adopted the quad version of the Imagination GPU in order to have the performance needed to run that high resolution, which also increased power usage too.

So, it's a bit understandable that there are delays and Asus needs to improve on its quality control anyway... I don't expect the 2560x1600 screen tablets for Bay Trail to appear until much later either...

Asus is trying to get it out before the end of the year, end of October was a target release but they're still testing and working on it now and unless that's short term it could delay past the target date... So maybe late November or early December as worse case time frames, as long as they don't have to start over and redesign it or wait for replacement parts.