Asus beats back opponents...
Formed in 1989, by four ex-Acer computer
engineers, Asus has steadily grown into a dominant force in computer
manufacturing and have stood by their branded slogan of “Inspiring Innovation.
Persistent Perfection”
Hailing from Taiwan, a country steeped in
tradition and Chinese influence, it is no surprise that this company places
great importance on the virtues of their employees and has adopted its own set,
called the 5 Asus Virtues: Humility, Integrity, Diligence, Agility and Courage.
This credo, reminiscent of martial art
ethics, made me think that if Asus was a form of Kung Fu it would be powerful!
Asus
Transformer AiO P1801 All-In-One PC and Tablet
Out-maneuvering their competitors with
speed (nyaaoooo, whoosshh), staggering back their opponents with powerful
strikes (bash, bam, bada- bam, kapow), combination defensive blocks (doof,
dunnnm, himph) and ultimately delivering the final blow (AAAeeeeeyAAA CRAK!)
and walking away into the sunset a little bruised but victorious!
All to be expected with their ‘Iron Fist
Shadow Dragon’ technique, hereby represented in this analogy as the ASUS
Transformer AiO P1801 All-in-One PC and Tablet. The Asus Transformer is an
All-in-One desktop PC, running Windows 8 (64bit) on an 18.4 inch screen… but
it’s not just a screen, it is also a tablet, running the latest generation
Android software (Jelly Bean 4.1).
The PC Station contains the entirety of the
desktop’s hardware and has a pivoting 30° docking port where the tablet slots
in. When docked into the PC Station the tablet acts as the desktop’s display,
thus forming the complete all-in-one experience.
Even though we were skeptical of the
ability of the PC Station to effectively hold the tablet’s screen, we were
pleasantly surprised with the solid build quality and ease of which the
detachable display would slide in and out of its docking port.
The PC Station comes in three models with
different processing powers and for this review we used the entry level Intel
Core i3-3220 processor, running 4GB of RAM. The other two models available are
the Intel Core i5-3350P and an Intel Core i7-3770 processor models, which both
run 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz ram.
Hard drive space provided is ample at 1TB
(up to 2TB SATA) but we would have liked to have seen at least one solid state
disk drive for the Windows 8 OS.
Graphically, all models run Nvidia’s
GeForce GT730M 2GB chip, which handles day to day graphics beautifully, but
struggles a bit when playing high end games that require large graphic
processing power.
In fairness, it must be said that the Asus
Transformer makes no claims at being a gaming PC, but is geared to offer a very
decent PC experience with the added benefit of an Android tablet device.
The Asus Transformer comes bundled with an
Asus aluminum brushed wireless keyboard and mouse combo, both of which are well
designed, as would be expected from Asus.
The right side of the PC Station houses one
UBB 2.0 port, which is marked for connecting the wireless keyboard and mouse
using a USB dongle, and a DVD-RW slot.
On the left one finds a 3-in-1 card reader,
four USB 3.0 ports, a microphone jack, a headphone jack and a Kensington lock,
with another included on the tablet’s left side as well.
The
PC Station comes in three models with different processing powers and for this
review we used the entry level Intel Core i3-3220 processor, running 4GB of RAM
The underside of the PC Station is fitted
with two 3 Watt speakers and, thanks to SonicMaster’s audio technology; the
sound is crisp with sufficient bass.
The rear features an Ethernet port, an HDMI
output port, which comes in handy if your 18.4 inch tablet is being used
elsewhere or if you want to use both Windows 8 and Android 4.1 simultaneously,
and finally a DC-in for the power supply.
The front of the PC Station is simple
enough with a power switch on the right and the centralized docking station for
the 18.4 inch tablet.
The tablet’s screen features an IPS display
(In-Plane Switching) and boasts a1920x1080 LED-Backlight resolution allowing
you to view full 1080p HD movies and the like.
It also has a broad viewing angle of 178°
and a capacitive 10-point multi touch surface. On the front of the screen is a
built in 1.0 megapixel camera for taking pictures and recordings, and is
primarily used with web based applications like Skype and other video
communications.
The tablet is large, weighing in at 2.4 kg
with dimensions of 466mm x 18mm x 294mm, which is not exactly portable but it does
come with a handle and a kickstand where you can set it up away from the PC
Station and use it to play Android games, connect to the web and check emails
quickly without having to boot up to a PC.
Having such a large display does take its
toll on the 38Wh battery life and Asus suggests that five hours of video
playback is possible. Although the battery life is short, one must remember
that the tablet’s size limits portability and hence will find itself usually
being docked onto the PC Station long enough to keep a decent charge.
The right side is home to the tablets power
switch, a volume control, a mini-USB 2.0 ports, one Micro SD card slot reader,
a 3.5mm 2-in-1 audio jack for headphone and mic and a DC-in power connector,
allowing the tablet to be charged without having to be docked.
It also has a dedicated blue button which
allows you to effortlessly switch between Windows 8 and Android modes when the
tablet is docked. Additionally the tablet’s internal storage can be accessed
within Windows 8 which appears as a mass storage device and makes it easy to
transfer data between the PC and the tablet.
The tablet is also no slouch on hardware:
it runs on an Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad-core CPU with 2GB DDR3 1600 MHz of ram and
for storage uses 32GB eMMC Flash Storage which can be expanded using the Micro
SD card reader.
Both the tablet and the PC Station use
802.11 a/b/g/n for their wireless data networking and both support dual band
frequency of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.
They are also able to network via
Bluetooth, with the tablet running Bluetooth V3.0 EDR and the PC Station
running Bluetooth V4.0.
The sound on the tablet is pumped out using
two 1.5W speakers and at one point was loud enough for me to be scrambling to
find the volume control.
Both
the tablet and the PC Station use 802.11 a/b/g/n for their wireless data
networking and both support dual band frequency of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
In closing, the ASUS Transformer AiO P1801
is essentially a hybrid, composed of two independently strong devices which
have a long way to go as far as assimilating into one another.
At the moment their unification is
intriguing, all be it unnatural, but Asus have given us a taste of what the
future holds for merging different operating systems and utilizing the value of
working on a powerful desktop with the ability of portability and I for one
love them for it.
Getting back to our Kung Fu analogy, bash,
bamm, ba-da-bam, kapow is the sound of me fending off waves of computer geeks
trying to get at the last remaining ASUS Transformer AiO P1801 box in the
store.
Our Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is in
fact Crouching PC, Hidden Tablet.... AAAeeeeeyAAA CRACK!
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At a glance
·
Summary: An intriguing union of two very
powerful devices.
·
Manufacturer: Asus
·
Distributer: Asus
·
Website: www.asus.com
Pros
·
All-in-One Desktop
·
PC & Tablet
·
Runs Windows 8 & Android
·
Solid build quality
Cons
·
Limited graphics performance
·
No SSD Drive
·
Low tablet battery life
Tech specs
·
PC Station
·
Intel Core i3/i5/i7
·
GeForce GT730M 2GB
·
1 TB to 2 TB SATA HDD
·
Tablet
·
18.4 inch screen
·
Tegra 3 quad-core CPU
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