I have one I bought from here, I have been using it for about 6 months now. I also use an iPad. I use my tablets ALOT! Hours and hours a day. I have used windows pcs and laptops a lot and even a phone once for a brief time but never a tablet. I have an old acer one Netbook which this really reminds me of (different windows version of course). Blah blah cut to the chase right? Does it suck?
For the money I challenge you to find anything better, it’s not a replacement for my iPad and it’s not meant to be. I use it like I use a Netbook and occasionally use it as a tablet.
Pros:
Nice to have a keyboard even if it’s small and cramped
lOVE having a USB port on the base! You can use a micro USB otg thing to use the tablet port as a USB port too.
Windows 7 looks nice and is pretty easy to navigate once you are used to it.
It’s cheap!!! Nothing else with this performance and versatility for the price.
Cons:
It hates all other chargers. When using them it looks like it’s charging only to find out it maybe didn’t. The battery life is mediocre and unless you shut it off it randomly seems to drain the battery.
Software/patching can be bit buggy. I got 2, one for me and one for the wife. With auto update on it seemed to load a driver that our wifi didn’t like. Had to roll it back which was a huge pain.
No good cases out there for it, just use a neoprene sleeve and maybe a screen protector.
It’s just not as seem less and refined as apple OS (but it’s cheap!)
Overall if you need a Netbook and or a tablet and are on the budget this is the one to get!
Does this have an external mic? We are thinking about getting one for mother-in-law but she would definitely want to Skype back to the home country without having to plug in headphones/mic.
I bought this last time around for $10 more. Been using it daily, for the most part happily.
Very convenient for Skype: built in mike and camera are sufficient, BUT - and it’s a big BUT, other reviewer comments about the WiFi are right on target. Unless I’m in the same room as my wireless router, person on other end of Skype ALWAYS complains my end is dropping out. Giving up and going into room with router always solves it.
Have checked out all the other wireless signals available from my home and forced the router to use an open channel not being used by any neighbor. Made no difference.
Keyboard: really cramped for my large hands. I’m used to the wonderful classic ThinkPad keyboard,though, so I’d bet any small keyboard will be torture for me.
MS Office: Downloaded and installed the full Office 2013 Pro using a legit key I purchased, runs beautifully, for an ATOM based machine. I save the heavy stuff for my workstation, but have had no glitches using the suite on this ASUS.
In short, I’d strongly recommend this little gem if the screen and keyboard format is in your target purchase zone. Great bang for the bucks. Much easier on my eyes than the oversize smart phone I also carry.
I’d buy one of the many USB based docking cubes or stations if you really want to go that route.
I’ve used one of my existing Lenovo $190 USB docks with my Asus T100ta, which works beautifully,but I wouldn’t spend that kind of money just for this Asus. There are much cheaper options.
And if you’re looking for a bigger heftier refurb solution, I just picked up a spotless T420 15" from the Mothership for about $50 more: came with i5, 8GB RAM discrete graphics (Not the Intel HD on board stuff). There are tons of these remarkable workhorses coming onto the market off the major corporate lease programs right now. Buy this Asus for the extreme portability, but save your pennies to get an heftier more powerful machine rather than investing too much in infrastructure for this delightful Asus gem. My 2cents, FWIW.
Thanks, I also didn’t see Windows 10 mentioned. Does this one get it or beinging a refurb it don’t. Also, I could have missed that info. I have a hard time cyphering out Woots info sometimes.
Boo! I’ll NEVER buy ASUS again…EVER! Bought the Transformer Infinity TF700T tablet and holy lord what a turd it turned out to be. After about a year, having only used it a few times on press tours, it ran so slow! The delay just for the screen rotation took about 10 seconds. Now I’m left with a brick of a tablet that I will never use. ASUS recognizes this problem and still will not do anything. To me that says “hey, thanks for beta testing our tablet for us.”
Never again. Ugh, just seeing these things boils my blood!
If it has a tiny screen, it will never really succeed as more than a tablet. To be a useful laptop, ie travel or be used as a near/full PC while travelling or doing all tasks on a desk at home, ya gotta see that stuff on the screen.
I just let go of my Samsung ATIV Tab5 w/keyboard, which at 11.6" I found was the smallest I wanted to have with a keyboard. If it had multiple USB3 ports, I’d have kept it longer.
At 11.6" nearly all the keyboards are useful “real sized”, and screen text doesn’t have to be really close to read without upping the default font sizes.
Asus keeps making 10" convertables and they keep getting left to wholesale out b/c, at 10", it’s not really more than a tablet for most.
Amen to that!
I eval lots of business class machines for my company, and find that while tablets are a nice adjunct to a smart phone while traveling, I consistently recommend laptops with 14" minimum screens. Smaller than that, employees love them for their novelty a week or so, but then try to return them whining for something larger to get their work done.
But, everyone seems to also want a tablet, and this Asus I bought for my kids is really popular, for now.
I’ll steal it back tonight to watch Netflix on my bedside table, if I can find where they’re hiding it.
I bought an ASUS Vivo Tab RT on WOOT over a year ago and it has never worked right, mostly battery issues. I recently decided to try a third time to get it serviced so it would work, and, as before, the service cycle has already taken 4 weeks with no end in sight. I will NEVER by an ASUS product again.
Get a QuickCharge 2.0 charger. The Transformer T100s support QC 2.0.
http://amzn.to/1fyRq7O is a good one. LED is GREEN when charging non QC2 devices, and BLUE when charging devices that support QC2.
Also, after you get all the firmware updates from ASUS, do the wipe and restore of the OS before configuring. This seems to make it run a bit more streamlined and slightly faster.
Plus, note the odd power things: you have to hold the power button down for a few seconds to power on. If the LED flashes orange 5 times, the battery is not charged enough to power on. Ohterwise, it should flash white and start up fine. Took me forever to find this info as mine didn’t have the user manual.
Also, if you get the Dell Venue NIC driver and install it over the existing ASUS driver for the WIfi card, MiraCast works TONS better! (I use it with an Amazon Fire TV stick - the ASUS driver would disconnect randomly. The DELL one works flawlessly).
http://amzn.to/1Hvx98Z is the micro-HDMI to traditional HDMI cable, and there are cables to connect from micro-HDMI to DVI and VGA if needed.
Overall, I do like mine and use it daily. It takes getting used to, but it works well for what it is. It’s not a high-end tablet by any means, but works quite well for everything I use it for in both tablet and laptop modes.
I dropped my 2 year old (refurbed) acer Chromebook and cracked the screen. Been looking for a replacement for it for a little while now, hoping this meets my needs.
I’ve had no problems with ASUS. I bought 2 non-touchscreen referbs from WOOT and they’re both running well after normal use for a couple months.
I can of course understand how a really poor experience would turn you off to a brand but a lot of this stuff is all up to chance. I know I’ll never purchase Dell but some people swear by them. Also I love HP but lots of peopel I know won’t touch them.
This is an excellent deal, guys. I have one that still works very well, and the battery still holds up. My favorite feature is the charging with a MicroUSB like my phone, so I only need one charger on trips. Highly recommended!
I am a big Asus fan. I have used their mother boards and graphics cards for years with no issues, ever. I have also bought other refurbs on Woot and have been happy with them. I’ve had the Android version of this tablet for a year or so and it has been great. I decided to try the Windows version with this one and it is a dud. It started fine once and now it’s dead. The battery if fully charged and it will not turn on. It looks like I will have to return it.
