ASUS refreshes the original Transformer Book with Haswell, but it's still heavy (video)

We had two major gripes when we reviewed ASUS' original Transformer Book. One, it cost a lofty $1,500, even with a last-generation Ivy Bridge processor. Two, it was on the heavy side -- though to be fair, a 13-inch dockable tablet is unwieldy by definition. Well, ASUS went back to the drawing board and addressed at least one of our complaints. The refreshed Transformer Book, the T300, ships with a Haswell processor, which promises not just faster performance, but longer battery life (eight hours, to be exact). It also steps up to a max of 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, up from a 128GB SSD and 4GB of memory last time around.

Unfortunately, at 1.1kg (2.43 pounds) for the tablet and 800g (1.76 pounds) for the dock, it still feels weighty in the hand regardless of whether you're using it in tablet mode or as a proper clamshell laptop. Otherwise, the key specs are the same -- namely, a 13.3-inch IPS display with 1080p resolution and a mix of micro- and full-sized ports on the tablet and dock. No word yet on pricing or availability, but for now we've got hands-on photos and video below.

Alexis Santos contributed to this report.%Gallery-slideshow79408%

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, ASUS

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