Review: Asus Transformer 3 Pro 2-in-1 PC Gives You All, At a Price

This Windows 10 convertible offers portability and performance but at a steep price.

Tablets are no longer the fad. Yet, brands have warmed up to Microsoft’s Surface 2-in-1 form factor (basically a PC that can transform into a tablet), which was dismissed by most of them initially. Now, Asus is the latest name to come out with its own 2-in-1 Windows 10 device, called Transformer Pro 3.

Priced Rs 1,10,990 onwards, the Core i5 variant doesn’t come cheap. But when it comes to premium portable PCs, there aren’t many anyway which are pocket-friendly right now.

Pros:

• Premium, metal-body design
• Powerful hardware rig
• Sleek and effective detachable keyboard
• USB 3.0 and Type C ports

Cons:

• Metal body prone to easy scratches
• No slot to place the pen
• Too much noise for a 2-in-1
• Mediocre battery life

What’s Good?

My experience with 2-in-1 PCs till date has been a mixed bag. The pricier ones are worth the plaudits, while the cheaper ones are just making up the numbers. The Asus Transformer Pro 3 (TP3) ranks as a premium product, especially going by its price point, which has its own strengths.

Asus has kind of owned the metal-body design for its PCs in recent times, and the overall build quality of the Transformer 3 Pro is worth its weight (even though it weighs 790 grams).

The 12.6-inch display offers 2880x1920 pixels resolution, that is high on brightness, and the sharpness of the content will be suited to most of us. The display’s size is marginally smaller than Surface Pro 4’s display.

Also Read: Review: Microsoft Surface Pro 4 Is Portable, Powerful but a Luxury

Asus has gone for the best available set of hardware, Core i5/Core i7, pairing it with 8 and 16GB of RAM. And for storage you get 512GB of SSD, which delivers fast data-transfer results.

The bundled keyboard with the Transformer Pro 3 is probably the most effect 2-in-1 PC accessory, we have used till date. It connect with the tablet via magnetic points, and you can even adjust the backlit settings of the keyboard.

There’s also the Pen, that works like a charm with the TP3. You can connect your USB 3.0 pendrive, which is a must-have port for users, but the charging of the device works out faster with the Type-C adapter.

What’s Bad?

The metal body comes with its own set of weaknesses. We found visible scratches on the TP3 during our brief time with the device. That’s not what you pay big money for, and we expect Asus to give us a sturdier product than this.

Asus has missed out adding a slot where the Pen can be placed. Without this, there’s always a chance that users might misplace the accessory, which again could have been avoided by the company while designing the product.

For a slim figure 2-in-1 PC, there’s a lot of noise emitted by the TP3. This won’t be a deal-breaker, but then again, such details need to be ironed out before making the product available to consumers.

Limiting the TP3 to Core i5 and Core i7 processors, has invariably hit the battery life of the device. On an average, we managed to get over 5 hours from the device, which might work out well, if you are always around a power source.

But for a portable device, we expect more, and Asus’ claims of 8 hours of battery life, with the given hardware, is a stretch. Asus could have worked on a Core M variant as well, but I guess that would have gone against the premium tag of the product.

Why Buy It?

If you’re in the market for a top-end, powerful and portable 2-in-1 PC, then the Asus Transformer Pro 3 is a choice that’s worth investing in. Full metal-body, powerful hardware coupled with a really effective keyboard and a digital pen works out like the perfect package.

But one needs to be careful while handling the device, which also suffers on the battery front, again because of the strong set of hardware in tow. Priced at Rs 1,10,990 Transformer Pro 3 is a pricey affair, which will only considered by those who have deep pockets.