ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP500L Signature Edition Laptop Review

ASUS Transformer Book Flip TP500L
via Amazon

Asus Transformer Book Flip TP500L is a 15.6 inch convertible touchscreen laptop with a 360 degree flip to tablet mode and with flexibility to be used at any angle from 0 to 360 degrees for presentations etc. and you will find Asus 2-in-1 in different other configurations as well. ’Signature’ means there is no annoying junkware pre-installed on the Windows 8 except for a free anti-virus software. It is a pretty good laptop with great specs and decent build quality of aluminium and solid plastic at a reasonable price.

ASUS Flip TP500L is offered with the 4th generation dual core 3MB Cache Intel i5-4210U processor at 1.7GHz speed up to 2.7GHz with turbo boost and hyper threading (2 cores for 4 threads), 8GB DDR3L SDRAM at 1600 MHz for multitasking without delays or freezing, spacious 1 TB hard drive at 5400rpm rotating speed and 64-bit Windows 8.1 operating system.. So you have a computer here with hardware that can handle most tasks other than super demanding software and games but is suitable for everyday as well as demanding tasks. HDD is offered at 5400rpm- given the price point and you can always upgrade it to an SSD of your choice and size as the machine is easily upgradeable.

15.6 inch Full HD LED screen with 10-finger multi-touch support, 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and the Intel HD 4400 integrated graphics with shared graphics memory that is 20-30% snappier than the Intel HD 4000 and allows some gaming- older games at high and some newer games at low resolutions and settings. It is nice to have the Full HD sharp screen on the rotatable hinge but what’s missing here is the IPS panel with larger viewing angles so for example when you’re using it in tent mode or having multiple people to watch a movie there will be loss of image quality- brightness and colours from the sides (you have the option to get the 13.3 inch one with IPS feature at roughly the same price- you’ll see on the product page on Amazon via the links here). Like other Asus laptops, sound is provided by SonicMaster Audio and stereo speakers and there is a VGA webcam with integrated microphone for great Skype chats.

Modern and sleek silver Asus Transformer Book is mostly made of aluminium and a bit of durable plastic and there is not a lot to say about its build quality- it does feel solid and premium. It weighs 4.9 pounds and measures 0.9 x 15 x 10.2 inches- being a 15.6 inch machine it can feel a little bulky to some. Keyboard is easy to type on but with 1.3mm keyboard travel and keys feel nice but not so easy in the dark or dimmer light as it is not backlit but has a 10-key numeric pad and a responsive 105 x 73 mm multitouch trackpad with integrated buttons underneath. 3-cell 48 Whrs lithium ion battery is claimed to give you up to 7 hours of battery life in normal use according to Asus and sounds great for an Intel i5 machine with FHD screen. There is no optical drive but 802.11bgn wireless (Miracast enabled), Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000) LAN, Bluetooth 4.0, 1 x USB 3.0 port, 2 x USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI output, 2-in-1 SD/SDHC Memory Card Reader, Headphone output/Microphone input combo and a Security lock slot.

Conclusion: ASUS Flip TP500L Transformer Book Signature Edition is a great convertible PC with modern design, decent hardware, solid build quality (but not Macbook Pro solid), specs and features offered at a fair price. Intel i5-4210U has a PassMark benchmark score of 3441 on 13 January and a Thermal Design Power of 15 watts being an ultra low voltage processor and this helps with longer battery life. It won’t come with useless software that would affect the performance and saves you the time and energy to get rid of them. Full HD screen with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution and touch functionality is great except for the not so large viewing angles and the keyboard could be backlit given the level of this PC but at least it has comfy keys, a numeric pad and a well-functioning touchpad. Windows 8.1 is not the best OS around but it is what you get on the great majority of modern day computers and nice to have the touch display to go with it. Despite its small flaws, for a convertible PC, you’re offered quite a bit for your money here and it costs less than the Lenovo Yoga machines. It comes with a standard 1 year warranty by Asus and when the warranty is over, upgrading the slower 5400 rpm HDD to SSD will make a difference in performance.

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