Still, there are plenty of plus points. The weight in the base counterbalances the tablet to stop it toppling backwards, a common complaint with tablet-based hybrids. And while the screen doesn’t tilt back as far as a traditional laptop, it folds back far enough to prove usable – and most importantly, stable – on a lap. Factor in a comfy, spacious keyboard that is genuinely pleasant to type upon, and a touchpad that works reasonably well, and you have a hybrid that is genuinely usable as a laptop.Asus has made some significant tweaks to the Transformer Book formula for the T300. First among these is the keyboard, which is now held in place by a strip of super-strong magnets, and connected via Bluetooth rather than a physical connection.The keyboard needs to be charged separately to the tablet via its micro-USB connection, but thankfully this shouldn’t be a regular occurrence: after a full charge, the keyboard lasted well over a week during our testing. Another plus point is that the Bluetooth connection allows the keyboard to function even when it’s not directly connected – hook up the tablet to a monitor or TV, or just prop it up nearby, and you can control it remotely from several metres away.

We were initially more than a little concerned about the lack of any physical latch to hold the tablet and keyboard together, but our concerns were misplaced: no matter how violently we shook the tablet, the magnets held firm. And as a happy side effect, the magnets also serve to clamp the metal stylus firmly to the hinge area – we don’t think Asus’ engineers intended this, but it works well nonetheless.Connectivity is an area where Asus has had to compromise. There’s a microSD slot and a headset jack, as well as 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4, but the tablet’s slender edges leave no room for full-sized ports. Instead, Asus has resorted to micro-HDMI plus a single micro-USB 3 port, and supplies an adapter in the box to expand the latter to two full-sized USB 3 ports. It’s clunky, and the micro-USB 3 connection doesn’t deliver much in the way of power: our USB 3 thumbdrive operated normally, but we had to dig out a USB 2 OTG cable to get a portable USB 3 hard disk to function.

In fact, the only physical disappointment is that the T300 is a rather weighty affair once you factor in the keyboard dock. The pair tips the scales at 1.43kg and measure a rather less-than-svelte 18.6mm thick – several members of the PC Pro team remarked at how heavy the Asus felt given its size.Still, there are plenty of plus points. The weight in the base counterbalances the tablet to stop it toppling backwards, a common complaint with tablet-based hybrids. And while the screen doesn’t tilt back as far as a traditional laptop, it folds back far enough to prove usable – and most importantly, stable – on a lap. Factor in a comfy, spacious keyboard that is genuinely pleasant to type upon, and a touchpad that works reasonably well, and you have a hybrid that is genuinely usable as a laptop.Asus has made some significant tweaks to the Transformer Book formula for the T300. First among these is the keyboard, which is now held in place by a strip of super-strong magnets, and connected via Bluetooth rather than a physical connection.

The Transformer Book T300 Chi is a competent hybrid. The display is great, the design attractive and, crucially, this is a hybrid that manages to perform well in both tablet and laptop roles.There’s room for improvement – the battery life, miniaturised ports and slow SSD all take their toll – but, for the money, those are flaws we could live with. If you’ve been looking for a more affordable, more flexible alternative to the Surface Pro 3, the Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi is well worth considering.The Surface 3 has its doubters. I’m not one of them. Having spent a large amount of time with the Surface Pro 3, I’m convinced that a cheaper, less powerful version will do very well indeed. See also: what's the best laptop?I’ve used Windows-based tablets virtually since the first time there was such a thing. For a couple of years, an Acer C110 Tablet PC was my sole computer. And Apple’s brilliant iPad has been a constant companion since it was first released.

Lately, though, I’ve been using the Surface Pro 3 a lot – and there’s a whole lot to love about it. It’s speedy, well-built, runs plenty of apps and the ability to be a tablet or a laptop is more than useful. See also: what's the best tablet?The £419 Surface 3: it’s nice… and it’s going to be a hit However, there’s one problem with it: it’s expensive enough to push it well beyond second computer territory and into being your only computer. And that’s an issue, because as your only computer, it has some serious shortcomings. Compared to a £1000 laptop, it’s underpowered and has poor battery life.That’s where the Surface 3 comes in. At £500 or so (once you’ve bought the essential Type Cover – Microsoft, please start bundling this!) it’s not quite an impulse purchase, but it is affordable as a second computer – exactly the market which the iPad has made its own. You’re not going to buy this as your only PC, but you could buy it instead of an iPad or other tablet.

In one way, the Surface 3 even beats its Pro cousin: you will be able to get it with LTE built-in, something which makes it much more usable when travelling away from Wi-Fi.Is it more capable than the iPad? In some ways, yes, particularly if you’re wedded to Windows applications (or, for that matter, want to run the full version of Minecraft). Assuming that the pen support is the equal of the Surface Pro 3, it will be a great addition (although of course, you need to pay more to get the pen).So I’m optimistic about the future of the Surface 3. Will I buy one? No – but then I have a Surface Pro 3. Would I buy one if I didn’t have the Pro? Yes, in a heartbeat.Do we hear the sound of teens across the country closing their school text books in delight? According to UK exam board chief, Mark Dawe, the use of Google in GSCE and A-Level school examinations is ‘inevitable’ sparking debate over whether this is a smart move or a ‘dumbing down’.

• Sony VAIO VGN-TX Battery
• Sony VAIO PCG-FW Battery
• Sony VAIO VGN-TT Battery
• Sony VAIO VGN-FZ Battery
• Sony VAIO VGN-CR Battery
• Sony VAIO VGN-NR Battery
• Sony VAIO VGN-SZ Battery
• SONY VAIO VGN-AW11M/H Battery
• SONY VAIO VGN-AW11S/B Battery
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• SONY VAIO VGN-AW11Z/B Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS13/Q Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS13/S Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q Battery
• Sony VGP-BPL18 Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS18 Battery
• SONY VGP-BPS26 Battery
• SONY VGP-BPS26A Battery

The keyboard needs to be charged separately to the tablet via its micro-USB connection, but thankfully this shouldn’t be a regular occurrence: after a full charge, the keyboard lasted well over a week during our testing. Another plus point is that the Bluetooth connection allows the keyboard to function even when it’s not directly connected – hook up the tablet to a monitor or TV, or just prop it up nearby, and you can control it remotely from several metres away.We were initially more than a little concerned about the lack of any physical latch to hold the tablet and keyboard together, but our concerns were misplaced: no matter how violently we shook the tablet, the magnets held firm. And as a happy side effect, the magnets also serve to clamp the metal stylus firmly to the hinge area – we don’t think Asus’ engineers intended this, but it works well nonetheless.

Connectivity is an area where Asus has had to compromise. There’s a microSD slot and a headset jack, as well as 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4, but the tablet’s slender edges leave no room for full-sized ports. Instead, Asus has resorted to micro-HDMI plus a single micro-USB 3 port, and supplies an adapter in the box to expand the latter to two full-sized USB 3 ports. It’s clunky, and the micro-USB 3 connection doesn’t deliver much in the way of power: our USB 3 thumbdrive operated normally, but we had to dig out a USB 2 OTG cable to get a portable USB 3 hard disk to function.The presence of a 1.2GHz Intel Core M-5Y71 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD means that the Asus should feel pretty spritely. Indeed, while the Core M-5Y71 sips a mere handful of watts, it’s capable of boosting up to 2.9GHz for short periods, quick enough to help applications spring into life before the processor drops back down to its nominal clock speed.

The other benefit is that the Core M is capable of delivering those speed bursts without the need for a fan. The metal rear of the T300 becomes warm under normal usage, but not to a worrying degree. It was only once we started hammering the Asus flat out with our benchmarks that it became uncomfortably hot to the touch.We found performance to be rather sluggish on occasion, however, and particularly during heavier multitasking. We’d point the finger at the low-power 128GB SanDisk i100 SSD, which sacrifices small-file read and write performance in order to minimise power draw. In the AS SSD benchmark, the i100 SSD achieved read and write transfer speeds of only 11MB/sec, a dramatically lower result than the best SSDs.

Another likely culprit is the limited cooling afforded by the Asus’ slender chassis – a limitation that prevents the Core M from reaching its highest Turbo Boost frequencies under heavy, continuous loads. To prove the point, a result of 75 in our new image-editing benchmark shows just how well the Asus dispatches short, intense workloads – our Core i5-4670K reference PC scores 100 in the same test – but pushing the Asus harder with our video-editing and multitasking benchmarks saw the scores nosedive to 31 and 4 respectively. An overall score of 25 is roughly twice that of a quad-core Bay Trail Atom, though.

• Sony VGP-BPS20/B Battery
• SONY VGP-BPS22 Battery
• SONY VGP-BPS22A Battery
• Sony PCGA-BP52 Battery
• Sony PCGA-BP52A Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS4A Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS2A/S Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS2A Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS2B Battery
• Sony VGP-BPL2 Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS5A Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS13A/S Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS13B/B Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS13B/S Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS13S Battery
• Sony VGP-BPS13 Battery
  

Battery life isn’t as good as we hoped, however – and especially not given the presence of a power-efficient Core M CPU. With the screen calibrated to a brightness of 120cd/m2, the Asus lasted for 5hrs 37mins in our looping 720p video test; some way short of Asus’ claim of eight hours. In our light usage battery test, with Wi-Fi off and the screen brightness dimmed right down to 75cd/m2, the Asus achieved a more creditable 8hrs 4mins. That's still a long way short of the Surface Pro 3's result of 10hrs 33mins in the same test, though. The T300’s display is astonishingly good. A 2,560 x, 1,440 resolution stretches across the 12.5in panel, and it delivers a sterling performance. Brightness tops out at a creditable 372cd/m2, contrast hits an exemplary 1,243:1 and the panel dredges up an impressive 98% of the sRGB colour gamut.

Colour accuracy is one area where the Asus drops behind the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, with an average Delta E of 2.66 to the Surface Pro 3’s 1.77. However, this is due to the Asus’ ability to produce a wider range of colours – while accuracy is nigh-on perfect across most of the spectrum, the wider gamut of the Asus’ display causes reds and purples to look too intense and oversaturated; not a huge flaw by any means.Backlighting could be improved a touch, though. Like the Surface Pro 3, the Asus' edge-lit LED backlight tends to create a noticeable rim of brightness around the display's edges. It's something we could put up with, but perfectionists should take note. We found the touchscreen to be superbly responsive in our time with the T300, reacting deftly to every prod and gesture, and the pressure-sensitive inking with the bundled stylus works beautifully, too. Perhaps our only issue with the screen is the 16:9 display ratio: in portrait orientation, this makes for a rather narrow, cramped page; a problem that Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 avoids by dint of its 3:2 display ratio.http://www.batteries-pc.com/lenovo.html

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