Replacing Surface Pro - Asus T100TAM or Acer Switch 10?
I've stuck with it for ~10 months, but I'v decided to part ways with my original Surface Pro. I bought it as a refurb when the price dipped to $379 direct from Microsoft and was quite happy with it at first... the power in such a small package, the 1080p screen, and the extremely solid build quality were (mostly) great, but the thickness and weight prevented me from ever really using it as a consumption tablet and thus relegated it to use as a travel laptop. Battery life was never great, but I ended up just swapping in a Power Cover for long trips and sticking with the Touch Cover for short trips. Even in that role, kickstand layout made it difficult to use on even Domestic F tray tables, much less in Y.
Prior to the Surface Pro I had the original Asus T100TA Transformer Book for ~6 months and really liked it. It never lacked for power in the mostly mundane outlook/word/excel/power point tasks I threw at it along with also having no problem with media and general news/web consumption. My only REAL complaint was how cheap it felt, specifically the glossy plastic back which made it feel extremely low-end.
The longer I spent with my Surface Pro, the more I wished for the form factor of the T100TA but the build-quality of the Surface Pro. It seems now I can get that with the Asus T100TAM or the Acer Switch 10. The T100TAM is identical to the T100TA except for slightly faster processor/graphics, slightly better IPS panel and, the biggie, aluminum construction. The Acer Switch 10 is very similar with internals that are on-par (somewhere between the old T100TA and newer T100TAM), a very slick docking mechanism, but apparently only ~75% of the battery life of the T100TAM (~6 hours vs ~8 hours).
Right now I'm leaning towards the T100TAM. It fixes my only real complaint about the old T100TA and I know it can handle pretty much all of the tasks it would see in both my daily consumption and travel work use. Can anyone who has the newer T100TAM comment on the build quality (especially compared to the old plastic T100TA)? Can anyone who has compared both the T100TA/T100TAM and Switch 10 comment on which you decided on and why?
Also, can anyone with the 500GB HDD Dock version of the T100TA/TAM comment on the added thickness/weight/noise of the HDD dock compared to the regular dock and if it's a worthwhile addition? I'd probably be choosing between the 32GB+500GB HDD or the 64GB versions... the 64GB+500GB HDD version is $50-$100 more than I want to spend. For comparisson, I'd likely get the 32GB version of the Switch 10 (only $230 from the Microsoft Store) and add a 32GB or 64GB MicroSD.
On a somewhat related note, the proceeds from selling my Surface Pro and my old Galaxy S4 will be financing the new Hybrid and also a refurb iPad 4 for my wife... I feel kidna dirty buying an iOS device with mixed windows/android money, but she's an Apple die-hard these days.