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In the past few days, i’ve been showing you here a bunch of comparison reviews that involved Nokia Lumia 2520 against other devices – like Microsoft Surface RT 2, Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet and Google Nexus 9. From all of these reviews, of course this Nokia’s tablet lags behind 2 of the tablets from Sony and Google, especially in terms of app/game catalog. But the good thing is, against the tablet from the company that actually owns Nokia (Microsoft), Nokia Lumia 2520 still looks more promising than Microsoft Surface RT 2, especially in the whole aspect, not just in gaming performance.
Well today, i’m still really interested to bring up Nokia Lumia 2520 again in my next comparison review. However, unlike the previous reviews, the tablet that i’m about to compare with Nokia Lumia 2520 in this review is probably not on the same level with this Nokia’s tablet. And by ‘not on the same level’, i meant this tablet is far more superior than Nokia Lumia 2520.
The tablet that i want to put in the same ring today with Nokia Lumia 2520 is coming from Asus and this tablet is running not only one platform, but 2 entirely different platforms – Android and Windows 8 Pro OS – are powering this device at the same time. You probably already know that, right? Yes – this tablet is Asus Transformer Trio Book, a dual-boot OS tablet running on both Android OS and the full-fledged Windows 8 Pro.
Well, if you want to explore more about my comparison between these Nokia and Asus tablets and see how they fare against each other in this review, including their gaming experience and performance, then here you go, my comparison review between Nokia Lumia 2520 and Asus Transformer Trio Book.
Introduction
As mentioned above, Asus Transformer Book Trio is running on 2 platforms – Android and Windows 8 Pro. But the question is, how on earth could Asus manage to cram these 2 entirely different platforms into one single device without causing any problem especially on software?
Well, this can be possible because inside the machine of Asus Transformer Book Trio, Asus apparently decides to also use 2 types of hardware specs for these 2 platforms – especially different processors, GPUs and even different RAMs as well.
On the other hand with Asus Transformer Book Trio, Nokia Lumia 2520 is of course running only on 1 platform. And that is Windows RT, which sadly is still playing catch up with Android and iOS – especially in terms of game/app catalog and market share. However, despite not having such a huge app catalog on Windows MarketPlace just like Google Play Store and App Store, there are actually some great things to appreciate from this device, especially its performance.
So Nokia Lumia 2520 is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor. And as the companion, Adreno 330 GPU is used to handle most of the graphical performance of this device, while its 2GB of RAM is also responsible for its entire performance, especially to provide much bigger space in its memory so many apps can be executed altogether without any lag whatsoever.
The same applies to Asus Transformer Book Trio. As a tablet with 2 different types of hardware specs, this Asus device is also more than adequate to be a solid performer for playing games. In fact, not just Android games, you can also throw some legacy games from your laptop/PC on this device, thanks to its Windows 8 Pro platform and powerful laptop-quality specs.
But the questions remain. With all of the high-grade powerful specs and great gaming performance found on both devices, which one between Nokia Lumia 2520 and Asus Transformer Book Trio that deserves to be the best gaming tablet in this comparison review? Which one between these 2 tablets that is a better device in the whole aspect? Is it worth it to buy any of these tablets, especially for playing games?
Well, hopefully we’re about to find out more about the answers of these questions at the end of this review. So be sure to stick around!
Design
Both Nokia Lumia 2520 and Asus Transformer Trio Book are intended by each manufacturer – Nokia and Asus – as productivity devices. And that’s obviously because these 2 tablets have keyboard dock/case at their disposal. However, when pitted side-by-side against each other, Asus Transformer Book Trio actually looks more like a laptop instead of a tablet with keyboard dock.
Nokia Lumia 2520
I mean, compared to the keyboard case of Nokia Lumia 2520, the keyboard dock of Asus Transformer Book Trio is made out of heavy material all over the side. On the other hand, the keyboard case of Nokia’s tablet – as you expected – is not as thick as the keyboard dock of Asus device, which is kind of similar with the keyboard case of Surface tablets from Microsoft.
In terms of design, Nokia Lumia 2520 is actually not a huge departure from the design of Nokia Lumia smartphones. It has that sharp looking design especially on the corners – that are less rectangular – and also the plastic matte finish on the rear cover, which has prominent color like red, yellow, etc. And this is similar with the entire look of Nokia Lumia smartphones that mostly have prominent colors and sharp looking comers.
This really contradicts with the design of Asus Transformer Book Trio. Unlike Nokia Lumia 2520 with its sharp looking design and thin keyboard case/cover, this Asus tablet looks more solid and more like a professional looking laptop, especially with its thick keyboard dock. The tablet itself also has much softer appearance especially with its round-shaped corners, while the metal trim around the bezels give a great accent as a productivity device.
Overall Specs
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Nokia Lumia 2520
Asus Transformer Trio Book
4G LTE
Micro-SIM
Released December 2013
615 g (Weight)
10.1 inch IPS LCD touchscreen 1080 x 1920 pixels (~218 ppi) 16M colors
Corning Gorilla Glass 2
ClearBlack display
Microsoft Windows RT
Quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400 Qualcomm MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 Chipset
Adreno 330 GPU
2 GB RAM
microSD card slot for up to 64 GB
32 GB Internal storage
6.7 MP rear-facing camera with Carl Zeiss optics and 1080p @30fps Video recording
2 MP front-camera 720p@30fps video recording ability
Bluetooth v4.0
NFC
No Java
Accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass Sensors
Non-removable 8120 mAh battery
Stand-by: for up to 600 hours
Talk time: for up to 10 hours
Released September 2013
* Optional Windows 8 PC Station with QWERTY keyboard and
+
trackpad
11.6 inchIPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 1080 x 1920 pixels
(190 ppi pixel density)
+ Tablet: 1.6GHz Intel Atom Cloverview Z2580
+ 2 GB RAM
+ SGX544MP2
Android OS 4.2 Jelly Bean
- Keyboard Dock: 2GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 Processor Haswell
- 4GB of RAM and 1TB of storage
- Intel Graphics Card
Microsoft Windows Pro 8
16/32/64 GB Internal storage
microSD card slot for up to 64 GB
No GPRS, No EDGE
Wi-Fi 802.11
Bluetooth, GPS, Java, USB
5 MP rear-facing camera, autofocus
1.2 MP front-camera 720p@30fps video recording ability
No Radio
Non-removable Li-Po battery (19 Wh)
13 hours on the tablet
5 hours on the keyboard dock
Both Nokia Lumia 2520 and Asus Transformer Book Trio are actually 2 entirely different category tablets. They may be dedicated as productivity devices, however, when it comes to specs, they are just not on the same level. And that can be seen perfectly on their hardware specs, with Nokia Lumia 2520 having the tablet quality specs, while Asus Transformer Book Trio having laptop quality specs.
Nokia Lumia 2520 comes with a 10.1-inch display sporting the 1080p resolution, a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2GHz, 2GB of RAM, Adreno 330 GPU, 6.7MP rear-facing camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 2MP camera on the front, microSD card slot for up to 64GB, Windows RT, a huge 8120mAh battery and a bunch of other standard features.
On the other hand, Asus Transformer Book Trio has 2 different types of hardware specs inside its machine. So given its dual-boot capability, Asus apparently decides to cram 2 entirely different hardware types, including processors, GPUs, RAMs and some other more.
So on Android side, this device comes with Intel Atom Cloverview Z2580 processor, PowerVR SGX544 MP2, 2GB of RAM, microSD card slot for up to 64GB, 5MP rear-facing camera, 1.2MP front-facing camera, 19Wh battery and some other standard features.
Meanwhile, on Windows 8 Pro platform, this device is taken care by 2GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 Haswell processor, 4GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, Intel Graphics Card and 5 hours of battery life on the keyboard dock. The display, however, is an 11.6-inch display sporting the 1080p resolution (1920x1080 pixels).
Screen
Despite using the same 1080p resolution, i think the sharpness of Nokia Lumia 2520 is much better – slightly better – than the screen of Asus Transformer Book Trio. And that’s because this Asus tablet comes with a slightly bigger 11.6-inch display, as opposed to the smaller 10.1-inch screen on Nokia Lumia 2520. However, the sharpness difference between these 2 tablets probably are not that significantly one to another. So the screens of both tablets still look insanely sharp, text is readable even from far distance, image looks crisp and everything just looks nice on both tablets.
User Interface
If there is one similarity found on these 2 tablets, then it’s definitely their UIs. So Nokia Lumia 2520 comes pre-installed with Windows RT platform, while Asus Transformer Book Trio ships with Windows 8 Pro OS on its platform. So the UIs of these tablets look and work relatively similar with similar features, personal customizations, not to mention the same box-shaped Live Tiles and horizontal overview design layout.
However, given that the operating system of Asus Transformer Book Trio is the full-fledged version of Windows 8 Pro, then this Asus tablet has more serious productivity features and pre-loaded software than on Nokia’s device. Not only that. Thanks to its Windows 8 Pro platform, Asus Transformer Book Trio is also capable to run the legacy software on your laptop/PC. So if you have some favorite old games from your laptop/PC (like The Settlers IV for example), then you can just put the Setup file on its storage and then play it on this device.
Anyway, thanks to its dual-boot capability, besides that full version of Windows 8 Pro OS, Asus Transformer Book Trio also comes pre-installed with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean, which can be activated by using a switch on the keyboard dock that you can slide/drag in order to swap to either Android or Windows 8 Pro OS. This Android OS - as you know already – comes with Asus’ in-house customized UI along with some additions of features and pre-loaded apps, including multiwindow mode.
But basically, the entire design layout of its UI is still similar with many Android tablets out there - a homescreen with widget element, app drawer, notification and setting drop-down windows and many more. So if you’re already familiar with Android OS, then you will feel at home when using this device.
Gaming Performance
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As productivity-dedicated tablets, there’s no single doubt that both Nokia Lumia 2520 and Asus Transformer Book Trio are simply great in that tablet category. In fact, Asus Transformer Book Trio has all what it takes to be a great replacement for laptop.
However, as gaming tablets, are these 2 tablets really up for that challenge? Well, the answer is of course, YES. Both devices will be amazing gaming tablets. And that’s mostly thanks to their hardware specs (processors, GPUs, RAMs) that are more than adequate to execute any kind of games on their own platform.
But it’s worth nothing that, the gaming performance comparison between these 2 tablets is only relevant if i compare them side-by-side according to their hardware class. Well, that's because, as mentioned above in the spec sheet, unlike Nokia Lumia 2520 that only comes with ‘tablet’ quality specs, Asus Transformer Book Trio interestingly is equipped with 2 types of hardware specs based on each platform – Android and Windows 8 Pro OS.
So when tasked with Android OS, this tablet will give all the jobs to 1.6GHz Intel Atom Cloverview Z2580 processor, PowerVR SGX544 GPU and 2GB of RAM. However, when deployed with a much heavier Windows 8 platform, all of its performance will be handled by its ‘laptop’ quality hardware – Intel Core i7 Haswell processor, 4GB of RAM and Intel HD Graphics Card.
Anyway, Nokia Lumia 2520 comes with a Snapdragon 800 processor, accompanied by Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB of RAM. Meanwhile, the ‘tablet’ side of Asus Transformer Book Trio – as mentioned above - is equipped with an Intel Atom Cloverview processor clocked at 1.6GHz per core, coupled with 2GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX544 GPU.
Basically, with these 2 types of hardware, both Nokia Lumia 2520 and Asus Transformer Book Trio are more than adequate to handle even the latest and most graphics intense games like Asphalt 8: Airborne, Modern Combat 5 or GTA San Andreas. However, as for GTA game, it’s probably only Nokia Lumia 2520 that’s capable to play this game perfectly and smoothly in full highest graphics – with all the graphics, visual effects, shadows, objects, resolution, etc.
Meanwhile, on Asus Transformer Book Trio, i have doubts this game will run smoothly if set in full highest graphics because i know really well that GTA San Andreas is one HEAVY game, especially in terms of graphics.
Overall, these 2 tablets are simply great as gaming tablets. They have powerful set of hardware, they have huge battery capacity (which means, long hours of battery life for gaming) and they are also able to handle even the heaviest games in today’s standards.
However, between the 2, i think Asus Transformer Book Trio is the one that will come out as the winner here against Nokia Lumia 2520 because its platform (Android) is supported by many game developers, which means its Android OS has a huge game catalog on Google Play Store.
So basically, almost all the games on iOS can also be found on Android OS and can be played with Asus Transformer Book Trio hardware. This really contradicts with Nokia Lumia 2520 with its platform (Windows RT) that doesn’t have many popular games on Android and iOS – like Dead Trigger, ShadowGun, Horn and many many more.
So even if its hardware is powerful and capable to handle even the most graphically demanding games like GTA San Andreas or Modern Combat 5 in full graphics, its lack of game catalog will make this device useless as a gaming tablet especially if you’re really into gaming.
There are many Android and iOS games that haven’t been made available by Microsoft on this platform, forcing many users to find the alternatives that certainly are not that great compared to the original versions.
The other thing that makes Asus Transformer Book Trio a so much better gaming tablet than Nokia Lumia 2520 is of course its ‘laptop’ quality specs and its full-fledged Windows 8 Pro OS. So thanks to these things, - besides great for playing Android games -, Asus Transformer Book Trio amazingly is also capable to run your legacy software and games of your laptop/PC.
But of course, it also depends on the system requirements of the games that you would like to play on this tablet. So you cannot expect games like Call of Duty: Ghost or GTA V to run on this tablet. it’s just impossible.
However, there are still many great older-gen games that are worth playing on this Asus hybrid tablet – like The Settlers IV, Need for Speed Underground, older Call of Duty games and many other old-gen games that of course ‘match’ the hardware specs of Asus Transformer Book Trio.
So with all of these benefits found on Asus Transformer Book Trio, then it’s just not that hard to recommend this tablet to you as a better gaming tablet than Nokia Lumia 2520. Its capability to run Android and legacy Windows software/games is just untouchable even by the ‘flagship’ quality specs found on Nokia Lumia 2520.
I’m not saying that this Nokia’s tablet as bad gaming device. Well, that’s so wrong because Nokia Lumia 2520 is still a good gaming tablet. However, its lack of game catalog (which will likely continue even in the next few months or years, unless Microsoft finally changes its policy on its MarketPlace) really makes this device unappealing for tablet gamers on the market.
So between these 2 tablets, i’ve got to say that Asus Transformer Book Trio is a much better gaming tablet than Nokia Lumia 2520. Its Android platform, huge game catalog, powerful hardware and the ability to run legacy Windows software/games really make this device a perfect machine to play games.
Anyway guys, if you want to know more about the gaming performance of Nokia Lumia 2520 and Asus Transformer Trio Book, including what games that will run on these tablets, check out my YouTube video playlist or Pinterest page. :)
Cameras
When it comes to camera, then Nokia Lumia 2520 looks more superior than Asus Transformer Book Trio. It’s not because this Nokia’s tablet has bigger megapixel number compared to the cameras found on Asus device, but it’s more because the cameras – especially the rear one – on Nokia Lumia 2520 come with the technology developed by Nokia itself. Not to mention, the rear-camera of this Nokia’s tablet is also equipped with Carl Zeiss optics.
Anyway, Nokia Lumia 2520 comes with a 6.7MP camera on the back and 2MP front-facing shooter to do selfies (like there’s no other thing to do besides taking selfies, huh?). Meanwhile, Asus Transformer Book Trio looks more humble with its 5MP and 1.2MP cameras back and front.
Of course, when it comes quality, then Nokia Lumia 2520 is more ideal for taking photos or recording videos, especially if you’re into photography. So between the 2, it’s pretty obvious that Nokia’s tablet is more prepared with its cameras than Asus Transformer Book Trio. But even so, i believe the cameras of Asus Transformer Book Trio are also not too shabby at all, especially because Asus – just like Nokia – also develops its own camera technology in its labs (PIxelMaster).
Battery Life
On the sector of battery life, it’s definitely Asus Transformer Book Trio that will come up as the winner here against Nokia Lumia 2520. And it’s because this tablet is equipped with 2 battery capacities inside the tablet and inside the keyboard dock – as opposed to Nokia Lumia 2520 that doesn’t have an extra battery in its thin keyboard cover.
According to GSMarena, the tablet ‘mode’ on Asus Transformer Book Trio is capable to last around 13 hours in talk time, while the keyboard dock will give an extra 5 hours with its own battery. But i believe this 5 hours battery life is focused mostly on the Windows 8 Pro OS instead of the Android OS of this tablet. So if you use the Android mode with keyboard dock, i believe its battery life will last much longer than 5 hours.
Meanwhile, Nokia Lumia 2520 with its huge 8120mAh battery life could last around 10 hours for talk time and 600 hours for standby mode. I think this is more than great because with that battery life, i believe this device is capable to deliver an all-day-long battery life to users, even in heavy use. But of course, if you use it to do some heavy tasks without resting the screen at all, its battery life could drop drastically and you would always need to recharge it twice a day.
My Personal Opinions
So in conclusion, i think both Nokia Lumia 2520 and Asus Transformer Book Trio are equally great, especially as productivity-focused tablets. They have powerful performance, their have serious productivity-dedicated platforms, they have productivity features and pretty much everything of these 2 tablets are just great overall. Not to mention, they are also blessed with good quality cameras, huge storage, good battery life and they also have impressive looking designs.
However, when pitted side-by-side against each other, i think it’s pretty obvious that Asus Transformer Book Trio is way more superior than Nokia Lumia 2520, simply because this Asus device comes with the full-fledged Windows 8 Pro OS and not to mention, ‘laptop’ quality hardware specs (processor, GPU, RAM and storage).
And this really contradicts with Nokia Lumia 2520 that only has the ‘tablet’ quality specs and Windows RT platform – which really lacks in terms of app/game catalog.
And the fact that Asus Transformer Book Trio is capable to run legacy software from laptop, really makes this device a much better offering than Nokia Lumia 2520, especially as a productivity-focused device. So you can play your favorite games and software from your laptop right away on this Asus Transformer Book Trio. And this capability is just untouchable by anything on Nokia Lumia 2520.
The other great things found on Asus Transformer Book Trio – compared to Nokia Lumia 2520 – are 4GB of RAM, Intel Core i7 processor, Intel HD Graphics card and 1TB internal storage on ‘laptop’ mode. Not to mention, on ‘tablet’ mode, Asus Transformer Book Trio also looks promising with its Intel Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, PowerVR SGX 544 MP and microSD card slot for up to 64GB. So with all of these benefits, i think it’s just hard to not recommend this tablet to you, especially if you’re looking for a more serious productivity tablet.
But even so, Nokia Lumia 2520 actually is still considered as good especially as a simple productivity-dedicated device. it has sharp 1080p display, fast Snapdragon 800 processor, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM, powerful gaming performance, great quality cameras, good productivity software and features, good battery life and impressive looking design. Of course, the limitation of its app/game catalog on Windows RT can be quite annoying over the time, especially if you’re into gaming and stuff..
At the end of the day, i think the final decision to buy any of these tablets will totally come down to your personal preference and needs. I mean, if you’re looking for a more serious productivity tablet with ‘laptop’ quality hardware and dual-boot capability, then Asus Transformer Book Trio is definitely your best shot here.
On the other hand, if you’re in the search for a simple Windows RT productivity tablet with powerful gaming performance, great quality cameras and good battery life, then Nokia Lumia 2520 can also be a good choice for you.
Disclaimer: Hi guys, bear in mind that this is not some in-depth review. This is Read more...