Face Off: Microsoft Surface Pro 3 vs. Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi vs. Toshiba Portege Z20t

Build quality is excellent across the board as all devices sport magnesium alloy chassis. Bends, twists, and depressions are kept to a minimum. However, we noticed that the Portege Z20t is slightly less rigid than the Surface Pro 3, possibly due to its slightly thinner chassis. Nonetheless, the Toshiba tablet is rated to withstand drops of up to 76 cm.

the T300 Chi has an equally solid feel to it and is even thinner than the Z20t. Unfortunately, we're put off by its thicker bezel that makes it larger and less attractive than the sharper Microsoft and Toshiba tablets. Perhaps more notably, its keyboard dock is plastic and feels cheap as if it came from a $300 netbook or Chromebook. This is compared to the much more solid keyboard dock of the Z20t and the thinner and more portable Type Cover dock of the Surface Pro 3.

How these tablets attach to their respective keyboard docks deserves a mention as well. The Z20t uses the classic latch and lock mechanism while the T300 Chi relies solely on magnets and the Surface Pro 3 on a small set of Pogo pins. The Toshiba solution feels most secure, but wobbling occurs much too easily here and on the T300 Chi. The integrated kickstand on the Surface Pro 3 is more effective at propping up the display when working on a desk.

In terms of sizes and weight, our table and visual aid below give a good idea of how they compare. The thicker keyboard dock of the Toshiba means more connectivity features and better rigidity overall. Meanwhile, the active cooling on the Surface Pro 3 results in a heavier and thicker tablet despite it being the smallest in terms of length and width.

The Surface Pro 3 comes out just slightly ahead of the Toshiba Z20t based on quality, but the thicker Toshiba dock is certainly made tougher than both the Type Cover 2 and especially the keyboard dock of the T300 Chi.

Winner: Tablet -- Microsoft Surface Pro 3

              Keyboard Dock -- Toshiba Portege Z20t

The Z20t keyboard dock makes the detachable feel more like a complete notebook with its plethora of extra ports compared to the smaller docks on the Surface Pro 3 and T300 Chi. Thus, the Toshiba wins this round hands down.

We do applaud Microsoft for including a full-size USB 3.0 port on the Surface Pro 3 as it is uncommon on many tablets. This makes fumbling around for adapters much less of an issue.

Winner: Toshiba Portege Z20t

keyboard docks on detachables can sometimes feel like afterthoughts and are generally softer and shallower than the keyboards of standard notebooks. Fortunately for these three, all keyboards provide satisfactory feedback despite the short key travel.

Negatives do exist for each of the keyboards. The Type Cover for the Surface Pro 3 produces louder clatter than the Asus and Toshiba and the keyboard feels much smaller here due to the lack of sufficient space between keys. The keys on the T300 Chi feel cheaper and we don't like the fact that there is no POGO connection, so the dock must operate through Bluetooth and on its own battery pack.

The Toshiba Z20t comes out ahead for its more comfortable Chiclet layout and quieter clatter without sacrificing feedback. Users may appreciate the TrackPoint here as well.

As for the touchpads, the Portege Z20t has the larger surface area with dedicated mouse keys to boot. This isn't to say that the touchpads on the Surface Pro 3 or T300 Chi are bad as both have smooth glides and no glitches, but gestures and daily operation are more ergonomic on the larger Z20t touchpad. Mouse navigation is also easier on the 1080p screen.

It is worth noting that the T300 Chi is the only one with no stylus since it is a consumer-oriented device. The Surface Pro 3 digitizer works excellently and the buttons give it more functions than other standard pens. Meanwhile, the Portege Z20t includes two pens: One smaller pen and a second larger one from Wacom. These don't have the same features as the one for the Surface Pro 3, but we like the fact that the smaller Toshiba pen can be inserted into the tablet itself.

Winner: Keyboard -- Toshiba Portege Z20t

              Touchpad -- Toshiba Portege Z20t

The Asus T300 Chi comes out just slightly ahead of both the Surface Pro 3 and Portege Z20t in GPU benchmarks, which shows that the Asus detachable throttles just a bit less than the Toshiba since both models have the same processor. The HD 4400 in the Microsoft tablet lies comfortably between the Asus and Toshiba according to 3DMark 11 and CineBench R11.5.

Unfortunately, we did not have the chance to benchmark a matching title amongst all three tablets, so a direct comparison can be difficult. Nonetheless, we have benchmarked a handful of different games on each device as shown below. Today's titles must be played on the lowest resolution settings for a reliable frame rate of at least 30 or even 20 FPS. There is the occasional old title that can be played on Medium settings, though gaming on such high native resolutions (1080p+) is out of the question beyond simple 2D titles.

See our dedicated GPU pages for the Intel HD 5300 and HD 4400 for more comparisons and benchmarks.

System Noise & Temperature

Devices with Core M CPUs typically have no active cooling, so the Asus and Toshiba get free passes in this category.

The Surface Pro 3 is a 9.1 mm tablet with options up to a Core i7. Such high power density demands a system fan and this becomes very obvious if gaming or running intense applications. Otherwise, word processing and light browsing will cause fan noise to remain in the acceptably low 30 dB(A) range as is common on full-size Ultrabooks.

Surface temperatures between the three tablets are surprisingly similar under both idling and intensive load conditions. Though our recorded absolute values below show otherwise, the final readings are more alike once we take into account the different room temperatures during when these tests were performed. As a result, it is a bit more difficult to declare an outright winner for this particular category.

We'll give the small edge to both the Asus and Toshiba as they are not any warmer than the Surface Pro 3 despite running silently with no fans.

Winner: Tie -- Asus Transformer Book T300 Chi & Toshiba Portege Z20t

The Toshiba detachable has the largest battery capacity by far at a combined 72 Wh from its internal tablet battery and secondary keyboard dock battery. Additionally, the lower display resolution of the tablet and more power-efficient Core M CPU compared to the Surface Pro 3 mean longer runtimes as well. Our recorded 760 minutes of constant WLAN use is hours ahead of both the Microsoft and Asus tablets under similar conditions. Of course, battery life will be halved if not using the Toshiba dock.

The Asus solution is the most disappointing of the three with its low battery capacity and poor runtimes despite carrying the same CPU as the Toshiba.

Winner: Toshiba Portege Z20t