ASUS Transformer Prime TF201 : The current best tablet

I've extensively used a lot of tablets, due to both longtime interest in mobile technology, and my line of work.

    To give you an idea of my frame of reference, I've either owned or used the following tablets: Ipad 2 (owned), HP Touchpad (owned - 2011 firesale!), Motorola Xoom / Galaxy Tab 10.1, LG G, original Asus Transformer (work).

   Heck, I've owned the following Windows Mobile / PocketPC devices from back in the day - HP Jornada, Toshiba e800. My phone is the iPhone 4.

  With that said, this is one of the best tech gadget I've ever owned. The unanimous rave industry reviews (and very positive end user reviewers, even taking wifi issues etc. into account) aren't wrong.

    * BUILD AND FORM FACTOR- evocative of but actually feels higher quality than the Ipad 2 and Macbook Air, which is a minor miracle at this price point. Beautifully machined aluminum, minimalist but not cold. The resolution of the screen is the best out of any current tablet, and can be crazily bright enough that it is useable outdoors in sunlight. It's definitely a fingerprint magnet though.

    * COLOR - for those deciding between the gray or champagne, I received the champagne, and I actually called to confirm that I received the right one. It's much more silver than gold, it's basically silver aluminum with some gold highlights when the light catches it the right way. This is *exactly* what I wanted - it's reminiscent of the classic aluminum MacBook Pros, but with a touch of warmth from the gold. In short - it's not very gold at all.

    * PROCESSOR - the Tegra 3 quad core processor is noticeably snappy, making the whole experience (even with Honeycomb) feel next gen. I've been getting great battery life, ~ 10-12 hours of normal mixed used, on balanced setting.


    With the dock, you're at 18+ hours. The NVIDIA fifth "stealth core" does its job seamlessly. It just works. For a quad core tablet with blazing power, this is again pretty mind-bending and next-gen. Is a quad core necessary? Strictly speaking, no.

    The Tegra 2 / OMAP / Snapdragon tablets do just fine, for the most part (although the un-overclocked Touchpad is noticeably slow), but every non ipad tablet lagged behind the iPad 2 in terms of real world performance (opening menus, browsing, launching apps). This isn't because Apple's processor is faster, but rather because if the sheer level of optimization between Apple hardware and software, which is industry-leading.

    With the Tegra 3 processor, though, this is the first non Apple tablet that both objectively is, and also noticeably feels, faster, more responsive, and more powerful than the iPad 2. It just brute forces past all of the Apple optimizations. For me, that is huge, especially if I'm going to be spending over $400 on something. Slowly but surely, more and more apps are optimizing for quad core (especially games), but even without that, I'd get a quad core for the general performance benefits alone, as it translates across every app.

    * OS / SW - I really like the iOS UI for phones, it's simple yet powerful, but for a tablet it's always just felt incredibly limiting / frustrating / slightly condescending. I even prefer WebOS to it. Android Honeycomb is a nice balance between power, customization and being relatively easy to pick up, just perfect for the tablet form factor.

    My 2 year old toddler figured out how to use it in about 20 seconds (similar to WebOS and iOS). That being said, I'm looking forward to ICS, which should make things even more stable (HC still crashes occasionally)and uniform. The fact that the Prime gets an ICS in a month or two is fantastic.

    The pre-loaded Asus apps are relatively minimal and unobtrusive, and some actually are quite nice, such as the Asus cloud. Polaris Office is solid. The Android Market could be improved though, especially in terms of sorting and organization. Finding the right app can be a bit of a crapshoot.

CONS: Basically the same nits as others have pointed out.

    * SPEAKER: the rear-facing speaker placement is a bit dumb, because it gets covered up relatively easily by your hands or when you set it down. However, you can still hear it even if it's completely covered, it's pretty loud, and it's located where the tablet tapers inwards so it doesn't get completely covered by a flat surface when setting it down.

    I don't mind the lack of a second speaker per se, as you hardly get stereo sound from any of the other tablets that have two speakers. I would say the sound quality of the Prime is on par with any other tablet, but it is just a bit easier to muffle. A jawbone jambox bluetooth speaker or the like works beautifully to supplement this android tablet. It's certainly not needed, but it's a nice addition.

    * CHARGER - the proprietary charger really annoys me. Until Asus comes out with more accessories, I'm basically stuck with using my one charging cord. Even charging via the dock requires the proprietary connector. It's not worth deducting a star for (at least for me), because it's more of an annoyance in light of how great the rest of the device is, but sheesh.

    * PRODUCT LAUNCH - for a $21 billion company of 110,000+ employees, Asus still can't do a good product launch to save its life. This doesn't detract from the end product per se, but it's worth mentioning because so many pre-orders (on Amazon and elsewhere) were bungled or delayed. Asus is starting to consistently put out really great products, but in order to get to the "next level"(Sony, Apple etc.) in the eyes of the average consumer, they're going to really need to work on marketing and sales execution.