jainanshal
Contributor
So finally I have the most awaited Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 16gb in my hands!!
Newegg really tested my patience on this, even with the tablet in stock.. it took them full 6 days to ship it after making payment. Ordered on 10th June, shipped on 16th by Newegg and delivered to me on 21st through ICC world. Total cost 22k, not bad, right??
This is actually my second Android tablet, first one was Toshiba AS100, popularly known as Toshiba Folio. Folio was also a Tegra 2 based device with 512MB RAM and Froyo, specs weren’t bad for a device somewhere around the start of the year. But use of a mobile OS which was somewhat forced to fit a tablet, an OS implementation which hardly knew anything about harnessing power from a dual core processor and the ridiculous viewing angles on the screen made me sell it out just after 2 weeks of owning it. A tablet is meant to be portable (read it as something which can be used in any possible posture for human backbone) but if you are forced to keep it right in front of your eye balls everytime you actually want to see something, it’s no more portable!
Main reasons behind selecting Transformer were its high resolution (1280x800) 10.1†IPS display, Dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1gb DDR2 RAM and Honeycomb. Other features include: 16gb onboard memory (32gb also available) with support for Micro SDHC card; WiFi b/g/n; Bluetooth 2.1; 5MP & 1.2MP rear and front camera respectively; GPS receiver; 10 finger multi touch capacitive screen with Gorilla Glass and one very important thing that I realized only after receiving it.. 1 yr International Warranty!! All this for just $399, excellent pricing indeed.
Unboxing & Package
The tablet came in a slim rectangular box, neatly (gift) wrapped in transparent plastic sheet. The accessories included in the package are the least I have seen with any electronic device with just a power plug and a mere 0.9 mt long 40-pin dock to USB cable which will double as the charging cable when used with the power adapter. Thus, it’s going to be very tricky if one wants to use the tablet while charging, unless the charging point is right over your head. Along with this came a Quick Start guide and Warranty leaflet. Transformer came with Honeycomb 3.0 and I was notified about the upgrade available (3.1) as soon as I connected it to WiFi network. I downloaded the stuff but with just 30-40% battery, wasn’t able to upgrade it. I knew about the upgrade availability before I ordered the device and was really happy to see the promptness with which Asus made it available, maybe it was easier for Asus as the OS is largely the native Honeycomb with very few alteration/addition.
[attachment=8440:14876.attach]
Main Box
[attachment=8436:14872.attach]
Asus Transformer tablet
[attachment=8437:14873.attach]
Asus Transformer tablet
[attachment=8441:14877.attach]
Asus Transformer tablet rearview
[attachment=8438:14874.attach]
[attachment=8439:14875.attach]
Tablet Design
The tablet design is very sleek with a textured plastic back that facilitates good grip while holding, and a front metallic frame which gives a sturdy feel. Transformer may not be as slim as the iPad2 but the thickness looks quite ok to me. However, rectangular dimensions measure more than other tablets which I think is because of the bigger bezel around the screen that initially didn’t look attractive (edge-to-edge screen looks real cool), but after sometime I realized that bigger bezel is a boon as it makes holding the tablet pretty easy while avoiding touching the screen, gives a real good grip without any accidental touches on screen. At 700gms it may not feel feather light but does not feel heavy either, although you may feel the weight after sometime when using as an ebook reader.
Power and volume buttons are situated on the left edge while the right edge holds 3.5mm audio jack (Headphone/Mic-in), mini HDMI port and a Micro SDHC port. Docking port is situated on the bottom edge along with slots to hold keyboard dock. Front 1.2MP cam is present on the top of screen and a 5MP one on the rear of the tablet.
First problem: Lack of a full USB port. I just cannot understand why its included only in the keyboard dock, really want it on the tablet as well. Also, you’ll need to buy another HDMI cable for the Transformer with Mini HDMI port.
Screen
The 10.1†1280x800 IPS capacitive screen is absolutely brilliant.
Very nice color reproduction along with excellent viewing angles, which is exactly what I was looking for!! You can hold it in any position you want and still read the text and see colors almost like original.
You can actually buy this just for its screen, seriously!!
Honeycomb Interface
In few words, Honeycomb actually makes any Android tablet worthy of a buy.
Interface has quite a lot of changes as compared to the mobile Android OS, making it more usable for a tablet. A major change, notification goes down and cannot be dragged, also, the Back and Home buttons are incorporated in the notification bar itself. Settings are almost the same, I could hardly see any differences as in Gingerbread settings.
Best thing in Honeycomb: The Browser – Simply Excellent!
With the full Adobe flash support (I currently have Adobe 10.3 which is the same as Mozilla for desktop), browsing is at par with desktop browsing. The User Agent setting works perfectly and displays the webpage as per the choice made. However, I have sometimes faced problem while entering text in the text box of some websites.
Asus also added few applications like My Net (media streaming), My Cloud (cloud solutions) and My Library (ebooks and magazines).
Performance
I would like to mention here that I hardly used the tablet with Honeycomb 3.0 as I upgraded to 3.1 before actually starting using it so I am not sure if there were any problems with 3.0. I have hardly seen any lock ups or crashes, works smooth. Do not believe much in benchmark tests so havn’t done any.
Second problem: volume in speakers is quite low.. till 8-9 mark you can hardly hear anything and then it suddenly starts rising. At the top, 15 mark, loudness is ok but quality gets affected. Not very satisfied with the sound in speakers, although it doesn’t matter much as I hardly use them. Sound quality is ok in headphones.
Default video codec support is very pathetic but you can use Mobo player along with its codec pack which will support various formats including mkv. Videos actually look quite good on its superior screen.
I havn’t bought the Keyboard dock so have nothing to say about it.
Few Last Lines…
Overall, I can definitely say Asus Eee Pad Transformer is one of the best (or may be “The Bestâ€) tablets available in the market right now. Asus seems to have done a commendable job in producing a quality tablet at a modest price. I will strongly recommend this if you plan to buy an Android tablet as the IPS screen puts it above all other Android tablets available right now that too on a lower price.
So that is all for Asus Eee Pad Transformer review.. hope you would like it
Newegg really tested my patience on this, even with the tablet in stock.. it took them full 6 days to ship it after making payment. Ordered on 10th June, shipped on 16th by Newegg and delivered to me on 21st through ICC world. Total cost 22k, not bad, right??
This is actually my second Android tablet, first one was Toshiba AS100, popularly known as Toshiba Folio. Folio was also a Tegra 2 based device with 512MB RAM and Froyo, specs weren’t bad for a device somewhere around the start of the year. But use of a mobile OS which was somewhat forced to fit a tablet, an OS implementation which hardly knew anything about harnessing power from a dual core processor and the ridiculous viewing angles on the screen made me sell it out just after 2 weeks of owning it. A tablet is meant to be portable (read it as something which can be used in any possible posture for human backbone) but if you are forced to keep it right in front of your eye balls everytime you actually want to see something, it’s no more portable!
Main reasons behind selecting Transformer were its high resolution (1280x800) 10.1†IPS display, Dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1gb DDR2 RAM and Honeycomb. Other features include: 16gb onboard memory (32gb also available) with support for Micro SDHC card; WiFi b/g/n; Bluetooth 2.1; 5MP & 1.2MP rear and front camera respectively; GPS receiver; 10 finger multi touch capacitive screen with Gorilla Glass and one very important thing that I realized only after receiving it.. 1 yr International Warranty!! All this for just $399, excellent pricing indeed.
Unboxing & Package
The tablet came in a slim rectangular box, neatly (gift) wrapped in transparent plastic sheet. The accessories included in the package are the least I have seen with any electronic device with just a power plug and a mere 0.9 mt long 40-pin dock to USB cable which will double as the charging cable when used with the power adapter. Thus, it’s going to be very tricky if one wants to use the tablet while charging, unless the charging point is right over your head. Along with this came a Quick Start guide and Warranty leaflet. Transformer came with Honeycomb 3.0 and I was notified about the upgrade available (3.1) as soon as I connected it to WiFi network. I downloaded the stuff but with just 30-40% battery, wasn’t able to upgrade it. I knew about the upgrade availability before I ordered the device and was really happy to see the promptness with which Asus made it available, maybe it was easier for Asus as the OS is largely the native Honeycomb with very few alteration/addition.
[attachment=8440:14876.attach]
Main Box
[attachment=8436:14872.attach]
Asus Transformer tablet
[attachment=8437:14873.attach]
Asus Transformer tablet
[attachment=8441:14877.attach]
Asus Transformer tablet rearview
[attachment=8438:14874.attach]
[attachment=8439:14875.attach]
Tablet Design
The tablet design is very sleek with a textured plastic back that facilitates good grip while holding, and a front metallic frame which gives a sturdy feel. Transformer may not be as slim as the iPad2 but the thickness looks quite ok to me. However, rectangular dimensions measure more than other tablets which I think is because of the bigger bezel around the screen that initially didn’t look attractive (edge-to-edge screen looks real cool), but after sometime I realized that bigger bezel is a boon as it makes holding the tablet pretty easy while avoiding touching the screen, gives a real good grip without any accidental touches on screen. At 700gms it may not feel feather light but does not feel heavy either, although you may feel the weight after sometime when using as an ebook reader.
Power and volume buttons are situated on the left edge while the right edge holds 3.5mm audio jack (Headphone/Mic-in), mini HDMI port and a Micro SDHC port. Docking port is situated on the bottom edge along with slots to hold keyboard dock. Front 1.2MP cam is present on the top of screen and a 5MP one on the rear of the tablet.
First problem: Lack of a full USB port. I just cannot understand why its included only in the keyboard dock, really want it on the tablet as well. Also, you’ll need to buy another HDMI cable for the Transformer with Mini HDMI port.
Screen
The 10.1†1280x800 IPS capacitive screen is absolutely brilliant.
Very nice color reproduction along with excellent viewing angles, which is exactly what I was looking for!! You can hold it in any position you want and still read the text and see colors almost like original.
You can actually buy this just for its screen, seriously!!
Honeycomb Interface
In few words, Honeycomb actually makes any Android tablet worthy of a buy.
Interface has quite a lot of changes as compared to the mobile Android OS, making it more usable for a tablet. A major change, notification goes down and cannot be dragged, also, the Back and Home buttons are incorporated in the notification bar itself. Settings are almost the same, I could hardly see any differences as in Gingerbread settings.
Best thing in Honeycomb: The Browser – Simply Excellent!
With the full Adobe flash support (I currently have Adobe 10.3 which is the same as Mozilla for desktop), browsing is at par with desktop browsing. The User Agent setting works perfectly and displays the webpage as per the choice made. However, I have sometimes faced problem while entering text in the text box of some websites.
Asus also added few applications like My Net (media streaming), My Cloud (cloud solutions) and My Library (ebooks and magazines).
Performance
I would like to mention here that I hardly used the tablet with Honeycomb 3.0 as I upgraded to 3.1 before actually starting using it so I am not sure if there were any problems with 3.0. I have hardly seen any lock ups or crashes, works smooth. Do not believe much in benchmark tests so havn’t done any.
Second problem: volume in speakers is quite low.. till 8-9 mark you can hardly hear anything and then it suddenly starts rising. At the top, 15 mark, loudness is ok but quality gets affected. Not very satisfied with the sound in speakers, although it doesn’t matter much as I hardly use them. Sound quality is ok in headphones.
Default video codec support is very pathetic but you can use Mobo player along with its codec pack which will support various formats including mkv. Videos actually look quite good on its superior screen.
I havn’t bought the Keyboard dock so have nothing to say about it.
Few Last Lines…
Overall, I can definitely say Asus Eee Pad Transformer is one of the best (or may be “The Bestâ€) tablets available in the market right now. Asus seems to have done a commendable job in producing a quality tablet at a modest price. I will strongly recommend this if you plan to buy an Android tablet as the IPS screen puts it above all other Android tablets available right now that too on a lower price.
So that is all for Asus Eee Pad Transformer review.. hope you would like it
