Asus Transformer Pad TF300 It’s no secret that I like the Asus Transformer Prime a lot. Still, £500 is a lot for a tablet even if it does go like the clappers, is made of aluminium and has a cracking keyboard dock with a built-in extra battery. Asus Transformer Pad Can you tell Pad from Prime at a glance? No Asus has now addressed that issue by …
I love my TF101... the fact when I want to write something I'm not stuck with an on screen keyboard, and when I want just a tablet, I have it. The extra battery, and expandability are just bonuses...
For me it makes a tablet more usable, but it's not a laptop... though that's more software. It's just a decent tablet, with a very well thought out extension to make it more usable for tasks tablets struggle with, and frankly I love it for that. Also the keyboard makes a fairly nice stand.
That would be an interesting one to see play out in the UK (and probably EU) courts.
There are statutory rights which you have, no matter what you sign or agree to. If you root it, and the case bio-degrades within 6 months because it's made of the incorrect plastic (for example), you would still be able to throw the sales of goods act at them. (Unfit for purpose).
In the UK/EU it should make zero difference as a manufacturers warranty is a freebie that may or may not influence your purchasing decision between brands. Your legal protection is through the original retailer and being statutory rights they cannot be withdrawn simply by the manufacturers say-so. On the other hand if you try to use your shiny TF201 as a hammer for nailing up a picture, for example, then it's your problem as you cannot reasonably expect it to function as originally sold and so the retailer has little liability. Unless of course advertising, promotional materials or the product documentation (including the packing) gave you an expectation of it being part of the legitimate functions of the device. Like "GPS" being written on the box :)
Potentially an Android tablet could run Ubuntu or similar at the SAME time. There are some interesting demos of just that on YouTube where a Motorola Atrix was running a modified kernel that displayed Android when mobile and Ubuntu when plugged into a dock. It was actually Ubuntu engineers who put it together too which would make me hopeful it may eventually see the light of day.
While I love Android and AIDE etc look interesting, Android is still not what I would call "self-hosting". You need a computer running Windows, OS X or Linux to properly develop for it and I don't foresee that changing any time soon. This is actually one way that Windows could potentially steal a march on Android since a Windows tablet, providing it has a desktop *could* be used to develop apps for itself which would be a boon for developers.
Is the charger for the new Transformer a USB 2 charger? The charger on the Transformer Prime is a USB 3 type charger: 15v 1.2A, so ordinary USB chargers (5v) won't work as I found out during an overseas trip with the Prime. As of a few weeks ago, the only USB 3 charger I can find was the ASUS, maybe things will improve with this model.
I have the original TF101 and have not yet found it lacking in the performance stakes. I have rooted it and installed a custom ICS build. Id been keen to understand how the build quality compares - the 101 was great until I dropped it and now one side of it flexes slightly, but otherwise its still going great guns.
My only complaint with the 101 is the 2ft usb/charge lead. Useless when you want to use the plug socket that's close to the ground, but store it on a desk. Maybe their accommodation layouts are different in the land of ASUS, but I'd be surprised if this wasn't fed back to the development team when (if) it was tested in Europe/US.
I got one, and like it it, but.....
1. GPS sucks. The free dongle isn't exactly small.
2. 3G Dongles can only be used if you screw around in root and then that breaks warranty....AND they can't be used in Tablet, only with the USB on the Dock.
I'm really not happy. I hope they fix those in TF300 and subsequent
Streaker
Just OOI, is it possible to swap the tablet and keyboard sections between the Pad and Prime if they're that similar?
And I've just started using a rather ancient 7" EEE PC at work as my "I need to programme something in a field and don't want to take my 15" lump with me" computer. It works pretty nicely.
Having never used and ICS hybrid tablet:
1) With ICS, do you get a pointer which you can use to click on controls and select text
when using the trackpad ?
2) to switch say from web browsing to email
do you do something like alt-tab ?
if he two task above are not awkward,
then I'm tempted to get one !!
so you really can't be bothered to just pop into currys/pcworld next time you are in town and see for yourself? also, you will find numerous resources on the internet about Ice Cream Sandwich, and its fantastic multi-tasking (it has a multitasking on screen button, which is also emulated on the keyboard dock of the transformer), as well as its native support for mouse and keyboard control.
1) Yes, you get a mouse pointer when using the trackpad.
2) Keyboard commands don't generally work. There's a row of buttons similar to Fn commands on a laptop that can be used, but shortcuts such as Alt-Tab or Ctrl+C/V won't work.
If you're switching between tasks, you can go into the 'menu' icon that persistently stays on screen and select an app that's already open from there (or go to the home screen and reopen it, if it's already open, it just switches to it).
To an extent you can, though you might have to click something onscreen in place of using a keyboard shortcut (or touch it, a lot faster). The Ctrl C/Ctrl V is the only bit that irritates me, really.
Going hands-on with a tablet is the best way you'll find out what you can/can't live with, though.
I've just exchanged my 3rd unit at Curry's due to horrendously patchy light bleed on the screens.
I think that they either had a poor batch or that Asus's QC needs improving...or both. Although the light bleed isn't a big issue (even bad examples) in everyday use, I found it to be very distracting when watching films or with apps with a black background.
Curry's were great though, i'll give them their due. The took one look at each, agreed on the spot and replaced it. No hassle.
I was updating from a TouchPad, and actually found the TF300 very thin to hold comfortably in large hangs! The screen was bright enough (just) and colours were not overly saturated, for better or worse. Overall the unit was adequately robust. But i prefer a more substantially constructed tablet: ie TouchPad, Prime, iPad, Acer 510 etc...
I found that the battery life of the tablet alone, was less that my HP TouchPad but the combined Tab & Dock was a couple of hours more. The connectivity of this tablet is killer. Fantastic. Full SD and full USB support on the dock and MSD support on the tab means that you can have a 96GB Tablet with a 64GB MicroSD card and 32 on board, and have 128GB SD card in the dock with USB support for HDD's, DVD players, USB->Ethernet adapters etc...
Ultimately though, I have now decided that Android is a perfect phone OS and not so great tablet OS. I've been running an SGS2 for ages and love it. Sadly the Android experience on this tablet just didn't do it for me. I think it's more to do with the way I expect to use a tablet versus a phone and also the hardware implementation. I've decided to run the Android phone along side a jailbroken iPad.
Anyway, it's a fantastic little tablet that really is a jack of all trades.
I bought a Prime a couple of weeks ago and i love it. Had a look at the 300 on thursday at Dixons at Gatwick and it was impressive. My problem is with the software - Google Play doesnt recognise any of the offshore islands (Guernsey, Jersey or IOM) so i have no access to paid apps or content. Not all of the free apps seem to be there either. Grabbed a few apps while in London last week but its a real nuisance. They have been aware of the issue for ages. Maybe el Reg could ask them for an update as i am getting nowhere....
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