ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 21, 2011 4:00 AM ESTFinal Words
ASUS delivered three things with the Eee Pad: a very competitive price point ($399), a surprisingly useful (albeit pricey) dock, and a good display. The price point alone is enough to make the Eee Pad the Honeycomb tablet to get assuming you don't need integrated 3G or LTE connectivity. The Eee Pad is comfortable to hold and use and despite the lower price point you don't feel like ASUS has sacrificed much at all to make it. The display has similar characteristics to what Apple ships in the iPad 2. Overall from a hardware standpoint, the Eee Pad is solid.
The Transformer dock is an extremely tempting addition to the Eee Pad, I only wish it were cheaper. When in use the dock extends battery life by 64%, pushing the Eee Pad past 15.5 hours in our general WiFi test. ASUS tells me that the Transformer dock will be compatible with all Transformer branded tablets in the future. I can imagine a thinner Kal-El based version must be in the works at this point.
Tight integration between the keyboard/trackpad and Honeycomb makes the Eee Pad Transformer one part tablet and one part Android netbook, and the whole thing works a lot better than I expected it to. When you need a netbook form factor, you have one, and when you just want to kick back and relax with a tablet you've got that as well. The experience isn't quite fast enough for me to replace my notebook, but I can see where things are headed.
I actually believe the dockable tablet is indicative of where the netbook (and perhaps ultra portable notebook) market is going. Give me some more (or faster) cores and an OS even better suited for notebook duty and the line between a tablet and a netbook becomes quite blurry. I finally understand why NVIDIA opted for four cores in Kal-El and why Microsoft keeps looking to Windows 8 to be its tablet strategy. Windows 8 tablets will be Windows 8 netbooks; they'll just be modular.
The biggest issues here are software related. Honeycomb has matured significantly just with the 3.0.1 update, but there are still dock and camera behavior issues that need to be worked out before ASUS takes the Eee Pad to market. I feel like Honeycomb got a worse rap than it deserves, but there are real issues that need addressing here. I lost a couple of pages of this review thanks to an unexpected hard lock and a reboot while typing this on the Eee Pad. For casual use it's not an issue but the platform isn't mature enough for real work yet.
So why do companies keep introducing tablets with known software issues? I always remember what AMD's Eric Demers once told me: the best way to lose a fight is to not show up.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
127 Comments
View All Comments
spambonk - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Hey, Anand - did you test for light bleed?Some people have reported light bleed at the edges in a dark room.
ol1bit - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
These are great for flights over seas! 15 hours of battery life, you can watch movies, listen to music, browse the web (over the states), type emails, edit documents.All without a power cord, and it's small.
I love it and the price is killer!
I still want one like the Atrix, so I can carry one less device, ho and for this device, it can't be on AT&T. :-)
\
lcjgol - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Anand, you mentioned that the dock has a USB port. For the retail version review, could you stick a regular mouse in there and tell us how it works (or doesn't).-thanks
After reading this review, I'm 80% sure I'm getting this for my wife's Bday in May (the remaining 20% of my decision will be based on the final retail review).
My family may be Asus' target audience. My wife is a very light computer user at home and also slightly interested in an eReader and/or tablet. Up till now, she hasn't shown enough interests to warrant a single device, but this Asus tablet can do all of the above relatively well. I know an E-ink device would be better for reading, but she doesn't want another gadget around the house if it will only be used lightly. She also needs a keyboard sometimes, and that has been why we haven't bought a tablet yet. This dock solution is the best I've seen. Add to that the fact that I've been thinking about getting some kind of (relatively decent) touchscreen device for my young son to doodle with, and Asus may have my money yet again.
Great review of a great device.
mino - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
"ASUS was at the forefront of the netbook revolution thanks to its close partnerships with Intel and Microsoft."What the **** has ASUS team's ability to innovate to do with Intel or Microsoft ?!?
(Both of which actually tried to stifle the EeePC project.)
Anand, you have just proved to me you really lost it. Can as well rename yourself to Anand, The Spinner.
Old rule says "money rules". Having it only proven once again somehow fails to make me less sad.
Old reader turned hater.
bplewis24 - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
Okay, hater, please explain to us how Asus would have innovated the netbook market without Intel and Microsoft products. I'll be waiting.Do you see his point now? He's not taking anything away from Asus.
Brandon
BugblatterIII - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
That's too heavy to carry around with the dock attached, but while I often need the keyboard I rarely need the extra battery life.Is the dock battery removable? If so does the dock still work, and how much weight does that save?
Thanks.
Abot13 - Monday, April 25, 2011 - link
When you remove the battery from the keyboard (if possible) would that mean that it topples over. iaw wont the "screen" be to heavy in contrast with the keyboard?BugblatterIII - Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - link
Possible; I saw another review say that the EeePad is top heavy even with the battery in the keyboard.ProDigit - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Too bad it's missing a mic/line in, and lan port, and 3 USB ports is a necessity for most!Has a low battery capacity, though high battery life,
BruceOTB - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
Lack of 3G is a deal breaker for me.