ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 21, 2011 4:00 AM ESTDock Issues
As impressed as I was with the fact that ASUS took a tablet OS and made it work in both the tablet and notebook worlds, the Eee Pad Transformer dock isn't without its issues. As I alluded to before, there are times when the dock simply doesn't work. I'll be using the dock, scrolling around or typing and then all of the sudden the keyboard and trackpad stop working altogether. Sometimes the solution is as simple as undocking and redocking the Eee Pad, but other times it requires a full reboot. It's frustrating.
I've also encountered a hard lock and an unexpected reboot, both while docked although I'm not sure if ASUS is to blame or if these are Honeycomb specific issues. ASUS tells me that the Transformer docks that were sent out to reviewers are one firmware revision too old, and what will go out to customers next week should have a number of bugs fixed. I expect to have final hardware/software sometime next week, which I'll be testing to see exactly how much has been fixed.
There's also an issue with power consumption. The dock doesn't exactly have an on/off switch, so even when not in use it'll eat up power as it waits to see if you've docked an Eee Pad to it. ASUS expects to address this with a future firmware update for the dock next month. The update will put the unit into an ultra low power state when docked if the tablet is in standby, and power down completely when not attached to the tablet.
ASUS' Virtual Keyboard: By Nuance
If you read our Xoom review you'll know that I was pretty impressed with the stock Honeycomb keyboard. Not only does it boast a clean layout but Google also provides adjustable autocorrect settings, allowing you to configure how aggressive the autocorrect system behaves. Thus I was surprised to find out that the Eee Pad ships with a custom ASUS virtual keyboard:
A little digging reveals that Nuance (the company that makes Dragon NaturallySpeaking) is the ISV that developed the keyboard and its underlying autocorrect engine. Similar to what Apple offers under iOS, Nuance corrects what you type by looking at word length, letters used and proximity of those letters to others on the keyboard. The ASUS keyboard is just as configurable as the stock Android keyboard, even letting you set how aggressive the auto correction engine behaves.
The ASUS virtual keyboard also supports "trace input" which is basically a non-trademarked word for Swype. Trace input on the Eee Pad works but the tracing animation is pretty laggy and I feel like accuracy isn't quite as good as Swype on smartphones.
The look and layout of ASUS' virtual keyboard also differs from the stock Honeycomb keyboard. ASUS includes a row of number keys along the top of the keyboard, without increasing the footprint of the keyboard—meaning all of the keys get shorter. Thankfully on a 10.1-inch screen, even shorter keys aren't that hard to hit, and the addition of the number row saves you an awkward trip to a secondary keyboard screen. The backspace and return keys are unfortunately placed in the very bottom right corner, which I never could get used to.
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Stuka87 - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Oh I love the APU, and I hope it gets picked up by more hardware manufacturers.But this is all recent stuff. But thats not to say its too late for them to get in on the action, just that they are going to be fighting an uphill battle. And this goes for Intel just as much as it does for AMD.
I know Intel is working on porting Honeycomb to x86, and they could give them a huge boost. But I still think that the current x86 CPU's are simply too power hungry for a proper tablet. They may be upteen times faster, but that doesnt matter as much if you end up with less than half the battery life in a machine that is thicker and heavier.
mados123 - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
This tablet really seems like a winner and no surprise it comes from Asus who essentially introduced the netbook market. As stated in the review, $200 less than the Motorola Xoom (although it doesn't have GPS) is outstanding (shouldn't the chart on first page state $599 for the Xoom if we are doing an orange to orange comparison *sorry Apple*)! I like the versatility with the keyboard, mouse and battery dock. In my opinion, all it needs now to be the ultimate productivity tool is a stylus, like the HTC Flyer's (active digitizer technology by N-trig). Price it at $450 then after the upgrade. Here is a link that shows and tells exactly why and when paired with a product like MS OneNote, it would be unbeatable:http://blog.tabletpc.com.au/2011/02/14/active-digi...
LostPassword - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Tablets still seem like a toy to me. I'm probably gonna wait for win8 to come out.kmmatney - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
Although I really like the iPad (and have almost bought one several times) I do agree that its a toy for now (albeit a very cool toy).The "work" that I could do with an iPad, like emails, I can also do with my iPhone. I really need something like Windows 8 as well. If they can ever make something for an iPad that can run windows XP through a virtual machine, then that would change things quite a bit.
kmmatney - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
Well, this might change things...http://www.tuaw.com/2011/03/09/vmware-brings-virtu...
virtual machine on the iPad running Windows XP.
kmmatney - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
Woops - this isn't a real virtual machine - more like a remote control app for a virtual machine hosted on a server. Still pretty cool, as I use a lot of virtual machines, all windows XP based.marvdmartian - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Love the idea of the dock, should definitely be worth the price, once they can double the tablet battery life with a firmware fix. Really will give the best of both worlds.One thing I'd love to see Asus do is think about bumping up/offering a larger size screen. I realize that this will shorten battery life, but coupled with the above mentioned firmware fix, it should give a longer life (with the dock) than it would otherwise. Simply put, I've got a 10" netbook, and normally have to use it with the screen about 18" from my old eyes, in order to easily see the print (either that, or switch to a lower resolution, which isn't really a good choice, IMHO).
Also, here's a clue, to Nvidea. Not everyone has a smart phone yet, so don't plan on only making smart phone docking to tablets/netbooks your only choice, or you're simply screwing your own business/profit.
claytontullos - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
"I've been thinking about device synergy, something I brought up in our PlayBook review. The problem is as follows: if I'm on my desktop with half a dozen tabs open and perhaps a PDF as well, but I decide to switch over to a tablet - there's no quick way that I can transition my reading environment between the devices. What I have to do is sit down on the couch, whip out my tablet, and manually navigate to each website and redownload/open the PDF"That was my suggestion/comment in the first Xoom giveaway. :p
qhinton - Monday, April 25, 2011 - link
If you have an android phone or tablet you could use a program in the Google Chrome browser called chrome to phone. It basically sends the website to your device and your browser opens magically.dan76 - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Great review, thank you.There appears to be a lot of confusion about whether or not the US version of this magificent tablet will a wifi only version with GPS.
This review states that there is no GPS in the US wifi only version. Other sites and spec references all say there is GPS though. Asus currently only has an international spec site that is pre-today's US release date announcement.
SO, this is the first I've heard of there not being GPS in wifi only TF101. It has been confirmed that the UK and earlier released wifi only models do in fact have GPS, but I understand the US version could be different.
Can someone please confirm with references? Thank you very much!