ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 21, 2011 4:00 AM ESTThe Honeycomb Update & Software Preload
When I reviewed the Motorola Xoom I praised Honeycomb for being a brave effort by Google to reinvent the Android UI, as well as for delivering a tabbed web browser as a part of the default software configuration. Since that review Google updated Honeycomb to 3.0.1 and enabled support for Adobe Flash 10.2.
The move to 3.0.1 fixed some obvious bugs with the OS; nearly everything I complained about in our Xoom review has been addressed either mostly or entirely. Right now the biggest issue that remains with 3.0.1 has to do with performance. From a clean boot, Honeycomb feels reasonably snappy but performance seems to degrade quicker with use than on earlier Android releases. Force quitting apps will generally restore performance but it's something I've noticed seems necessary more frequently than on phones that run Froyo or Gingerbread.
With flash enabled the Honeycomb web browser is pretty compatible with a lot of what you'll encounter on the web. There are occasionally issues, such as the reddit front page:
Performance is good on simpler pages but it can quickly get bogged down on anything more complex with a lot of Flash. Google is planning a major update to Honeycomb that should improve performance across the board but there's no skirting the issue that we'll need more CPU and GPU power in these tablets.
While the Honeycomb experience is mostly stock on the Eee Pad, ASUS does include some custom software. ASUS' MyNet app is a DLNA controller that lets you push content from the Eee Pad to DLNA compliant devices on the same network. The Eee Pad also has a couple of custom widgets enabled, mainly weather, time/date and email. As I mentioned earlier, ASUS even enabled screenshot functionality from within the OS:
The Eee Pad comes pre-loaded with an Android office suite called Polaris Office. Polaris includes a document, spreadsheet, and presentation app, all of which are compatible with Microsoft Office as well as Google Docs.
If you supply your Google login credentials you can edit/save documents stored in the cloud. It's a pretty useful set of apps that work very well with the Eee Pad in docked mode as a netbook replacement. Unfortunately several bouts of instability and the fact that Polaris doesn't auto save your documents kept me from using the apps to write too much of this review.
ASUS ships the Eee Pad with a custom live wallpaper it calls MyWater. The animated background represents battery life by a rising/falling water level in a virtual glass. The water will also slosh around depending on how you hold the tablet. Unfortunately battery life is impacted by the wallpaper on the order of 4% and animated backgrounds can reduce overall system performance so I recommend disabling it.
ASUS thankfully did away with the dreadful back/home/task icons Motorola used on the Xoom. The icons in the lower left of the screen are far more legible now.
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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!