ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 21, 2011 4:00 AM ESTMore than Meets the Eye
Alongside the original iPad, Apple sold a keyboard dock for users who wanted to do a lot of typing on their new tablet. The keyboard dock turned the iPad into a mini iMac running iOS. What the iPad keyboard dock lacked however was a pointing device—all navigation still had to be done via the touch screen. As Apple has correctly pointed out in the past, the notebook usage model doesn't work very well if you have to keep reaching across your keyboard to touch the screen.
ASUS expands on the idea of a keyboard dock with the Eee Pad Transformer dock. The $149 add-on adds not only a keyboard, but a trackpad and integrated 24.4Wh battery (the same size as the unit in the Eee Pad itself). You are getting a lot for your money, but given how cheap the Eee Pad is, a $149 accessory will always be a tough sell.
The dock is made of two pieces—a half metal/half plastic base and an all metal hinge that houses the dock connector. Simply slide the Eee Pad into the hinge, lining up the dock connector and its two latches, and press into place to dock the unit. If you do it correctly you'll hear a nice click as both latches grab on to the Eee Pad. There's a silver eject slider switch for removing the Eee Pad from the dock.
When you dock the Eee Pad two things happen. The dock immediately starts charging the tablet as soon as its battery life drops below 100%. Only after the dock's battery has been exhausted will the tablet's internal battery begin discharging. Note that even on tablet power alone, the dock's keyboard and trackpad will continue to work.
Android isn't aware that there's a second battery at work here, and sometimes this dock-charging-the-tablet process trips up the battery status indicator in Honeycomb as you can see from the screengrab below:
Confusing the battery status indicator aside, the dock works as expected as a giant external battery. You do get some indication of battery discharge on the dock itself through a blinking LED, however what it really needs is either a software reporting mechanism or a string of LEDs to accurately communicate how much power you have left on the dock.
Charging works the same way. Plug the dock in and it'll charge itself then the tablet. There's enough current drawn to charge both the dock and tablet in tandem so you'll actually feed both, although the dock will charge quicker.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
127 Comments
View All Comments
Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
I just confirmed with ASUS, the US version does have GPS hardware. Maps seems to require an active WiFi connection to use GPS however, which is why I originally assumed it wasn't present. My mistake, I've corrected the review :)Take care,
Anand
Ananke - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
If the US version has no usable GPS, it is worthless at the $399. It may be considerable purchase at $299. Asus shall make no such mistake, it would be marketing suicide. Besides, they have only a month window in US to penetrate the market. In June, once Samsung and Co come with competing products, it is going to get ugly. There is no time for mistakes.Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
That was an error on my part - sorry about that! There is GPS hardware in the Eee Pad Transformer.Take care,
Anand
Ananke - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Thank you Anand, for clarifying this. Your review is excellent, btw. I also wish all the best to ASUS - they are the first and only for now with a quality tablet that actually makes sense to own and use.swaaye - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Android needs to improve a bit before I think it's ideal for this kind of thing. Their GUI acceleration is still seriously lacking and it makes the stock browser slow even on these somewhat powerful devices. My EeePC 900 on XP with a pathetic Celeron 900 and GMA 900 browses faster than the Xoom in my experience.I think the only advantage to Android is touch input in tablet mode. But there is a real load of disadvantages to it.
Ikshaar - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Hmmm someone changed the text in the review... from not having GPS to no mention at all.Does anyone know if this has GPS or not ?
MilwaukeeMike - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Yes. :)Ikshaar - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Thanks. Cool. I see now the other comments... I guess we all posted at once.Now I wonder if this works with the WiFi tethering on my phone (Nexus), so I can get maps even when in the middle of nowhere.
I am as mad as hell - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
Oh uh, more confusion upon us.. just head over to Engadget.com !They just mentioned that the Transformer has only a A-GPS, not a GPS!
So what is it now?
qhinton - Monday, April 25, 2011 - link
I assume you live in milwaukee. Have you heard of BEST BUY carrying this.