ASUS Transformer Pad 300 (TF300T) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 22, 2012 3:00 AM ESTThe Display
The Transformer Pad 300's display actually uses a panel that's closely related to what was used in the original Eee Pad Transformer and not the panel from the Prime. The most noticeable difference? The gap between the digitizer and the display itself. Similar to the original Transformer you can perceive the gap between the two, while the Prime's display narrowed that gap considerably. The comparison shot below exaggerates the effect a bit but it's present nonetheless:
 ASUS TF Pad 300 |
 ASUS TF Prime |
The air gap between display and digitizer can result in more reflections, however in practice I found the TF Pad 300 not nearly as bad in this regard as the original Transformer.
The 300's panel is dimmer than the Prime's and came in a little dimmer than our original Transformer as well. Black levels are a smidge better than its predecessor, resulting in a competitive contrast ratio:
Color accuracy, at least for the primaries and secondaries, is on-par with the Prime. Grayscale accuracy is worse, but a little better than the iPad 2:
Gamut remains unchanged from the Prime at roughly 60% coverage of the sRGB space:
Subjectively the IPS panel looks just as good as the Prime, it's just dimmer. The max brightness of the 300 is more than enough for indoor use, it's only in outdoor use that it's limiting. In general I've found that you need to be able to push over 500 nits in order to produce a legible screen in bright sunlight.
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Hrel - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
I wanted to upvote this. But I'm not on reddit:(hackbod - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
<quote>Google has even added support for external batteries like the Transformer Pad's in Ice Cream Sandwich</quote>This isn't true, this is a customization that Asus has done. The power of open source, etc., etc.
sprockkets - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
That was true of 3.0. You have a source saying it isn't in 4.0?hackbod - Monday, April 23, 2012 - link
You can look at the source code if you want to confirm -- for example look at BatteryService.java and see there is nothing there for reporting multiple batteries.Also I know what stuff we have added to Android in this area, and internal + dock battery is not one of them. :)
XZerg - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
Is there a USB port or not on the tablet itself? I noticed the charger is usb based, correct? If so, can that port be used to connect other devices such as keyboards and usb keys?Impulses - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
There's no USB port but you can use a 40 pin to USB adapter, it's like $12 (and took forever to come out after the original TF but it's finally readily available as of a few months ago). Other tablets with a micro USB port still require the use of a special USB OTG cable AFAIK, so neither approach is clearly superior.haar - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
WELCOME to the niche market!... 80000 transformers sold! lol ...where you have to carry two pieces, a keyboard and screen, so that you can transform it into a notebook that should have been...
so how is a tablet with a 10 inch screen+keyboard any better than the 11 inch macbook air with win8 ...do you think would you use a 11 inch screen in a laptop for everyday work?... when you answer that question for yourself, then you will know if this transformert ablet is good for you.
exact how are you going to remove the perception that you are using a "toy"... dont "real" tech geek use "powerful" processors! HUGE screens!, 1337 Ice cream OS's!!!!
transformer infinity? ... it does NOT exist for sale! why list it in a table?... and because it doesn't exist how can the specs be correct...? making an article 10% ad copy in is beneath Anandtech.com or shoud be!
crankerchick - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
Including the Infinity in the spec comparison is very helpful for those of us deciding to wait it out. Obviously it is not a available yet and a performance and quality comparison isn't an option yet, but reminding us of the features helps us keep a mental note that there is something more on the horizon so we can decide if what is different spec wise is worth waiting for. The specs are as correct as can be confirmed by what has been released by ASUS. Get over it.TrackSmart - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
Yes, the article was quite informative. I'm researching tablets right now for a relative. The analysis, comparative performance data, and the frank opinion provided in the conclusions were all useful for the decision-making process.And for Haar (above), many of us would be buying this as a tablet only - without the dock. And for use as a entertainment / media consumption device, rather than for work. The only useless information here is your rude comment.
Souka - Sunday, April 22, 2012 - link
stick the iPad3 screen onto the Transformer Infinity guts... "Winner" :)