ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 21, 2011 4:00 AM ESTThe Screen
The Eee Pad comes with a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS display whose characteristics are remarkably similar to that of the iPad 2. Max brightness, black level and thus contrast are all near identical to the iPad 2:
There's simply no excuse for a tablet to ship without a top notch display, and here ASUS doesn't disappoint. I wasn't impressed by the Xoom's display but ASUS fixed that problem completely.
The Eee Pad's display does seem to have more of a glare problem than the iPad's display. Although both are pretty much unusable outdoors, the Eee Pad's display even has trouble when it's facing away from the sun due to glare and a low max brightness. I only found this to be a problem when docked and looking for my trackpad cursor in any app with a black background.
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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.