ASUS Eee Pad Slider Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 4, 2011 6:48 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Eee Pad
- Tegra 2
- Asus
- Honeycomb
- Mobile
- Android 3.2
- Eee Pad Slider
- NVIDIA
Final Words
For the users who are happy living in the consumption-only world of today's tablets, the Eee Pad Slider is not for you. It's bulkier than the Galaxy Tab and has significantly worse battery life than the iPad 2. If what you're looking for is another tablet, the Eee Pad Transformer is likely a better buy. The Eee Pad Slider on the other hand talks to those users who want a tablet but also want to be able to type out a long email when they have to. Or carry on an IM conversation while on the couch. The Slider is the best marriage of tablet and keyboard that I've seen to date.
For a pure tablet in the Android world I prefer the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (or 8.9), but if I were stranded on a deserted island with only one Honeycomb tablet it'd probably be the Slider. Being able to quickly move between browsing with my finger and typing out emails is a huge selling point for me. If you're not bothered by tablet ergonomics, the Slider likely won't do much for you. But if you are, the Slider is pretty awesome.
In fact, the Slider enabled enough of a notebook experience that I began wanting more notebook features. Primarily a faster processor and better multitasking support. I dare say that I wish the Eee Pad Slider was running Windows 8, simply because I found myself wanting to do two things at once more on the Slider than on any other tablet. On other tablets I'm less likely to want to multitask between apps that involve a lot of typing, but on the Slider it's almost a non-issue. Google and Apple beware, multi-window multitasking is an obvious fit for these tablets and Microsoft will deliver it late next year.
Then there's the problem of pricing. Although the Slider is arguably the most flexible tablet we've reviewed, you still ultimately need a PC somewhere in your life. I would've been happy with the Slider at the Eee Pad's starting price of $399 (perhaps pushing the Eee Pad down further).
My standing recommendation for anyone interested in a new tablet is still: wait if you can. With Kal-El tablets now due in November (delayed from August) the wait shouldn't be too much longer. If you must buy today, ASUS' Eee Pad Slider delivers a lot of what made the Eee Pad Transformer so great but in a smaller form factor. If you want an Android tablet with a keyboard, the Slider is really the only way to go.
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Impulses - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
Very odd that there's no alt+tab functionality, since that's something that the Transformer has... Alt+tab on the TF works like WinXP, you just get icons, I wish it cycled thru Android's own recent app menu with previews but at least the basic functionality is there.lemonadesoda - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
12 years ago the Psion 7 netbook was launched. The ASUS Slider pays homage to that design. What a shame the slider isnt x86. I would love to run window on that!bhima - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
Nice video review. I'm impressed with your presentation style and content.lemonadesoda - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
Anand, it is great that you are doing these videos. It's a nice communication format. But please work on getting the videos and the presentations shorter and more punchy. You are in grave danger of having lost all respect for pace and timing, and risk being as dull and as boring as that new Apple CEO whatshisnameis.Set yourself a deadline of a 3 minute or 6 minute format and work to that deadline. A 21:41 video is unacceptable no matter how good the content might be! You killed the audience...
tech6 - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
Anand: I must say that I love the new video reviews - they are polished and informative and you deliver them perfectly. More please.tbutler - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
"I understand the appeal of tablets. Regardless of OS, they all provide a far more intimate experience when browsing the web and reading emails.""I'm actually very happy there is a reset button the tablet. As these devices become even more PC-like expect them to encounter the same sort of stability issues any hardware running complex software has to deal with."
With respect, I don't think you do fully understand the appeal of tablets - at least in the post-PC sense of the current iPad-driven tablet explosion. I disagree strongly with your contention in other tablet reviews that tablets will have to grow more PC-like, and the second quote is a perfect example of why.
While the ergonomics you describe in the first quote are a strong factor, I think a big reason the iPad has been the main success of this tablet wave is that *a lot of people are willing to trade functionality and flexibility for simplicity and stability.* Tablets that "encounter the same sort of stability issues" simply won't succeed in the market the iPad's defined, in my view. They may capture the attention of small groups of tech enthusiasts, but they won't have mass-market impact. Tech enthusiasts may be happy to put up with stability issues - and actually love complexity, in the sense of putting together an intricate system that works just the way they want - but most users aren't like that.
(I'm dubious about Win8's prospects in the tablet realm for the same reason - while Metro seems like a nice touch UI, it looks like it still carries the legacy baggage of Windows underneath the surface.)
The key here, I maintain, is that most users don't actually expect "post-PC" tablets to be everything and do everything. They're happy to have a large subset of common computing functions, done with a minimum of the kind of configuration, maintenance and stability hassles that you refer to above.
ed_ed - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
1. Very nice video review.2. Just noticed how fast the battery life indicator /animated wallpaper water thingy goes down on the slider only 20 minutes of doing nothing.
(Compare its position at the beginning of the video and at the end)
mlabrow - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
Umm, I don't think Windows is actually going to be the game changer you think it will be.They have stated that on ARM architecture's the only game is Metro apps. Metro apps are full screen, and ape the functionality you lament of other Tablet OS's. Showing the desktop is a bit disengenous since I'm not even certain they've indicated that it will be available as an app on non-x86 architectures.
If Atom hardware comes out that is competing head to head with ARM tablets, then obviously that changes things. But as things stand this second, if you were to somehow get Windows 8 onto a Slider, I don't think you'd have the multi-tasking dreamland your looking forward to.
Nihility - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
The ARM demo Microsoft showed had an ARM tablet running the Windows desktop. That being said, an ARM processor cannot run x86 applications. We also don't really know what Microsoft will end up doing with Windows 8, they might really dump the desktop in the final version (ARM).About the mutitasking: Metro does support the same split-screen mode that is shown in the screenshots. Presumably, you could have a metro chat app and a metro browser running side by side.
Personally, I'm hoping for low power x86 hardware in future tablets.
Drizzt321 - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link
So, do you think 16:10 is making a comeback? Any chance that laptops will start carrying 16:10 panels again? Since apparently there's a market for 16:10 hi-res panels again, maybe we can move back? I've always hated the forced move to 16:9 in laptops & desktops.