ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime & NVIDIA Tegra 3 Review

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• joe_dude - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  Sorry Anand, but could you clarify what you mean by "getting actual work done"?
  
  I don't expect the Transformer Prime to be running Photoshop (although Photoshop Touch is available?) or any intense apps. But is it a "good enough" laptop for a general user?

• Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  Browsing the web is still faster on an MBA/ultrabook, pages load quicker, you can open multiple tabs and load them in the background more effectively - you can switch between tasks quicker (cmd+tab/alt+tab is still infinitely more responsive than what you get with Honeycomb's task switcher). You can get writing done on both, but multitasking and being productive is just easier on a MBA/ultrabook.
  
  Now both of those comparisons are ~2x the price of the Prime. Compared to a netbook, I'd definitely get the Prime.
  
  Take care,
  Anand

• agt499 - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  Alt-tab was one of many things that impressed with my OG transformer -you don't use the honeycomb task switcher because you just alt-tab with the keyboard!
  I have to say asus really get it on that: I don't know for sure if it's asus or google , but the others that warm by keyboard-loving heart are ctrl-t for a new tab in browser and ctrl-w to close a tab.
  Also re zooming, I can't speak for the prime, but the original will pinch-zoom with the touchpad.
  
  Thanks for the great review -got to find an excuse to upgrade now!
  (you're still right about an ultrabook but it feels like asus are so close...)

• twotwotwo - Friday, December 2, 2011 - link

  Ahaha -- I managed to use my Transformer all this time lamenting the lack of keyboard-based task switching but without actually trying Alt-Tab, which of course should be the first thing to try. Thank you, agt499.

• twotwotwo - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  I have an original Transformer that I've used as my work machine a few days, and I also used a netbook as my only machine for six months. Transformer's very much a tablet and not a computer, because of Honeycomb. The bad task switching and other annoyances -- different text-editing shortcuts, lack of a full Docs app, lag editing paragraphs in the browser, etc. -- mean it's fine for the reading/consumption that folks do on tablets (and better for e-mail, chat, some writing or notetaking, and SSH if you do that) but, for me, it's worse than even a netbook at other stuff.
  
  If you're thinking of it for tablet-y (or mostly tablet-y) uses it's a slam dunk: it's a tablet, great screen, mobile OS, monster battery life even vs. netbooks.
  
  If you want a computer, you want a computer. Besides netbooks and ultrabooks, there's the Core i3 ULV x121e (and others like it soon, I hope) in the middle.

• joshv - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  Why exactly don't we expect these sorts of machines to be running photoshop? Very complex versions of photoshop ran just fine on single core P6's with a 1024x768 monitor.
  
  Now we have four GHz+ cores, CPU speed really can't be much of an issue. Screen realestate might be, but that's manageable with alternate layouts.

• metafor - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  I think the biggest limitation with programs like Photoshop on small form-factor devices -- including ultrabooks -- is the display resolution. Now granted, for a lot of simple photo editing, that won't matter -- and in fact, that's what Photoshop Touch is for -- but for more professional level content, the displays may just be too small and low-resolution to get the job done.
  
  But you're right, the processing power is there nowadays.

• anactoraaron - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  I always assumed it was an x86 issue. Since there's no x86 support in these devices Adobe will not re-write/compile the software - kinda like how it took years to have a native x64 flash player (and not a x86 kinda running in an x64 browser).
  
  I would think it's simply a matter of laziness/unwillingness (profit margin?) on Adobe's part.

• metafor - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  Photoshop Touch and a suite of other tools is coming to Android within a month or so. Adobe wants to grasp opportunities; but just porting a mouse-and-keyboard application to Android isn't the way to go about it.

• ctrlbrk - Thursday, December 1, 2011 - link

  Anand, thank you. I have been eyeing this tablet for a long time now.
  
  I want to know your impressions of how it feels in your hands, weight wise? For bedroom surfing, email, youtube, etc -- but not movie watching -- is the 10.1 too big and too heavy? Is it better to get something like the Galaxy Tab 8.9?