Asus Transformer Prime Tablet Review

Introduction

Front

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Back

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Sides

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In the Box

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Along with the {{product.name}}, the packaging includes a cleaning cloth, wall charger, USB cable, and documentation.

Handling

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This tablet is thin. Half a millimeter thinner than the iPad and Xyboard, the {{product.name}} is possibly the thinnest tablet we've reviewed thus far. As such, there are a couple issues we need to touch on, mainly the fit of the tablet in your hand due to that thickness, and the fact that the tablet is built around being able to click into a keyboard accessory that makes it more laptop than tablet. Because the tablet is so thin, the weight is more or less evenly distributed, which causes some leverage problems when held with only one hand. Thankfully, the tablet is light, but for long sessions of use, the keyboard accessory might be ideal.

Screen

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At the center of the {{product.name}} is the Super IPS+ display, measuring in at 8.5625 x 5.325 inches and with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Though it's the exact same size and resolution as many of the other leading Android tablets' screens, the Super IPS+ display allows for a greatly improved viewing angle, if you like to show people things on your tablet, or if it gathers a small crowd.

Indoor & Outdoor Use

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Even though the tablet has a decent peak brightness, direct sunlight will still wash out the image of the {{product.name}} because LCD screens require their backlight to overpower the ambient light for their image to be seen. This fact, in conjunction with the proclivity of Gorilla Glass to reflect a lot of light makes the {{product.name}} less than ideal to take outdoors unless the weather is bad; in which case you shouldn't take the tablet outdoors anyways.

NOTE: The images above are shot with a variety of lighting sources, which may cause some color shift.

Legibility

Asus’ versatile tablet displays a crisp, legible picture on par with the other heavy hitters on the market at the moment, so you shouldn’t notice many resolution issues.

Reflectance

Much like other tablets with an LCD screen, the Asus Transformer Prime is extremely reflective. Not only is the reflection pattern sharp and annoying, but it will bounce about 13% of total light shone on the screen back at the viewer. This is about par for the course for tablets.

Screen Size & DPI

With an 8.625 × 5.325 inch screen with a resolution of 1280 × 800, the Asus Transformer Prime nets a dots-per-inch measure (DPI) of 150, which is about par for the course among high-end tablets. This is a screen that is the right size and resolution for the job, although some users prefer smaller screens. See if you can play around with this at a local store before buying to see if you would prefer this screen size.

Blacks and Whites

If you’re looking to max your settings, set the battery mode to “Normal” and crank the screen, you’ll be pleased to know that the Asus Transformer Prime is capable of blasting out around 600cd/m2, which is incredibly bright for a tablet. While it does suffer the drawback of having a very high black lavel, this can be corrected by dropping the screen brightness.

Color Gamut

Like most tablets, the Asus Transformer Prime seems to fall far short when its color performance is matched against the rec. 709 standard, but against other tablets, its about as good as you can expect. Reds and greens are undersaturated, and blues are shifted wildly towards cyan. The white point isn’t that far off of what it should be, but it does have a cyanish hue to it.

Battery Life

While the battery life results for the Asus Transformer Prime varying wildly, it’s tempting to think that either there’s something wrong with the tablet, or our testing methods, but after repeated tests, we can assure you that neither is the case. Rather, it’s a hardware issue. This is the first quad-core processor in a tablet that we’ve run across, and because the screen is also incredibly bright, you have two elements that are capable of drawing an enormous amount of power for a portable device.

Because each element has such a hugely variable amount of power draw for certain tasks, battery life will swing from really good when the process uses only a couple cores, or if the screen doesn’t need to be bright. Reading eBooks, for example, draws a lot of power because it takes a lot more juice to display a lot of bright white area on the screen at 600+cd/m² , which is why the eReader battery life is so preposterously low.

Controls

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Because the {{product.name}}'s physical controls are limited on the tablet itself, most of your interaction with the tablet occurs through the extremely responsive capacitive touch screen. Ice Cream Sandwich has a few more quirks than Honeycomb, so you should take a while to get used to the new methods of accessing different apps and settings. Though the layout and control list is very similar to Honeycomb, there are a couple differences in where things are located, so take some time to figure out your way around the tablet.

If you elect to buy the keyboard accessory to make your {{product.model}} an even bigger powerhouse, you'll not only get more physical keys than just the volume buttons and an on/off button, but also a keyboard (duh) and a touchpad to control your {{product.model}} more like a laptop.

Connectivity

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The big draw to the {{product.name}} is the fact that it offers so much in terms of connectivity. To start, the tablet itself has a microSD card slot, as well as bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 802.11n wireless, a micro HDMI port, and the ability to expand these capabilities with the keyboard accessory designed for the {{product.model}}. This accessory not only offers expanded battery life, but USB ports and other options. This is a true media maven.

Battery Life

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While the battery life results for the {{product.name}} varying wildly, it's tempting to think that either there's something wrong with the tablet, or our testing methods, but after repeated tests, we can assure you that neither is the case. Rather, it's a hardware issue. This is the first quad-core processor in a tablet that we've run across, and because the screen is also incredibly bright, you have two elements that are capable of drawing an enormous amount of power for a portable device.

Because each element has such a hugely variable amount of power draw for certain tasks, battery life will swing from really good when the process uses only a couple cores, or if the screen doesn't need to be bright. Reading eBooks, for example, draws a lot of power because it takes a lot more juice to display a lot of bright white area on the screen at 600+cd/m², which is why the eReader battery life is so preposterously low.

Reading Books

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Because the {{product.model}} has full access to the Android Market, if you would like a new eReader application, all you have to do is find it. For the majority of the major apps backed by big bookstores, you'll enjoy a simple interface with the ability to change font size, color, and even post passages to social media outlets. Apps like the Kindle app will allow you to tap or swipe your finger to turn pages in the desired direction. Overall, the experience is very natural if you are used to the screen size.

Buying Books

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The largest eReader apps also typically come with an eBook store. The Kindle app, for instance, grants you access to the massive Amazon library. Once you've set up an account complete with billing info, you can browse the shop and simply tap to buy titles. Once you've tapped your desired title, it will automatically bill the card on your account and start downloading.

eBook Formats

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Because the {{product.name}} has access to the full Android Market, users are not limited to a single set of eBook formats, and can download different eReaders to accommodate different formats if they please. One could also use software like

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Newspapers & Magazines

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Users of the included Kindle app will note that they can also buy or subscribe to periodicals like newspapers and magazines through the Kindle eBook store. The process for buying them is the same, and rewarding, as they are often cheaper than their print counterparts.

Music & Audio Controls

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Using Google's Music app, the {{product.name}} allows users to store and sync their home music library with their tablet anywhere they have an internet connection. You can also store your music on the tablet, but for those of you with music collections that take up several gigabytes of space, this is a nice feature.

The control interface is the same, simple interface that graces Honeycomb tablets. You have advanced playlist options, a play/pause button, repeat/shuffle icons, a scrub bar, and prominently displayed cover art. You can also sort your music just about any way you want with a very visually appealing interface.

Music & Audio Management

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As far as managing your music goes, there are a few ways you can do it. For starters, recently played tracks can be flicked through via a cover flow (pictured) that calls to memory what it was like to sort through a huge pile of CDs or records. You know, without all the swearing.

Additionally, you can sort your music into lists based on artist, genre, album, or playlist in list format. Aside from this there isn't much, but what else could you possibly want?

Music & Audio Battery Life

Video Controls

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One thing that users of the {{product.name}} will love is the unobtrusive yet attractive control interface for their video files. You'll take note of the scrub bar, and very few other icons before it all disappears, giving way to a screen with nothing but your video file showing.

Video Management

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Video files are managed through the gallery application, appearing as thumbnails. Considering you only have 32GB of storage on the tablet, you shouldn't have a ton of HD files, but this application should be useful enough to sort your clips. For added convenience, videos appear with a preview thumbnail.

Video Formats

Internet Video

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Included in the software for the {{product.name}} is a YouTube application, allowing you to stream your favorite video clips to your tablet whenever you have an internet connection. But the best part about this is: you can download any of a bunch of apps like Vimeo, DailyMotion, or Netflix. If there's a service you like on your computer, chances are very good you can find it in the Android Market.

Video Battery Life

Email

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Like many Honeycomb tablets, the {{product.name}} has a native email application that allows you to sync and operate your POP/IMAP/Exchange accounts via your tablet (it will guide you through setup). This interface is fine enough, and even though it is somewhat basic, it does the trick.

Also included with the {{product.name}}'s updated software is a GMail application, which merges the client's web redesign with the existing GMail app. While it does look a bit stretched, all of the basic functions of your GMail account are there, and fully functional.

Web Browsing

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Google decided that their Honeycomb browser wasn't broke, so they didn't fix it. Users of Google's Chrome browser will love the browser on the new Android OS Ice Cream Sandwich. Not only can you make full use of tabbed browsing, but multiple windows, incognito browsing, bookmarks, history, and flash support make this browser a very nice and integral part of the tablet experience.

Internet Apps

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Here it is: the wind under the wings of the {{product.name}} and all other Android tablets, the Android Market. Though it isn't quite as large as the Apple App Store, it does provide a very wide array of applications used to unlock the full potential of your tablet. Want to replace a function your tablet does poorly? There are applications that can do that. Want to use your bluetooth connectivity for off-label uses? There too. Want a new source for media and streaming content? You're covered.

The Android Market is unique in that it has thousands upon thousands of apps geared towards tens of different machines with capabilities that don't always overlap, but somehow still works on most machines. Because of this, which tablet you buy matters only in that you need to pay attention to what capabilities you want, but no matter what, you are covered by the Market.

Other Internet Features

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If you'd like to stream content between your devices at home, the {{product.name}} has an included app called "My Net" which will allow you to stream content from networked devices to the tablet, or from the tablet to said networked devices. It's not a groundbreaking thing, but very cool nonetheless.

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Asus Eee Pad Transformer

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Device & Specs

From a hardware standpoint, the {{product.name}} has its predecessor beat in just about every category, as its processor, screen, form factor, memory, OS, and even its weight is better than its predecessor. That's not to say that the elder Transformer is bad, just that the {{product.name}} is an incredibly powerful piece of hardware. Both have keyboard accessories to enhance their capabilities as well.

Screen

Both have an identically-sized screen with the exact same resolution. So, what's different? For one, the {{product.name}} has the brightest tablet screen we've ever seen by a large margin. That being said, though, the original Transformer has a wider contrast ratio, so if you value picture quality over visibility in sunlight, you may want to give the older Transformer a look.

Battery

Well, the Transformer has an easier time managing its power than does the {{product.model}}, but a lot of this is due to the insane amount of power needed to display a mostly white screen at ~600cd/m². That being said, if you're smart about managing your settings, you can get far more battery life out of the {{product.model}}.

eReader

Because both units have access to the same eReader applications, this comparison comes down to the physical devices, and the {{product.name}} is far easier to hold in your hand than the much-heavier predecessor. Keep in mind, though, that you'll have to throttle way back on the settings for the {{product.model}} to even approach the battery life you'd get with the older Transformer.

Internet

Though both tablets theoretically should have the same access to applications as the other, the {{product.name}} has already been upgraded to the newest Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich. While that doesn't necessarily mean it has more internet features, it's definitely worth checking out on your own.

Apple iPad 2

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Device & Specs

From a hardware standpoint, the iPad 2 is laughably ill-equipped to compete with the {{product.name}}, which has double the processor cores, more than double the RAM, comparable hard drive space, but a smaller profile, all the while having a slightly larger Super IPS+ screen. All that being said, the {{product.name}} is almost a year newer than the iPad 2, and it stands to reason that the iPad 3 will probably match up at least a little bit better.

Screen

Though both of the screens are relatively the same from a physical standpoint, the Super IPS+ display of the {{product.name}} is brighter, has a super-wide viewing angle, and fares slightly better in the outdoors. Keeping the backlight cranked has severe consequences for the battery, but there are always tradeoffs, right?

Battery

Well, we wouldn't list a comparison among heavyweights if the matchup was entirely one-sided, as the iPad 2 trounces the {{product.name}} in terms of battery life reading eBooks, the {{product.name}} struggles on max settings, but that can be remedied by turning down settings, which are still better even at 2/3rds brightness.

eReader

Because both tablets have access to the same applications more or less, and have extremely similar form factors, reading eBooks on either will be almost indistinguishable from the other. The biggest difference here is battery life, by which the {{product.name}} can only compete with the iPad 2 if its settings are turned down a bit.

Internet

Even though the concept of buying small applications on an online marketplace is similar across Android and iOS systems, the Android Market and the Apple App Store are quite different animals. For starters, Google's version of the application storefront is more open to the more "gray area" applications like torrenting, hacking bluetooth, and other functions, while Apple's store is closed-off, more tightly-controlled and a lot more unified. There are benefits and drawbacks to both, so you'll have to weigh your options for yourself.

Motorola Xyboard

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Device & Specs

Both of these tablets are an embarrassment of hardware riches. For instance, the Xyboard not only has market-standard internal hardware, but it also has an IR blaster so it can control just about every device in your home theater, and a huge amount of productivity software to give you the edge when you're traveling away from your desk. On the other hand, the {{product.name}} has a lot of computing power as of yet unmatched on the market, and when paired with the keyboard accessory, it becomes more of a laptop that runs Android than tablet.

Screen

The screens of both tablets are exceptionally bright and clear, but that of the {{product.name}} is unprecedented in its brightness. While there is a tradeoff in contrast performance, being able to turn the screen down and still have it be visible is a huge plus.

Battery

Both tablets show somewhat impaired performances by having such ridiculously bright screens, but they manage pretty average battery life even at full settings. If you can stand to turn down the screen brightness, both tablets have a decent battery life, but at max settings they don't quite do well.

eReader

Both have access to identical apps, but the more stabel battery life of the Xyboard and the rubber grips make for a better experience overall, so this one goes to the Motorola media powerhouse.

Internet

Both have identical internet features, although the Xyboard is able to use its IR blaster for use with smart devices in your hoe theater as well as older equipment. The {{product.name}} already has Ice Cream Sandwich installed, while the Xyboard is slated to be upgraded to the tasty new OS in the near future.

Conclusion

In order to stay alive in the market, Android tablets have a long tradition of overpowering the iPad, and the Transformer Prime goes in for the kill. Boasting a quad-core processor and an impossibly bright screen, the newest Asus tablet provides some very impressive performance at a price point that should give prospective tablet buyers something to think about.

Using Google's slick new operating system (Ice Cream Sandwich), the Transformer Prime provides a natural, yet visually appealing user interface that should satisfy Apple convert and hardcore Android fan alike. With far better hardware, and a comparable user experience, the {{product.name}} certainly has a lot to offer for prospective tablet buyers, especially when used in conjunction with the keyboard accessory, which adds battery life and many connectivity options.

The tablet isn't without its drawbacks, as the extremely bright and reflective screen makes battery life on the tablet vary wildly if the brightness is maxed out. In addition, if you are likely to push the tablet to handle a huge load of tasks, the quad-core processor will burn through the battery at an incredible rate.

All that being said, if you're looking for a tablet and you're not quite ready to ditch your laptop, the {{product.name}} is a seriously good stepping stone to bridge the two types of device. While it is a drag to have to buy additional hardware to get the most out of your tablet, the performance and usability ceiling of the {{product.name}} is sky high.