ASUS Transformer Prime TF201-B1-CG Review

ASUS Transformer Prime TF201-B1-CG Review - Breaking free from the normal constraints of a device through constant innovation, the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime is the perfect example of what a tablet should be. The feature that gives the Eee Pad Transformer Prime its name, the mobile docking station, gives a whole new meaning to the term Paired for Perfection.

The new Eee Pad Transformer Prime is mind-blowingly slim and light weight and with a beautiful metallic spun finished design. In fact, it is the slimmest tablet on the market yet, only 0.33" thin and 1.29lbs light. You can easily carry it with you no matter where you go.


Specifications

Display
10.1-inch WXGA Super IPS+ capacitive multi touch display built with
Corning® Gorilla® Glass; 178° viewing angle(1280 x 800)

Operating System
Android 3.2 Honeycomb Platform (Upgradeable to Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Chipset
NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 mobile processor | with Quad Core CPU

Memory
1GB DDR2

Wireless
802.11b/g/n

Bluetooth
Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR

Storage
32GB eMMC Flash

Camera
1.2 megapixel (Front); 8.0 Megapixel (Rear)

Speakers
Built-in Stereo Speakers with SonicMaster Technology

Card Reader
Micro SD Card Reader

Input / Output
1 x Micro HDMI, 2-in-1 audio jack (head phone/mic-in jack), internal mic

Battery Pack
25 W/h Li-polymer battery (up to 12 hours)2

Dimensions
10.35" x 7.12" x 0.33" (W x D x H)

Weight
1.29lbs

Color
Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold

List Price: $ 697.50
Price :
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My Review:

Quality =
Fit and finish is 100%, Very solid feel.

Size =
Very thin, kinda difficult to hold in hand, I'd recommend purchasing a gel case
or something similar.

Gaming =
Played the pre-install games and they both ran with 0 stutters and were
extremely fluid. did i purchase a a multipurpose tablet or a gaming tablet... i think the latter :)

Performance =
Tablet was completely fluid when changing from one screen to the next, i especially like the multi window
tab on the bottom left, it will allow you to select anything previously opened (and will allow you to close too)

Built in music player seemed basic and didnt appear to have the ability to download album art. I'll stick with
amazon cloud mp3 player.

Web =
(subjet to further testing) web browsing seemed to be alittle slow, this was experienced with java enabled... with disabled performance was snappy and good

YouTube & amazon streaming =
using the youtube app , it was a beautiful display and worked flawlessly. Amazon needs to make an app to stream their prime videos instead of going thru the web... however once a few buttons are pressed the video does fill the entire screen and works. Please note imbedded youtube in web DID NOT display any stutter or frame drops.

Sound =
Unfortunately this is what caused me to give 4 instead of 5 stars. The audio is quite loud and clear
however only being emitted from a single speaker port does not provide the spartial/stereo sound. perhaps
blue tooth or headset will eliminate this concern.

Camera =
Front facing 1.2MP camera provided acceptable image quality, however white balance should be adjusted to fully ensure quality (dont use automatic) , rear facing camera provided a good quality picture with decent focus and brightness... even in poor lighting conditions however any zoom used the image would be blurry depending upon x2 x3 etc. video mode was tested with low movement and provided a better quality then my nikon p500 (p500 seems to be abit jumpy).

Battery life =
Unable to report at this time since testing was limited to less then a full charge.

Display =
Was very colorful and bright, 600 nits of brightness will make it useable outside. normal amount of backlight bleeding (almost none but there's always some). backlight bleed test was performed and two hot spots were identified one on bottom and other on right side. As mentioned previously the amount of light imo is quite minimal and i've seen far worse on other items. one of my apps displayed a completely white page and there was two hot spots (white slightly brigter then the rest of the page) this may be a fluke or not... i was able to duplicate the brighter pixel, its barely noticeable however is visable on default screen in other colors... not a deal breaker its about the size of a pin head with a slight glow around it, clarification you wouldnt know its there unless i told you to look for it.

WIFI Range =
two apps were used to test the wifi range speedtest (same test server) and wifi analyzer. I've only compared the two and not a laptop.. plus my house has about 800watts of electronic interference :)
12 feet away from base station
evo3d = 15.38 down 4.86 up signal str = 46 dbm
prime = 20.50 down 5.00 up signal str = 43 dbm
two walls, outside, about 85 feet away
evo3d = 02.26 down 0.89 up signal str = 88 dbm
prime = 05.50 down 3.00 up signal str = 75 dbm

GPS =
Best reception i got was 5/9 stable 4/8.
UPDATE: Reports have been surfacing GPS isnt working or isnt working properly... When I performed the test it did find 4/8 and continued to have the searching graphic. Honestly I dont know what is normal for GPS reception with this device. Will compare against phone later.

Operation & bugs =
With any new device there will be patches and bug fixes, I dont assume any different with the prime.
while transferring pictures via usb , i was viewing the pictures and multiple times it froze and displayed
error resulting in restart of picture viewer. Another item was installation of a large gamesoft game dungeon
runners 2, I had music playing in the background and every 15 seconds or so the music would stutter for a second or two
and then continue playing. I'm sure this will be addressed with ICE and the use of 4/5 cores properly.