Asus Transformer Prime (kinda long)

[KlokWerk]

I couldn't find a thread about this so I figured I'd post about my experience with it so far.
Sorry for the long write up. Hope it helps anyone who’s thinking of getting one of these great devices.

Before the Prime, I had an iPad2 for over a year. So any comparisons will be to the iPad.
I’ve read what the specs are for the iPad3 and have to agree with some that the Prime is more a competitor to the iPad3 than the iPad2.

Display: 10.1" LED Backlit screen with Super IPS+ (1280 x 800) 10 finger multi-touch,
Corning® Gorilla® Glass. All of this makes for a great looking display experience. The screen though does have a lot of glare and is susceptible to smudges. The iPad didn’t have as much glare but was the same with the smudges. The iPad2 was not as pretty display wise. The iPad3 will be closer to this than the iPad2 was.

OS: Android™ 3.2 Honeycomb (1) (Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgradable). Soon after I got the Prime, I upgraded to ICS. The upgrade was painless and there were no issues with the Prime afterward. Comparing this OS to the iPad I would have to say I like the way ICS works over the Apple OS. Also, I don’t need to use iTunes or similar contraption!

Processor: NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 Quad-core CPU. This processor really only shows itself with games. There are several games that showcase the power of the processor, but on my every day activities, VPN, RDP, email, browsing, reading documents, etc, I just don’t see any great improvement in performance. But really, when ever did over clocking your PC processor ever make Word run faster? LOL.

On board memory: 1 GB. Having a gig of RAM is nice. But like the iPad, you’re sharing this memory with all of the other apps that happen to be running at the same time. So, to get the most out of the memory, I have to shut down all of the other apps using the quick settings pop-up. Very cool tool by the way.

On board storage: 32GB / 64GB (2) EMMC + 8GB life time ASUS WebStorage. With the use of the microSD slot on the tablet and the standard SD slot in the docking station, I opted for the 32GB unit. With SD cards, I basically have unlimited storage. The iPad was very limited in this regard. I found myself constantly shuffling files through iTunes. That sucked.

Wifi: 802.11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. This is where I have my biggest complaint. There is no 3G or 4G version of the Prime yet. So WiFi is your only option. The performance on WiFi is hit and miss. Mostly hit. I’ve noticed that at seemingly random times, my wireless performance goes to crap. I’ll have to restart the wireless interface or worse case, restart the Prime to get it going again. Performance in relation to distance to wireless access point falls off almost as a law of nature. Looking at pictures of the guts of the Prime and I wonder if there’s a problem with the antenna placement. A lot of people in the Transformer Prime forums complain about this and have gone as far as RMA’ing their Primes. Many of them continue to have problems. So, there’s definitely something going on there. I remember having similar problems with the iPad2 but that turned out to be more a problem with how the router you were connecting to was configured.

Cameras: 1.2MP (front), 8MP Auto focus (rear) with flash / F2.4 large aperture. The front camera is not so great. Specially since that’s the one I use when Skyping home. I really wish Asus would have upgraded that camera to a 2 or 4 MP device. The 8MP camera on the back is great. But since I use my tablet more for work, it gets used infrequently.

Interfaces: PAD: 2-in-1 Audio Jack (Headphone / Mic-in); 1× micro HDMI port 1 × Micro SD Card Reader; Internal Microphone & Stereo Speaker. The only comment I have here is the same I had about the iPad2 in regard to the “stereo speaker” that they had. It does no good to have stereo speakers if you place them directly next to each other on the same side of the device. Seriously!? LOL. Anyway, headphone performance is good. The iPad2 seemed to power my headphones better.
The micro HDMI out port is AWESOME. I can output my HD movies, presentations etc to a monitor/TV HDMI in port. No need to buy some silly adaptor to do this. It’s built in! One problem I’m having though with this is sound. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I’m looking into this.

Mobile Dock: 1 × USB2.0 port ; 1 × SD Card Reader: This is the game changer in regards to how I use this tablet. I had used a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad but it wasn’t easy to pack around. This setup with the Prime is just silly easy. I dock it and off I go. Not to mention I get another 8, yes, 8 hours of battery life an other USB port and SD card slot is just way cool. Add a Bluetooth mouse and guess what. I no longer need my work laptop. I’ve just dropped a ton of weight from what I have to pack around with me when travelling. If you travel a lot, you know this means a lot. I love it.

Sensor: G-Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope, E-compass. This is all basic stuff. If it didn’t come with these, I’d have been very surprised. Pair this with Google maps and Navigate and I’m a very happy traveler.

Flash support: Yes. Apple, really? What is your beef with Flash? Just silly.
Multitasking: Yes. The way that you flip between running apps on this device is dead simple. No click button, press and hold then press X to kill the app. On the Prime, you press a widget then flick away the apps you want to kill. Super simple gesture interface.

Special APP: ASUS launcher, @Vibe Music, ASUS WebStorage, MyLibrary, MyNet, MyCloud, File manager, ASUS sync, SuperNote, App Locker, App Backup, TegraZone, Polaris Office. A lot of this is just Asus bloatware. Some of them are nice. I haven’t excercised the Asus WebStorage feature. They offer it for free for a year. 50GB of storage on line is cool. The one I use a lot here is MyNet. Having the ability to access and stream media from any of my networked devices at home is cool.

Battery: 12 hours; 25Wh Li-polymer Battery, 18 hours pad with dock ; 25Wh(pad) + 22Wh(docking) Li-polymer Battery. I cannot think of any other devices on the market that offers this kind of battery life. Not even the iPad3. Having 18 hours of work time is just silly. I can get on a plane in LA, fly to Japan and still have a couple hours of battery life left. My trips to Ecuador from Seattle are no big deal now. No longer do I have to hunt for a damn outlet at the airport to try to get a quick charge before my connecting flight leaves. If you travel even a little bit, you know how much fun that is!

Dimensions: 263 × 180.8 × 8.3mm ; 586g (pad only) / 263 × 180.8 × 8~10.4mm ; 537g. (dock only). This tablet is slightly longer and less square than the iPad2. It’s just as thin and feels lighter.

So, sorry again for the long review. I’m very pleased with my new tablet. A couple things that stand out. 1) The user interface, apps and user experience are awesome and 2) battery life. 18 hours is just crazy. Thanks to ASUS for building a great tablet and pricing it correctly. Putting Android on it was even better. I love the freedom this device affords me. From iTunes to airport outlets, I’m free. I’m very happy that I no longer have to lug around my laptop because all of my business applications can run from this device or I can remotely access them from it.