ASUS EeePad Transformer Prime

Well, I might as well start things off here by mentioning the hottest new tablet coming out this year (IMHO). I’ve been watching the Transformer Prime’s ever since the unofficial announcement at AsiaD last month. It looks like one beast of a machine, and the physical keyboard + amazing battery life really appeal to me.

For those who aren’t aware, here are the basic specs (pulled from my site, Transformer Prime Review)
[ul]
[li]10.1-inch SuperIPS + display with Gorilla Glass
[/li][li]1280×800 screen resolution
[/li][li]1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 Processor with 12-core GPU
[/li][li]1GB RAM
[/li][li]32GB or 64GB internal storage with microSD card slot
[/li][li]microHDMI port
[/li][li]8MP F2.4 rear shooter with continuous flash for video recording
[/li][li]1.2MP front camera
[/li][li]8.33mm thin
[/li][li]586g (1.29 lbs.)
[/li][li]12 hour battery life playing 720p video, 18 hours with keyboard dock
[/li][li]Metallic spun finish
[/li][li]Two available colors: Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold
[/li][li]Android 3.2 – will be updated to Android 4.0 as soon as possible after release
[/li][li]WiFi a/b/g/n
[/li][li]Bluetooth 3.0
[/li][li]GPS
[/li][/ul]
Those specs look pretty good to me. And how good does 12 hours of playing HD video sound? But the main thing is - this’ll probably be the first tablet to get Ice Cream Sandwich, maybe even by the end of this year. Asus have pretty solidly committed to this, and have a good track record of fast updates. Heck, even the old Eee Pad Transformer is going to get the ICS update pretty soon!

I’m seriously considering selling my iPad 2 (which I won a couple of weeks ago) and buying one of these when they come out. Anyone else planning on buying the Transformer Prime? How do you think it compares with the rest of the upcoming tablet lineup?

I have a bit of a problem here. A number of conflicting factors need to be looked at and then completely disregarded when I follow the “Shiny Thing Make It All Better” route and just buy it.

  1. I want a tablet. Primary uses are likely to be photo display, writing on the go, simple sketching, web browsing and gaming.
  2. I have recently bought a Macbook Air and, while I still see the space for a tablet in my tech stack (prefer to refer to a document on that while writing on my laptop), I don’t need the whole keyboard thing. OTOH, the idea of being able to use a proper keyboard with it does appeal
  3. It’s pretty damn pricey.
  4. It’s slim, which works with my idea of packing all my tech gear into one messenger bag.
  5. Lack of USB ports on the tablet itself.
  6. Shiny.

I think I’m going to watch these when they come out, have a play with one, then wait to see what Samsung bring out with a Tegra 3 in. I also think it’s worth letting ICS settle in a bit before jumping. Ignoring my own personal requirements though, I think this could be a real winner. A lot of people have raved about the original transformer + keyboard combo, so the extra power + ICS + second generation lessons learned (one would hope) should be pretty good. It’s the sort of thing I could see myself getting for a kid going off to uni (OK, maybe just for humanities students …).

I felt the need to add this to the discussion:

http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341d3df553ef014e869bd017970d-pi

Waiting around a bit sounds like a wise idea. Personally I’ve been looking at the Samsung tablets, and just haven’t been quite satisfied with them. I don’t have a MacBook Air (the only laptop I have is >3kg), so the Transformer Prime with keyboard definitely appeals to me.

My situation exactly :slight_smile:

How goes the decision to purchase? Looks like it’s confirmed to get ICS (and an unlocked bootloader): http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2012/01/asus-to-unlock-transformer-primes-bootloader-update-to-android-4.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Yeah, I just saw that news. Glad to see ASUS are committed to prompt ROM updates, and also allowing the developer community access to unlocking tools. I can appreciate the locked bootloader from a security perspective, as long as the company allows a way to circumvent it for users who wish to do so.

Thanks to Pete over at elusive stars, I actually won a Transformer Prime in the launch competition. So no need to procrastinate anymore :slight_smile: I’m pretty excited about it, look forward to seeing it turn up in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully it will make a good study aid - more productive than the iPad with an integrated keyboard & access to all my Android apps. Plus, I think GTA III will run great on this thing :wink:

I’d be interested to get your impressions of OnLive on it if you get a chance. It didn’t really translate well to my DHD :smiley:

I’m jealous, I wish I had one. The only thing that kills me is waiting for the ROM updates. Even though all the documentation and advertisements say theat such and such update is coming, it takes for ever. With my luck it has always been a rolling update and I get it on the last day of the roll out.

I have one since yesterday. It looks and feels good - physically. Technically, it has shown some hickups that I can’t explain. It has automatically downloaded by now Android 4 and firmware updates, I hope it doesn’t happen again, though I think it’s because of the preinstalled 3d games I tried out (I don’t really like them). For reading and photo display, it’s certainly a nice thing. Though it’s a bit expensive.
After I got it, I changed my game that way that it looks more appealing and feels better in general on that (and probably other) tablet(s). A device to toy around for development is certainly helping a lot.

About the GPS - it’s so broken that ASUS is extending the guarantee for the whole device according to the latest news I read - might be wrong. I don’t care about GPS however, so I am fine with an extended guarantee :). Although it’s weird that they haven’t noticed that earlier, some people think that the bad GPS receiver quality is caused by the metallic cover. So - why haven’t they figured that out themselves? Well, whatever. Only time can tell if it’s actually a good device… I am missing development tools on that thing - like a code editor etc :wink:

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