The Asus Transformer Prime has finally landed, and it’s no wonder why it has been one of the most searched topic in the past couple of weeks: it a fabulous tablet and a concept that has come to maturity. If you haven’t seen it before, the Asus Eee Transformer Prime is the world’s first Tegra 3 powered quad-core tablet that can turn into a small laptop, thanks to a keyboard-dock accessory.
The story is good, but it gets better: the keyboard virtually doubles the already long battery life of the tablet while keeping the overall shape elegant and thin. This sounds great, but how does it behave in the real world? In this review, we will look at the strengths, weaknesses and real world usage of the Asus Eee Transformer Prime – are you ready?
Technical highlights
NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1.3GHz (read our Tegra 3 overview)
10.1” 1280×800 Super IPS+ display, Gorilla glass
8 MP camera with LED light in the back, 1.2MP front camera
32GB to 64GB of internal storage + microSD slot
1080p MPEG-4/H.264 “High Profile” (Blu-Ray) decode, 1080p video capture
WiFi B/G/N, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
263 x 180.8 x 8.3mm, 586g
25WHr Li-Polymer battery
Note: the unit used in this review does not yet have the final firmware which should be updated at least one more time on December 2nd to version 8.8.3.27. (I’m currently using 8.8.3.23)
Context
We all perceive the gadgets usefulness differently depending on our lifestyle, so let me tell you where I come from. Most of my (computing) time is spent using a powerful desktop computer (a PC) with large displays. If I need to get some real work done outside of the office, I use a laptop (Macbook Pro + Win7). On the go, I keep track of emails with a smartphone, but I tend to reply only moderately from it because typing long emails is a bit painful on a touchscreen. With the tablet, I check news websites and social networks a lot, and I often use a laptop or tablet on my couch.
Because tablets have such a long battery life, I have been searching for ways to use them as laptop replacement in some situations like trade shows and meetings where I don’t do anything drastic like programming or video-editing.
