Questions before purchase

[daz_2000]

Hi guys,

Thinking of purchasing one of the babies....

Heard a few issues. Wondered if anyone has experienced them?

1. Saw this review on ebuyer :

I received the Asus Transformer in no time at all thanks to Ebuyers free next day delivery and my first impressions were very good. After a couple of hours though I noticed a large amount of light bleed dotted around the edges of the screen. This is only really visible when working in a dark room but still quite a big distraction.

I researched this with the help of forum members of the XDA Developers website and found this to be a common problem. It is partly down to a mix of the technology used by the screen and lack of Quality Control.

There have also been reports of the stereo speakers being unbalanced and the bezel creaking.


2. Heard it struggles with hi-def videos? Anyways round this. One of my main reasons for purchase is playing avi and mkv files.

3. Whats the battery life like?

4. Is there a better tablet out there (not interesting in ipad2)

Thanks

 

[vosg]

1. I don't see anything of what you describe.
2. Haven't tried HD video yet, but "out of the box", AVI isn't supported. But there are free AVI players on the Android market.
3. Excellent. I get 7 hours with ease. The keyboard doubles that.
4. No.

 

[Doit2it]

1. I have one spot that has light bleed, but it only shows up if I turn the brightness all the way up and have a dark screen on the TF. See image below. Yes, my left speaker is slightly louder than the right. It's noticeable, but not unbearable. There is a fix if you root your TF, but it doesn't bother me enough to fix it. No bezel creaking with my TF. I did notice it on a store demo I played with before I bought mine (where the glass meets the frame), but mine is solid.

2. I know it plays YouTube HD no problem. I've also viewed 720p mp4 files on the TF with no studder. Haven't tried AVI or MKV files, sorry.

3. About 10% per hour of use, so 10 hours of constant use. Standby drains about 1 to 2% per hour so I shut it off if I won't be using it for a while. Boot up time is just over a minute.

4. I played with the Xoom, 10.1 Tab, and Thrive in the store before deciding on the TF. The others felt heavy to me. I know the TF weighs the same, but it must be balanced better cause I don't get the wrist cramps I did with others. Of course the OS is the same, so price and specs are the only differentiators. I didn't want 3G/4G and another monthly bill, so WiFi only is fine for me.

The TF is a great tablet. Of course the TF2 with Tegra 3 Kal-El graphics may be out within a few months. That created a little buyers remorse, but I'm still happy with my purchase.


Light bleed image

That's not light bleed on the left towards the bottom of the screen (near Accessibility). It's the background for the settings menu.

 

[mihaelb]

1. I have light bleed spots all around. That said, they are only visible in darkness (or when there's a black scene in a movie or something). Not really noticeable most of the time.
2. MKV files still have issues. See some of the other threads here. Some users here say that you need to use a specific encoding for h264 to get it to work consistently. For me, some higher-quality MKV files either don't run smoothly, or run smoothly and have no sound with most video players I've tried. Currently playing around with Dice player, and so far, 3 of the videos that gave me said problem before are ok on this app.
3. I get 12 hours without the dock, dock gives another 6-7 hours
4. Can't think of a better tablet right now. Maybe with Icecream Sandwich comes out, and if it doesn't make its way down to the Transformer, that would be a different story.

 

[daz_2000]

Thanks for the replies...one more question, what is the sound quality like in general. Decent enough to play out of speakers at home? I know you've said about the left speaker being louder but does that spoil listening experience?

 

[Doit2it]

The speaker imbalance doesn't spoil the experience at all. The only time you really notice it is if you are holding the TF very close (within a foot of your face). Further away, it's really unnoticeable, and doesn't affect the stereo separation in my opinion.

That's the main reason I haven't fixed it. I've rooted my last 2 phones, but haven't rooted the TF yet cause I don't see a need to. I love the OS, and battery life with the OS is fine. The TF has screen capture built in without root, so the speaker would be my only reason to root but it's not that bad.

The TF is a small portable device, so it has small speakers. Don't expect to get booming, rich sound out of any device this size or you will be disappointed. Thru the speakers the sound doesn't have much bass so it's kind of tinny sounding. Thru the headphone jack the sound is much richer.

I just did an experiment. With the TF lying flat, I walked 50 feet away (inside) and I could hear it fine inside my quiet home. Just barely, but the audio was clear and understandable at that distance.

I don't have a patchcord to attach the TF to my home stereo so I can't comment on that. But with cheap earbuds, the sound is fine. There's a slight distortion at full volume, but I've heard much worse. And that could be my cheap earbuds. Drop the volume down a notch or two and it's fine. But there is definitely a better bass response thru the headphones. At least equal to any MP3 player.

 

[AutobahnSHO]

Thanks for the replies...one more question, what is the sound quality like in general. Decent enough to play out of speakers at home? I know you've said about the left speaker being louder but does that spoil listening experience?

When you use the headphone jack it's balanced, and sounds as good as any portable music player I've heard.

HDMI on a good TV/sound system is even better.

 

[Stuntman]

I bought mine about a month ago. I haven't noticed any issue with light bleeding. Speakers also seem fine for me. Quality is much better than my Sony Vaoi laptop. I did update the firmware on both the tablet and on the keyboard dock.

The battery life is excellent. I usually charge it when it is down to around 40%. I probably used it for about 4-5 hours to get it down that far.