How satisfied are you with your Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet?

[cds0699]

For those of you that own an Asus eee pad transformer, how satisfied are you with your tablet? (on a scale from 1-10, 10 being extremely satisfied) If you could list some of your pro's and con's as well, that would be great. This is the tablet I'm very likely going to purchase, but I'd like to hear from current owners of the tablet on their thoughts.

 

[PowerCosmic]

I'd give it an 8.

The bottom line, in my opinion, is that the majority of drawbacks fall on Honeycomb rather than the hardware itself. For instance, many apps work on my Froyo smartphone which are not yet available on Honeycomb. Conversely, the majority of strengths fall on the hardware and namely the fact that it is the size that it is and works as well as it does. Example? I would not bother trying to read a comic book on my cell phone whereas it's a joy to do on my Transformer. A drawing/sketching app on my phone? Forget about it. On the Transformer? Totally! Web browsing and just reading text in general is a vastly superior experience on a tablet than squinting at a phone screen.

So what it can do, it does quite well. It's disappointing the number of things it can't do but this is the price we pay for being early adopters. In the meantime, we can only support developers and be patient.

 

[CarsnGadgets]

i have the 16gb version with dock, I bought it from Currys in the UK.
I have had it just over 2 weeks. I owned an archos 101 before I got this.

I would rate the Asus 8.5/10. (the Archos 101 got a strong 6/10)

As with any android device, the key to getting the best results and user experience
is to get the right apps and do your research. I have found an app to do everything I
wanted to do with a tablet, honeycomb is still a little unfinished, but it will continue to improve.
There arent many optimised apps available yet, but the ones that are out are fantastic,
like news360, plume, file manager HD, zinio, etc and the honeycomb youtube player is
brilliant.

the tablet is well built, it feels great, it does sometimes creak just a little, but it doent feel like
it will break, the creaking is just the plastic back against the metal side band. The screen is amazing, easily the best I have seen in an android tablet and as good as the iPad2. The speakers are a bit quiet, and due to a typo in the audio config file, the right speaker is louder than the left (hopefully fixable via software update). Sound through earphones is very good though and I mainly use it that way for media playback. Its very quick and smooth and with a static wallpaper there is no lag on mine during normal use. The tablet battery lasts me 2 days easily with reasonably heavy use, lots of web browsing and video playback.

The dock is great, typing with it is easy, the dock mechanism works well and is secure. The battery doesnt last too long though and as it charges the tablet as soon as it uses any charge it soon gets drained and need recharging. So you have to use it sparingly. I have it connected about 40/60 (60% undocked).

The browser is excellent and the new instant controls that swipe in from the side are so useful.
Browsing the web is near desktop quality and very fast with 1gb ram and 1bg dual core processor behind it.

Over all I am exremely happy with it.

 

[cds0699]

Thank you very much, both of you. Sounds like you get a lot of value for the money... which is my goal since i have my smartphone as well I very much appreciate your responses.

 

[Blacklight82]

I really like the Asus Transformer so far. Might edit this as things come up but this my initial impressions.

Pros:
- Fairly lightweight and thin.
- Pretty fast overall.
- Great build quality.
- Well priced.
- Great screen.
- Decent battery life.
- Keyboard dock is awesome, although expensive.
- This has practically replaced my laptop.

Cons:
- Speakers are too quiet even on max volume.
- No haptic feedback. For some reason I thought it had haptic feedback but it was the Acer Iconia that has it. Kind of a biggie for me but it was my fault for not researching enough.
- A bit laggy sometimes. This only happens when I'm exiting the browser, Youtube, or some other apps. Major slowdowns when finishing a level in Plants Vs Zombies.
- Charging cable is way too short.
- This a MAJOR problem for me. If I set the brightness past 50% the screen turns really dark to the point where I think the tablet has shut off. It takes a while of locking and unlocking the screen and randomly tapping the screen to get it back to normal.
- Fingerprint magnet but all tablets are.

Overall a 8.75 out of 10.

Also, a prefererence issues with Honeycomb. I wish the "Back, Home, and Recent Apps" placement was swapped with the Notifications. I just think that feels more natural.

 

[RiverOfIce]

8/10 really wanting to be a 9 but just missing.

Pretty much everyone else summed it up. The hardware is solid, specially the later hardware. Solid screen, beautiful.

It loses one point for honeycomb, it is just not fully baked. It crashes, it fails to load, it lags, and it generally misbehaves. Every time I turn around the os has some new and stupid trick it wants to show you.

It looses the second point, because it is a tablet and I have not figure out what we you are suppose to do with it. Watch a movie, ok i see, just a little laggy on the play back. Read a book, ok not bad at that, but once in a while will suddenly not find the book or randomly jump pages on you. Write a paper, can't really does not have full office support. You want to browse the web with out ads, both dolphin and firefox have lovely tricks to keep you guessing. The stock browser has more lovely tricks for you.

But here is the bottom line. I bought it to read books and papers on. Got the dock to type out full reports in the field. Both things can not be done because the software is just too buggy. I think I found a good use for it, and bam the software flakes out.

So in saying all that, I have bought 4 more. The potential is soo there, it could be a great device for anything you need, movies, papers, music, web, and the random things you need something light and good battery life with. But the software is just not worth it.

I am really considering rooting the thing, installing ubuntu. Even a half hacked would be better then honeycomb would. I would say to anyone that wanted the device, it is worth having around, I did buy 4 of them. Just don't expect to do anything with it.

 

[fodd3r]

Please forgive the profanity but it's the only way to express what I need to say. "google need to get there s##t sorted"

I was happy to support google in Android mainly because of apple arrogance, so I bought the nexus 1 initially cost me about

 

[snakeybidder]

I wont go through pros as there pretty much covered, Id say 7.5/10

I love it but theres always a feeling of something not quite right or finished may be better way to put it.....

 

[kampfwolf09]

I'd give it an 8/10 mainly because the value for the features you get. I'd give it higher if there was better video format support, but I wasn't expecting it run everything either.

 

[howarmat]

8.5/10 for me

Like it over the xoom by quite a bit. Its lighter and you noticed that too. Screen is great. Speakers are a little tinny and quiet. Great office suite and with 3.1 browsing is a blast and the tab is much smoother. I agree on most all the other points above. at $399 its a steal over the competition

 

[andoroido]

3/10

The reason I gave it such a low score, because I was under the impression that it would able to play 720p videos but as of this moment it has not been able to play any of them over the network nor the internal memory. Though, anything smaller in resolution is completely playable and runs quite well. So, the reason for buying my TF was a complete fail. I truly believe, any electronic specially a device similar to a computer setup should sure a purpose for you. For example, you buy a laptop for it's portability, instead of setting it like a desktop and never moving it from table or desk, buying a gaming computer for games, etc. etc.

But with that being said, I knew I would tweak it and try to push it to it's capabilities. Then I found myself enjoying it quite a lot, like studying subjections from specialize applications in a portable tablet, playing games including emulation, and stream some videos. In this aspect, I am truly excited and actually happy that I bought my TF. Now, I rank it 8/10, just because technology needs to caught up with it's self and then tablets and Android OS will be mindblowing. Wave of the future? :O

 

[howarmat]

3/10

The reason I gave it such a low score, because I was under the impression that it would able to play 720p videos but as of this moment it has not been able to play any of them over the network nor the internal memory. Though, anything smaller in resolution is completely playable and runs quite well. So, the reason for buying my TF was a complete fail. I truly believe, any electronic specially a device similar to a computer setup should sure a purpose for you. For example, you buy a laptop for it's portability, instead of setting it like a desktop and never moving it from table or desk, buying a gaming computer for games, etc. etc.

But with that being said, I knew I would tweak it and try to push it to it's capabilities. Then I found myself enjoying it quite a lot, like studying subjections from specialize applications in a portable tablet, playing games including emulation, and stream some videos. In this aspect, I am truly excited and actually happy that I bought my TF. Now, I rank it 8/10, just because technology needs to caught up with it's self and then tablets and Android OS will be mindblowing. Wave of the future? :O

it will play 720p videos with the correct profile. It can do 1080p also

YouTube - ‪1080p Video on ASUS Transformer Tegra 2 Tablet‬‏

 

[kampfwolf09]

^agreed, there is a problem with the "high profile" settings on encoders. None the tegra tablets are playing them from what I've heard.

 

[CKwik240]

I returned my transformer last week. I loved the idea of the keyboard dock, but in the end, I didn't use the keyboard dock enough to justify the lack of build quality. The Xoom feels much more solid. I wasn't expecting the exact same build quality, but there were just enough nagging issues that made me not want to spend $600+ on it (with dock). I will be trying out the New Galaxy Tab as the one big gripe I have with the Xoom is the weight. I really wanted to love the Transformer as it was much lighter than the Xoom.

 

[snakeybidder]

[/QUOTE]

I returned my transformer last week. I loved the idea of the keyboard dock, but in the end, I didn't use the keyboard dock enough to justify the lack of build quality. The Xoom feels much more solid. I wasn't expecting the exact same build quality, but there were just enough nagging issues that made me not want to spend $600+ on it (with dock). I will be trying out the New Galaxy Tab as the one big gripe I have with the Xoom is the weight. I really wanted to love the Transformer as it was much lighter than the Xoom.

Cant believe people are going on about build quality lol its excellent build quality!!

It seems to me people cant justify parting with their money

 

[ismawi]

8.5/10

So happy with in. Not using my htc dhd as much before i got the transformer.
Agree, it's a little bit laggy

 

[JTWZen]

I have only had mine for a day, but my initial impressions are.
Well built
Rather heavier than I expected
The iPad2 is somehow neater
The software, especially the browser are buggy
The keyboards trend to be laggy

But I still wouldn't change out for any other tabs currently available

Overall score 7.0

 

[No_u]

I am still surprised by all the cool stuff I discover each day. So much to do.

9.5/10
It needs to stop crashing.

 

[Vipfreak]

9.5/10

There are some minor issuse namely with the keyboar as you can see.. Otherwise it has taken over my @#$%ing life.

Edit:

My Thinkpad x200t has been furious for awhile now.

 

[boharris]

Have to agree with the taking over my life comment, think my girlfriend is getting jealous, still use the dock for more involved surfing but really starting to like thumbpad more and more

 

[cds0699]

Have to agree with the taking over my life comment, think my girlfriend is getting jealous, still use the dock for more involved surfing but really starting to like thumbpad more and more

Sounds like you need to include the gf when playing with your transformer, if you ask me

Thank you very much for your thoughts and opinions everyone, this is exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping to receive. I'm gonna order one at Best Buy tomorrow

 

[Vipfreak]

I forgot to mention, I noticed build quality was an issue, the only issue I forsee is rubbing off the keyboard keys or cracking the screen on the virtual keyboard. Most likely in a fit of rage for both...

 

[chtamina]

I've bought an archos 101 before this, returned it and got the transformer = MIND BLOWN

 

[mobimop]

Cant believe people are going on about build quality lol its excellent build quality!!

It seems to me people cant justify parting with their money [/QUOTE]

Because you don't have issues with the build quality doesn't mean others haven't dealt with it. I returned two units and finally I have a unit with no creaking, gaps between the speakers and screen and the famous light leaks.

Light Leaks

I give it a 5, initial hardware quality is a fail, lack of software is a fail and stability of the O/S is a fail. Otherwise it's okay. If and when Google/Asus update the software they'll have a real hit on their hands until then the iPad will continue it's dominance in the table market.

 

[andoroido]

mobimop, Using android OS offers far less limitation, and like you said, once the bugs are fixed, the OS will be a huge hit. I got some crazy light leakage, but it's not a big issue at all. I actually ended up dropping it yesterday from about 2 feet or so, and it was perfectly fine. Though, I actually really like the build quality of the TF.