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Asus Eee Pad Transformer
| Caractéristiques | |||
| Screen | 10 inches IPS Capacitive | ||
| Resolution | 1280 x 800 pixels | ||
| Internal memory / SDHC card | 16 GB / no microSD up to 32 GB | ||
| Battery life | 8 | ||
| Dimensions/Weight | 0 x 0 x 0 mm / 0 g | ||
 Show all specifications
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| Wi-Fi / Bluetooth / 3G | yes / yes / no |
| Connectivity | Proprietary |
 Hide specifications | |
Romain Thuret
Translator: Catherine Barraclough
Test date: June 29, 2011
Translator: Catherine Barraclough
Test date: June 29, 2011
Finally, A Full Keyboard!
Hurrah! A tablet maker has finally decided to equip their touchscreen device with a full onscreen keyboard. In other words, Asus has placed a row of number keys from 1 to 0 above the keyboard's letter keys, which means you don't need to switch to a separate numeric keypad to add numbers to what you're writing. You may think that we're a bit too easily pleased here at DigitalVersus, but in the world of touchscreen tablets, a full onscreen keyboard is truly revolutionary!
The onscreen keyboard is as responsive as any competitor model. You can type away as slowly or as frantically as you like without even the slightest problem.
In portrait mode, the keyboard is obviously a fair bit slimmer but that doesn't have any real negative impact on text entry.
The onscreen keyboard is as responsive as any competitor model. You can type away as slowly or as frantically as you like without even the slightest problem.
In portrait mode, the keyboard is obviously a fair bit slimmer but that doesn't have any real negative impact on text entry.
Important note: since the optional keyboard and dock effectively turns this tablet into a brand new digital device, we've decided to publish two separate reviews of the EeePad Transformer—one for the tablet only and one for the tablet plus keyboard combo. This is the review of the tablet only, so don't forget to check out the Asus EeePad Transformer with Keyboard review too.
Asus seems to have created the perfect product for consumers who are umming and ahhing about whether they should invest in a touchscreen tablet. The EeePad Transformer is an intriguing concept, as this hybrid Android Honeycomb tablet will be sold with an optional keyboard docking station. This adds just under £100 to the price tag, but the dock is equipped with a battery and a load of connections, effectively turning the tablet into a touchscreen netbook.
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The Asus EeePad Transformer will sell for around £380 without the keyboard. However, the optional keyboard is loaded with a battery that's supposed to double the battery life, and also has a touchpad, two USB 2.0 ports, an SD/SDHC card slot and an extra proprietary connection (since the one on the tablet can't be used when the tablet is connected to its keyboard).
Design & Handling
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This tablet has a very nice finish. The glossy screen is stylishly housed in a fairly compact convex casing. The textured back makes a nice change from the plain black, grey, aluminium and glossy finishes that dominate the market. The bands of casing around the screen are quite wide and there's a rim-style frame around tablet's edges, which we found a little hard and its edges a little sharp. That could annoy some users, especially after long periods of use.
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There's clearly room for Asus to downsize the tablet by a few millimetres and we'd happily see those harsh edges removed. That said, the tablet doesn't feel too heavy, as its weight is perfectly distributed.
Screen
Some of our readers have been positively drooling over the prospect of the Transformer's screen, and with an IPS panel, Asus' solid reputation in screen technology and the brand's unflinching desire for success a low-grade screen would be all the more disappointing.Thankfully, Asus hasn't scrimped on the tablet's display. The EeePad Transformer has an average contrast ratio of 814:1, placing it above the original iPad but behind the iPad 2, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook. On the whole, Asus has a better screen than the first Apple iPad. Colour fidelity isn't bad—at least as far as mobile devices are concerned—as with an average deltaE of 5.2, this Asus tablet comes neck and neck with the iPad to share our second-best score so far (behind the BlackBerry PlayBook's deltaE of 4). The main thing upsetting the average deltaE here is a the slightly crazy blue and green shades.
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As is often the case, the colours are a bit too blue. This is something you won't notice very often, and even then you'll only spot a slight tint in white shades, as the colour temperature stays level over the whole spectrum. The screen's maximum brightness is 321 cd/m2, which is on the better side of average compared with other tablets. In spite of the IPS screen panel, viewing angles aren't the best we've ever seen. Although it's not really too much of a problem, the screen starts to look light from above at 45° angles and from below when viewed from both sides.
We did notice some light bleeding in around the edges of our test model's screen, but this can only be seen in total darkness. Some of our readers who've already bought Transformer tablets have reported certain more serious cases, so it's still something to watch out for.
The ghosting time is currently the best of all the tablets we've tested at 17 ms.
Interface & Navigation
There's nothing new to report since the first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets appeared over two months ago. The OS still feels just as barren, in spite of the fact that it clearly has potential.Note though, that the EeePad Transformer is actually loaded with Android 3.1, the very latest version of Google's tablet OS. That doesn't bring many changes for end users, as this update is mainly aimed at developers. However, one interesting new option is the ability to develop dynamic, custom-sized widgets for Android desktops, which means we should expect to see some Honeycomb-specific content coming soon.
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Asus doesn't use its own custom interface over the top of Honeycomb, or the kind of alternative desktop seen over at Acer. The manufacturer has, however, tarted things up by including a selection of handy applications, namely Polaris Office and My Cloud. Polaris can be used for word processing or making spreadsheets while MyCloud can be used to access the tablet remotely from any computer via a VPN. With My Cloud, you can also display and control the desktop of your main computer on the tablet's screen, as well as listen to digital radio stations. This is relatively heavy work though, even with a good Wi-Fi connection.
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Internal navigation isn't entirely glitch-free. The display rotation function is, for example, nowhere near as responsive as in some other tablets and processing power isn't as well managed as in Acer's tablet. Sometimes the EeePad does show a bit of lag, particularly when launching an app or responding to you pressing a virtual button.
One really good thing about this tablet, though, is its onscreen keyboard. It's responsive, and, above all, it has a row of number keys along the top (see inset) so you don't have to switch to a separate keypad to enter digits!
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Multimedia
Web browsing is just as fast as in other Honeycomb tablets. Flash content poses no problem at all and web pages are pleasant to read in landscape mode. As with most tablets, it's a bit of a different story in portrait mode, and you'll need to zoom in a bit to read pages comfortably. Scrolling is smooth and only lags on very rare occasions. Plus, multi-tab browsing didn't slow things down or cause any other problems in our test model..jpg)
Like every other tablet running this OS, the Transformer doesn't come with a built-in multimedia player. For videos, the native media player can only handle MPEG4 and H.264 files (up to 1080p HD Baseline profile). Apart from the graphically impressive YouTube app, video buffs will need to look for a third-party media player app such as RockPlayer or MoboPlayer (available in Android Market), supporting more file formats.
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The 5-Megapixel photo and video camera has no flash and is nothing to write home about. It's a far cry from the kind of quality we saw in the Motorola Xoom or RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook cameras. Pictures are too red-heavy, visibly lack detail and, strangely enough, the Android digital camera app in the Transformer doesn't have as many options as in some other manufacturers' tablets.
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Compare the Asus EeePad Transformer to other tablet cameras in the Face-off
Sound output is fine over the headphones socket and is reasonably powerful. The speakers, on the other hand, are quite simply awful.
Battery Life
Sound output is fine over the headphones socket and is reasonably powerful. The speakers, on the other hand, are quite simply awful.
Battery Life
After a few charging cycles, we found that the Asus EeePad almost reached the 8-hour battery life announced in the tech specs. In practice, the battery lasts for between 6 hrs 30 mins and 7 hrs 45 mins depending on whether you do loads of gaming or stick to a more mixed kind of use. It takes around 2 hrs 30 mins to charge the tablet's battery to 100% capacity from almost flat, which is about average for a touchscreen tablet.
With all of Asus' hype about the tablet-keyboard combo, it's difficult to imagine the EeePad Transformer going it alone as a touchscreen tablet. That said, the Transformer is still a good tablet with a decent screen, and the My Cloud function is a nice touch for anyone who's into linking up products via a VPN. As a Honeycomb tablet though, it's not quite as good as the Acer Iconia Tab A500, both in terms of connections and performance in games designed for the Tegra 2 processor.
With all of Asus' hype about the tablet-keyboard combo, it's difficult to imagine the EeePad Transformer going it alone as a touchscreen tablet. That said, the Transformer is still a good tablet with a decent screen, and the My Cloud function is a nice touch for anyone who's into linking up products via a VPN. As a Honeycomb tablet though, it's not quite as good as the Acer Iconia Tab A500, both in terms of connections and performance in games designed for the Tegra 2 processor.
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Asus Eee Pad Transformer
Pluses
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General screen quality and colour fidelity
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Finally, a full onscreen keyboard!
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High-quality finish but harsh, angular edges
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Polaris Office for work docs and My Cloud for VPN
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Good web browsing
Minuses
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Honeycomb feels as empty as ever and puts a bit of a damper on things
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Viewing angles aren't as good as expected for an IPS screen
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Propitiatory port / not many connections / poor-quality camera
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A bit slow with heavyweight games and the OS sometimes lags
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You need to buy the keyboard dock to really make this tablet worthwhile
The long-awaited Asus EeePad Transformer doesn't have a great deal of faults ... apart from the fact that its appeal relies too heavily on the optional keyboard dock. On its own, the tablet isn't as responsive as some competitor models and it doesn't outshine them in any particular way. Without the keyboard, it does its job fine, but it doesn't bringing anything new to the increasingly crowded tablet market.
