ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101

[Detection]

Im getting an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 on Thursday and was wondering if anyone has one and if so, what is their opinion on it ?

Things to know, the good, the bad - that sort of thing.

Watched loads of Video reviews and comparisons, and it looks a pretty solid tablet with a fair amount to give. Also from what I see, it has HoneyComb 3.2 either pre-installed, or as an OTA upgrade.

[ToneKnee]

Im getting an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 on Thursday and was wondering if anyone has one and if so, what is their opinion on it ?

Things to know, the good, the bad - that sort of thing.

Watched loads of Video reviews and comparisons, and it looks a pretty solid tablet with a fair amount to give. Also from what I see, it has HoneyComb 3.2 either pre-installed, or as an OTA upgrade.

That is correct, it'll have 3.2 or it'll have it OTA, depends where you buy it from and how much their stock backdates, it's only a couple of weeks old.

I have the TF and it's a great tablet to have, so much that my brother got one as well. The 3.2 smooths the interface a bit more as well.

Depending on your needs, I feel like I should of got the keyboard at the time of purchase, it's an extra ?99 to buy it separately while it's about ?50 more if you just buy it with the tablet. The battery life is very good as well, definitely get a good days worth out of it.

As for home use, Honeycomb is great, but for a tablet and I have a home server, I installed 'Plex' and got the Android App for it. Streaming videos and music to the device is an easy task doing it this way. The only thing I can say which is bad is what I said about the keyboard. The Onscreen keyboard is huge which isn't a problem if your typing short things, but if you want to send long messages etc, definitely get the keyboard.

It's worth the money in my opinion, but at the end of the day, you need to justify having a tablet. It shouldn't be a laptop replacement or anything like that, it should be a device that works inconjunction of those things. I've seen so many people ditching laptops for one, especially some people who only have a laptop to begin with and wonder what the **** they decided to do it.

[acnpt]

There is quite a big thread about the transformer, I think it's in the review section. ;)

[Detection]

That is correct, it'll have 3.2 or it'll have it OTA, depends where you buy it from and how much their stock backdates, it's only a couple of weeks old.

I have the TF and it's a great tablet to have, so much that my brother got one as well. The 3.2 smooths the interface a bit more as well.

Depending on your needs, I feel like I should of got the keyboard at the time of purchase, it's an extra ?99 to buy it separately while it's about ?50 more if you just buy it with the tablet. The battery life is very good as well, definitely get a good days worth out of it.

As for home use, Honeycomb is great, but for a tablet and I have a home server, I installed 'Plex' and got the Android App for it. Streaming videos and music to the device is an easy task doing it this way. The only thing I can say which is bad is what I said about the keyboard. The Onscreen keyboard is huge which isn't a problem if your typing short things, but if you want to send long messages etc, definitely get the keyboard.

It's worth the money in my opinion, but at the end of the day, you need to justify having a tablet. It shouldn't be a laptop replacement or anything like that, it should be a device that works inconjunction of those things. I've seen so many people ditching laptops for one, especially some people who only have a laptop to begin with and wonder what the **** they decided to do it.

Yea Im not replacing anything with it, well... my old dead android 2.1 tablet maybe lol

The keyboard will come at a later date, as it is a present I`m happy to get the tablet for now - for typing long things i`ll still be using the PC or Laptop

The battery life caught my attention, reviews saying 8.5 hours playing a video on repeat :)

There is quite a big thread about the transformer, I think it's in the review section. ;)

Ah right thanks

[helpifIcan]

As always battery life is subjective, if you keep the wirless on, and or blue tooth and are using GPS these will all affect you usage time. If watching vids make sure you turn al those off. according to the tablet my wirless eats up 70% of my battery life. I still get a good day out of it.

I like mine a lot it has replaced my laptop for about 60% of what I do, I did get the KB but after I had the TF for a few weeks works great either way.

[simonlang]

i got one and really love it. its very nice to use if you are relaxing on the sofa and makes it easy to still browse the web, watch videos, etc.

also, thanks to the big community, you can by now run ubuntu on it as well, boots in about 10 seconds or so ... sick. :cool:

[ToneKnee]

i got one and really love it. its very nice to use if you are relaxing on the sofa and makes it easy to still browse the web, watch videos, etc.

also, thanks to the big community, you can by now run ubuntu on it as well, boots in about 10 seconds or so ... sick. :cool:

That is correct, you can run Ubuntu on it, but it's early days and there are still problems. I'd give it a miss for another couple of months before going down that route. :)

[simonlang]

That is correct, you can run Ubuntu on it, but it's early days and there are still problems. I'd give it a miss for another couple of months before going down that route. :)

yeah its still a lot of patching and playing arround there ... but... early adopter ftw :p

[Cloud Constructors]

asus transformer is better than the iPad I just got one!

[Detection]

Mine arrived last wednesday, and havent booted the laptop up since !

I agree the battery life is subjective - wifi and BT off make a big difference but I use WiFi all day, never watch videos on it, just games and browsing and general use, and if I do that constantly all day, it won't last 8 hours

But if I dim the screen, turn off all radios and only give it moderate usage, it will last well over a day, probably more like two but havent tested that yet because I like a bright screen and WiFi

Impressed with the speed, although I 100% disagree with anyone who says Androids memory management system works well, it sucks. Why load up every single app I have installed when I have never even ran some of them once yet ?

It DOES affect performance - ending tasks with a task killer gives the tablet back its resources and in turn it becomes the speedy device it was designed to be, but a minute or so after that, all those apps load up again in memory "just incase" I decide to open them - which would be just as quick, if not quicker if it was not running 20+ apps to start with

I know they are not fully running in the background, but they are using enough RAM to pull the tablet down to a juttery slowness that irritates me.

I don't want to root it just yet as I will lose my warranty and OTA updates, and unrooting them has proven difficult for a lot of people, and OTA updates are failing still after unrooting. But rooting is one of the best ways to install things that force the OS not to open every app for no reason, and to remove ads etc

Still apart from that I love it, pleased I chose this over an iPad 2 - and word on the street is we will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich once it is released - and a new firmware update is on its way for Europe tomorrow, and rest of the coutries on the 25th AFAIK

[rajputwarrior]

Mine arrived last wednesday, and havent booted the laptop up since !

I agree the battery life is subjective - wifi and BT off make a big difference but I use WiFi all day, never watch videos on it, just games and browsing and general use, and if I do that constantly all day, it won't last 8 hours

But if I dim the screen, turn off all radios and only give it moderate usage, it will last well over a day, probably more like two but havent tested that yet because I like a bright screen and WiFi

Impressed with the speed, although I 100% disagree with anyone who says Androids memory management system works well, it sucks. Why load up every single app I have installed when I have never even ran some of them once yet ?

It DOES affect performance - ending tasks with a task killer gives the tablet back its resources and in turn it becomes the speedy device it was designed to be, but a minute or so after that, all those apps load up again in memory "just incase" I decide to open them - which would be just as quick, if not quicker if it was not running 20+ apps to start with

I know they are not fully running in the background, but they are using enough RAM to pull the tablet down to a juttery slowness that irritates me.

I don't want to root it just yet as I will lose my warranty and OTA updates, and unrooting them has proven difficult for a lot of people, and OTA updates are failing still after unrooting. But rooting is one of the best ways to install things that force the OS not to open every app for no reason, and to remove ads etc

Still apart from that I love it, pleased I chose this over an iPad 2 - and word on the street is we will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich once it is released - and a new firmware update is on its way for Europe tomorrow, and rest of the coutries on the 25th AFAIK

no you won't. mines rooted since 3.1 and i get OTA updates and the updates don't kill the root :)

[BetaAddict]

My friend got one the moment it got released a couple months ago. Kind of jealous too.

The function aspect of a tablet/netbook combo is endless. Tablet function for home use like video and reading. A lightweight netbook for carrying to class for viewing lecture slides and taking notes.

And with regards to unrooting, community devs have done an awesome job of simplifying the process in most cases to just hooking up the device to the computer, open a program, and click a button. The program runs its script and 15 seconds later you have a rooted/unrooted android device.

[stephen_0002]

i've had mine for a month now, I love it!! it's frecking awesome...

out of all things things I wanted from this tablet, sadly 2 things cannot be done.. one of them is Netflix .... seriously, the tab has been out for almost 6 months and no netlfix support without rooting... the 2nd dissapointmet is lack of video calls skype. Doing some research, it seems it's a combination of programming for the tegra chip, and also lack of app support. Like a "Skype THD" or something would be nice. Maybe it's cause good 'ol microsoft bhought them out, I don't know. Most of my family is on skype so google chat is not an option.

It's be nice one day to just lay on the couch with some netflix and skype...

[helpifIcan]

i've had mine for a month now, I love it!! it's frecking awesome...

out of all things things I wanted from this tablet, sadly 2 things cannot be done.. one of them is Netflix .... seriously, the tab has been out for almost 6 months and no netlfix support without rooting... the 2nd dissapointmet is lack of video calls skype. Doing some research, it seems it's a combination of programming for the tegra chip, and also lack of app support. Like a "Skype THD" or something would be nice. Maybe it's cause good 'ol microsoft bhought them out, I don't know. Most of my family is on skype so google chat is not an option.

It's be nice one day to just lay on the couch with some netflix and skype...

With the last update NETFLIX does work.

Check out this forum

http://www.transformerforums.com

Edit: sorry did not notice you were in Canada, some people in CA have been able to get NF to work others not

[stephen_0002]

yeah I have it side loaded but it's my geographic area ...

skype still disppoints though... it really does.

[Detection]

It seems hit and miss whether OTA updates are working for people after rooting

Someone mentioned it may be ClockWorkMod that is preventing the OTA updates, which, if I rooted this, would be one of the first things I would do

Netflix works now yea, but not in the UK either

To be honest there seems less and less reason for me to root this the longer I have it, and the more I read XDA and Transformer Forums the more I am pleased I haven't

I will one day, when it is not as supported anymore, and the ?500 spent on it doesn't feel so expensive any more, for now though its running great apart from a few apps that work for other people and crash for me, or used to work for me and now don't

But not going to reset the device for a few apps, all in all, happy. Got the 16GB version, and after a few days was thinking maybe I should have gone for the 32GB version, but with 4GB left to play with, and 2 or 3GB being used by things I could delete like videos, music, apk's. I think 16GB is plenty for now.

Plus can add a 32GB Micro SDCard for sticking all those things on in the future if needs be.

For once I can look back at my decision and not wish I had chosen something else