Asus Eee Pad Transformer (tablet/laptop hybrid) first impressions and ongoing review

[Prometheus]

^ I quite agree on usage changing over time - in this case I think that's helped a great deal by how flexible this particular package is.


My thoughts for day four are also short, as again the earlier issues are not presenting so much of a problem now, nor getting in the way as much.


I'm finding myself using the Transformer in laptop-mode a lot at this point, as it works very well this way. If you've heard the old geek saying about technology that's been well-thought-through working such that it would be almost indistinguishable from magic if you didn't know better, that about sums this part up.


The autonomy afforded by the very long battery-life is great, too - I haven't had to charge it in a couple of days, even. There is a stark contrast here to the x86-based hardware that I had been using previously (and to which there have been no real, or at least easily-available, alternatives until very recently), which required proximity to a wall outlet most of the time in spite of being advertised as having a battery-life of around seven hours, which I've never seen it get even under very light usage (as an aside, I think that the way that manufacturers of such hardware here are allowed to advertise battery-lives that are not possible to attain given the way that most people use their computers really should not be allowed). It's nice to see mobile computing finally being permitted to become truly portable without x86 processors holding it back in this way, and of course, the electricity savings that have already occurred are a great boon, too.

 

[Kaepora Gaebora]

Prom, what are your main uses going to be for the device? Or how did you envision yourself using it? Purely for fun and simple computer use, or anything for work/business?


I won an iPad almost one year ago, and at first I thought I would use it somewhat in my business world. However, this changed simply because touchscreen is horrible for typing and the UI is horrible for using Bluetooth keyboards. Rather than selling the item, though, I've found that it was really good for web browsing and the gaming that iOS has to offer. It's more or less become a couch companion and comes with me when I travel and don't need my laptop. My use with it is limited, but I really enjoy the fast and simple UI that has never failed me.

 

[Prometheus]

Prom, what are your main uses going to be for the device? Or how did you envision yourself using it? Purely for fun and simple computer use, or anything for work/business?

A bit of both, and it seems to be doing quite well at that, for my requirements.


I've found a decent text-editor now (Jota), although I haven't yet seen how it copes with large files (I'll test that soon enough), and it seems that Polaris Office can read, but not write, them, so I'm all set writing-wise, now (although my novel will remain exclusively written on my Pandora ).

However, this changed simply because touchscreen is horrible for typing and the UI is horrible for using Bluetooth keyboards.

Typing on a touch-screen certainly is a weird experience. I can't use the Transformer for large amounts of writing without the keyboard half, as it's not really suited for getting work done on in that configuration, but for quick notes I guess that's alright.

Rather than selling the item, though, I've found that it was really good for web browsing and the gaming that iOS has to offer. It's more or less become a couch companion and comes with me when I travel and don't need my laptop. My use with it is limited, but I really enjoy the fast and simple UI that has never failed me.

I must admit, the only gaming I'm doing with this device during downtime is Angry Birds, since it's so well-suited to capacitive screens (I briefly tried it using the mouse pointer provided by the dock's trackpad, and playing it that way just feels "off", somehow). Outside of that, I've got my Nintendo 3DS and Pandora for gaming (and the latter for more writing, as well :lol: ), so I don't know how much of the Android gaming scene I'll be venturing into.


Android's UI seems a bit less simple than the iPad's, from what I've seen (and as I said before, the sometimes-cryptic icons-only approach, where text would do a better job, does lose it a few points), but it's certainly as fast to get around. Tablet-mode is definitely "couch companion mode", with this one, I think. :lol:

 

[hakmanplayer]

Prom, what are your main uses going to be for the device? Or how did you envision yourself using it? Purely for fun and simple computer use, or anything for work/business?

A bit of both, and it seems to be doing quite well at that, for my requirements.


I've found a decent text-editor now (Jota), although I haven't yet seen how it copes with large files (I'll test that soon enough), and it seems that Polaris Office can read, but not write, them, so I'm all set writing-wise, now (although my novel will remain exclusively written on my Pandora ).

However, this changed simply because touchscreen is horrible for typing and the UI is horrible for using Bluetooth keyboards.

Typing on a touch-screen certainly is a weird experience. I can't use the Transformer for large amounts of writing without the keyboard half, as it's not really suited for getting work done on in that configuration, but for quick notes I guess that's alright.

Rather than selling the item, though, I've found that it was really good for web browsing and the gaming that iOS has to offer. It's more or less become a couch companion and comes with me when I travel and don't need my laptop. My use with it is limited, but I really enjoy the fast and simple UI that has never failed me.

I must admit, the only gaming I'm doing with this device during downtime is Angry Birds, since it's so well-suited to capacitive screens (I briefly tried it using the mouse pointer provided by the dock's trackpad, and playing it that way just feels "off", somehow). Outside of that, I've got my Nintendo 3DS and Pandora for gaming (and the latter for more writing, as well :lol: ), so I don't know how much of the Android gaming scene I'll be venturing into.


Android's UI seems a bit less simple than the iPad's, from what I've seen (and as I said before, the sometimes-cryptic icons-only approach, where text would do a better job, does lose it a few points), but it's certainly as fast to get around. Tablet-mode is definitely "couch companion mode", with this one, I think. :lol:

Ipad 2 is sooo much better.


The OS is superior; simpler and more concise , the screen resolution is superior and nothing can beat 'Facetime' IMHO .


Do you understand?

 

[Kaepora Gaebora]

Prom, what are your main uses going to be for the device? Or how did you envision yourself using it? Purely for fun and simple computer use, or anything for work/business?

A bit of both, and it seems to be doing quite well at that, for my requirements.


I've found a decent text-editor now (Jota), although I haven't yet seen how it copes with large files (I'll test that soon enough), and it seems that Polaris Office can read, but not write, them, so I'm all set writing-wise, now (although my novel will remain exclusively written on my Pandora ).

However, this changed simply because touchscreen is horrible for typing and the UI is horrible for using Bluetooth keyboards.

Typing on a touch-screen certainly is a weird experience. I can't use the Transformer for large amounts of writing without the keyboard half, as it's not really suited for getting work done on in that configuration, but for quick notes I guess that's alright.

Rather than selling the item, though, I've found that it was really good for web browsing and the gaming that iOS has to offer. It's more or less become a couch companion and comes with me when I travel and don't need my laptop. My use with it is limited, but I really enjoy the fast and simple UI that has never failed me.

I must admit, the only gaming I'm doing with this device during downtime is Angry Birds, since it's so well-suited to capacitive screens (I briefly tried it using the mouse pointer provided by the dock's trackpad, and playing it that way just feels "off", somehow). Outside of that, I've got my Nintendo 3DS and Pandora for gaming (and the latter for more writing, as well :lol: ), so I don't know how much of the Android gaming scene I'll be venturing into.


Android's UI seems a bit less simple than the iPad's, from what I've seen (and as I said before, the sometimes-cryptic icons-only approach, where text would do a better job, does lose it a few points), but it's certainly as fast to get around. Tablet-mode is definitely "couch companion mode", with this one, I think. :lol:

Ipad 2 is sooo much better.


The OS is superior; simpler and more concise , the screen resolution is superior and nothing can beat 'Facetime' IMHO .


Do you understand?

I understand, but that is your opinion. I can see the draw for an Android tablet, even though I am an iPad user.


Facetime is a little overrated to me, since the amount of users is limited and (without jailbreaking) cannot be used unless on wifi.

 

[hakmanplayer]

Prom, what are your main uses going to be for the device? Or how did you envision yourself using it? Purely for fun and simple computer use, or anything for work/business?

A bit of both, and it seems to be doing quite well at that, for my requirements.


I've found a decent text-editor now (Jota), although I haven't yet seen how it copes with large files (I'll test that soon enough), and it seems that Polaris Office can read, but not write, them, so I'm all set writing-wise, now (although my novel will remain exclusively written on my Pandora ).

However, this changed simply because touchscreen is horrible for typing and the UI is horrible for using Bluetooth keyboards.

Typing on a touch-screen certainly is a weird experience. I can't use the Transformer for large amounts of writing without the keyboard half, as it's not really suited for getting work done on in that configuration, but for quick notes I guess that's alright.

Rather than selling the item, though, I've found that it was really good for web browsing and the gaming that iOS has to offer. It's more or less become a couch companion and comes with me when I travel and don't need my laptop. My use with it is limited, but I really enjoy the fast and simple UI that has never failed me.

I must admit, the only gaming I'm doing with this device during downtime is Angry Birds, since it's so well-suited to capacitive screens (I briefly tried it using the mouse pointer provided by the dock's trackpad, and playing it that way just feels "off", somehow). Outside of that, I've got my Nintendo 3DS and Pandora for gaming (and the latter for more writing, as well :lol: ), so I don't know how much of the Android gaming scene I'll be venturing into.


Android's UI seems a bit less simple than the iPad's, from what I've seen (and as I said before, the sometimes-cryptic icons-only approach, where text would do a better job, does lose it a few points), but it's certainly as fast to get around. Tablet-mode is definitely "couch companion mode", with this one, I think. :lol:

Ipad 2 is sooo much better.


The OS is superior; simpler and more concise , the screen resolution is superior and nothing can beat 'Facetime' IMHO .


Do you understand?

I understand, but that is your opinion. I can see the draw for an Android tablet, even though I am an iPad user.


Facetime is a little overrated to me, since the amount of users is limited and (without jailbreaking) cannot be used unless on wifi.

You are wrong about Facetime with wifi only. I don't know where you reside but where I am from, we can use Facetime with 3g without jail braking.
and...i am talking about ipad2 not the original ipad.


i like the android and i also own a XPERIA PLAY phone but Prometheus's tablet is a low budget one that cannot hold up spec wise with the ipad 2 .


Do you understand that?

 

[Kaepora Gaebora]

You are wrong about Facetime with wifi only. I don't know where you reside but where I am from, we can use Facetime with 3g without jail braking.


and...i am talking about ipad2 not the original ipad.


i like the android and i also own a XPERIA PLAY phone but Prometheus's tablet is a low budget one that cannot hold up spec wise with the ipad 2 .


Do you understand that?

I was unaware about the 3G facetime.


What is the point you're trying to make about understanding?

 

[hakmanplayer]

You are wrong about Facetime with wifi only. I don't know where you reside but where I am from, we can use Facetime with 3g without jail braking.


and...i am talking about ipad2 not the original ipad.


i like the android and i also own a XPERIA PLAY phone but Prometheus's tablet is a low budget one that cannot hold up spec wise with the ipad 2 .


Do you understand that?

I was unaware about the 3G facetime.


What is the point you're trying to make about understanding?

People say they do not understand my typing. So I want to be sure I am understood.

 

[Prometheus]

Day five has been fun. Firstly, I took some photographs;

The back of the tablet is shown here. The metal rectangle at the bottom is the hinge part of the dock, which, obviously, is absent when in tablet mode.

The Transformer is shown here docked, and in laptop mode. It's standing up like that because, otherwise, the flash kept obscuring the image badly due to bouncing off the screen and onto everything else. :lol: Adding the dock gives the Eee Pad Transformer the form-factor of a 10" netbook. Asus has learned from their previous centre-of-gravity issues with the early EeePC models, too, because even though all of the guts, and one of the battery-packs, is in the screen half of the device, it stands up perfectly stably, and doesn't so much as even try to topple over, whether it's on your lap or on a desk (anyone who never owned an early EeePC probably isn't familiar with this, but with those devices, the battery was in a strange place, and the unit would frequently tip or lean backwards, making it a bit awkward to use at times).

Here's the Eee Pad in undocked form. I probably should have put my Kindle or some other familiar device nearby for size comparison, but I forgot to. Oh well. As an aside, the background image seen here is one of the promotional desktop backgrounds for the second album of the Mega Man-themed band "The Protomen".

A look at the dock on its own. The Asus logo on the hinge looks almost as if it's doubled, here, but that's just the work of the flash. The hinge part has an inner lining (which seems to be either microfibre or some form of flannel fabric), in order to prevent the lower part of the tablet half's casing from being dinged or scratched by the metal - a nice touch, I think. You can also see that some typical keys that are seen on x86-based machines are absent, replaced with ones relevant to the Android operating system, instead.


Photographs aside, today I spotted a screenshot key on the keyboard (and with a tiny bit of digging it turns out that there's an option for this in tablet-mode, as well) - pressing it automatically saves a screenshot into a pre-defined directory that exists specifically for this purpose. It's something that I've always wanted to see, as it's less cumbersome than trying to press a key combination when, for example, you're trying to get a screenshot of an application where this simply isn't convenient to do - I think that every OS should have something that's more like this, even if only as an option that you have to toggle on by yourself.


The screenshots below are in spoiler tags, because at 1280x800 they're a bit big to just post up as-is.

Spoiler

This is the text editor, Jota, from the Android Market. Apparently it can handle text files of up to one million characters (although I'm not sure that this will be enough, eventually!), which as you can see, this screenshot was testing out.

Spoiler

High-resolution Angry Birds, on one of the notoriously irritating levels that crops up early on.

Spoiler

The main screen of Polaris Office (an application included on-board by Asus, which doesn't appear to be on the Android Market; I'm guessing that they licensed a port for inclusion with their hardware), with the "New File" dialogue open.

Spoiler

A second screenshot of Polaris Office, showing it in document-editing mode.

Spoiler

A home-screen shot with the tablet in portrait orientation, with a background depicting the computer AI, Holly, from the British deep space sitcom Red Dwarf. He seemed to be a pretty appropriate desktop background for a device such as this, given how he moves from computerised-device to computerised-device in the series of his origin.

Spoiler

One last screenshot, this time of the home-screen in a landscape view, with a desktop background of Kirby. When changing the background to this I discovered, while trying out some other images, that whilst PNG and JPEG images are zoomed in and panned across if you set them as desktop images, Android does not seem to apply the same to GIF images, which instead are simply displayed at whatever their native size happens to be. I'm going to experiment with this some more when I have a free moment.


All of that aside, I noticed something about charging: The Transformer can't always be charged from some computers' USB ports if you leave it docked and in sleep mode, as it seems to try to draw too much power for this. I'm going to look into that more, though, as it may be entirely to do with the dock, rather than sleep mode. Obviously, when connected to the supplied USB-enabled wall-adapter, this isn't an issue!


That's all for today.

 

[hakmanplayer]

Day five has been fun. Firstly, I took some photographs;

The back of the tablet is shown here. The metal rectangle at the bottom is the hinge part of the dock, which, obviously, is absent when in tablet mode.

The Transformer is shown here docked, and in laptop mode. It's standing up like that because, otherwise, the flash kept obscuring the image badly due to bouncing off the screen and onto everything else. :lol: Adding the dock gives the Eee Pad Transformer the form-factor of a 10" netbook. Asus has learned from their previous centre-of-gravity issues with the early EeePC models, too, because even though all of the guts, and one of the battery-packs, is in the screen half of the device, it stands up perfectly stably, and doesn't so much as even try to topple over, whether it's on your lap or on a desk (anyone who never owned an early EeePC probably isn't familiar with this, but with those devices, the battery was in a strange place, and the unit would frequently tip or lean backwards, making it a bit awkward to use at times).

Here's the Eee Pad in undocked form. I probably should have put my Kindle or some other familiar device nearby for size comparison, but I forgot to. Oh well. As an aside, the background image seen here is one of the promotional desktop backgrounds for the second album of the Mega Man-themed band "The Protomen".

A look at the dock on its own. The Asus logo on the hinge looks almost as if it's doubled, here, but that's just the work of the flash. The hinge part has an inner lining (which seems to be either microfibre or some form of flannel fabric), in order to prevent the lower part of the tablet half's casing from being dinged or scratched by the metal - a nice touch, I think. You can also see that some typical keys that are seen on x86-based machines are absent, replaced with ones relevant to the Android operating system, instead.


Photographs aside, today I spotted a screenshot key on the keyboard (and with a tiny bit of digging it turns out that there's an option for this in tablet-mode, as well) - pressing it automatically saves a screenshot into a pre-defined directory that exists specifically for this purpose. It's something that I've always wanted to see, as it's less cumbersome than trying to press a key combination when, for example, you're trying to get a screenshot of an application where this simply isn't convenient to do - I think that every OS should have something that's more like this, even if only as an option that you have to toggle on by yourself.


The screenshots below are in spoiler tags, because at 1280x800 they're a bit big to just post up as-is.

Spoiler

Spoiler

This is the text editor, Jota, from the Android Market. Apparently it can handle text files of up to one million characters (although I'm not sure that this will be enough, eventually!), which as you can see, this screenshot was testing out.

High-resolution Angry Birds, on one of the notoriously irritating levels that crops up early on.

Spoiler

The main screen of Polaris Office (an application included on-board by Asus, which doesn't appear to be on the Android Market; I'm guessing that they licensed a port for inclusion with their hardware), with the "New File" dialogue open.

Spoiler

A second screenshot of Polaris Office, showing it in document-editing mode.

Spoiler

A home-screen shot with the tablet in portrait orientation, with a background depicting the computer AI, Holly, from the British deep space sitcom Red Dwarf. He seemed to be a pretty appropriate desktop background for a device such as this, given how he moves from computerised-device to computerised-device in the series of his origin.

Spoiler

One last screenshot, this time of the home-screen in a landscape view, with a desktop background of Kirby. When changing the background to this I discovered, while trying out some other images, that whilst PNG and JPEG images are zoomed in and panned across if you set them as desktop images, Android does not seem to apply the same to GIF images, which instead are simply displayed at whatever their native size happens to be. I'm going to experiment with this some more when I have a free moment.


All of that aside, I noticed something about charging: The Transformer can't always be charged from some computers' USB ports if you leave it docked and in sleep mode, as it seems to try to draw too much power for this. I'm going to look into that more, though, as it may be entirely to do with the dock, rather than sleep mode. Obviously, when connected to the supplied USB-enabled wall-adapter, this isn't an issue!


That's all for today.


Pictures?? Which picture is going to be the July centerfold??


it's just a damn tablet-laptop.


It's like this was your first born!!!!


I think you are getting a little too carried away with this device. Or is it like a child to you? Or perhaps a lover ????


oooh i am getting a bit wet ...oh those sexy hinges!!!!

 

[Nintendo]

lol

 

[DaMummy]

you and your damn mega man....

 

[Timstertoo]

I'll be picking one up either this week or next week. They're finally becoming available over here.


Already have over 100 gigs of comics waiting for it Not that I have time to read them but it's the thought that counts.


Have you tried it with Office365? That's where I see most use of the keyboard for me.


Thanks for the huge writeup!


Sent from my MotoA953 using Tapatalk

 

[Nintendo]

I'll be getting my tablet in the next 3 or 4 months.

 

[ibisum]

As an AI Touchbook owner, I'm finding this thread absolutely infuriating. Center of Gravity? FUCK YOU AI!





(Off to buy myself a Transformer ..)

 

[Nintendo]

(Off to buy myself a Transformer ..)

 

[ibisum]

Shit, anyone know where to buy one here in Europe (Austria, Vienna)? I don't wanna pay import taxes to buy it from Amazon/the US.

 

[Timstertoo]

Should not be too long, they are being sent out to pre orders in the Netherlands.


I live in Amsterdam and they can be in the shop any day now.


Sent from my MotoA953 using Tapatalk

 

[Prometheus]

I'm UK-based, and they're definitely out here, so I don't doubt they're available in other European territories already, or at least soon will be.


My thoughts for day six are gaming-related, incidentally. I tried out a few games today - Meganoid, Hyperactive Ninja Lite, and the aptly-named Pinball.


Meganoid is an 80s/90s-styled platform game (which happens to have some rather great music, incidentally), and in tablet-mode it's not very well-suited to this device - the capacitive touch-screen controls for this are exactly like those Turbo Touch 360 controllers of olden times were described as handling like. However, it has options to use a joypad (presumably USB or Bluetooth), the Game Gripper, a Wii Remote, or a keyboard. Setting it to keyboard controls, the game's keys were not mapped as was claimed on the options screen ("A" for left, "S" for right, and "P" for jump), but instead much more intuitively to the arrow keys (left for left, right for right, and up for jump). This one is highly recommended if you have any of the alternative controllers that it supports. Not so much if you're using a touch-screen only.


Hyperactive Ninja Lite can only be played with a touch-screen, and it must be in portrait orientation. The ninja , Kohimaru (who is, appropriately, on a quest to retrieve stolen coffee) moves on his own, and you touch the screen to control his jumps. It's quite good, and a better example of what works with a primarily touch-based device.


It seems that tablets are well-suited to pinball games. Pinball is decent, though its physics are a bit wonky, so I'll be trying some more from this genre. (I'll probably buy Pinball HD for Tegra, as well, since the Eee Pad Transformer is nVidia Tegra 2 based.)


Minor gaming slant aside, I figured out what was up with charging over USB: Precisely nothing.


It turns out that the Transformer, rather counterintuitively, flashes its charging light whilst charging, and makes it solid once it is done. The only times I've previously seen charging lights flash in that fashion were when enough power couldn't be drawn, and I had incorrectly assumed that that was what was happening here. Thankfully, it turns out that that wasn't the case.


Last of all, for today, anyone who's looking to buy one needs to be aware of the utterly terrifying noise that it makes once it reaches having roughly 10% charge left, which it does even if it's in sleep mode. I got woken up by this bizarre noise which sounded like, and I'm not kidding, some of the smaller (and by smaller, I mean "man-sized") Reaverbots from MegaMan Legends. I wondered what the hell it was, and went back to sleep, only to be woken up by it several more times. It wasn't until I got up and picked it up, opened it, and found it making that noise right in my face that I figured out where on Earth it was coming from. :lol: So, a word of warning: You might want to turn the volume down at night, especially if it might drop to a low enough charge level during that time to make it sound like Reaverbots have popped out of your walls.


EDIT: Oh, and I forgot one minor niggle. I was trying to listen to Retro Arcade Radio (a station hosted on Live365) in the stock browser, and it won't play unless the tab is in focus. That's a bit unfortunate. That said, the Live365 application for Android is currently in subscribers-only beta, so it might not be too long before it's available to everyone.

 

[hakmanplayer]

I'm UK-based, and they're definitely out here, so I don't doubt they're available in other European territories already, or at least soon will be.


My thoughts for day six are gaming-related, incidentally. I tried out a few games today - Meganoid, Hyperactive Ninja Lite, and the aptly-named Pinball.


Meganoid is an 80s/90s-styled platform game (which happens to have some rather great music, incidentally), and in tablet-mode it's not very well-suited to this device - the capacitive touch-screen controls for this are exactly like those Turbo Touch 360 controllers of olden times were described as handling like. However, it has options to use a joypad (presumably USB or Bluetooth), the Game Gripper, a Wii Remote, or a keyboard. Setting it to keyboard controls, the game's keys were not mapped as was claimed on the options screen ("A" for left, "S" for right, and "P" for jump), but instead much more intuitively to the arrow keys (left for left, right for right, and up for jump). This one is highly recommended if you have any of the alternative controllers that it supports. Not so much if you're using a touch-screen only.


Hyperactive Ninja Lite can only be played with a touch-screen, and it must be in portrait orientation. The ninja , Kohimaru (who is, appropriately, on a quest to retrieve stolen coffee) moves on his own, and you touch the screen to control his jumps. It's quite good, and a better example of what works with a primarily touch-based device.


It seems that tablets are well-suited to pinball games. Pinball is decent, though its physics are a bit wonky, so I'll be trying some more from this genre. (I'll probably buy Pinball HD for Tegra, as well, since the Eee Pad Transformer is nVidia Tegra 2 based.)


Minor gaming slant aside, I figured out what was up with charging over USB: Precisely nothing.


It turns out that the Transformer, rather counterintuitively, flashes its charging light whilst charging, and makes it solid once it is done. The only times I've previously seen charging lights flash in that fashion were when enough power couldn't be drawn, and I had incorrectly assumed that that was what was happening here. Thankfully, it turns out that that wasn't the case.


Last of all, for today, anyone who's looking to buy one needs to be aware of the utterly terrifying noise that it makes once it reaches having roughly 10% charge left, which it does even if it's in sleep mode. I got woken up by this bizarre noise which sounded like, and I'm not kidding, some of the smaller (and by smaller, I mean "man-sized") Reaverbots from MegaMan Legends. I wondered what the hell it was, and went back to sleep, only to be woken up by it several more times. It wasn't until I got up and picked it up, opened it, and found it making that noise right in my face that I figured out where on Earth it was coming from. :lol: So, a word of warning: You might want to turn the volume down at night, especially if it might drop to a low enough charge level during that time to make it sound like Reaverbots have popped out of your walls.


EDIT: Oh, and I forgot one minor niggle. I was trying to listen to Retro Arcade Radio (a station hosted on Live365) in the stock browser, and it won't play unless the tab is in focus. That's a bit unfortunate. That said, the Live365 application for Android is currently in subscribers-only beta, so it might not be too long before it's available to everyone.

you bought this f...king thing to play pinball??


are you sick?