Transformer

[sibbo]

First impressions are very favourable.

The build quality of the tablet is very good, really solid and feels like a nice bit of kit. It feels a little heavier than I was expecting but nothing major.

As has been said before, the screen is excellent, really bright, crisp and clear. It amazes me how much battery life can be achieved using a screen as good as this. I guess a fair percentage of the tablet is a battery though.

From fully off, the tablet boots in around 10-15 seconds. I am going to leave it is standby mode over the next couple of days to see how the battery drains.

On the downside, the asus MyCloud suite was not present on the tablet. I was interested to take a look at this. It will apparently come in the next week or so. The keyboard docking station is not yet available, though I will order it through Asus so should get it in a few weeks.

Not including at least a microUSB port is a bit of a downer but not major. Most of the time a tablet this size will be used in the house so the necessary cable is around.

I think the edging of the tablet should have been made a little less sharp in order to make it a little more comfortable when holding.

As the product works as very much expected, alot of its function is down to whether honeycomb performs or not. So far I like it, though I think it will evolve quite rapidly.

The biggest issue for me is the lack of tablet specific apps. Its currently impossible as far as I can see to locate tablet apps in the Market place. This is a major downer for Android and they need to address it quickly. Nobody wants to buy a nice new tablet and have to use applications that we not really designed for the big screen and multi touch capabilities. Having said that, the standard android apps generally do work ok (of the ones I have tried).

Overall very pleased with the tablet and can't see why anyone would pay around

 

[PSkeptic]

Don't sweat "Tablet Specific Apps" too much. Many, if not most, apps will run fine on a tablet.

 

[sibbo]

Don't sweat "Tablet Specific Apps" too much. Many, if not most, apps will run fine on a tablet.

I agree, but unless applications get specifically designed with tablets in mind its like using the apps on a really big phone

Google knows what they need to do. I think they are just a couple of steps behind the game for a change. I expected to visit the market place using my tablet and be presented with applications suitable for honeycomb.

 

[dbpaddler]

The ipad didn't have tablet specific apps early on and was a giant phone. Honeycomb is on one device at the moment. To expect devs to be all on board wildly making and updating apps is a bit premature. And for the user to expect it at this point doesn't make sense either. At least the Transformer has a tablet based Office app. That's a big plus right there. You want to be an early adopter you have to take the good with the bad.

 

[GeekClass]

The ipad didn't have tablet specific apps early on and was a giant phone. Honeycomb is on one device at the moment. To expect devs to be all on board wildly making and updating apps is a bit premature. And for the user to expect it at this point doesn't make sense either. At least the Transformer has a tablet based Office app. That's a big plus right there. You want to be an early adopter you have to take the good with the bad.

Yeah, I agree. I realize that when I get my Transformer, it will be mainly for the keyboard dock and the ability to use gdocs/polaris. Otherwise, it would be a battle between me justifying getting a tablet or getting an iPad.

I believe more HC optimized apps will come. Hopefully within the next six months. There's no technical issue stopping it, so it's all about how many people own an HC tablet. So I'll be one of them to add to the numbers.

But as years with linux has shown me, it's only so long before a few features (repository, security, UI customizations (I had a nice fluxbox UI going )) aren't that important anymore when you start needing certain apps or you just want something to work.

*hope this doesn't come off as fear mongering*

 

[dbpaddler]

well I think it's safe to say that android is and has been on a roll. Major apps are getting written for it and the iphone side by side where as in the past it was the iphone and android would get one months later. In the next two months honeycomb tabs will proliferate the market in all their dual core (outside the Flyer) goodness, and from the major companies no less (moto, htc, asus, acer, samsung). And I think many will want to embrace it if nothing more than to stick it to Apple. No offense to them, but some just embrace anything that isn't Apple. So I have no fear adopting early, living with phone based apps in some cases and growing with the format.