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[Merged] Asus Transformer Prime

N

NDefer

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 11, 2011
75
14
This tablet looks like it may be an actual threat to the ipad, and to be honest I am thinking this tablet might even be better.

Thoughts?

Meet the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the World’s First Supercomputer Tablet
When Apple's Power Mac G4 came out it was classified as a super computer. It had dual-processors! What would the people of the past have made of this tablet computer, which is the first to have a quad-core processor?

Hell, what will the people of today make of it?
On paper this absolutely blows all other tablets out of the water. Besides being the first to use NVIDIA's new quad-core (plus one) Tegra 3 a.k.a. Kal-El processor (click here for an amazing demo of what it can do), it looks gorgeous. The original Asus Eee Pad Transformer was one of the most popular Android tablets of the year, but it was thick and boxy—just sort of a big, boring rectangle. The Transformer Prime is way more attractive. They've swapped out the cheap plastic back for some very nice looking aluminum with a swirl pattern. It is extremely thin and light: 8.3mm (or 0.33 inches) and 586 grams (1.29 pounds), which is slightly thinner and lighter than the iPad 2, despite the Prime's screen being larger by 0.4 inches (10.1 versus 9.7 on the iPad 2). Speaking of the screen, it's a Super IPS+ display (at 1280x800) under Gorilla Glass and has a 178-degree viewing-angle and some proprietary tech that supposedly makes it much brighter. The original Transformer and the Eee Pad Slider both had pretty ho-hum screens, so this is a welcomed upgrade.

Full size
And yes, it's a Transformer Pad, so you know it's got a keyboard dock (sold separately). We liked the original, but this new dock will be thinner and sport an aluminum casing with a revised metallic swirl pattern to match the Prime unit. Touch-screen typing has grown by leaps and bounds, but when you've got to pound out some serious emails there's no substitute for a real keyboard. One of the other main boasting-points is battery life. They claim to have the best battery life on any tablet, with 12 hours of real usage. Attach it to the keyboard dock and that number jumps to a whopping 18 hours. The Tegra 3's advanced power management helps with this.

There's a 1.2 megapixel camera on the front, and an 8 megapixel camera on the back with an impressive F2.4 aperture, and it can record 1080p video. Personally, I'm still not convinced that we need serious cameras on tablets, but what the hell, might as well go nuts, I guess. It's got a micro HDMI port, and if you attach the dock you get a full-sized USB port and an SD card slot, too. They've also pimped out the audio with larger speakers and increased fidelity. Oh, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich should be coming to the Transformer Prime soon. Like, "early December" soon. Like, maybe even before it launches (though Android 3.2 is the official plan).

Obviously, there are a lot of very bold claims here, but if they bear out this will be a killer device. The Tegra 3 chip is just incredibly exciting. Theoretically we should be able to play games that rival the graphics and speed of high-end gaming consoles. I really want to see what developers start creating.

The Eee Pad Transformer Prime will come in two colors ("Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold") and with two sizes of storage: 32GB for $500 and 64GB for $600. Asus flat out said that the Prime is being marketed as a "Premium" device, and that they will continue selling the original Transformer as their more "Mainstream" device at $300 for the 16GB version and $350 for the 32GB. For both Transformers the keyboard docks will cost $150. It would be nice to see all of these prices come down, but seeing as how this is the only quad-core tablet that's been announced so far, it pretty much gets to call the shots. No specific launch date has been given, just "December". Stay tuned.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime
• OS: Android 3.2 or 4.0
• CPU: NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad-Core
• Screen: 10.1-inch Super IPS+ (1280x800)
• RAM: 1GB
• Storage: 32GB/64GB
• Price: $500 for 32GB, $600 for 64GB, $150 for dock

e143130416fc57ad01dab67e536fbea7.jpg

medium_cb021bf3c5aeb626272575d417ef269f.jpg
Click to expand...
 
It's a beast, better than the iPad in every respect. The tech blogs will be on fire once the reviewers get their hands on it later this month or early December.

It will offer competition but it's not going to hurt iPad sales that much, Apple is Apple.
 
Technically, yes. Will it get the same sales? I doubt it. I don't really think tablets are worth $500 for the functionality they provide, albeit.. this does come with a keyboard!

Still, it's hard to sell the average person (especially during a crappy economy) on a $500 tablet... iPad owners nonwithstanding1 They can afford to spend $500 on something that does what a tablet does.
 
JoeG4 said:
Technically, yes. Will it get the same sales? I doubt it. I don't really think tablets are worth $500 for the functionality they provide, albeit.. this does come with a keyboard!

Still, it's hard to sell the average person (especially during a crappy economy) on a $500 tablet... iPad owners nonwithstanding1 They can afford to spend $500 on something that does what a tablet does.
Click to expand...

so your saying ipad owners are the only ones who can afford a 500$ dollar tablet, and thats for a 16gb vs a 32 for 500 you get with asus. I know many people with apple products that dont have much money, they arent for the elite.

500 is pretty standard for a full featured tablet, and people who have a brain would compare value to the dollar, and if you match up this model vs an ipad2, choice is easy
 
I must have failed to state my point:

I said nothing about the tablet not being worthy of its price - I said that tablets in general cost too much for what they can do.

These tablets are generally ARM powered machines with 1024x768 screens. Sure, with a keyboard and all that you're coming VERY CLOSE to the functionality of a computer, but it's still not quite there. Nor is the resolution (granted, it is a smaller screen than most computers have).

If you had $500 and your computer was ancient or non-functional, would you buy one of these? Or would you buy a cheap computer? You tell me.

The technology (and market) for these things hasn't quite reached the point where they can go for $200-300, and I'd guess that $200 is the sweet spot for these things to really take off (take a look at how the HP touchpad kicked off when HP firesale'd it) Ironically, it really is hard for companies to break the $500 price point - especially with that much hardware included.
 
JoeG4 said:
Technically, yes. Will it get the same sales? I doubt it. I don't really think tablets are worth $500 for the functionality they provide, albeit.. this does come with a keyboard!

Still, it's hard to sell the average person (especially during a crappy economy) on a $500 tablet... iPad owners nonwithstanding1 They can afford to spend $500 on something that does what a tablet does.
Click to expand...
It doesn't come with the keyboard. That's an extra $150.

Of course, anyone that owns an iMac already has a keyboard for their ipad, so in many cases a keyboard is free for most of us with an ipad.
 
Mac.World said:
It doesn't come with the keyboard. That's an extra $150.

Of course, anyone that owns an iMac already has a keyboard for their ipad, so in many cases a keyboard is free for most of us with an ipad.
Click to expand...

True. But the great majority of iPad owners don't own an iMac or a MacBook for that matter.
 
I do like the look of the Prime and it's keyboard. Probably because they both look like an ipad and a Macbook Air keyboard. Unfortunately for the Prime, it runs Android. All the tech in the world can't fix that.
 
meatballs said:
Have you tried Android 4.0? Have you tried Android 4.0 on a tablet?

edit to add: F2.4 aperture camera, like the one in the iPhone 4S. Cool.
Click to expand...
Haven't tried 4.0, as i have yet to see a device with it or anyone that has it installed on their phone. Probably because very few people have gotten it yet. You know, that whole problem with manufacturers not allowing their customers to get the latest google OS updates. Yet another issue using Android. #
 
It's good competition, and it has much better hardware but ultimately software is what matters most of all at this point and that's why the iPad is king. Android is good competition for iOS, but the latter is more stable, more secure, more consistent, and in my opinion more elegant. Plus, we've got a better App Store.

Nonetheless I'd like to buy this (if I have the funds) because I want to try out Android and more specifically, ICS.

I can't wait to we see the iPad 3 though:

9.7" IPS 2048x1536 263 PPI display
A6 w/ A15 1GHz quad-core, 1GB of RAM, SGX543MP4 (or newer)
Thinner, lighter, more battery life, etc.

New design? :D
 
I brought a TF after selling my Ipad 2 to then sell the TF again to get an Ipad2 again.Phew.

Firstly the idea of the TF is great, its simple and effective. It just blows the Ipad in every aspect of functionality.

Why did I sell it then?, its a 3 fold reason.

1.Build Quality - Probably unlucky but it developed a fault due to the bezel creaking. The customer care was good though in fixing the issue but I had to send it to the Czech Republic to get it fixed.

2.Apps - There's under a handful of quality apps for the tablet, they lack the polish and quality I found I miss from ios. Its early days yet but there were some problems I just wasn't happy with that annoyed me which were simple i.e a video player like avplayer which could play in the background, to speed control of video playback.

Comic readers were OK, nothing like comiczeal or comiclgass. Perfectcomic viewer was good but it lacked the polish, Komik looked nice but lacked the features.

PDF was slow, it was bearable but it was disappointing.

No good vector apps too.

3.OS - Honeycomb was disappointing, it was only a placeholder OS but it certainly showed in areas where it was particularly weak in terms of occassional lag.


Plus points:

The file system - oh sweet lord this is what makes it so much better, the fact I can have a filesystem that can be utilised by all programs and share. It was bliss and not having to connect to itunes providing me the freedom I wanted.

Keyboard dock - Best setup I seen, nothing comes close and I wish Apple did something similar. All these 3rd party keyboard really have noting until you try this set up. It really is a great design and useful feature which hasn't been emulated.

Ports- oh the ports, another plus.

So yeah I loved the TF but not enough to keep, I probably wait until the Prime reviews come out and ICS before making a decision though. I really want to see Win8 ARM tablets and the future of Android does look rosey.
 
To be honest for my needs I'm not really too fussed about specs. I'd venture to guess that for the a large proportion of tablet users this is also the case.

Software/hardware integration and ease of use are my priorities, and hence I'm not particularly overwhelmed by this.

Show me a retina screen however and Id be pretty excited^^ :)
 
The current Transformer is running android 3.2. The Prime (and the current one) will get Android 4.0 probably before any other new tablets come out with it. Android 4.0 brings hardware accelerated graphics to the UI (and apps) and should eliminate anyone's perception of lag on any tablet that can run it.

I'll reserve final judgement until I can play with one, but the Prime should be a smoker. Not sure why I need four cores on a tablet, but if the Tegra 3's other features improve battery life and turn interaction with it to liquid, then I'm all for it.
 
The sad thing is, this thing may be a bad ars device, but no one will buy it, because it won't be marketed very well. The ecosystem doesn't even compare to iOSs ecosystem, and the world isn't demanding that it has anything other than the iPad at this time.

At 400+ bucks, People want iPads. They don't care that something may have better specs. It's not an iPad. Thats all that matters. To compete with the iPad, I'd say u need to follow the fire and nook model.
 
rirawin said:
I brought a TF after selling my Ipad 2 to then sell the TF again to get an Ipad2 again.Phew.

Firstly the idea of the TF is great, its simple and effective. It just blows the Ipad in every aspect of functionality.

Why did I sell it then?, its a 3 fold reason.

1.Build Quality - Probably unlucky but it developed a fault due to the bezel creaking. The customer care was good though in fixing the issue but I had to send it to the Czech Republic to get it fixed.

2.Apps - There's under a handful of quality apps for the tablet, they lack the polish and quality I found I miss from ios. Its early days yet but there were some problems I just wasn't happy with that annoyed me which were simple i.e a video player like avplayer which could play in the background, to speed control of video playback.

Comic readers were OK, nothing like comiczeal or comiclgass. Perfectcomic viewer was good but it lacked the polish, Komik looked nice but lacked the features.

PDF was slow, it was bearable but it was disappointing.

No good vector apps too.

3.OS - Honeycomb was disappointing, it was only a placeholder OS but it certainly showed in areas where it was particularly weak in terms of occassional lag.


Plus points:

The file system - oh sweet lord this is what makes it so much better, the fact I can have a filesystem that can be utilised by all programs and share. It was bliss and not having to connect to itunes providing me the freedom I wanted.

Keyboard dock - Best setup I seen, nothing comes close and I wish Apple did something similar. All these 3rd party keyboard really have noting until you try this set up. It really is a great design and useful feature which hasn't been emulated.

Ports- oh the ports, another plus.

So yeah I loved the TF but not enough to keep, I probably wait until the Prime reviews come out and ICS before making a decision though. I really want to see Win8 ARM tablets and the future of Android does look rosey.
Click to expand...

This is almost exactly what I went through and feel. I love the concept of the TF, and parts of the Android OS... but there are a few things that held it back... mainly development and polish (both software and hardware).
 
Blakjack said:
The sad thing is, this thing may be a bad ars device, but no one will buy it, because it won't be marketed very well. The ecosystem doesn't even compare to iOSs ecosystem, and the world isn't demanding that it has anything other than the iPad at this time.

At 400+ bucks, People want iPads. They don't care that something may have better specs. It's not an iPad. Thats all that matters. To compete with the iPad, I'd say u need to follow the fire and nook model.
Click to expand...


That isn't true anymore with more Android OS phones a huge customer base is opened and cross pollination between the platform begins. The Prime is only the 2nd generation and without knowing what the other companies are doing I would be surprised if more market share is eaten up to a degree by Android tablets.

What I waiting for is an Android with a digitiser like the Samsung Note so I have a portable art pad. For the time being I have the Ipad2 but it be going asap if someone like that was avaliable.
 
MythicFrost said:
I can't wait to we see the iPad 3 though:

9.7" IPS 2048x1536 263 PPI display
A6 w/ A15 1GHz quad-core, 1GB of RAM, SGX543MP4 (or newer)
Thinner, lighter, more battery life, etc.

New design? :D
Click to expand...

Do you think that GPU will be able to drive a game at that resolution at an acceptable framerate? I kind of doubt it.
 
Of course the GPU will not. However, we could see games scaled down yet Retina for everything else.

Anyway Win8 ARM Tablets and the new Android will make an interesting next year.
 
meatballs said:
Do you think that GPU will be able to drive a game at that resolution at an acceptable framerate? I kind of doubt it.
Click to expand...
Yep.

We're talking about four times more pixels and twice the GPU performance. That is in a worst case scenario going to result in ~half the frame rate. However, considering four times more pixels doesn't necessarily mean four times less frame rate, it could even only be a quarter less frame rate than what we have now.

That's assuming Apple doesn't use a newer PowerVR GPU which I suspect they will, to keep performance the same or better. I hope they do, anyway. They may even end up using the MP2 still considering it isn't being fully utilized yet, although I hope that isn't the case.
 
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