Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 Review: A Breakthrough Performer - youngtwored

The stylish Asus Eee Aggrandize Transformer Prime TF201 delivers both flooding performance and high value, a rare compounding in the world of Android tablets. IT uses Nvidia's Tegra 3 central processor, which powers the tablet to several operation firsts and delivered terrific image art rendering in games optimized for the new C.P.U.. Given its promised future upgrade to Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich and its incoming-gen technology, non to citation its appealing price–$499 for the 32GB model and $599 for 64GB (prices as of 11/30/2011)–the Transformer Prime represents ane of the best tab values today.

Design

The first matter that will catch your eyeball about the Transformer Flower is its svelte design. It measures 10.35 by 7.12 by 0.33 inches, and weighs 1.29 pounds. That's a net reduction in size up and weight from the underived Eee Pad Transformer TF101, which measured 10.7 by 6.9 by 0.5 inches, and weighed 1.4 pounds. The TF201 also ranks as among the thinnest and lightest tablets on sales event up to now: Only Apple's iPad 2 (0.3 inches bottomless and 1.33 pounds) and Samsung's Galaxy Pill 10.1 (0.34 inches and 1.24 pounds) best information technology today.

Unlike its plastic-enclosed predecessor, the Transformer Prime has an aluminum backplane (in "Amethyst Gray" or "Champagne Gold"), with a matching impressionable bezel bridging the edges between the back and surface. The overall look on is gracious and the innovation solid, a combining that's off the beaten track preferable to the comparatively klunky operating theatre plasticky designs we've seen from other Android tablets this year.

In spite of its shallow profundity, Asus manages to fit in several ports, a feat that neither Apple nor Samsung realised in their aforementioned models. The dockage interface runs along the tablet's horizontal length, and on the left side are both a microHDMI port and a microSD card slot. At the top of the leftfield side is the mass rocker; this is a fresh, and uncommon, arrangement for volume controls, given the likeliness that you'll need to adapt volume while watching TV and holding the tablet in landscape mode. The compounding 3.5mm audio jack (for microphone input) and sound-out sits happening the right butt of the tablet (operating theatre bottom, if held in portrait musical mode). The power button is at the top unexpended edge up landscape mode, Oregon on the top compensate edge up portraiture fashion, and it has a ready to hand, tiny dot that glows red while the tablet is charging.

A concluding noteworthy point about the Transformer Select's intent is its ability to pair with the Transformer Prime Keyboard Bobtail. The likes of the original Transformer (which corpse in Asus' batting order at a shrunken toll) the Transformer Prime pairs with a keyboard dockage pedestal that in effect turns the tablet into a compact, easy-to-tote software packag that adds just 0.41 inches deep and 1.18 pounds to the tablet. The dock is also made of aluminum, and has a intense build quality. Typewriting on it felt substantial and natural; and the clickpad-style multitouch-gesture-capable touchpad makes a worthwhile alternative to using an external Bluetooth tablet keyboard (typically, so much keyboards coif not include a pointing device). Even better: This $149 option includes a USB 2.0 port, an SDHC visiting card reader, and an additional battery for equal to a claimed 18 hours of battery life.

Performance and Display

As the first tablet with Nvidia's 1.3-GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, the Transformer Prime was primed to make a performance splash. And it did, almost literally, in our impersonal and personal tests. We needed to look no further than the Tegra 3-optimized game Riptide GP, which makes the splash of water droplets look realistic happening the tablet's exhibit, to know that we were looking at the next coevals of Android tablets.

This is not to say that we saw dramatic improvements in every aspect of tablet treatment. But the Transformer Prime readjust the bar along many of the PCWorld Labs' tests.

At the heart of the Tegra 3 processor is Nvidia's Variable quantity Symmetric Multiprocessing technology, which optimizes the platform's quad-core Cortex A9 CPU performance, switching the processing load to a lower-powered fifth Cerebral mantle A9 CPU core for less tightened tasks that don't require processing oomph. All that happens seamlessly in the background.

For those World Health Organization want to be more proactive in managing the Transformer Prime's performance, Asus besides provides ternion system of rules performance modes, lifted from the company's laptop settings. This is the first tablet I've seen with such modes, and they do make a tangible difference in both aspects of public presentation. The modal mode optimizes for maximum processing performance; the equal mode optimizes for a many middle-of-the-road feel for crowned at 1.2GHz operation; and the power nest egg mode uses up to 1GHz performance to optimize battery life. These adjustments resulted in very different usage experiences. Interestingly, the normal mood ma perceptibly zippier, and the different levels did impact some of our functioning results, but in less CPU-intense examples, the differences were negligible.

The almost significant result in our gambling performance tests: The Transformer Prime logged 53 frames per second, the highest frame rate we've seen on the GLBenchmark 2.0.3 Egypt test with none antialiasing. This result topped the Apple iPad 2's premature record of 46 fps, and it just low the Android masses we've tested, which averaged 18 fps and topped out at 34 fps (for the 7-inch Acer Iconia Tab A100). The results happening the GLBenchmark Pro mental test were similarly decisive, at to the lowest degree in the Prime's triumph over other Android tablets. Here, the Prime tied the iPad with 58 fps, ahead of the Iconia Tab A100 at 49 FPS, and the trio of the Samsung Wandflower Tab 10.1, the Sony Tablet S, and the Toshiba Get ahead, which were all tied at 40 fps.

Graphics in some games appear awe-inspiring. Riptide GP has water that ripples with unexpected realism, and the droplets that splatter stun. According to Nvidia, the game's developer takes advantage of the Tegra 3's additive pel- and texture-processing capabilities on the GPU for that water effect, using the quad-core CPU to do echt-prison term physics calculations of how the waves interact with the Jet Skis.

The Glowball demo on our test tablet was as impressive. The reflectivity and light refraction in the Sea Floor level drew gasps. And while Bladeslinger's statute title character from time to tim moved stiffly, the level of detail and dimensionality to the images impressed. The most conclusive example of the Transformer Prime's gaming art came when I compared the preloaded ShadowGun tech demo on the Premier, optimized for Tegra 3, with the standard version of ShadowGun on an iPad 2. The remainder in the gaming experience was visceral, and drew oohs and aahs from colleagues who gathered to interpret what the fuss was about. The water and smoke effects stunned, flags flapped more course, and the detail in the floor was obvious even to the casual observer.

And since Nvidia has added support for popular game controllers, including those from the Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Wii, and even USB gamepads, the Transformer Prime appears to be a leading competition for those chasing the ultimate Android gaming experience. The trick testament be in getting the software to gimmick up to the hardware: Currently only three games—Riptide, Zen Pinball, and Sprinkle—are Tegra 3-optimized; a quartern, the shipping version of the Tegra 3-optimized ShadowGun, should be available shortly.

In our SunSpider 0.9.1 JavaScript benchmark, the Prime leapt to the head of the class, taking just 1.8 seconds to complete the test, 0.1 second ahead of the Acer Iconia Chit A500, and 0.2 seconds better than the iPad 2. We had some conflicting results in our page lade tests, however, and are looking into what may have caused this, and will update later with the full results.

One execution metric where the Transformer Prime thwarted was in file in transfer speeds. Compared with Humanoid 3.x tablets and the iPad 2, the Prime was 1 of the slowest models we've tested at writing to the tablet, lagging every but the Sony Tablet S. Transferring data off the tablet, on the another had, was more competitive.

Another disappointment was audio. Through the awkwardly positioned monoaural speaker, music sounded muddied. My prove tracks were missing the highs and lows, and at multiplication sounded as if they were coming through in an echo bedchamber, even though the speaker itself was not blocked by my hand (which could take place easily, given the verbalizer's position at the rear edge).

Display and Image Seize

By demarcation, the Transformer Prime exceeded expectations with its 1280-by-800-pixel display. The Flower is the commencement tablet in the PCWorld Labs with a SuperIPS+ display, which adds brightness to make the tablet more usable outdoors. When enabled, the SuperIPS+ mode increases brightness to 600 nits, up from the standard mode's uttermost of 380 nits. Inside, the core is minimum. But outer, in bright sunlight, this makes a boastful difference. I notwithstandin wouldn't recommend using the tablet for reading outside, simply you at least now have a fighting chance at seeing the camera controls and what you're focusing on, operating room looking at the represent you've known as up to solve to get someplace. The full viewing lean on preserves colours, and makes the Prime idealised for sharing the sort with a small group, be it for business presentations operating theater sharing a video.

Images looked good, as well, with better colors and sharper images than on the novel Transformer. That said, I observed that our test tablet appeared to have a warmer color temperature than its predecessor, which caused a yellow cast that made or s whites appear more than dispatch-white, and made skin tones appear jaundiced. Asus believes this may have been a flaw in our test whole; I'll update this textual matter after observing the same content on a second unit.

Our test unit on occasion appeared to have difficulty automatically translation towering-resolution images. This resulted in images that appeared slightly muzzy until I constrained the figure of speech to translate properly by tapping on it, or pinching and zooming. I've seen suchlike glitches on other tablets, and the Prime's offense was fewer obvious than those. Neither Asus nor Nvidia had an answer as to wherefore I determined this, which leaves Pine Tree State to wonder whether it could be something in Mechanical man 3.2.1.

As very much like I found to alike in the reveal overall, there's stillroom for improvement in hardware and software. The air gap between the Gorilla Field glass surface and the LCD beneath is unmoving noticeable, though IT's smaller and less glarey than on the original Transformer. The oleophobic coating on the screen didn't do much to mitigate fingerprints smudges. And text rendering in e-reader apps was still noticeably weak. Text rendering on Android tablets and the iPad as a whole remains an issue; perceived quality is very heavily symbiotic connected the software, on which fonts you're using, and along how swimmingly that font is rendered. Woefully, the display doesn't up the pixels per edge in, unlike the display for the T-Mobile Jumping-off point or the coming Toshiba Thrive 7-edge.

The erect-facing camera carries the best specs we've seen yet–8 megapixels–but a to a greater extent walker 1.2 megapixels for the front-facing camera. The rear television camera has a flash and a thick-aperture f2.4 lens for shooting in low-light situations. But don't toss your dedicated point-and-frivol away just yet; approximately casual test images looked good, far healthier than those on new tablets, but they were still were noisy, even in bright daytime, and lost point and sharpness at full resolving power.

Asus' Software Touches

Beyond the obvious supercharge in CPU carrying out and gaming, the benefits of the quad-core Tegra 3 wasn't evident altogether activities. Touch screen swiping was smoother, e.g., but in oecumenical, navigation, multitasking, and in-app experiences didn't feel dramatically faster.

Granted, many a everyday tasks may non command the additive power of quartet cores. Only it's also verisimilar that none of the software implicated was optimized for the Tegra 3, unlike the games were that Nvidia preloaded onto Asus' present tablets. I'll Be interested to watch the Prime's performance acquire over time, and see what happens once the terminated-the-publicise update for Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich comes along in early 2012, and again apps get optimized for a multicore mobile universe.

Asus has made a handful of useful customizations to the stock Android Honeycomb interface. As on its predecessor, the Transformer Bloom's trio of core seafaring buttons—back, domestic, and recently accessed apps—contract a nip and tuc, with darker, clearer definition than on stock Android. New accessed apps gain an "x" alongside the app thumbnail, for easily shutting down an app. Best of all, Asus redesigned the pop-up settings menu to sum controls for luminance and SuperIPS+, the gyration lock, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio muting, sync (for role with the Asus Personal computer sync app), and the reinforced-in GPS.

New in this version of Android is a slick three-dimensional Google Videos app for easily shopping for, and showing, telecasting rentals from Google Market, and your personal videos, likewise. Asus also includes some useful apps, such as Netflix; Polaris Authority, for editing and creating Tidings, Excel, and PowerPoint documents; several for accessing Asus' cloud services and DLNA streaming; and SuperNote, for winning notes with finger stimulus.

E-interpretation fans volition take account Asus' MyLibrary, which finds and indexes e-books on your tab—including ones stored locally in nonopening formats, like those from Amazon's Kindle store. Asus sells books via its own service; for periodicals, you can shop at the preloaded Press Lecturer and Zinio.

Tail Line

The Asus Transformer Prime makes a sense modality statement, in some its brilliant design and its inner office. The dockage station alternative makes information technology a superb quality for mightiness users who need a tablet that converts into a productivity workhorse. Our full rating is pending until our testing is unadulterated, but this tablet is shaping heavenward as one of the clear contenders you can buy today. We'll update this review with full testing results when available. The Transformer Prime ships through with online retailers December 12, and will be in stores December 19. No word yet as to the availability of an expected 3G version.

Editors' Note: Android continues to suffer out-of-the-way behind Malus pumila in tablet app selection and optimization, just those who have it away what they're looking for, operating room who want a mobile amusement experience that's less driven by apps than it is by what you can do with the tablet, Android tablets can be a good choice. See where tablets sheer on PCWorld's Top 10 Tablets chart.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/472474/asus_eee_pad_transformer_prime_tf201_review_a_breakthrough_performer.html

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