I love tablets, it is no secret.
I think the iPad is great and I love how Android developed an OS solely for tablet computing. I was really excited during CES when company after company released news of new tablets hitting the market. One company that announced an aggressive move toward tablets was ASUS. This is good for many reasons.
First off, ASUS has been known to design good hardware and keep prices relatively low. Who doesn’t want good products at low prices? Second, while I loath netbooks, my old ASUS EeePC was not all that horrible. It had a pretty snappy processor and did it’s job well (which was to telnet into Cisco switches).
I was not sure what I could expect from them when it came to releasing a tablet. Would they recycle another concept? Would they brand it as their own? Would it be high quality? Would it be a real iPad competitor?
There first salvo from ASUS in the tablet war has been launched.
They have named their new tablet the Transformer (I am wondering how long the name will go unchallenged by Optimus Prime).
Judging by reviews and Asus’ own website, there is not a whole lot of “new” in their tablet, but this is not a bad thing. It appears the overall premise is to take the wish list people compiled with the iPad (first gen) and try to squeeze it into one shiny box. You want a keyboard dock with a mouse? Got it.
You want front and rear cameras? Check. How about 1080p video play back? It’s there. SD Card reader for expandability? But of course! And of course, they have Flash 10.2.
This is not to say everything is stale and old, some things are new and pretty cool concepts. For one, the dock contains a second battery which can give an insane amount of extended life (rated to boost from 9.5 to 16 hours when using both batteries. 10 hours of video playback).
The tablet is build on Androids Honeycomb OS with ASUS’ own homebrew laid over the top (Engadget’s review of this software rated it highly). There is the ability to open office documents (apparently not XML docs, however), share calendar syncing, and access to the Android App store. Other bonuses come in the forms of a compass and GPS.
Increasing portability
I like tablets because they give us the ability to have that “instant on” feature. No time waiting for things to boot up if you want to simply check your email or social media sites.
But, unlike smart phones, they also have the expandability and power of a netbook or lower grade laptop. With the setup of the ASUS Transformer, you have the ability to leave the dock behind and take just the tablet with you if you need to travel light(er).
The overall reviews I have read is there are still some minor bugs which need to be worked out. I am not surprised as after a couple of weeks using an iPad, I had my share of bugs.
Tablet computing is still a pretty young technology which keeps getting better and better.
Pricing and Availability
The pricing comes with some “bad” news. The slate and the dock have to be purchased separately. The slate alone (for 16gb, Wifi only) is $399 and the dock will cost an extra $150. So, together you are looking about $50 more than an iPad. However, if you want the slate alone, you can get a pretty impressive deal on a tablet.
As for a US release date, it has been confirmed you can get yours on April 26th, 2011.
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