The Asus Transformer
iPad, move aside. We've got a new cool kid in town. The Transformer, with it's tablet/netbook design is superb. I've been using this 16gb version for several days and I can't get enough of it. I typically have used it as a tablet but late in the day after I've largely exhausted the 10hrs of battery life and start updating my blog or writting some emails, I dock it into the keyboard (which provides another 6hrs of life) and start typing away.
As a tablet is great. Android Honeycomb is responsive smooth, fast and stable. The amount of high caliber of apps available are increasing and with popular games such as Cut the Rope and everyone's favorite, Angry Birds being written for the Android devices, Apple may have a real worry.
The keyboard is good. Not as good as my old Samsung netbook (which was excellent) but many, many times better than an on screen substitutes which does a as good a job at covering most of the screen as they do anything else. The on screen keyboard on the Transformer is very good for an on screen typer but I will never be convinced that any screen based typing app is better than physical keys.
The Transformer is not perfect. It does mount as a hard drive on your computer but only for media files. It uses a protocol called MTP which makes it recognizable as a media device and not as a regular hard disk. This makes it a little tricky to copy all of the files you want. I used a usb key to transfer files across. Which brings us to another good point. The keyboard has 2 usb ports and a SD card reader making it easy (and possible) to transfer camera pics and plugging in usb devices. The tablet itself has an HDMI port allowing you to view your screen on a tv in HD and a micro sd card slot. 16GB may not be much but with a 32GB in the micro sd card slot, I have 48GB of memory and a removable keyboard and multiple connectivity options for the same price as a 16GB iPad. I admire Apple's designs but I don't admire their (in my opinion, unjust) pricing.
As much as I would love to sit here and show my fondness for my new toy, I want to go play with it more.
iPad, move aside. We've got a new cool kid in town. The Transformer, with it's tablet/netbook design is superb. I've been using this 16gb version for several days and I can't get enough of it. I typically have used it as a tablet but late in the day after I've largely exhausted the 10hrs of battery life and start updating my blog or writting some emails, I dock it into the keyboard (which provides another 6hrs of life) and start typing away.
As a tablet is great. Android Honeycomb is responsive smooth, fast and stable. The amount of high caliber of apps available are increasing and with popular games such as Cut the Rope and everyone's favorite, Angry Birds being written for the Android devices, Apple may have a real worry.
The keyboard is good. Not as good as my old Samsung netbook (which was excellent) but many, many times better than an on screen substitutes which does a as good a job at covering most of the screen as they do anything else. The on screen keyboard on the Transformer is very good for an on screen typer but I will never be convinced that any screen based typing app is better than physical keys.
The Transformer is not perfect. It does mount as a hard drive on your computer but only for media files. It uses a protocol called MTP which makes it recognizable as a media device and not as a regular hard disk. This makes it a little tricky to copy all of the files you want. I used a usb key to transfer files across. Which brings us to another good point. The keyboard has 2 usb ports and a SD card reader making it easy (and possible) to transfer camera pics and plugging in usb devices. The tablet itself has an HDMI port allowing you to view your screen on a tv in HD and a micro sd card slot. 16GB may not be much but with a 32GB in the micro sd card slot, I have 48GB of memory and a removable keyboard and multiple connectivity options for the same price as a 16GB iPad. I admire Apple's designs but I don't admire their (in my opinion, unjust) pricing.
As much as I would love to sit here and show my fondness for my new toy, I want to go play with it more.
No comments:
Post a Comment