ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF-101

Alright, the post isn't actually about transformers (which I have been a huge fan of since I was a kid), it is about my TF-101 Asus Eee Pad transformer, which I have been enjoying immensly since I bought it this month.

As I mentioned previously in my about post, I am an avid listener of podcasts and spend a lot of time hearing about the 'next big thing' and the various reviews of them. I am also a regular passenger on the GO transit train system here in Toronto (to commute to work) and in addition to listening to what new tech toys are out there, I get to see them first hand on my way in. So let me tell you first how I got this cool little device, before I get to my thoughts on it and using a tablet in general.

The story behind my eee pad:

For the vast majority of my life being a parent, many things have come in the way of me getting some of these new toys... most parents are familiar with the house bills, kids and other things that generally divert funds away from where I would ideally place them... so needless to say I have been in a constant state of tech envy for years.

About 9 months ago, I started to hear reviews about the Macbook Air and how thin/light it was and everyone seemed to be raving about it, so I thought to myself, that's the computer for me! So I started to run the idea through the budget committee (wife) to see when we could fit this purchase in. To my surprise, it happened not even 2 months later while we were in Best Buy, I was literally minutes from purchasing it, but for some reason decided to hold off on it. After that my approval was revoked for a bit and became busy, so I didn't really think too much on it.

So about 3 months ago I shifted my position on the GO train, which occassionally people do (but not often, you can seriously see the same people everyday in the same spot... almost as if you work with them). Before the move I was used to seeing people and their iPad 1 ; 2's, it was no sweat for me... didn't really have an interest in one. In my new spot I am sitting near an older woman, must be in her 60's and she ALWAYS has her iPad out. This started to bug me. It's not that I don't think that older people shouldn't embrace tech, or even that I really care that she even has an iPad... it was the thought of me, self-proclaimed technofile sitting on a train with an iPhone 3G trying to make the most out of the slow device and there is an older woman, who most likely does not have an interest at all in tech, sitting across from me with newer tech. How is it possible that I am so late to the game that an older woman has newer tech than I do?

After about 2 weeks of watching how wonderfully she played her word games on her iPad I had had enough, I needed to correct this imbalance. So I got thinking on the Macbook Air again, but also on how nice it would be to have some sort of a touch screen. Also being a huge Linux fan, thought that maybe I should get out of the walled garden that is Apple to the more open pastures of Android. Then an ad that I had been seeing a lot recently at Walmart popped into my mind... a tablet with a keyboard! Eureka! That's it, that's what I want! I wanted to try out Android anyway. So I checked it out at Walmart and looked up reviews. Long story short, have an eee Pad transformer that I am now blogging from.

Thoughts on Android:

After nearly 3 weeks or more (not really keeping track) I am really impressed with Android 3.2, can't actually wait to see what 4.0 is going to bring. Before this device all I had was an iPod2G and an iPhone 3G, so I only knew Windows, Linux and iOS. I was pleasantly surprised as to how easy it was to catch on and how many things I preferred on Android vs. iOS. So first, based on my information from my fellow technologists, here are a few things I thought would be a problem with Android:

• Inconsistency/instability in the platform.
• Android Market would be the 'wild west' and it would be difficult to find software.
• Worries about updates to the platform.

To my surprise, when starting to use my TF-101 about the only thing that I couldn't wrap my mind around initially was how the home screens were setup, and how to add/remove items from it. The platform was rock solid, I didn't have any hangs that required rebooting the device and when there was a pesky program that seemed to soak up the CPU, Android told me about it and asked me nicely if I would like to terminate it or wait. 

The Android Marketplace was another surprise (and even more so with the recent changes), I had NO IDEA what I should be putting on this device, but when going to the Marketplace it was a nice surprise to find that most good programs that are in the Apple Appstore are also in the Android Marketplace... or at least the ones that I cared about. This was a no-pain transition, which totally surprised me, but the fact that I am a technical person probably helps that a lot. 

Something that I have heard about in the tech world regarding Android devices are that updates are few and far between. Because of this I thought that perhaps I will get one more major update to the platform for this device before the OS remains static. While that remains to be seen, ASUS has promised ICS for this device so at least I am guaranteed at least 1 upgrade. If you do a little research out on the net, you can quickly quash most worries as there is always Cyanogen mod and if all else fails you can even put Linux on it (which i will likely do when there are no further updates).

Another couple of things that I like about Android specifically is the multi-tasking and the settings. I have been so accustomed to my jailbroken iPhone 3G multitasking (if you can call it that) that I thought it would be the same on Android, but it isn't. Things multitask quite well on the OS and my standard for testing this was the Citrix connection into work with my iPhone vs. my TF-101. With iPhone it 'pauses' the app, so you either end up re-loading the app from the beginning or it will just continue from its paused state, which doesn't work too well for Citrix given that it depends on a network connection. So on the iPhone, if I ever move away from the app, it results in me having to log in which is a complete pain. On the TF-101 I can jump to many different applications and when I move back to Citrix, there it is, waiting for me network connection and all. Closer to true multitasking if you ask me, I would say full, but I have found from time to time apps are paused or unloaded and I have no idea what the process is for that or why it happens.

The settings are also great as there are a lot of things that you can access and change, the specific things that got me were to be able to 1) See what applications are running and kill them. 2) See what applications or things that are killing your battery. Those 2 things are enough to make me think highly of the settings along with the presentation of the settings, but I am sure there are many more things that make it interesting.

Thoughts on the TF-101:

After having this device for a while I think it is one of the best devices out there, and I think it is a ground breaking genre... just not revolutionary, because the concept is nothing new. I like to think of it as the blackberry torch of the tablet world, only in the sense that it is the best of both worlds... you have your touch screen and also a keyboard, the choice is totally up to you. I don't know about you, but I find typing on a tablet a miserable experience no matter what trick you try and believe me I have tried. One I often try is to hoverer my hands just above the keyboard to try and avoid touching the screen. This does not work well, I am certainly not going to get 80 - 100 words per minute this way, and this is what makes me so glad that I have the option of a keyboard.

I know that there are some purists out there that believe that if you are going to have a tablet, it should be just that, a tablet. But I find that to be an extreme point of view because there is no reason why you cannot have both if you want to, and the TF-101 makes that very enticing in a lot of ways. I don't believe the argument should be netbook vs. tablet, it should be about what works.

So here is my list of things that I think are brilliant about the TF-101, we will call it the 'pros' list:

Battery life:

According to specifications, it is supposed to be usable for 16 hours because it actually has 2 batteries, one in the tablet and one in the keyboard dock. I have been using the device an entire day (watching movies (sometimes flash), playing games, typing documents and surfing the web - my typical use case) and I have never gotten the battery down to less than 50%. I can't tell you how great it is to use something and not even give a passing thought to the battery life. This so much better than the 3 hour laptop battery life I am used to, it is a complete breath of fresh air and one of the things that makes the TF-101 such a great device.

One thing you probably didn't know, or at least I didn't see it anywhere is how the 2 individual batteries work together. Not that I know what ASUS had in mind when they developed this, but all indications are that they anticipated that you would use the TF-101 as a tablet before you would use it as a netbook. So, when you undock screen and use it as a tablet you start drawing from the tablet specific battery. But rather than just have the keyboard battery as just an additional battery (which in the event that your tablet battery was near death you would be forced to use the keyboard), they have instead configured the keyboard battery to charge the tablet battery. So you may have to use your keyboard for just a little while, but while you use it you will be charging the tablet for use.

I think this is a terrific idea and one of the things that makes this tablet/keyboard combination work so well.

Storage Capacity:

So by now, living in a world of iOS devices we are used to buying a device with a predetermined amount of space. But with Android that sort of decision is left with the manufacturer and ASUS (and probably most other manufacturers) think that you should have some input on that. So another one of the key things that I love about this device is the options for storage.

Starting with the flash storage, the TF-101 that I bought has a total of 16GB on board, which would set you back $499 on an iPad2, but what it has that the iPad does not is expandable flash storage. On the side of the tablet there is a MicroSD slot that can take flash memory up to 64GB (haven't found a max yet, presumably if it wasn't 64 it would be 32). And as if that is not enough there is an additional SD card to the side of the keyboard dock for a maximum of (160GB of storage, or in my case with the 16GB version, 144GB ==> Onboard Memory + MicroSD + SD). This does not also include the fact that you could plug in an external disk to the device if you had a reason to (which I have not tested yet).

So, if you have a ton of media that you want to carry with you, this is the device for you.

Keyboard:

As I mentioned previously, I can type, so I lose productivity when I can't get text on the screen as fast as I am used to. So it is an added bonus to be able to choose whether or not you can use a keyboard and not having to lug a bluetooth keyboard around with you if you needed one with other tablets. Another side bonus to the keyboard is that it acts as a protective covering for the display, eliminating the need to by a tablet case.

Regarding the keyboard, overall, it is not too bad to type on. Having been using a Thinkpad keyboard for years I find that there is a lot more resistance to this keyboard, which seems to tire my fingers out a bit, but it is livable because in no way is it cramped. The keyboard does have a bunch of nice shortcut keys though that make it quick to do a few things on Android.

The Screen:

There are a couple of key things that are great about the screen, the first is of course the resolution. The screen has a resolution of 1280x800 which is a step up from the iPad2's 1024x768 and makes it feel almost on par with a laptop screen which generally have the same resolution. The resolution is fairly crisp, my wife is always asking my why the same photo looks so good on my tablet than it does on her laptop. The other great features of the display are the viewing angle and the scratch resistant screen, which are nice, but I am not particularly interested in testing.

The Cool Factor:

This won't count for much and it won't last long, but if you want to get those looks of wonder as onlookers see what they thought is your netbook suddenly become a tablet, then the TF-101 does the job. I have received so many looks and questions on how it works and how cool it is... I kind of like it. Reminds me of that feeling you get when you buy the first generation of a car and the looks you get as you drive around in it.

Software:

Though this is not a PC, it does come with many programs that make the TF-101 useful right out of the box, there is:

• Polaris Office: A tablet office suit.
• Music (don't think it has a program name): Is a half decent music player
• Gallery: A photo viewing and categorization app that will also import photos automatically if you happen to plug in a camera or iPhone.
• File Manager: Which I suspect is standard with Android devices
• MyNet: Which allows your device to find DNLA devices and play content from them, or use your TF-101 as a DLNA server.
• MyCloud: Which I most likely will not use (comes with unlimited storage for a year, after you have to pay).

There are a few more that I haven't mentioned as well as the widgets and wallpapers available.

Here are all of the things that I think could use some improvement with the TF-101:

Camera:

Though I don't currently have a decent cell phone camera, the camera on the TF-101 doesn't seem to be that great, particularily the front lower resolution camera. The software is easy enough to use, I just find that it is hard to get a really good picture, especially in low light conditions since there is no flash at the back of the device.

It does take adequate pictures, even better in daylight, but it doesn't seem to look quite as good as the pictures taken from an iPhone4, which has the same resolution.

Keyboard/Tablet Connectivity:

I have been finding with use, especially after the device goes into power saving, that the keyboard sometimes seems to disconnect when you come out of power saving. This has happened on a few occassions where I didn't see the keyboard indicator (that was there before power saving), which forced me to disconnect and reconnect the tablet to the keyboard to get access to it.

Touchpad Sensitivity:

This is a problem that occurs with almost every computer with a touch pad, it just seems that on the TF-101 you have to be extra concious of where your fingers are as at almost every turn I find my cursor moving elsewhere on the screen and often end up typing in the wrong location. Granted, there is a button to turn the track pad on and off quickly I think there should be some additional software that will prevent track pad movements when the keyboard is in use (you see this in Linux often).

Missing keys:

I like the keyboard and do think it was well done, but there are a couple of functions I thought would be nice to have on the keyboard:

• A delete key: There only seems to be a backspace key.
• A change apps key: All the other buttons that appear on the screen also appear on the keyboard with the exeption of the switch apps button. Not that it is a terrible problem to actually touch the screen, but it would be better if there was a key you could press to bring up the list of running applications.

Can't connect to ad-hoc wireless networks:

This isn't a TF-101 problem in particular, as I have read all over the net, this is more of an Android problem. Since there is no built in 3G connection, you would need to connect to some sort of mobile network. I have tried with Windows 7 on my laptop and Connectify.me and both have ended up with the TF-101 hanging on obtaining an IP address. I do have a program on my iPhone that turns it into a wifi hotspot and that seems to work just fine, but I just can't seem to share my connection at work.

Summary:

The TF-101 is a great tablet with a lot of fuctionality. Since buying it I have hardly touched my main laptop and am instead using the tablet most of the time. It has been super convenient to have a small, light, long-lasting device that is instant-on when I need to use it. If you are thinking of buying one, don't hesitate, it is an amazing device.