Considering Buying This, Some Questions

[luke31]

Hi everyone. Currently, I own the first generation iPad. Seeing that I have it with accessories and the original box, I can sell it on ebay for a good $350. I really want to upgrade to an android tablet. Now, from what I understand, this, the Xoom, and the upcoming Galaxy 10.1 Tab have identical specs (or near identical). This, however, seems to be by far the cheapest. Would you say that it is worth the upgrade over the original iPad? Is it as good as, say, the Xoom? Thanks!

 

[gmen78]

I had the ipad but have since given it to my wife. I personally like the load form factor (I used portrait or landscape identically compared to solely landscape on Asus) but upgrade in a heartbeat my friend...better sound, its lighter, better screen, cameras, android 3.1 rocks, dock accessory and priceless name a few. Now mine creeks a little when holding it and have a lil light bleed at bottom when watching videos only, so if you can accept some craftsmanship minor issues,you will love your asus

 

[DNicolasL]

The ASUS is the Android tablet to buy. I absolutely love mine. It has great battery life and a very nice screen. I do have very minor light bleed in the bottom middle of the screen but you really have to look to notice it.

 

[luke31]

If I understand correctly, I believe even the iPad 2 has the light bleeding problem? And out of curiosity, when was the Transformer released? They did a pretty bad job marketing it lol.

 

[Primetimeplaya]

If I understand correctly, I believe even the iPad 2 has the light bleeding problem? And out of curiosity, when was the Transformer released? They did a pretty bad job marketing it lol.

Honestly, I still don't think the thing has actually had a release. It has shown up here and there and people have managed to get their hands on a few but I would not call what has happened a release.

When you can't walk into a huge retailer like Best Buy and pick one up, your product hasn't actually released and you are losing a lot of sales.

I was in Best Buy yesterday and was able to put my hands right on an HTC flyer, not that I wanted one, but if I did I could have purchased one.

I've said it before....it's horrible what Asus has done with this product in the U.S. I also owned the Acer Iconia up until yesterday. Acer made a fortune off of that tablet partly because people went to a retailer looking for the Transformer and saw the Iconia. Not that the Iconia is a bad alternative, it's just that the buyer went in looking for something else and probably would have bought the Transformer had it been available.

 

[luke31]

Honestly, I still don't think the thing has actually had a release. It has shown up here and there and people have managed to get their hands on a few but I would not call what has happened a release.

When you can't walk into a huge retailer like Best Buy and pick one up, your product hasn't actually released and you are losing a lot of sales.

I was in Best Buy yesterday and was able to put my hands right on an HTC flyer, not that I wanted one, but if I did I could have purchased one.

I've said it before....it's horrible what Asus has done with this product in the U.S. I also owned the Acer Iconia up until yesterday. Acer made a fortune off of that tablet partly because people went to a retailer looking for the Transformer and saw the Iconia. Not that the Iconia is a bad alternative, it's just that the buyer went in looking for something else and probably would have bought the Transformer had it been available.

So long as it has Honeycomb and Asus updates it, it should be just as relevant as the Xoom, right? I mean, the internals are near identical, and both are getting/have android 3.1, and perhaps most importantly, both have access to the same market. So the fact that it is not wide spread should not impede or hinder the quality of the device, right?

 

[VydorScope]

In my opion the TF is the best tablet on the market right now. Mine is well made with no light bleed issues. Little hard to get sure, but still great tablet.

 

[androidASUS]

They released it end of April, I believe but had limited stock and still do. If you monitor nowinstock.net, you can get one. That is how I got mine.

I had an iPad but sold it. The experience I had on the iPad was less buggy than ASUS. Apps were plentiful within the first 4 months but finding apps on Android Market that iPad has is a challenge. You will find the majority of them but maybe different developers. Netflix, GoodReader, Toodledo come to mind. But I quickly got bored of it since I had an iPhone. Other than the bigger screen, I didn't see much of a difference.

I got the ASUS Transformer and couldn't be happier. It solved most of my major annoyances with iPad. The browser (when it works) has a familiar experience to the desktop Chrome, although a bit slower but felt snappier when compared to iPad 1 on 4.2. I can have different browsers (Full Firefox, Full Opera) and set them as default. Like when I get a link, it can open directly in Opera if I wanted to than going to Browser only. If you recall with iPad, it automatically points to Safari then I would have to copy paste or use a bookmarklet to open it in a different container like Atomic Browser to just get tabbed browsing. I can change the keyboard to include a number row! I have a file manager that can be shared by all apps. No need for each app to have its own local copy. I can many widgets such as quickly glance at the weather without having to open the app. And the best thing about all of this, I can browse the Android Market from another computer and click install to apps I like, and then they will install when you pick up your tablet. No need to be stuck to iTunes is a plus. That is on the software side.

Hardware: ASUS has an IPS display, a mini HDMI, microSD, proprietary cable to charge, and an accessory to dock to a keyboard. Hardware built is okay but I didn't mind it (minor light leak). Xoom has similar hardware specs but at $599 for 32GB and a non-working microSD currently. They don't have a 16GB. So, direct comparison is 32GB ASUS of $499 vs Xoom for $599. Samsung is $499 for the 10.1" and doesn't offer much anything else. It is an iPad 2 with Honeycomb. Processor and RAM are the same on all three. Cameras differ a bit but I would say they are all good enough for a tablet, even the iPad 2.

TL;DR: iPad is an iPhone, and ASUS is better than Xoom because of price!

 

[Primetimeplaya]

So long as it has Honeycomb and Asus updates it, it should be just as relevant as the Xoom, right? I mean, the internals are near identical, and both are getting/have android 3.1, and perhaps most importantly, both have access to the same market. So the fact that it is not wide spread should not impede or hinder the quality of the device, right?

I consider it to best the overall Android tablet, that's why I kept it over the Acer Iconia I had. The Transformer should be just as relevant as the Xoom in the future. I can't guarantee anything though.

The official 3.1 update should be out later this week. Yes, the TF has access to the same market as the Xoom.

 

[jerrykur]

I think you need to decide if you can live with Android tablet's lack of maturity at this point versus the iPad. The app selection of tablet specific apps is very small, tiny, in comparison to the iPad. If there is a specific app you need, make sure it is available. Second, on all of the current Android tablets video playback has issues. Videos tend to be choppy and audio is sometimes out of sync. I experience this with a number of youtube videos that have been highly compressed. The new version of Hineycomb, 3.1 helps, but there are still issues.

With that said, I prefer the Honeycomb experience to the iPad. The iPad is really just a big iPod Touch. It's is an app launcher. The Android tablets are much more full fledged computers. A lot of things that you have to launch an app for on an iPad are available directly in Android, such as checking new mail and other message. Also, multitasking is much better on Android.

As to which tablet, this is a matter of taste. The obvious unique feature of the Transformer is the dock. That is why I bought mine. With the dock I can easily create multiline messages, something that was a pain with the iPad and other touch devices. Also it is nice to have the option to connect massive external storage devices for my photography work. If the dock does not matter to you than I would take a hard look at the Samsung units to me the 8.9 is just about the perfect size.

 

[mknollman123]

Jerryk is dead on - android is more powerful and versatile but not a user friendly yet. I also like the looks of the Samsung 8.9 but it has no microusb - for me expandable memory is a must. But i will admit that if it had that I would probably have bought it over the TF due to size.

TF is a nice mix of size, ports, and quality. - currently no tablet is perfect - they each have their pros and cons - for me the TF was the happy middle.

 

[luke31]

I've done some research, and I think I'll hold off on getting an Android Tab for a few months. The specs, features, and power of all of the honeycomb tablets cannot be matched by the iPad. And, I really don't care too much for applications. All I need in terms of games is angry birds or fruit ninja, both of which android already has (have both on my fascinate). There are, however, two issues. Video chatting, although kind of a novelty on a phone, is a must have on my next tablet. I use skype to communicate with my girlfriend and family, yet I don't believe that skype supports vid chat on honeycomb yet? And perhaps an even larger issue is the lack of a dedicated Netflix application for honeycomb. This is sad, as honeycomb is an incredible platform in itself, but just cannot garner the support of major players such as Netflix. Streaming these vids is incredibly important on a tablet for me. Other than these two simple issues, honeycomb would be absolutely perfect for me. I never have installed too many apps on my first gen iPad anyway.

 

[screech113]

The problem is with Microsoft purchasing Skype, who knows how long it will take to get video chat on Honeycomb, if at all. Honeycomb tablets do have google chat built into it, if they wanted to switch. One really cool feature that comes with the TF is the splashtop software, which allows me to stream Netflix or Hulu from my home computer to my TF, bypassing the need for the Netflix app.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

 

[my3chis]

My son has an ipad 1 and i am so glad i got my transfotmer. I dont need to have 3g. Every where i am i have either wifi or the hot spot on my Tbolt.

 

[mknollman123]

ΔΔΔ what he said - sure the telco's want you to buy a new connection for every device - that's one crazy expensive convenience. Preaching to the choir here as this device is wifi only across the board. My wife has an I pad as well, and even though she is not a nerd like me, she loves wifi tether for root.