Thinking of picking up a Prime

[Mordecaidrake]

Hey all,

I'm in the market for a tablet. Don't really need one but really one one, I'm currently torn between the iPad3 and Transformer Prime. Now I'm an avid android user, currently rooted and romed Verizon Galaxy Nexus so naturally I lean more towards the Prime. But I feel android still has a lot of work to do in terms of tablets. What are your guys suggestions/thoughts?

 

[Kmcferrin]

Since you're posting in the Transformer Prime forum, it should be no shock that we think you should forget about the iPad and get an Android tablet. Now for me personally, at this point in the game I probably wouldn't buy a Prime, I'd buy the TF300 instead. It's not quite as slick-looking as the Prime, it doesn't have the Super IPS+ display, and it's just a hair slower, but it's also cheaper and doesn't have the wifi or GPS issues that have been widely discussed here or in other forums.

If you really want something super-sexy like the Prime, I'd wait a month and see if they announce a date for the TF700. It will have the Prime's sex appeal, with the radio fixes from the TF300, and a 1080p display that will smoke what the Prime is packing. I'm basing that suggestion on the fact that you don't "need" a tablet at the moment.

 

[Mordecaidrake]

Like I said I'm obviously leaning more towards android over an iPad. However I thought the wifi reception issues were corrected? I'm not worried about GPS as I have a phone that works perfectly for that. I haven't heard anything about the TF700 though, any good rumors for that yet?

 

[michaelp68]

I've had a Prime for a few weeks and am very happy with it. My wife has an iPad which I'm fairly familiar with. I find the Prime to be a better tablet.

The biggest downside I can see comparing the Prime to the Apple is that my wife has a much larger pool of tablet apps to choose from. However, there is nothing I've thought of doing with the Prime that I haven't been able to. On the other hand, I can do things with my Prime that my wife cannot do with her iPad.

As to the wifi, I think it could be stronger, and wish that it was. But I have not yet been in any situation where I've not been able to connect. I connect (and stay connected) at home, at my office, at Starbucks, at the car dealership, to my cell phone tether, to a neighboring town's public wifi, at my in-law's and elsewhere (I know I'm forgetting one or two places I connected).

As to the recently released 300 and the upcoming 700, just go with what's right for you.

Think of the 700 as the new, sexy and improved version of the Prime. Coming sometime hopefully soon.

Think of the 300 as an alternative. Not quite as good as the Prime in a few areas (display/processor/battery/thickness) and a bit better in a couple other areas (price and wifi/gps).

Whatever you choose to do, enjoy.

 

[Mordecaidrake]

I'm thinking perhaps either the Prime or wait for the 700(Infinity?). I like having the latest and greatest haha but I'm still concerned with the app selection for tablets on Android. How do none tablet apps scale onto the bigger screen?

 

[michaelp68]

I'm thinking perhaps either the Prime or wait for the 700(Infinity?). I like having the latest and greatest haha but I'm still concerned with the app selection for tablets on Android. How do none tablet apps scale onto the bigger screen?

I haven't had any issues. Whatever apps I already had on my phone that I wanted on the Prime have worked fine and looked good.

 

[windiddy]

I have SGT10.1 and I love it. But selection of apps are abysmally poor compared to ipad. Android phone apps do not look good on the tablets.

 

[Kmcferrin]

I have SGT10.1 and I love it. But selection of apps are abysmally poor compared to ipad. Android phone apps do not look good on the tablets.

I must be running the wrong apps, because everything that I've run looks fine. Most of the apps scale just fine. For those that don't, I'm sure we'll be seeing updates sooner or later. Android tablets haven't been around *THAT* long, and IIRC it still took Apple developers over a year before there were tablet-specific versions available of the most popular apps.

 

[biggbrother2]

If your want simple, efficient, and polish, go with the iPad 3.

If you like raw power, able to tweak, flash support in-browser, but can overlook an un-polished unrefined user experience, go with the Prime.

I love my Prime but it does frustrate me sometimes. WiFi reception is decent but I feel in contributes to a lots of lag when using the tablet. Checking G-Mail quickly can become a pain if just deleting an e-mail takes 10 seconds as it syncs with the server. Listening to Rhapsody outside in my backyard is hit or miss, yet my Galaxy Nexus has no problem. I also think that Asus hasn't really refined the performance. It just gets laggy, especially after waking the tablet up. Unacceptable for a tablet with the Tegra 3. Apparently performing a routine hard reset clears this up, but is a hard reset necessary every week on an iPad? Don't think so....

I would grab an iPad 3 or wait for the TF700, but you can't be sure it will be lag free. My prime ran like a champ out-the-box. However, after time, it just go slower and slower. Sometimes fast, but other times slow.

 

[skip2myloo]

I would agree with Miguel611: In general, the iPad is a quality device that is designed for the masses. I think the Prime is also a quality device, but not designed for the masses. Android ICS is a pretty good OS, but a little shaky here and there. I've had my Prime for about a month, and haven't had any WiFi or GPS issues. I had a long wait to get one. I think they must be flying off the shelves and ASUS is having a hard time making enough. I haven't had any trouble finding lots of useful (and also fun) apps for Android.
If you do decide to buy a Prime, do yourself a favor and invest the extra $150 in the dock. It gives the thing a dual personality, and I find myself using it docked quite a bit more than I thought I would.

 

[haggler]

I $$ my Prime last week & found out the Infinity will be coming out soon (summer for U.S.?) Now I find myself debating on returning & waiting for the new transformer. I have 30 days 2 make a decision, I see alot of mixed reviews....i need some pros/cons 2 make choice.
Please advise

 

[zinvestor]

Another thread mentions Asus problems meeting release schedules, speculated that 7xx would not be seen before 3Q (didn't say what year, just sayin').

 

[nnjwy]

The 700 will not be coming out on the market until this winter . sorry guys

 

[Kmcferrin]

The 700 will not be coming out on the market until this winter . sorry guys

Says the guy with no attributed source who doesn't even claim to know someone who knows.

 

[Devinator]

If you do decide to buy a Prime, do yourself a favor and invest the extra $150 in the dock. It gives the thing a dual personality, and I find myself using it docked quite a bit more than I thought I would.

I use mine docked more than not. I'll be at work and using it, need to show someone something, I'll just undock it and walk over and hand it to them. Then walk back and dock it. Love it!!

 

[ba4g]

Just picked one up today with dock. Gamestop in Kent WA had on the shelf. My employer just gave me a new tank for a laptop and im not hauling that sucker around. This is the business! Will advise if i get any bugs, but out of the box this is nice so far...first 5 minutes in.

 

[_X_]

I'm thinking perhaps either the Prime or wait for the 700(Infinity?). I like having the latest and greatest haha but I'm still concerned with the app selection for tablets on Android. How do none tablet apps scale onto the bigger screen?

My wife had the original iPad and I upgraded her to the Transformer Prime. She hates the name so she calls it the (Optimus) . Anyhow she really liked the iPad but loves the Prime. It's super sexy and well built.

My wife isn't a Android vs iOS person she more of a "I know what I want, so this platform better have what I want" type person. When it came to game apps iPad had a good selection but most were pay only (the apps she wanted). Android has tons of free games and most of these games scale up really well.

I know a lot of folks say there are more tablet apps for iOS however I've not really felt there was a hole in the Android sector for tablet apps. The must have apps exist for android for instance, reading apps, Word processing apps, browsers, email, drawing, photo editing are excellent and most are free. Also the stock email app for the Android is far smother than the iPad client.

Somebody here mentioned the TF300 vs the TF 201. I waffled on the decision myself.
A lot of the mistakes of the TF200 were fixed in the TF 300, but there was also a lot of sacrifices. The build quality is noticeable. The 300 is $100 cheaper but they also dropped the gorilla glass, slower processor, it's thicker and doesn't have the same screen quality. TF 200 has 600nits vs 300nits. The TF300 has the WiFi fix and the GPS fix. I can confirm the GPS doesn't work but the WiFi seemed to work fine for me. I've not seen any issues with the WiFi.

Let me just end it with this. From reviews and specs I could not deiced which device to get both had great pros/cons. However when I went to the store to checkout both devices I fairly quickly which device I was going to get.

=X=

 

[Devinator]

She hates the name so she calls it the (Optimus) .

Haha, that's awesome. I just might have to adopt that.

 

[swarlos]

Just got mine yesterday, found an 'opened box' at my Best Buy and used Buy Back on my Xoom.

First thing I did was unlock the bootloader and flash TWRP haha now I'm running Team Eos Rom and it's flying! Was crack flashing like crazy last night trying to figure out the rom I wanted to run and landed on that one.

I love how thin it is and the back of it is Schmexy!! Very pleased so far but will need a full day to play with it to really asses it's awesomeness.