Hi,
Does anyone know if this product has been released in Taiwan yet?
androidcommunity.com/asus-eee-pa … -20110321/
I have been all over Kaohsiung trying to find one to look at. This includes the computer street near the main train station.
It looks like it could be a serious Ipad competitor.
Thanks
A couple of weeks ago, but the stocks are low.
It’s not bad product as such, but be aware that you’ll end up paying NT$14,900 for the base 16GB model and the 32GB version is another 2k over the 16GB model with the keyboard/battery pack being an extra 3k. Currently the keyboard/battery pack is sold out afaik.
Official product page asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad … mer_TF101/
That will only happen when Android tablets have decent apps to support their features (unless you just want something to surf the web). At the moment the score on that front is
iPad: 65000+
Honeycomb: <100
Might take some time for them to catch up.
Nice review on the BBC today. Makes it sound very desirable.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/c … 463528.stm
(Yoou have to watch an ad before you get to see the review.)
Well, it’s the BBC, what do they know about technology?
That said, it’s one of the better Android tablets, as most of its features work, unlike many competing devices…
[quote=“Loretta”]Nice review on the BBC today. Makes it sound very desirable.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/c … 463528.stm
(Yoou have to watch an ad before you get to see the review.)[/quote]
Tried it. I don’t know what BBC is thinking, but it’s not good. Really really not good. Nevermind not having enough app availability to make it useful even if the hardware and OS were up to snuff.
[quote=“mabagal”][quote=“Loretta”]Nice review on the BBC today. Makes it sound very desirable.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/c … 463528.stm
(Yoou have to watch an ad before you get to see the review.)[/quote]
Tried it. I don’t know what BBC is thinking, but it’s not good. Really really not good. Nevermind not having enough app availability to make it useful even if the hardware and OS were up to snuff.[/quote]
Could you be more specific about why you didn’t like it? Hardware or software?
I’m curious to know just where you found one to try? I’ve asked around at all the big stores, and they say the machine is only available on special order. They don’t even have a floor model to demo. I’m not sure if the reason for the shortage is supply problems (like maybe because of the Japanese disaster) or because of huge demand, or maybe just lack of interest. Anyway, I really want to try one.
To make this tempting for me to buy, I’d still like to see Ubuntu ported to it. I see this sort of machine as a netbook replacement rather than a PAD. For me, the main advantage over an ASUS eeePC would be the ARM processor, which runs cool, needs no fan, gives long battery life. But I’m not sure I want to be boxed in by the limitations of Android - I want full-fledged Linux.
I believe the official release in TW was earlier this month. A blogger friend who was visiting our office had one. Didn’t ask where he got it.
The hardware feels a bit flimsy, a bit heavy, and it’s also a pretty big. While the iPad fits in a B5 document case, making it basically the size of a small magazine or comic book, the Transformer is big enough to necessitate a wider netbook case. To get the keyboard clamshell transformer arrangement to work, it is significantly wider/taller than feels right when holding it sideways. It is also thick. Holding it feels like holding two iPad2s stacked on one another, which I’ve done more than a few times since my girlfriend and I are both using iPad2s.
Software wise, Honeycomb is visually slick. But it also seems to suffer the same intermittent lag I’ve seen with the Zoom and the soft keyboard is still very bad. It also doesn’t do a lot of basic things very well which have already been perfected over in iOS land. One very annoying example is copy-paste (and text selection in general) which is brilliant on iPad but terrible on Android. We talked about the app stack. Right now it’s impossible to build a very effective app stack with the device, or any Android tablet for that matter.
I’ve actually been able to build and effectively use an app stack with iPad that has eliminated my need for a laptop for everything I do. Even in our office, I have not used my computer in almost two weeks since getting the iPad2. This includes creating, viewing and sharing all the major office document types, making flow diagrams, basic image editing, white boarding, writing specifications, managing schedules, doing Skype conference calls with shared whiteboards, etc. Examples of the apps that I use that aren’t available on Android tablets right now. Pages, Keynote, Numbers, TouchDraw, iAnnotate, Jot, Photoshop Express, iBooks, Kindle, Flipboard, iMockups, iMovie, GarageBand. Other apps that aren’t quite tablet optimized on Android yet are Dropbox and Evernote. I run a software startup and I don’t write code anymore, and doing things this way has improved the way I work with my developers. It makes manage by walking around more possible. Google Docs on both iPad and Android is a terrible experience right now, but there are a few workarounds.
Finally, for me, is another deal breaker: Android cannot see adhoc hotspots. This means you can set up a hotspot with an iPhone or Android phone and the Android tablet cannot see it. This means two data plans in the case that the Android tablet has 3G or simply being SOL with a WiFI Android tablet. Over in iOS land, iPads, iPod Touches and iPhones can see and hook up to hotspots made on iPhones and Android phones.
All this said, they have priced the Transformer aggressively, so many will buy it on that basis. Perhaps this will create the pot of gold developers need to jump into the ring and actually make apps for the Android tablets. Right now, however, I feel the best option is still the iPad, both in terms of hardware quality and what you can actually do with it with the right software stack.
I feel that the Android tablets will get better and better and the Xoom and the Transformer are definitely a step in the right direction.
Mablis -
Thanks for this very thorough critique of the Asus Eee.
Very much appreciated. I look forward to how this will evolve.
Not sure if you mean Android in general, or just on the Transformer for this issue? If you mean Android in general, then this is not correct.
I have had no problem using a hotspot set up on my iphone with my HTC Incredible S. No trouble at all…and transfer rates are surprisingly good.
I’ve not tried this on a Transformer (don’t have one) but as it works fine in other versions of Android, I don’t see why they’d intentionally disable this function.
[quote=“ben_gb”][quote=“mabagal”]
Finally, for me, is another deal breaker: Android cannot see adhoc hotspots. This means you can set up a hotspot with an iPhone or Android phone and the Android tablet cannot see it. This means two data plans in the case that the Android tablet has 3G or simply being SOL with a WiFI Android tablet. Over in iOS land, iPads, iPod Touches and iPhones can see and hook up to hotspots made on iPhones and Android phones.
[/quote]
Not sure if you mean Android in general, or just on the Transformer for this issue? If you mean Android in general, then this is not correct.
I have had no problem using a hotspot set up on my iphone with my HTC Incredible S. No trouble at all…and transfer rates are surprisingly good.
I’ve not tried this on a Transformer (don’t have one) but as it works fine in other versions of Android, I don’t see why they’d intentionally disable this function.[/quote]
This has been a long standing, well known issue across the board with Android. Here is the 3 year old log of complaints on Googles support site.
code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=82
Scroll to the bottom to see recent Android tablet buyers completely irate about this critical feature simply being not there.
I have not used an Incredible S, but perhaps HTC did with their ROMs what Google still hasn’t, which is great. None of the numerous Android test phones we have can see ad hoc hotspots.
sounds like the type of product that you wait for the 2nd generation to come out. It also seems like iPad knockoffs should end up being cheaper than the 15K NT price that was mentioned.
My neighborhood electronic store has the Transformer Slide for 17k more or less. Seems quite interesting and certainly an attractive price. Comments on the net seem favorable.
Any opinios from our resident experts? I mean, if I can save 20k and get a confortable working machine, that’ll be delightful.
I have tried (not owned) the following 3 Asus Eee pad products:
Without rehashing too much of the public reviews, The TF101 and SL101 contain the dual-core Nvidia2 processor running on Android 3.2 (Honeycomb), which was not as well-designed for multi-core processors and multi-tasking as Android 4. The TF201 contains the quad-core Nvidia3 running Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich), which is supposedly better designed for multi-core processing and multi-tasking.
The only real issues so far with the TF201 are the GPS, Wifi and a lockup issue. These issues may have led Asus to provide the bootloader unlocking tool in February 2012. In all, the Transformer Prime (TF201) is probably the best Android tablet to date. Asus continues to look ahead announcing at the CES 2012 the 7" version of the Transformer Prime called the MeMo 370T and the TF700 (or TF701) with both expecting a Q2 2012 release.
At this time, many retailers are clearing out the older stock by marking down the TF101 and the SL101 about 1000NT to 3000NT cheaper than the TF201, which is currently on back-order in many places. My advice for when to get a tablet is the same for all developing technology–get it only when the technology meets your need, or wait for when it does.