Asus Transformer Pad TF300T review

VISUAL FX

The Transformer Pad TF300T uses a 10.1in LCD display with a 1,280×800 resolution. Like most of the top tablets, it’s an IPS technology panel, so you get good viewing angles, better contrast and more vibrant colours than cheaper tablets with TN-based panels.

However, the Pad lacks the Prime’s Super IPS+ panel, and though we don’t take much notice of fancy names, the drop in maximum brightness is noticeable. While Asus claimed that the Prime’s panel was visible in bright sunlight, and it was, the Pad can make no similar claim. Even on a dull day in our office, we found ourselves using the Pad on maximum brightness, with the auto setting selecting a slightly drab 2/3 brightness. It’s not a disaster, but it’s just short of what we’d be happy with, and a long way off the Prime.

Another change is the lack of a Gorilla Glass front panel, so it may not be as tough as the Prime too.

DOES NOT COMPUTE

The Pad uses the Tegra 3 chipset that first debuted in the Prime at the end of last year. This quad-core chipset is still top-notch and a big draw for a tablet at this price. The clock speed has been reduced by 100MHz, down from the Prime’s 1.3GHz; this is nothing to worry about though as it still sped through tasks, opening and closing applications at speed. It scored a respectable 2,265ms in the Java-based Sunspider benchmark, a chunk down on the Prime’s score, but we’d attribute most of this to Android 4’s browser differences, rather than the small drop in clock speed.

Nvidia’s Tegra Zone is the place to go for games that make best use of the graphics hardware onboard

The Tegra 3 chipset also allows for some pretty spangly 3D gaming effects, there aren’t that many Android games that make full use of this, but games like Shadowgun do look great. Also provided is the usual 1GB of RAM plus 32GB of internal storage. You can expand this using the tablet’s micro SD card slot of course, plus there’s a handy full-sized SD card reader on the dock – mainly for uploading files from say a digital camera.

ICE CREAM TIME

One big change since we reviewed the Prime is the release of Android 4.0 – which is now also available on the Prime too. It’s good to finally see tablets being released with this tidied up version of Android. However, many of the benefits you get on a smartphone aren’t as useful on a tablet, like the ability to unlock the tablet straight to the camera, or the improved default dialler.

Android 4.0 brings a whole slew of updates, some obviously useful, some subtle revisions, but all much appreciated

On the plus side you get a shiny new-looking interface, with a better designed app tray with a browsable widgets tab. There’s a much improved default browser, with the option to always view desktop versions of sites, video in the browser runs more smoothly, and you get stutter-free video output at 1080p. You also get the Action Bar, making it easier to switch between tasks. With the bigger screen, you can make more use of the larger, resizable widgets on offer too.

TRANSFORM!

Asus is continuing with its, in our opinion misguided, policy of only selling Transformer tablets bundled with their docks. We like the docks, but feel the tablets are strong enough to stand alone, plus they would be very competitively priced without the extra hardware.

Physically speaking, the keyboard dock has been improved over its previous iterations, with a little more feedback from the keys. The keys, like those on any netbook, are still rather small for our liking and take a bit of getting used to. Still, it’s a far superior way to type than on the touchscreen, and it’s a superior answer to the raft of tablet cases with built-in Bluetooth keyboards, that are on the market. There’s also lots of handy shortcut keys at the top, including Wi-Fi, brightness, media playback controls and volume, so you don’t have to dive into menus to reach these.

The keyboard layout includes plenty of handy shortcuts at the top, plus Home and task-switching keys

Shut the dock to the screen and the tablet goes straight into standby, though annoyingly you have to use the power key to wake it up when you open it. There’s a setting to let you do this using the Home button on the keyboard, but that requires the keyboard to be powered on all the time the tablet is in standby.

With all the weight in the tablet, rather than in the dock, we find the whole device reverberates to our rather heavy-handed stabbing. We also find that a quick prod on the screen can result in the whole device toppling over backwards. As with previous iterations, the screen doesn’t tilt back far enough for use in budget airline seats. In terms of its implementation into Android, you can now type pretty much anywhere you’d expect. The touchpad below is rarely of any use, though.

PRIME CUT

In so many respects the Pad is a cut-down version of the Prime, and not very cut-down at that. At present it’s only available at its full retail price of £400, which is pretty good considering the quad-core chipset plus IPS panel, and means the keyboard dock is practically thrown in for free.

However, the Prime has been on the market some months now, and if you shop around you can pick one up for £440. At that price difference there’s simply no reason to buy the Transformer Pad TF300T. Inevitably prices will fall with time, and at £100 less than the Prime it will make a reasonable, cheaper alternative, but for now it’s rendered pointless by its still-excellent older sibling.