Asus Joins High Density Display Club With New Transformer Tablet 265
crookedvulture writes "The new iPad has received a lot of attention for its high-density display, but it's not the only tablet with extra pixels. Enter Asus' Transformer Prime Infinity, which has a 10.1" screen with a 1920x1200 resolution. The display doesn't look as good as the iPad's Retina panel, which has crisper text and better color reproduction. However, the Android-based Transformer has perks the iPad lacks, like an ultra-bright backlight, a Micro HDMI port, a microSD slot, and more internal storage. The Infinity is also compatible with an optional keyboard dock that adds six hours of battery life, a touchpad, a full-sized SD slot, and a standard USB port. The Transformer's tablet component is definitely no iPad-killer. When combined with the dock, though, the resulting hybrid offers a much more flexible computing platform."
Re:why not have full size hdmi? (Score:5, Informative)
Backlight (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:5, Informative)
It's an actual accessory designed specifically for this particular tablet, not some 3rd party attachment designed to try and fill a void.
The keyboard and track-pad play nicely with the OS. The keyboard offers plenty of shortcuts for the OS and the track-pad offers a pointer -- which can be toggled on or off with a keyboard button; Android supports pointer input along with multi-toch unlike iOS.
And because it's Android, one can plug a hard-drive, thumb-drive, another keyboard, mouse, whatever into the added USB ports, and of course the tablet itself has Bluetooth support. So the doc makes this more than a tablet.
I own an Asus Transformer, iPad, and a few other tablets for reference. The iPad is a great for what it does, but for what I like to do, it falls way short of my Android tablets. Just adding on a Bluetooth keyboard or extending the battery to an iPad doesn't resolve its shortcomings.
Re:Backlight (Score:4, Informative)
Its mainly for use in plain sunlight. The transformer prime at max brightness indoor will destroy your eyes, but outdoor it just makes it bright enough to see very well even if the sun is behind you. Thats it really :)
Re:" high density club" not really (Score:5, Informative)
In which universe does "higher resolution than any of the current HD standards" equate to "barely HD"?
Re:battery dock??? (Score:4, Informative)
And a GPS dongle because the one that is built in is broken....
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Free-ASUS-Transformer-Prime-GPS-dongles-available-now_id29205 [phonearena.com]
Did you read TFA? That was one of the things I specifically looked for them to address.
The Infinity's metal skin is similar to that of the Transformer Prime, whose shell was notorious for hampering GPS and Wi-Fi performance. See that little strip along the Infinity's top edge? That's a plastic piece designed to get along with wireless signals. Looks like it works, too; our Infinity's GPS picked up multiple satellites almost instantly, and it was connected to ten within seconds.
Re:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:5, Informative)
There are three important differences here, somewhat related.
First is that the dock has battery cells inside - enough so to almost double the total battery life. It also charges the tablet when it's docked, rather than running it directly, so you can, for example, use the tablet alone for several hours, then use it for another hour docked, and then undock it and have its battery charged almost to full again.
Second is that the way the tablet attaches to the dock is a hinge that secures it tight and itself requires effort to rotate - strong enough to hold the tablet in place vertically or at an angle. In short, just like your typical laptop hinge. Which means that it does not require any support other than any surface you can conveniently put the dock itself on - such as your laps. Which allows it to be used exactly like a laptop, with convenient typing without having any deck or other flat hard surface on the right level.
Third is that the dock has not just the keyboard in it, but also a trackpad. You might ask why you'd want one on a touchscreen device - well, for one, it's very handy if you're doing something that involves a lot of text input and only occasional tap - such as editing a text document - because swiping the finger on the trackpad is much faster than getting your hand off the keyboard and tapping on the screen every time. The other reason is that it allows you to do things that are clumsy to do with touchscreen, but are much better with improved precision of the trackpad. Again, text editing is better like that, but also RDP/VNC, and many games, especially if you also run DOSBox.
Re:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:5, Informative)
You have asked this question in other threads, and you have already got a dozen replies explaining it in detail.
None of the docks for iPad - not the Apple ones, and not third-party ones - let you convert iPad into true laptop form factor. All of them require a hard flat surface to rest the dock on, or else you can juggle the top-heavy thing on your laps and pray that it doesn't tilt hard enough to fall tablet first.
There's exactly one company that tried making a dock that would have all the same exact features as Transformer for an iPad - it's called CruxLOADED [cruxcase.com], and it has been "in development" for over a year now, so you can't actually buy it. There's also Brydge [thebrydge.com] which is almost there, but it doesn't have a trackpad (and even if it did, iOS doesn't know how to use it properly - which is also likely why CruxLOADED hasn't been released).
Re:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:4, Informative)
I have one of the new Logitech Ultra thin keyboards. This is pretty slick and looks as though it was designed for use with the iPad. It uses the magnets like the dock connect to hold it in place. It's stable on a lap or bed or sofa. It's much easier to hold than the iPad on it's own. When folded up it looks like the silver back of the iPad over the front.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00835UQK8/ref=asc_df_B00835UQK88477193?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=googlecouk06-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=B00835UQK8 [amazon.co.uk]
It's not quite a dock, but it certainly seems well designed. Apple couldn't have done a much better job if they'd designed it themselves along with the iPad.
Jason
Re:why not have full size hdmi? (Score:5, Informative)
There are three transformer models already; the original transformer (which I have), the prime which replaced it with better specs (tegra 3 vs tegra 2, better camera, more storage), and the transformer pad which is the cheaper version of the prime with a plastic case rather than aluminium. I think they all use virtually the same keyboard dock, though they're available in different colours to match the finish of the tablet.
Given the prime infinity is basically a prime with much higher res screen, it's not hard to speculate what using the prime infinity will be like.
Personally, I much prefer my original gen transformer to the ipad 2 we have in the office now it's running ICS. Adding the dock makes it a real netbook - ideal for holding in one hand and typing with the other, and plugging in standard usb-serial adapters for configuring old switches over serial with. And then I take the dock away, and it's a tablet for taking meeting notes with.
Re:" high density club" not really (Score:4, Informative)
"HD" for TVs is 1920 pixels wide and 1080 tall. This asus is 1920x1200. This means that it can just barely play HD footage, with not additional pixels.
So that extra 1920x120 space contains no pixels at all?