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."
why not have full size hdmi? (Score:2)
why not have full size hdmi? you have full size USB.
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Re:why not have full size hdmi? (Score:5, Informative)
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What app(s) do you use for a serial terminal?
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I use BlueTerm for my Arduino stuff. There's a few other terminal emulators around.
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Hardhead_7 is probably referring to the Prime Infinity's predecessor which uses the same "lapdock".
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I think this is at least the fourth Transformer model, isn't it?
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.
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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:" 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?
Re:" high density club" not really (Score:5, Insightful)
Great! So on an iPad all HD video has to be scaled up to a different resolution resulting in a loss of perceivable sharpness, whereas on this Asus it can be displayed at a perfect 1:1 pixel correspondence.
I know which I'd prefer.
Definitely not iPad killer? (Score:2, Interesting)
Ok. I get it. You have to compare it to the defacto tablet, the iPad. But really? The summary is more opinion with a few marks of fact about the tablet, all comparing it to what the iPad does. Just say what the damn thing stands on in its own merits and let the reviewers give opinion. The summary comes off more as a damn review than a fucking news post. I haven't even checked the fucking article, because if the summary is any indication, this is a bullshit article compared to others out there on the same th
Re:Definitely not iPad killer? (Score:5, Interesting)
damn good point. my wife has an iPad, i have a netbook. she uses her iPad for her personal and business stuff 90% of the time, but 10% of the time she's swearing at the thing and grabbing the netbook from me.
the thing that kills iPads for me is the lack of a filesystem, the lack of proper multitasking (my 13 month old is the only one of us able to correctly swipe between apps consistently), afterthought implementations of essential functions like copypaste, and in-text editing is a pain in the arse - it's quicker to retype the sentence (including backspacing over it) then to select a bit of a word and type in 2 letters.
it's not bad for the 90%, but the 10% is not going away, no matter how much marketing is thrown at it. i'm sick to death of the Apple catch-cry of "why would anybody want to do that?" whenever confronted by a thing i do every day that their gear can't do.
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battery dock??? (Score:2)
In what circumstances does this make sense? It seems to me that when you're docking, you're going to be next to a power outlet.
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That's simply not true. I carry my laptop around with me many times without having it plugged in, even around the house. The circumstances are when you're using it as a portable computer instead of as a tablet--emphasis on portable--and not just as a lightweight desktop workstation.
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I carry my laptop around with me many times without having it plugged in, even around the house.
So do I. Yet whenever I want to plug other stuff into it I'm near power.
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Have you seen the Transformer? Do you know what the concept is behind it? You don't really plug much of anything else into it, except maybe headphones. What exactly do you think you're going to be plugging into it?
In your original message, you mentioned "docking." You seem to be under the mistaken impression that "docking" the Transformer is like docking a laptop into a docking station. That is not what it is at all. You are docking the tablet part of it into a keyboard/battery part that essentially t
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And a GPS dongle because the one that is built in is broken....
Only on the Prime, because of the metal case. The GPS in the plastic-cased 300 works fine.
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:battery dock??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:battery dock??? (Score:5, Insightful)
I spend perhaps 3-4 days a week in my car, visiting clients and attending trade shows etc. I never have to worry about the charge on my Prime. Does email, Citrix client, word processing, spreadsheets etc.
I also recently flew to China. On a budget airline that had no personal entertainment options, for over 10 hours. I watched several hours of TV shows during the flight. When I landed I still had more than 50% battery remaining. I stayed in several hotels with no Wifi. They had free internet over Ethernet only. A $6 USB-Ethernet adapter later and I was away. Moreover I was able to load photos from my camera directly onto the tablet through the full sized SD card slot and show them to clients/friends/family on the larger tablet screen.
At night I just left the keyboard dock in my luggage and just carried the tablet around. Visited a cafe or a bar, read a novel, surf on free WiFi. No recharging needed because during the day I had depleted the keyboard battery and not the tablet battery.
There are many reasons one would choose this form factor. I love it.
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So, much of the dock functionality is useless, but you want a keyboard and a big battery, and it has that in one package. OK.
If you're going to use the dock all the time, you'd be better off buying a netbook. But it's very useful when you do want a proper keyboard and more battery life.
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If you're going to use the dock all the time, you'd be better off buying a netbook. But it's very useful when you do want a proper keyboard and more battery life.
Possibly, but not necessarily true. Are there any netbooks with a touchscreen? I personally find keyboard + touchscreen (with occasional touchpad use mixed in) to be much better than keyboard + touchpad. Thats one thing I love about my Transformer Prime.
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I actually replaced my netbook with the Transformer Prime (which isn't nearly as nice as this one, and has a few issues the Infinity is supposed to fix), and I did so because Android on that Tegra 3 is way faster than Windows on most netbook CPUs, while still having the insane -mainstream- app ecosystem (that Linux doesn't have).
And then i can remove the dock and get a tablet form factor. Bonus.
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sort of, but you'll be down 1 battery...
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all for less than a grand
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it makes sense when you're out and about and want to use the keyboard attachment - click the tablet into the keyboard, and suddenly you have an extra 8 hours of battery.
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it makes sense when you're out and about and want to use the keyboard attachment - click the tablet into the keyboard, and suddenly you have an extra 8 hours of battery.
Yeah, battery + keyboard I can see for on-the-go use. The rest of the dock features, not so much...
We don't need to "kill" anything (Score:5, Interesting)
What's this obsession in the media with regards to consumer tech (phones, tablets, portable music players) in which products different to the current market leader are qualified as to whether or not that are a -killer? In the case of tablets, the iPad has its strength and weaknesses, and although it seems like a good all-round device it's not for everyone. Some people want more ports, more expandability, something a bit more like a portable computer than a portable appliance (which the iPad is marketed as). In this case it doesn't need to "kill" the market leader - it just has to offer something different that people want. In this way, we have choice.
Now of course it will be compared to the iPad, but what's this obsession that if you're not the market leader, you're not worth buying? If that were the case there'd be no market for Android phones, or even WM7 phones. Is there perhaps some deep-seated personal feeling that if you don't buy number one, you're by extension not a winner and instead a second-class individual? Or is it just the apps?
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Now of course it will be compared to the iPad, but what's this obsession that if you're not the market leader, you're not worth buying? If that were the case there'd be no market for Android phones, or even WM7 phones.
Actually, looking at phones, Android is the market leader.
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Perhaps, but as far as what media and marketing use when they want to use a picture of a smartphone, they'll use an iPhone. It's also safe money that if you pick a random group of smartphone users, at least half will have an iPhone. I say this as a (reasonably) happy Galaxy S2 user. I think I've seen one person so far use a WM7 phone.
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As soon as someone comes out with a tablet that runs android and has a >7" retina screen I'm buying one. Why? PDFs. I read a fair amount of datasheets and it would be nice to have a second display I can carry with me for that. Why not e-ink? Too slow. It's too hard to zip from one section to another or to skim the material.
Second excuse - my wrists hurt, and it would be nice to browse reddit on something other than a PC/laptop.
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As high as I can get. I regularly read stuff close to my face and I like not seeing pixelization. I mentioned retina displays because I figure that, sooner or later, those displays are going to end up in other products. It won't be called a Retina Display... who gives a shit?
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Like I said, it's obvious that it will be compared to the iPad (hardly a crime to do so). But the idea that they have to topple the product (i.e. become an iPad-killer) and if they don't then they're not worth being fabrication in the first place, seems to be very short-sighted to me. As if they can't carve out their own market wit
Transformer (Score:5, Funny)
WUXGA finally (again) ! (Score:4, Insightful)
finally the 16:9 fad is over. maybe soon i'll be able to replace my 15" WUXGA D830...
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sorry to hear that. i had the same thing happen to me a while back. i took it apart and cleaned out the heatsync and it was as good as new...
i have replaced the motherboard since then, though. i'd love to get a new machine, but I can't bare to lose the WUXGA :(
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Halfway there. (Score:2, Interesting)
Not enough. I've seen properly produced printed content on The New iPad(tm) and it's like I'm holding a [slightly small] magazine page in my hand. Highly detailed images, razor sharp text. I've been hearing about 2560x1600 10.1" displays from Samsung for over a year and 11.6" for about half a year. 1920x1080 is a real let-down for Android after seeing The New iPad(tm).
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You're calling it a "real let-down" before even glancing at it. The new iPad only has 28% greater pixel density on the short axis and 7% on the long one. In other words, the TF700 has 27% fewer pixels overall. The difference is probably noticeable for someone with sharp vision, but not huge. In fact, the TF700 has almost the same (slightly more) pixel density as the new "retina" MacBook Pro. So it could share the "retina" moniker were it not trademarked for Apple machines.
Re:Halfway there. (Score:4, Funny)
Oops, you're right on both counts. First, I meant to say 28% more pixels and 7% more pixels. Second, yes, the aspect ratio of my anus is definitely different than the iPad.
Cheers. :)
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... the aspect ratio of my anus is definitely different than the iPad.
Cheers. :)
Yeah, don't go sticking any square pegs into that round hole.
Too Small (Score:2)
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Acer just came out with a 13 inch tablet. Might want to check them out.
Backlight (Score:4, Informative)
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I've never run my iPad brightness higher than about 60 percent because I want to retain the ability to see. That shit is BRIGHT.
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 :)
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i.e. Don't think of backlight brightness as "how bright is the screen". Think of it as "How wide a variety of lighting condit
It's for the big blue room. (Score:5, Funny)
The iPad 3 backlight is very bright. I doubt you could make a brighter display without having a negative affect.
Congratulations. You've just admitted you've never been outside.
Tech journalism please die (Score:2)
If something's good, tell me it's good. If something's bad, tell me it's bad. Stop trying to be balanced. I'm fucking sick of reviews in the form this thing is amazing... but it's really not that good.
Sold! (Score:2)
It's the tablet I've been waiting for. Somebody inherits my trusty Xoom.
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...well, at least I thought that until I found there's no USB port on the tablet itself. The Xoom will do just fine for now and I'll just keep my wallet shut.
Still a 1GB ceiling (Score:2)
Does it (a) cost substantially more (b) take up significantly more space (c) drain battery life to use notebook SO-DIMMs?
I'd be nice to have a touchscreen ARM laptop running desktop Linux that doubles as an Android tablet but 1GB for an ultra portable laptop is so 2004!
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No 3G version is a deal breaker (Score:3)
The form factor is perfect, the price seems about right, but they offer no mobile connectivity. This is a deal breaker is I want it precisely for browsing during the commute as a tablet, with the added flexibility of the keyboard and extra battery everywhere else.
Unfortunately ASUS has been reluctant to offer 3G connectivity in all the Transformer line, first announcing that it wouldn't be a 3G version and later offering it delayed after several months. Come on guys, the high-end line should come with 3G from the beginning.
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By mentioning your commute, I can assume you're talking about public transit. Do you not have a cell phone? Put it in tethering mode and use the wifi on the tablet. I do this regularly.
Typically, however, anywhere you'd want to sit down and use a device these days is going to have wifi available. Not always, but usually.
In those corner cases where this doesn't hold true, it makes much more sense to use a tethered phone with a data plan or a $15 USB 3g modem than to have it integrated into the device. 3G onl
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Re:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:5, Insightful)
You can use any Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad and battery docks are a dime a dozen....
Because the keyboard dock turns it into an Android netbook, rather than a kludgy collection of knocked-together addons where you have to support the display with your knees?
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So pairing a Bluetooth keyboard and a using a stand makes it a "kludge"?
Re:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:5, Insightful)
So pairing a Bluetooth keyboard and a using a stand makes it a "kludge"?
Uh, yes. Is this supposed to be a trick question?
What's the big deal? (Score:2)
With the right add-ons you can do everything this device does...except expand the internal storage. Kludge? Hardly.
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So in your world there is a difference between a dock that you plug in your tablet and case with a keyboard and battery?
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.
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and don't forget the hours of extra battery life :)
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Some people are still more comfortable with the laptop form factor, and a discrete keyboard and stand do not replace that design.
I find that it does. The only remaining issues I have are software ones... mainly, why does this have to run a cutdown hack of a UI instead of a standard UI agumented with touchscreen support?
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No, it's a pretty good Android tablet and a not so good netbook.
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Re:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:5, Interesting)
Frankly, I'm more interested in the upcoming Win8 Intel version (Transformer Book). Especially the Core i5 ones with 13" and 14" screens... this would actually make it a very nice laptop that could completely replace the need to lug the real one around. And, of course, you could always dual-boot whatever on it - even Android.
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"The transformer is the best proof of that. People want a laptop that isn't a laptop."
So was the fact that the TouchPad existed proof that people wanted a WebOS tablet?
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And at $149, it's a super-affordable accessory and doesn't push the total price up into the range of really low-end ultrabooks that have the same form factor but are likely more powerful and more compatible with software that sort of user would actually be using.
Oh. Wait.
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Where?
They say this will start at $499 and the dock puts this at about $650. What really low-end ultrabook that havs more performance and software, which I guess is a full OS like Windows 7?
I know there are 10.1 inch tablets out there like the Latitude XT, but I am curious what you think is close to $650 and better, because the Latitude XT is nowhere close to that with a dock.
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HP sells stuff [hp.com] as low as $600. It has 4x the RAM, 5x the storage, a much larger (and much lower resolution) screen, more (and more useful) ports, and a backlit keyboard. It's also branded as a "Sleekbook", whatever the hell that means, since it seems like they're reserving "Ultrabook" for their more expensive options. Most ultrabooks that were linked from Intel's page on the topic seem to start at $750 or higher and go up from there, so I'm guessing HP's choice to not brand this device as such is indicative
Re:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought we were comparing tablets, or netbooks/ultrabooks with a touch screen interface.
While interesting, what you linked to does not seem to have a touchscreen interface listed in the specs. HP only seems to offer a single touchscreen product [hp.com] for almost 3 times as much when you search their site.
I'm particularly interested in the touchscreen for some mobile employee use cases that we have. The Latitude XT tablet is the cheapest that I can find starting at $750. Without the dock, this new Transformer Prime is $499, considerably less than $750. That's an Android OS, but I have been looking into HTML5 to capture touch screen input.
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Ah, yeah, I didn't mean to suggest they would have touchscreens, merely that they were encroaching on the territory of ultrabooks at that price point, which generally have more power available. Sorry for the confusion.
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They say this will start at $499 and the dock puts this at about $650.
With the existing Transformers, the dock adds about $120 if you buy it in a box with the tablet; it's only $150 if you buy it separately. So if the tablet is $499 I'd expect the tablet plus dock to be around $620.
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http://clamcase.com/ [clamcase.com]
Magic!
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...the keyboard dock turns it into an Android netbook, rather than a kludgy collection of knocked-together addons where you have to support the display with your knees?
Xoom's portfolio case takes care of this nicely, it is rugged, stable and light.
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:Why do they act like a keyboar dock is a big de (Score:5, Insightful)
"It's an actual accessory designed specifically for this particular tablet, not some 3rd party attachment designed to try and fill a void. "
Right because an accessory designed for the iPad is not designed specifically for the iPad....
It's actually the other way around really. The tablet is designed for the accessory, whereas an ipad is not. So the accessory then works quite a bit better with the tablet because the tablet was designed to use it.
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
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I mainly use my laptops to work and read so I want/need high resolution. Please keep the retarded multimedia formats only in the multimedia hardware section.
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Putting a 1920x1200 in 10 inches is nice though, and maybe we'll see the mainstream bump 20 inches above that sometime soon.
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It's high res because it's a 10.1" screen. By my math thats 5.35"x8.56", at 16:10. With 1920x1200 pixels, that's 224DPI. That's magazine quality. A 24" 16:10 monitor at the same DPI would be about 4560x2850.
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commercial presses standardize their input at 300dpi... just saying.
what comes off the press is often a bit less than that, but it's hard to place it with offset printing (except for black-only text, which is often well above 300dpi)
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I'm still holding on to an ancient Dell, simply because nobody builds a replacement in 2012. After 5 years I demand at least equal resolution, and aghast improving on the 1920x1200 WUXGA screen is not an option.
Have you been to Apple's website lately?
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