Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700T-B1-GR 10.1-Inch 32GB Tablet (Amethyst Gray)

UPDATE9/27/2012So I came back from Galaxy Note 10.1 because I just could not tolerate non-Full HD screen any more after using Infinity. I tried to convince myself it would be ok, but it wasn't. The biggest concern coming back to infinity were relatively frequent application not responding error (ANR) and random application crash/close especially on browser, and relatively but significantly slower speed of browser page loading compared to iPad 2 or Galaxy Note 10.1. However, with a little tweaks I am now very satisfied with infinity as those concerns are now significantly improved to almost completely fixed.- See Stability section for added Tips- Conclusion updated8/31/2012- Wifi related battery issue is not unit based, but through out the all unit (according to the quick survey at XDA) See battery life section- See new section on Quality Control Issue: In short, make sure to purchase infinity from a place where you can exchange/return.- Compare to upcoming Windows 8 Tablets8/19/2012Had to down grade score to 4 after using Galaxy Note 10.1. Please see- Stability/smoothness- Conclusion8/15/2012- Performance Boost Tip (see speed section)- Multitasking updated=====================Compared to recently announced upcoming Windows 8 tablets======================Recently, multiple windows 8 tablets have been officially announced with their detailed specifications and prices. For some of you considering this vs. windows 8 tablet, based on the specifications, I concluded following:"No windows 8 tablet is completely superior to Transformer Infinity or Galaxy Note 10.1"Major players are followings:Samsung ativ series: The only one that has Full HD screen is Smart Pro version, which costs >$1000, and DVD play battery time is 5 hours. Infinity by tablet alone has documented video play time of 9.5 hours, which becomes mere 5 hours with web browsing and 3-4 hours with playing games. So what could the 5 hours really be. Such short battery life is not acceptable for me. Other ativ series do not have full HD, and priced higher.Asus vivo series: None of them actually has full HD screen.The benefit of Windows 8 only comes if you purchase Pro version as RT version will only run windows metro specific applications, which will likely to grow in number but won't be for a while to before catching up with Android (my guess). But Pro version tablets are much higher price, and heavier.So they are not necessary inferior, but for those of you like me was looking forward to see one "this is it!" system, that is not ready. Windows 8 tablets have their own drawbacks/design decision mainly weight, battery life, price, and lack of full HD screen.====================ORIGINAL REVIEW=====================It is not my personal opinion, but if you search around the web for major review sites, pretty much it is unanimous that this tablet is the king of 10 inch Android Tablet at this moment (8/2012). As with no system is perfect; otherwise, nobody would ever make newer model again, this indeed has some room for improvement. Since I currently or previously own(ed) ipad2, Samsung galaxy 10.1 (both wifi only 4G LTE), and Xoom, I have decided to put a little comparison from my experience to indicate what aspect of this system I am truly impressed with but also what aspect can be further improved in the future models.========= Why I chose Android Ecosystem ==========iOS vs. Android may be the one biggest question potential tablet buyer must answer first. The most popular tablet by far is indeed Apple's Ipad series. They are great. Very smooth and stable. For me coming from Android system, then to iOS, then back to Android system, followings were what I looked before coming back to Android ecosystem:------------------ Android Ecosystem Pros ------------------------1. Storage expansion- I have relatively large collection of videos that I like to carry around. I would rather swap back and forth microSD than the transfer files from computer every time. So this was one big factor for me.2. True MutitaskIn iOS, multitasking is very limited and in my opinion there is no TRUE multitasking there. For instance, if I start download a file over the internet, and leave the application and do something else such as reading ebook, the file downloading quickly goes into frozen state i.e. not really downloading in background. On the other hand, Android will let you download things in background and you can do other things in the mean time.(8/15)Recently, I was a bit intrigued by the introduction of Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, which offers split window capability (not for every applications but browser, polaris office, note taking application, video covers for me). With this news, one of forum poster actually referred me to multiple applications that are already out there on market that essentially does similar and perhaps better to certain degree. For instance, if you like to browse a web but do something else e.g. read ebook, use office of your choice, or perhaps even browse two different sites. The application is called "Oversckreen." This is type of things that I believe true multitasking and flexibility of the android shines.3. Data Transfer- Transferring data using proprietary application (iTune) with USB connection became quickly very restrictive for me. We could bypass this by using cloud storage but that required uploading file first then download. On the contrary, in Android you can plug in the system via USB and transfer data by drag and drop using folder system on either Windows or Mac OS. Alternatively, you can use application such as AirDroid to transfer file over the WIFI with desktop like interface through browser.4. Centralized File System- In android, it uses similar tree file system as desktops. So I can create my own folder organization, and any application can use the folder structure. This is handy for me. For example, I have many PDF and EPUB books. For me these are nothing but ebooks. So I like to organize them in the same folder(s). However, some application does better job opening PDF than the other, but for EPUB I use different application. But this won't affect storage for me as files are still single copy one location where I placed. Whereas in iOS, each application gets own copy. So for some reason I want to open PDF in one application but then reopen on the other application, I have to create two copies in the system.5. User interfaceiOS has simple interface that nobody should have any difficulty with. This can be pros for many, but personally, I enjoy more customization. I like to see fancy widget like home screen quickly showing weather, news etc. People also frequently hear calling Android ecosystem is more "flexible." My take on this is that Android ecosystem allows you to change home screen not only with widgets but even whole interface i.e. launcher. So certainly not as simple as iOS, I prefer such on Android system. It just simply more fun for me.6. FLASH supportThis will be going away entirely from mobile platform. However, it will take time. No new device be supported at this point, but existing devices including transformer infinity is still supported. When Jellybean update comes, though there is no official support, no doubt we will still see easy way to load FLASH on android device. In fact, Nexus device user with Jellybean update confirmed they can still use Flash on their devices. So some day everything will be HTML5, but until then I like Flash compatibility.------------------ Android Ecosystem Cons ------------------------So above are in strength of the android system (obviously in my personal opinion). The downside is1. Stability/SmoothnessAndroid had came quite far since the initial tablet optimized android OS Honeycomb introduction. The current version (Ice cream sandwich) is far more stable and smooth than the Honeycomb. However, applications still do crush on Infinity. Some are not too infrequent. Initially I wrote "one main reason may be due to so many hardware out there, developers have no control/way to test on every single device. In my experience, it is most of time finding the right application." Well, I guess I was blind. Recently I purchased Galaxy Note 10.1. After 20+ hours of use, I have yet to encounter single crush or ANR (application not responding). I basically do the exactly same with Galaxy Note and Infinity. Infinity give me at least one crush or ANR every hour or two.2. ApplicationsOverall, iOS has more applications optimized for tablet. Many games are initially released on iOS then later ported to Android. If gaming on tablet is primarily interest, iOS is undoubtedly the way to go. However, some applications are better on Android. For instance, application called "Anki", which is probably the best cross platform flashcard application, you can get it for FREE on android with WIFI sync of stats and cards. Whereas, iOS you have to pay $20+ to purchase the application. Android has easy 15 minutes trial and refund policy, so I don't have to waste money to find out whether an application is what I truly wanted.========= Transformer Infinity ==========Once you made your mind with Android ecosystem, here are what's special about transformer infinity.------------------ Pros ------------------------1. SpeedI am not certain why some complains of smoothness/speed. But swiping home screen, launching applications on this device is extremely smooth and fast for me. One big sales point of the newest android OS Jellybean will be "Buttery smooth" interface; however, I am not sure if I will see any difference from what I already have here because it is already buttery smooth. Benchmarks are simply numbers, but check them out on google. You will see infinity indeed has the top notch benchmark scores across the board among all the existing android tablet. For instance, I use application called Mantano reader for my ebook. They have recently added page curl effect for epub book reading like iBook. It is so smooth on Infinity that I see no difference from iBook. But this may not be true for some older systems with lower specifications.[Tips] This is only true if you are running in balanced or performance mode. Battery save mode indeed sees a lag/stuttering.(8/15) I had not had an issue with original or replaced unit, but if your unit runs surprisingly slow. It sounds like "factory reset" had helped some. So try it out. But true performance boost was immediately noticed, and perhaps stability improvement as well after reading an article at XDA forum. If you are interested, try search "tweaks to sweeten your life with the Infinity." If not, this at least proves that ASUS can eventually with software update make this tablet even much faster.2. HD ScreenThis is main advantage of this device over the other android tablet. Basically, you are paying for this feature. The upcoming Galaxy Note 10.1 has equivalent CPU benchmark and better GPU benchmark; however, it lacks HD screen. There is currently not much (if any) HD optimized application on android market but you don't really need them to see its effect on daily use. When you surf web, read ebooks, the texts are crystal clear. If HD screen is what you want, you only have two choice in Android market right now. Acer A500 and this machine. Every site that I saw basically puts Infinity over the A500 despite $50 more.3. ASUS reputationASUS does have its own problem. However, when comes to software update they are among the best. They have introduced Ice cream sandwitch before anybody else except google device e.g. xoom or nexus. People complained about poor I/O perfomance, they have already released firmware less than a month since the device release to fix this. There is no doubt aside from Xoom and Nexus 7, transformer series will be the first to see Jellybean update.*In comparison, Samsung makes great tablet but they customize the OS quite bit and resulting in extremely slow update. They have just recently updated to ice cream sandwich on their original Galaxy Tablet series, which is like 6 months behind that of ASUS.4. Keyboard DockYou can use keyboard on any Android tablet whether bluetooth or USB. The key difference here is that transformer series keyboard will extend the battery life and attaches to tablet and makes the tablet like laptop. Since I have not purchased one yet, I cannot say much about this.[Rumor] Many rumors are floating around that transformer prime keyboard dock is indeed the same as that of transformer infinity except now priced higher. One most objective argument I have seen regarding to this is on the XDA forum. One user disassembled both and basically saw everything being the exactly the same. ASUS representative says otherwise, but no convincing proof has been provided so far.5. Future ProofTablet market is perhaps the most rapidly evolving field. If you wait 3-4 months, there will be better specification system on the market. However, Infinity being the top of notch at this point and similar but superior to the Nexus 7, we can safely say that this device will have relatively good future proof for a while before its gets obsolete. No doubt we will get newer OS even after Jellybean.Upcoming Galaxy Note 10.1 will have 2GB of memory, which is great and I wish we had it on Infinity; however, it being the only system with that, and many will be at 1GB we will not see any application that requires 2GB memory for awhile. Though larger memory will certainly help multitasking.------------------ Cons ------------------------1. Battery LifePersonally, this is one major downside of the system. The system has higher pixels to push compared to transformer prime, yet has the identical battery. In comparison, New iPad doubled its battery from iPad 2 to sustain its battery life. ASUS claims 9.5 hours of battery with tablet alone. In balanced mode with WIFI on but watching local video or reading ebook under 30% or so monitor setting, I get ~10%/hr battery loss. So it is possible to get the number. However, if you surf the web the battery life quickly goes down. With WiFi surfing and online streaming, the battery drain becomes ~20%/hr i.e. only lasts 5-6 hours. This seems a bit low. Couple tricks to save battery life exist including changing to Power Saving mode, which would add 1-2 hours extra, but system becomes overall laggy. Adding dock will bring up the battery life to top of its kind; however, I still prefer seeing 9-10 hours battery with constant web surf without dock.Note: These numbers are screen on time. I can easily get over a day if including the screen off time.I initially thought it was fault on my device as some claims phenomenal battery life, so I did got exchange but still the same. Those claiming over 10hours battery life is undoubtedly talking about "off charger but not on-screen" time. Those who claims on-screen time of >6 hours have minimal WIFI use (not it is on or off but actively browsing or not). I have sent an email to ASUS rep about this to see if they can potentially fix it as other tablet usually won't have this much difference in battery use just by using browser.[TIPS] For those of you getting too much drain from WIFI while screen is off, go to setting > WIFI > advanced and select WIFI on while sleep to "never". This way when your system is off, you won't see drain in battery.2. USB File Transfer SpeedWhen compared to my iPad 2, file transfer speed across the USB is slower on transformer infinity despite using the latest firmware .26. The time I transfer files are not so frequent and I can even download files in background and do something else, but it is certainly nice to have maximum speed when hooked on to USB as those are times I want to transfer big file as quickly as possible.3. SoundIt talks about Sonic System but sound on this machine is definitely weakness. Sometimes I have difficulty hearing via speaker. Fortunately, I use mostly with headphone but if someone wants to watch a movie on this device using a built in speaker and expecting high quality, you may be a bit disappointed on this regards.[Tips] You can potentially boost the sound beyond the manufacture's setting. But this shouldn't be necessary.4. Quality Control (added 8/31)Based on my daily checking of forums on transformer infinity, I can confidently conclude that quality control on the transformer infinity have some major flaw. Some may try to defend saying that they got a perfect unit, which is great for them. Others may say every company has defective unit, which is true statement. However, if you look at forum such as XDA, you see so many people complains of issues. In contrast, if you check forum for Galaxy Note 10.1, you basically see 1/10th of hardware related complain. This overall make ASUS a huge loss in my opinion. Because we don't know if the system instability, slow speed etc. is actually from the system or simply faulty unit. Some may not even consider latter and instead just return. Because of relatively high prevalence of QC issue, I highly recommend buying infinity from a place where you can exchange/return.------------------ Mixed ------------------------1. Build QualityOverall the unit looks phenomenal. Compared to my previous plastic made Galaxy 10.1 which port hinge cracked without any major physical damage and Samsung refused to replace... Solid metallic feeling, beautiful concentric design of ZEN. It definitely feels like high quality tablet. My original nor replacement unit had single dead pixel, so that's a good thing. However, if you become nit picky, you finds a few (minor) but noticeable issues including:- Light bleed: Only noticeable during boot up so should not affect actual use but they are there. Supposedly pretty common based on some forum.- Clicking sound: My initial tablet did have this and many others experience this according to XDA forum. Most likely due to slightly loose attachment around the screen. Again, this does not affect daily use but this one was certainly noticeable to me. Replaced unit did not have this but got more light bleed.- Soft button: Original unit had some asymmetric softness to the volume up button, and replaced unit has that on the power button.2. StabilityThis may not be due to hardware but rather applications but applications do crash at least several times during my charge cycle. Particularly, noticeable is on the browser. It does not matter if stock, chrome, or other popular third party browsers. They still give me random close. Mainly with flash site though. I hope this will improve with Jellybean but it emphasizes "smoothness" not "stability" so who knows.(8/19) After using Galaxy Note 10.1, I am not sure if it is due to software or hardware. Because Galaxy note 10.1 also uses Ice cream sandwich but after 20+ hours of use, I have experience 0 crush or freeze. Even on the file I could not open (pdf on mantano reader), I can readily open with Galaxy Note 10.1. It is possible that Samsung did extensive customization/kernel design and ASUS did not so it is software related, but in any event when compared to the most stable systems i.e. iPad or Galaxy Note 10.1 (yes. so far that system is stable as iPad or could be even more.. who knows as I haven't experience single crush on this I don't know how good/bad it is), infinity definitely lacks stability. Though I don't think it is any worse than my old Samsung Galaxy 10.1 or Xoom.(9/27) I am not certain whether it was related due to defective hardware for my original units, firmware update improvement, or turning off the bloatware. But at this point, I have encountered only handful application random crash, and probably same or less number of ANR after two weeks. This is essentially compatible to my experience on Galaxy Note 10.1, and iPad 2. So from my side, only one special thing I did here, which is "turning off bloatware." ASUS includes many application that runs on background. These can be turned off without you rooting or unlocking the device. So I highly recommend doing this. For the exact list of which application can be turned off, see XDA forum.3. Power Save ModeIt is nice to have an option to extend battery a little as it is indeed the biggest weakness of this unit. However, noticeable lag by switching to it seems a bit of issue. I understand becoming laggy on demanding applications such as games but just swiping home screen, launching application should still be smooth. I wonder if Jellybean will fix this.========= Conclusion ==========Overall, I now give 5/5. This is the best android table on market. Main advantage are full HD screen, ASUS's continuous support with timely updates, top notch hardware spec at the moment makes this is future proof device. However, battery life is sub-optimal for today's tablet standard when used tablet alone with WIFI on, and built in speaker is weakness. Also, quality control issue of ASUS product suffer, so be sure to get this from where you can exchange as you have relatively high chance receiving defective product.Out of box, this item may be slightly inferior in a few area compared to Galaxy Note 10.1. In particular, browser speed and overall smoothness and speed on ICS. These however, can be improved by simple fixes. 1. Turn of bloatware (no root/unlock needed). 2. If you still think browser is slow, then supposedly, you can install an application called browser2ram. However, for this you supposedly need to root the system. But with these modifications, you can make infinity true king of the android tablet at the moment.

***UPDATE***After charging and discharging the battery several times, I found the typical charge duration to be close to advertised, around 9 hours without the dock and close to 14 with.***UPDATE 2: JELLY BEAN***Installed Jelly Bean on this tablet yesterday (10/1/12), and I am quite pleased with the performance improvement. Everything seems smoother, and I haven't had any hangs that I occasionally experienced previously. After doing some research as to why there were hangs in the first place, I came across a chart of internal memory/storage I/O speed comparisons across many android devices. I was surprised to see that all the Asus transformers were at the very bottom of these speed tests. This would also explain the slower app launch time compared to my Galaxy Nexus phone, even after the Jelly Bean update. It pretty disappointing that Asus would cheap out on this aspect of the system, and it does seem like this is the root cause for all of the pauses and hangs in the system. A user over at XDA Developers created a modded kernel that mounts /data/ and /cache/ on an external SD card, and when using a high quality SD card (class 10), it seems to get rid of all of the problems completely. I am curious to see how this mod applied to the Jelly Bean kernel would perform. If I am successfully able to do this, I will post the results.********I've been wanting to purchase a tablet for a while now, but I held off on the iPads because I personally don't like iOS all that much. After playing around with a friend's original version Transformer, I did some research and decided to wait for this tablet to come out. It was definitely worth the wait.When used with a keyboard dock, the tablet essentially replaces my laptop. I still use my desktop for any intensive applications, but this tablet is able to provide all of the mobile productivity that I need. I can easily SSH and connect to my Linux server for any programming that I need to do. Functionality wise, it's everything that I needed.***PROS***The build quality is superb; the tablet feels very solid in my hands. It's also surprisingly thin and light, which makes it easy to hold the tablet in one hand and read in portrait mode. The screen is excellent as well. Although it has a slightly lower pixel density when compared to the new iPad's screen, I still prefer this screen. My friend owns the latest generation iPad, so I did a side-by-side comparison to see which screen was better. The brightness on this tablet beats that of the iPad screen by quite a bit, and the 16:10 aspect ratio makes it much better for watching HD movies than the iPad's 4:3 ratio. Overall, there's plenty of real estate which many of the tablet-optimized apps make use of. Android also seems to do a pretty good job of scaling the non-tablet apps as well, so there's not shortage of apps for the device.The performance in general is pretty snappy as well. I've been using Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on my Nexus phone for nearly two weeks now, and I remember that there was a noticeable difference when I switched over from ICS. I think the same can be said about ICS running on this tablet. There are a few places where it may seem to stutter or drop frames, but it's uncommon and doesn't seem to detract from the experience. ASUS did announce that they have plans to release Jelly Bean to their Transformer lineup in a few months, so I'm sure that the smoothness will improve dramatically with the update.Several reviewers have noted that since the speakers are located on the backside of the tablet, it may output a muffled sound when the tablet is placed on its back. Honestly, this isn't a deal for me. When laid on a flat surface like my desk, the sound is still rather clear. If I put the tablet on my bed, however, I start to notice some muffling. It's really not too bad, and I don't see where else they could have put the speakers without more people complaining.***CONS***Update: Jelly Bean now installed on the Transformer Infinity. Performance is great, but I/O speed still a slight bottleneck.The only real downside to me is that the performance isn't what it would be with Jelly Bean installed. It's still great - apps don't hang and it's generally very responsive - but I expect Jelly Bean to really showcase the speed of the Tegra 3. After playing around with a Nexus 7 which also uses a Tegra 3, I can see how amazingly fast the OS runs. Considering that this tablet uses a Tegra 3 with a higher clock speed, the device will be at least as fluid, most likely better. Asus has already announced that they plan to roll out Jelly Bean to this tablet within a couple of months, so it should be seeing an update pretty soon.As others have said, it seems that there is no 5GHz wireless support, which is a shame. The proprietary charger that this tablet requires is also a bit of a downer for me. I would have much preferred a micro-USB charger so that I don't need to use two different charges for my devices.Lastly, the decision to keep the amount of RAM at 1GB is a bit disappointing. I feel that doubling it to 2GB would have helped future-proof the device for a couple more years to come, but I'm pretty sure that this tablet will manage fine for the next few years.