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[Q] Who plans on not purchasing the dock?

Just wanted to know who plans on not purchasing the dock(since that was the main selling point.) How do you think you will do without a usb port?

For me personally if it wasnt for the dock (full keyboard, extra battery and full size usb ports) id have just gotten the Tab 10.1 in june instead. Although its too bad they're using tegra 2 and not their own chips for the tab but oh well.

I'm not planning on it as of right now. Once I have it in my hands and start messing with it, I can reassess the need for it from there.

personally i would like the dock however it all depends upon the price of it here in the UK !!

I do not plan on it...anything i need that would normally be synced through a USB can be put on the device with bluetooth or pulled off my wireless network. I honestly dont think I will mind not having one (besides needing to charge on that darned proprietary cable!)

Once there is any temp. price drop that makes keyboard dock for $90 or so I can get ..other wise....big NO

I don't think I'm getting the dock either. Firstly the price is too high, if it was less than $100 i would have considered it, i have 3 laptops already so I dont need it to do any work or typing. I actually may even get rid of the transformer depending on how the samsung is reviewed since its lighter and thinner. If i end up keeping it for the long term I may get the dock later but only if it comes down in price.

One of the main reasons that I'm getting the Transformer over any of the other Android tablets is the keyboard dock (which isn't sold in the US yet!).
So I definitely plan on getting on when they start being sold here.

kxs783kms said:
How do you think you will do without a usb port?
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Supposedly there is an adaptor accessory that will provide a USB port.
Regards,
Dave

I most definitely WON'T buy the keyboard dock.
I simply don't need it - my house is already littered with computers (2 laptops, 2 desktops, 1 server).
I needed a lightweight, always-on, touch device, not another notebook

I don't plan on buying the dock anytime soon as mostly I will be using it to read books, browsing the internet and few other things which would not require dock. Moreover, the price of the dock is (errrmmm keyboard ) is just too much for me to come to terms with it. So, unless it drops down to like $79 bucks, it won't happen in next year or so.

One of my main uses for the Transformer is writing, and conducting the research for writing. I wanted a device that will last for a long, long time on a charge so that I can be ready to write in any situation. Also, I got tired of setting up my HP Envy notebook on the tray and hassling with the power cable every time I wanted to do some writing late at night in bed.
So, the dock is the entire point of buying the TF for me. A physical keyboard is necessary for long-form writing, of course. The extra battery means it'll last a full day of writing, so it'll always be available. And because there's also no heat and thus no fans, I don't have to mess with power cables and lap trays when I want to write at night. Just plop it right on top of the covers, no problem.
The dock will also serve as a cover (I imagine I'll pretty much carry it around with the dock most of the time, but I did buy a sleeve just in case) and a prop. Overall, I think the price is good enough for a 24.4Whr battery and portable charging station, with a hardwired keyboard (avoiding Bluetooth connectivity issues) and trackpad.
I know the thread was about people NOT buying it, but I thought I'd interject. Just 'cause I like talking about it, and need something to do until it arrives later today.

I will buy it, since I don't have a personal laptop (do have a work laptop, that's it) and only a high end desktop.
The long lasting battery and dual option (tablet and netbook) do it perfectly for me. Also, my 30" desktop monitor is IPS panel, so I won't go anything below that in picture quality.

Currently I have no interest. Not because I think it's a dumb idea, I just don't need it for a tablet, that's not how I'm using mine. I do appreciate the idea, though. If it cost less, I'd probably bite just to have the option handy, but $150 is too much for something I'd rarely use. I find that the on-screen keyboard is very good for the amount of typing I do on the Transformer (I do find myself hitting the keyboard minimize button by accident too much, I wish it wasn't underneath the shift key).

The dock should turn it into a Windows laptop, have the cpu etc in the dock.
I'd pay for that, but see no reason for a Honeycomb tablet dock unless it was $60 or so.

I'm not much interested in the keyboard dock. I've got a laptop with a 9 hr battery and bigger screen that weighs three pounds, I'd use that. I might be interested in the desktop dock thing that just charges it and holds it though, if the price was right and they ever became available.

If the dock without a keyboard has battery inside I might not buy the keyboard dock and go for the keyboardless dock.

i'm also torn between getting the dock or not. i do like the idea of extended battery and the ability to type with a physical keyboard. but then i already have my laptop for that. another thing is the price - $150 is kind of high. but then i already preordered it from amazon. lol. if anything it'll be a pure impulse buy or i end up forgetting that i preordered and then it ships. haha

Never intend of getting the keyboard in the first place, if I need a keyboard I will use my notebook.

The ASUS PadPhone clear picture

Looks freaking sweet.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/29/this-is-the-asus-padfone/#bXpulseX

That bulge in the back after docking is gonna feel weird.

i dont think so. i bet the phone gunna be light as a feather, but then again no one knows what ASUS has up there sleave untill tomorrow when they give a full preview on it

pics of the intire unit next to a transformer
http://androidcommunity.com/asus-padfone-press-photos-full-view-breaking-leak-20110529/

That looks odd. And heavy.

I think it's brilliant.

Hum, not really seeing the utility, should just get the phone you want, the tablet you want and then, invest in a good syncing apps? looks weird too...

I like the way it looks, I for one love this idea cause I'm always misplacing my phone and I'd rather have all my info and apps in 1 device, for instance if you're playing a game on the go, and you come home, you can plug it into the dock and play the same game, instead of having 2 different devices. I think it looks better than the TF. My only concern is price. Cause I don't really care about it being 1 mm thinner than an iPad or 1 mm thicker, unless its 2 inches thicker, I don't care, also don't care too much about weight as long as its under 2.5lbs. As long as it has a quality build, and the price isn't way out there than I am very interested in this.

eviltuna said:
I like the way it looks, I for one love this idea cause I'm always misplacing my phone and I'd rather have all my info and apps in 1 device, for instance if you're playing a game on the go, and you come home, you can plug it into the dock and play the same game, instead of having 2 different devices. I think it looks better than the TF. My only concern is price. Cause I don't really care about it being 1 mm thinner than an iPad or 1 mm thicker, unless its 2 inches thicker, I don't care, also don't care too much about weight as long as its under 2.5lbs. As long as it has a quality build, and the price isn't way out there than I am very interested in this.
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We dont know if the phone is going to be supplying the gpu and cpu just yet. I bet the tab will work with out the phone and cost 400$ and plugging in an optional phone will do sonething else to the tablet.

I'm also glad there focus is not all on how thin it is like samsung. Rather waist time on being diffrent than looking at apples notes and ideas to copy.

Perhaps the tablet works by itself, but popping in the phone provides 3G/4G connectivity and phone functionality (e.g., SMS, voicemail, taking calls through the tablet). If they went crazy and made it compatible with the Transformer dock, I'd be sold. Doesn't look like they did, however.
Very cool concept. Looks like Asus is working hard to be the real innovator in this new space.

There's no latching points on either of two longer sides, so no, it looks like it's not compatible with the Transformer's dock. That's a really pity, because I'd love a phone/tablet/netbook all-in-one. Having said that, I think something like that would be more suited to a Tegra 3 chip.

i think its a great look, use the phone for daily use pop in in a tab for leasure and movie watching and news reading. I mean come on no crazy latch on keyboard like the motorola atrix <--huge fail. If your gonna do a phone slash tab all in one this is the way to do it.

to bad the phone's not on the bottom of a keyboard dock for the TF

bill_d said:
to bad the phone's not on the bottom of a keyboard dock for the TF
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Wouldn't make much sence imo . Then your forced to carry everything to use the phone function

Not seeing a dock connector at the bottom. Shame. Bit of a waste. But I'd never buy a slate phone anyway regardless of its docking options.

Although I admire their innovation given that a lot of android devices end up the same, I think it looks dire. That bulge at the back sucks. The fact that your phone will be stuck in the tablet when you get a call sucks as well. Also I highly doubt this tablet is going to be running honeycomb, as it will almost certainly run from the phone's hardware, and that in itself is reason enough not to buy one if you ask me. I imagine it will end up being 2.2/2.3 with custom ui over the top like on the prototype transformer. Just my guess though.

cowballz69 said:
pics of the intire unit next to a transformer
http://androidcommunity.com/asus-padfone-press-photos-full-view-breaking-leak-20110529/
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Entire The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.

case0 said:
Although I admire their innovation given that a lot of android devices end up the same, I think it looks dire. That bulge at the back sucks. The fact that your phone will be stuck in the tablet when you get a call sucks as well. Also I highly doubt this tablet is going to be running honeycomb, as it will almost certainly run from the phone's hardware, and that in itself is reason enough not to buy one if you ask me. I imagine it will end up being 2.2/2.3 with custom ui over the top like on the prototype transformer. Just my guess though.
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U won't know yet till tomorrow yep

I used to live in the bay area back before cell towers provided internet service and we had to use these cool custom radios that were about the size of a walki-talkie to get our mobile internet. Our solution for integrating the mobile internet to our laptops was this really sweet invention called Velcro... I'm thinking if the folks at Asus had seen my 2001 laptop they might have opted for Velcro too instead of adding a glove box to a tablet.

Lenovo Thinkpad tablet...Transformer competition?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6-ykDOfJdc&NR=1
http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/20/lenovo-thinkpad-tablet-and-keyboard-folio-case-hands-on-video/
I think you get best of all worlds with this device...full sized ports on the tablet itself, optional dedicated keyboard folio, and an N-trig pen digitizer. With all the success the transformer has, I think this will definitely take away some sales from the transformer.

I think the pen looks nice but that's about it. The keyboard isn't really a dock it's just like those flimsy addon keyboard cases you can buy for iPad, and no extra battery, so it's fail. Did they mention SD card slot? Don't seem to see that....

darkonex said:
I think the pen looks nice but that's about it. The keyboard isn't really a dock it's just like those flimsy addon keyboard cases you can buy for iPad, and no extra battery, so it's fail. Did they mention SD card slot? Don't seem to see that....
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Full sized SD card slot and USB is on the tablet rather then the dock. How is it fail? I love the transformer, I just don't like having to attach the dock just to use the extra ports. I can see myself using the thinkpad more for school since tit has the pen for taking notes.

Definitely interesting, but in my mind it falls between the Transformer and the Thrive.
Transformer and the Thinkpad have similar screens and similar keyboard situations.
Thrive and the Thinkpad have nearly matching ports (Thrive has full HDMI, Thinkpad as mini-HDMI).
The only unique thing about the Thinkpad is that it has a laptop charger and can also change via micro-USB (Thrive has laptop charger but no USB charging), and the Thinkpad has the digital ink pen (ala HTC, but on a more appropriately sized device IMO).
Oh and Netflix is guaranteed to work on it without all of the BS the rest of us Honeycombers are going through.

No, it's not competition for me. It puts the cart before the horse. If I want tablet-only mode, I want as small as possible. If I want a keyboard too, I don't mind a bit of extra bulk, in fact it will make it much easier to type on on surfaces other than desks. Hence, the ports and slots belong in the keyboard, where Asus put them, NOT in the tablet where Lenovo put them.
I don't think it's any coincidence that Lenovo's specifications don't mention the size (and especially the thickness). Look at the size of the mini HDMI port on the Transformer compared to the thickness, though, and then take a look at the Lenovo. It looks tanklike, by comparison, and it's 10% heavier than the Transformer tablet-only, too.
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/tablets/thinkpad/
And as others have mentioned, it lags badly behind in netbook-mode battery life.

-=chad=- said:
The only unique thing about the Thinkpad is that it has a laptop charger and can also change via micro-USB
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How's that unique? The Transformer also has a dedicated charger, or can charge via micro USB. (The screen has to be switched off to charge, but there's every chance that's true of the Thinkpad, too.)

A tablet with a USB thumbdrive or some other usb perpihersal sticking out of the side of it makes it nearly non-portable (unless you want to risk bumping the USB thumdrive and risk breaking your USB port)...

Well, looks great. Especcialy the USB and N-trig. The next tablet I buy has to have stylus and USB port. They should have chosen something else than Tegra though.
And frosty5689 - I heavily disagree. It's much more portable than Transformer with dock. VERY handy, and you don't use pendrive all the time.
What about screen though? Is is IPS? Because it's also very important.

tq745 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6-ykDOfJdc&NR=1
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Ugly tablet, pretty girl

the thinkpad tablet looks horrible..still transformer ftw!

For Thinkpad:
+more stuff on the tablet itself
+3G option available
+++pressure sensitive pen
For Transformer
+battery life extended by the dock
+more USB ports (with the dock)
+more card slots (with the dock)
Verdict: if you're gonna keep the tablet in the dock, Asus is much better for that. But with Lenovo you'll get better tablet experience.
Anyway.. I think it's better to wait for tablets with Tegra 3 and hope for the smooth HD video playback. Winter is coming and Transformer 2 with it

There's two versions of lenevo thinkpad android tablets
The K1 is just the tab and it's rounded shape and fugly looking.
The other one is square shaped and comes with the keyboard dock, which looks pretty impresive.

checkbox111 said:
There's two versions of lenevo thinkpad android tablets
The K1 is just the tab and it's rounded shape and fugly looking.
The other one is square shaped and comes with the keyboard dock, which looks pretty impresive.
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Actually this isn't true. There is one Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet and one Lenovo Ideapad Tablet (well this is actually not true there are 3 Lenovo Ideapad Tablets, 1 that was only released regionally in the Asia Pacific area, one that will have Windows 7 and isn't available yet, and one Android that will be available in the US and other locations).
The K1 is an Ideapad. Ideapad is the Lenovo consumer product line. Thinkpad is the business line that they bought from IBM. They also have an economy line as well but that isn't a single name.
The keyboard 'dock' isn't anything like the ASUS dock. The keyboard dock does not have a locked position, so if you use it on a soft surface the tablet can bounce out of the stop and slide over the keyboard or back to a steeper angle. This makes it hard to use on say a bed or lap without an additional lap pad. They keys are apparently nice to type on and the optical pointer works well. I do not have one, but know someone who has a demo unit who has made the statements I just wrote. This would make the keyboard actually difficult to use in a classroom situation but since it has fair handwritten tooling you could get by with writing your notes. I will say this though, I can't type faster than I write, so I would prefer the keyboard.

'thank you for explaining'

This was one of the tablets I looked at before deciding to get the Asus TF. I think the Lenovo is nicer docked if you like playing hardcore games that require laptop-level computing. I like the Asus more because it's smaller and more portable though. Of course, I went from a 14.1 HP craptop (should have just not been cheap and gotten one of the envy line ) to the beautiful 10.1 Asus TF, so it feels even more ultra portable to me.

The Lenovo is also absolutely jammed to the gills with bloatware -- 12 games, three music apps, nine entertainment apps, two eReaders, one magazine reader, four messaging apps, and six miscellaneous apps. That's 37 apps which you won't be able to remove or hide without rooting, and for which you won't receive updates apart from when Lenovo issues a firmware update (ie. each one is or could become a potential security risk).
That alone would convince me to go for the Asus, which has only a handful of bloatware apps...

knoxploration said:
The Lenovo is also absolutely jammed to the gills with bloatware -- 12 games, three music apps, nine entertainment apps, two eReaders, one magazine reader, four messaging apps, and six miscellaneous apps. That's 37 apps which you won't be able to remove or hide without rooting, and for which you won't receive updates apart from when Lenovo issues a firmware update (ie. each one is or could become a potential security risk).
That alone would convince me to go for the Asus, which has only a handful of bloatware apps...
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I really wish people would use the term bloatware for what it is meant to imply. The apps are not bloatware, the ROM is bloated, in your opinion. I actually looked at the Lenovo apps and would say they are a good fit for what many people put on their devices and would need for an enterprise tablet. I don't find the ROM bloated based on the spec, but everyone has their own needs for a device so maybe for your needs it is. The apps though are unlikely bloatware, they probably do not have a ton of extraneous unnecessary functions and features that increase their size beyond what is necessary to fulfill the desired functions of most users. They also are unlikely the type to auto load at startup to fill the memory on the running system.
I am aware that people use the term bloatware in a 'slang' form to imply applications shoved onto PCs usually in a 'lite' or 'trial' format to try to entice you to buy. In this instance that isn't what happened, Lenovo is providing the paid version of the app for customers rather than the Ad Supported version most of us likely use. But I will likely never stop the freight train of people using the term wrong. But to me I think Lenovo struck a fair balance and is providing apps that have common use in a business setting.

I consider bloatware to be 3rd-party apps that you can't remove. I don't care if they are paid or not, I should be able to uninstall the apps I don't want or need.

dfin13 said:
I consider bloatware to be 3rd-party apps that you can't remove. I don't care if they are paid or not, I should be able to uninstall the apps I don't want or need.
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The definition of bloatware doesn't support what you consider it to be. Again that is fine, I can't make people use words a certain way when so many use them wrong. It is just one of those things that drives me batty I will have to get over it.
And what defines 3rd party? ASUS built some of the tooling put into the ROM but it isn't part of Honeycomb. Is that 3rd party? It is the ASUS ROM so they built it, it is their vision of Android. Same sort of goes for Lenovo, they contracted other companies to build them tooling they wanted in their tablet because of the business focus. And some of this '3rd' party is because Google has been bad at actually providing consumer features as part of the base, they expect the integrators to provide the the bits they left out. But then you get an integrator's vision of it, and someone else builds a version that is different.
So is Honeycomb bloated because it comes with an email app? is it bloated because it comes with a calendar. How about the calling functions? Many of these can be replaced with 3rd party tools that put a different spin and are more desirable for some people. The vendors have to decide, this is the base set of features we believe we need to deliver to make this attractive to our target audience.
Again, I don't think Lenovo was targetting most of the people who bought an ASUS. They were targetting business people, who have a requirement to use business level tooling. They added some entertainment tools probably to support the business traveler who is sitting at the airport and wants to read the paper, play a card game or whatever to pass the time. They didn't put a bunch of trial ware that was useless and would cost additional money onto the device. And the reason you can't remove it is that it would far more complicate upgrading the ROMs than the couple hundred meg of disk would buy most people. And there you can likely blame Google. If they built a better upgrade tooling, then perhap removing pieces wouldn't make upgrading torture, it would upgrade what was still there and leave the rest out.

Wow, that's an ugly bit of kit.
How is it so many big name manufacturers seem totally incapable of making sexy devices?
Android has killer software, and the Transformer is pretty much as close as it gets to sexy (and even then it's not shaggable, but not supermodel).

Asus & CEO Jonny Shih's "Hard Way"

I have been considering posting this for some time, and a couple of posts I saw in the past few days convinced me it's time. After seeing Asus CEO Jonny Shih showing off a "Pre-Production" Transformer Prime to Walt Mossberg last fall, I was one of the customers... scratch that... "suckers" who sold my Asus Transformer - the original, and waited patiently for the Prime. After the horrendous "roll out" wherein Best Buy oversold their pre-orders, Amazon dropped pre-orders and canceled hundreds more, I finally got my Prime. You know the rest, so I won't go into what a huge disappointment and letdown that became, but the worst part? Asus showing off the "fixed" product 3 weeks later, in the form of the Infinity. Then lying and claiming it was NOT the replacement for the Prime, but another BETTER Flagship. I challenge ANYONE to show me where I can still order or by a Prime in the US. (and don't bother showing me URL's with old stock for sale.)
Fast forward almost 1 year from when I sold my TF101, 8 months from the arrival of my sub-Prime and now I actually HAVE an Infinity (some of us are just gluttons for punishment, it seems) Anyway, I FINALLY found out what is at the root of the issues with this polarizing piece of hardware. How is it that something can have such an aura and presence and "quality" in terms of materials, and yet have defects, (light bleed, screen creak & separation etc. ) performance issues (I/O)
If you got to Asus Web Site and visit the section dedicated to the Transformer Pad Infinity. there are a couple of stylistic videos along the lines of "The making of the Transformer Infinity" showing some of the concepts, and engineering that contributed to the design. First, here is the "shpeel"
"While the specs of the tablet are hardly a surprise, it is the level of craftsmanship which impresses. An aluminum forging process, normally found in the aviation industry has been used to compress the metal of the tablet. A molding of the plastic parts with the metal at nano level has lead to the lack of any screws on the slate’s body. And of course, Corning Gorilla Glass 2 is protecting that precious screen at the device’s front."
In the second of two videos on this page: http://eee.asus.com/en/eeepad/transformer-infinity/features/
Titled: "The Next Transformation", one of the engineers says Asus CEO Jonny came up with the concept of "The Hard Way" - THIS is the root of the evil that inflicts ASUS tablets. The concept is to "come up with something that is worth doing, but challenging to accomplish, instead of choosing the easy path to success"
As noble as that sounds, it's plain stupid. WHY would atech company want to do things, build things, design things "The hard way" The build quality of the Infinity is the number one example of how this concept just DOES NOT WORK. The design is too difficult to build consistently. Sure they look awesome, feel solid, and are thin as insert your favorite anorexic chick here, but witness the defect rate. Oh wait... we don't KNOW what the defect rate is. Guess what? I believe It's pretty high. Samsung, with all their plasticiky products, that often look and feel cheap at least has a very good record of build consistency and few defective units.
Witness, I exchanged my Infinity 8 times. Yes, I know that's a ridiculous number, and I know you are thinking: this guy is all OCD, and picking on every tiny little quirk or issue. Maybe. I will grant that I am somewhat OCD, a bit of a perfectionist, but I still consider myself a reasonable person, and not over the top insanely picky. Here's why I returned 7 tablets, so you can decide for yourself:
First, every single one had a defect of some type, some minor, some cosmetic, but NOT ONE was defect free. At first I thought it was bad luck, but by exchange number 4 I KNEW there was some underlying issue; based on serial #'s it was NOTa particular "run" - In fact, I am now100% convinced that these are so difficult to build, that Asus is basically INCAPABLE of building even ONE without some issue. Over the 8 Tablets, I saw (sometime in combinations, but usually one issue per tablet. Ultimately, I ended up keeping one that had an "acceptable level" of issues. You know, like the Dead Pixel" policies companies use? This was "defect issues that are acceptable.
* Screen Back-light Bleed 6 of 8 tablets had noticeable and significant Light-bleed.
* Scratches, dents etc. Only 2 affected, one VERY minor (I almost kept it, until I saw the screen was also coming out of the frame mid-way across the top in landscape orientation) It had a tiny dent, and a tiny "shiny spot" where the anodized gray coating was missing- about the size of a pin head. The other one had a noticeable scratch from the plastic strip on a diagonal, about 1.5 inches long, and had chips out of the plastic strip where it joins to the metal back. Asus claims to us some type of Nano-molding technology to bind plastic and metal. I guess it failed on that one.
* Glass seperating or "Coming out" of the frame. This took the form of the glass being extremely warped, so much so, that I was concerned it would ultimately crack or shatter, as Gorilla Glass 2 is suppossedly thinner than the original, and just as strong, but under a constant stress, and temperature changes? I suspect that is how the "mystery screen breakage" occurs, when people have them docked, then open the tablet to see a broken screen. (Prime had a bunch of these stories, i have only seen a couple on the Infinity, but I suspect it could be worse, as there is no bonded strip around the outside, just a metal back with bent edges to hold the screen, and Lots of reports of screen separation.
TWICE along the way, I though I was all set. The first time, it was the screen warped and coming out of the fram I described above. Even though it worked perfectly, I was seriously afraid it would get worse, or shatter. If it got worse, i would have to shudder RMA the tablet. I went through that once. Never again, is all i can say on the subject. The other one was also really good... cosmetically very nice (by the way, the brushed circular pattern they apply to these is VERY inconsistent. I have seen huge variation on this, with some looking really nice, and some having inconsistent (there's that WORD AGAIN!) finishes, with deeper brush marks in "stripes" across the back, and others being smooth and super shiny.
The LOGO Cut - Done with a Laser? That's the only way I could conceive that they could precisely cut the back in a pattern to fit the Asus logo and have it inset into the aluminum. 2 of my exchanges had a ridiculously mis-cut back, and the logo was coming up, and the cut out was so sharp it would cut your hand easily - my daughter ended up bleeding onto the tablet, so that one went back. They other I was keeping, but failed some other way- I forget how now after all these tablets.
Number 7 was a keeper... I thought. It koooked PERFECT. Beautiful, They pretiest Infinity I ever had. But the Wifi was all over the place, and slow. I was seing 10 Mbit, maybe 12 Mbit speeds. then dropping to 3-5 Mbit. (Others I had would do 20+ Mbit every time, no matter when or how often you tested them. Some hit 30+ Anyway, all of a sudden I remembered the infamous "Pogo Pins" from the Prime, and I sueezed the tablet along the top edge. Not only did it IMEDIATELY shoot straight up to 30 Mbit, but the top left where I squeezed made a super loud creaking, and the screen deviated by a whole lot. You could SEE it moving in relation to the frame, with a loud creak and a clicking sound... great... there goes another one! (#7 - the last one I returned. And Best Buy had to pass it around so they could ALL give it a nice squeeze. Thanks Mr. Whipple!
Ripple effect (I would NOT return a tablet for this, but when it is present, but it looks noticeably less quality than ones that do not display this issue. It looks like several dozen tiny ripples running the length of the tablet, and in bright light it is obvious if you have this. Not all do, and some have no ripples at all.
Volume and power buttons are total crap. Some click and have a detent, others just "mush"
I mean, is this the price we must pay for all that sexy aluminum? This kind of "Delorean Motors build quality"? Hey! They DO sort of look like the Delorean, now that I think about it!
So this is my list. Do you have any of these:
1 Dents, divots or chips out of the metal.
2. Chips out of the plactic strip.
3. Spots where the anodized color is missing.
4. Glass that is rising above the frame, is notably warped (hold it level under some light, and look across the top. If it looks like a brezzy day on the lake, I would not feel too good about it.)
5. Poor application of the "Circular" pattern.
6. Poor laser cut of recessed Logo area. (including sharp metal edges)
7. Poor or failing Power buttons and Volume buttons.
8. Scratches of all types (on a factory sealed box)
9. Creeks, squeaks, Clucking, Clunking, Popping sounds when you squeeze the glass at the border.
That's mostly it for the Physical stuff on the tablet... It IS a beautiful tablet. I just think it's too difficult to build consistently well.
One final gripe: The Power Supply, same design since TF101, and really poor.
Poor grounding of power supply - feel that nice "tickle" when you run your fingers along the metal while on the charger? The Prime would only do this when the plug as oriented one way, switch it around and it stopped. The infinity does it on both polarities. How can they sell it like that? By the way, some are worse than others, I know, I have sampled enough. This is unacceptable.
If they could make these consistently well, there is a very short wishlist I would like to see filled:
* Better memory bus design. I am not sure this is entirely Asus fault, or if some falls on Nvidia, with the single channel memory controller, or whatever it is about Asus Tablet memory architecture ALL Asus tablets have some degree of IO issues - I know the Nexus 7 has I/O issues, though not as bad, but there ARE other Tegra 3 designs that are not plagued with this issue.
* Separate Bluetooth / Wifi chips. or at LEAST a 5 Ghz WiFi...Come ON! The iPAD 1 had 5 Ghz, as does EVERY Samsung Tablet.
* Better Buttons
* Micro USB Port on Tablet
* Real Stereo Speakers, preferably pointing at the user, on Keyboard would be the logical place (if that proves difficult, PERFECT: Jonny Shih's people will be ecstatic!)
Finally: STOP saying: "Dock attached: Use Keyboard to type WORDS" What the heck else are you going to use it for, sending morse code?
Poor I/O - Design of memory bus
Combined (cheap) WiFi/Bluetooth chipset - Thus the poor wifi when Bluetooth streaming.
No 5 Ghz Wifi (
Poor fit of the Primes Dock - Oh yeah, Asus has a blurb saying the TF201 dock is incompatible with TF700, but not the opposite. meanwhile, those videos I mentioned on Asus site? One of the goes on about how they spent a lot of time balancing the tablet to "make it work better in the TF201 Dock" Then they go and repackage Prime docks and charge a premium for them.
There... now I got all that off my chest. Can't WAIT for Jelly Bean!

......waaaaaaaaay to long of a post....
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T

A good post. Agree 100% with all of the problems.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app

It's okay. I returned my tablet 9 times to Best Buy. The last two times I had my gf do it cause I was tired of getting my ID registered to their 3rd party company (The Retail Equation) who handles returns to find fraud. I finally got a good one. On my fourth exchange, I started opening the box right in their store to make sure nothing was wrong. I think it was about 9 exchanges in a total of 3 days.

the first I had was perfect, then I bricked it...
I got another one and it is also perfect, I can't understand you guys.
I had no light bleeding, no cracking sounds, no scratches on the metal, no seperated screen.
Nothing what you write about, not even a bit.
I got my two tablets from Amazon Germany, maybe WW Build quality is just better than US?

Good post!
Very informative and interesting.

I guess I was lucky, having gotten my mitts on one about two weeks before official retail <gnagna>. I can find no fault externally or with the screen, although I do have the same I/O issues everybody else is having, obviously (that's a clear design error).
Good post, had a good laugh -- I hope that JB will flip the coin for us and makes the 700 perform more like it should have out of the box -- though it remains uncertain at best if we will ever have the performance we paid so dearly for...

SmartAs$Phone said:
One final gripe: The Power Supply, same design since TF101, and really poor.
Poor grounding of power supply - feel that nice "tickle" when you run your fingers along the metal while on the charger? The Prime would only do this when the plug as oriented one way, switch it around and it stopped. The infinity does it on both polarities. How can they sell it like that? By the way, some are worse than others, I know, I have sampled enough. This is unacceptable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is truly unacceptable! And you should also add to your list the power supply noise, it is very annoying sometimes.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

I must be lucky, all i have is a little light bleed. My buttons are good and pretty solid feeling, I have a ipad 2 to compare to and after the update this thing flys.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

I also must be one of the lucky ones.
This thing is perfect in every way.
I loved your post. It is always good to speak your mind.

Agree 100% Exchanged my TF101 7 times, Prime twice and gave up, Tf700 twice (still not happy) and now I'm waiting for the Nexus 10. Done with Asus. And yes, I know Nexuses are built by Asus, but Google holds their feet to fire when it comes to QA.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app

So all you guys who have perfect device Asus just put in two antennas for perfect WiFi Bluetooth connection and faster nand chip so no more sloppy io performance? Interesting..
I got ww model and I can't believe why Asus decided to save maybe 10$ there.
Apart from my 3 hot Pixels seems that no problems.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using XDA Premium HD app

I'm pretty lucky too compared to some of you. I bought mine off of Amazon and its been absolutely perfect! I also got the dock + splashtop = lots of funny looks when docking and undocking while using window in class

I've only had mine a week now, but agree with others, mine is great! I had my Transformer Prime for 7 months. I never did an RMA or anything. Other than a poorly functioning GPS and a slightly weak WIFI signal, the TPrime was great. I'm expecting the same with the Infinity, and as I said, so far, just great!
Sorry, but I just don't understand returning a product 7 or 9 times. I look at technology this way: there's bound to be a few glitches here and there. I've grown to accept that and live with them. Now, obviously I admit there are certain hardware failures and other issues which shouldn't be accepted in an expensive device. I'm not saying I've never returned anything. I have. It took me two phones to get to a properly functioning Galaxy Nexus phone. Stuff happens, but 9 returns?! I just don't get that.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

SOTK said:
Sorry, but I just don't understand returning a product 7 or 9 times. I look at technology this way: there's bound to be a few glitches here and there. I've grown to accept that and live with them. Now, obviously I admit there are certain hardware failures and other issues which shouldn't be accepted in an expensive device. I'm not saying I've never returned anything. I have. It took me two phones to get to a properly functioning Galaxy Nexus phone. Stuff happens, but 9 returns?! I just don't get that.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought a keychain camera for about $40 on ebay (look up 808 cam). I researched the tech, i made sure to find a buyer that reportedly sold what he said (a #16 instead of a re-labled #3) and when i got the product i was generally happy with it. It had a few glitches but i got what i paid for.
When i spend $650 for a tablet and dock, especially when there are other similar quality devices for $100 cheaper, i am expecting to get what i pay for. I paid for perfection. I COULD have gone on ebay and bought a bargian basement tablet for, say, $75, and maybe it would do what it claimed!
The reason we are upset is this:
We were sold a quality product
top of the line specs
from a trusted manufacturer with a history of meticulous perfection
Instead what we recieved was a product with many build issues
imperfect construction
sloppy workmanship
poor design
bad internals
and finally, extremely poor customer service.
Asus had been, in my books, one of the top companies. I would never think twice before buying a laptop or computer from them. Now.... I dont know. I had a prime, i should have learned from that. Now i have an infinity. Not perfect but considering (through a series of fortunate events) it cost me about $250 i can live with that.
Usually, if you have something that was mid-tier and doesnt work perfect you could say "should have bought the top end device", or justify those problems with saying you saved because its not the highest end model.
Well this is the highest end model. The galaxy note 10 comes close but unless you want the pen the infinity is the winner by specs. How can we justify poor quality when we pay top dollar? We cant.
What i dont get is how, after 9 returns, did this person not say "maybe i'd be better off with a tab2.0 or a galaxy note". I am at that point, i really, really love the specs for the infinity on paper, and i love the form factor, i love how light it is, how solid it feels (when its not falling apart), how thin it is, i think its awesome. I dont like how they charge $650 for something that should cost half that with the amount of problems it has.
Let me put it this one other way...
If you went to a car dealership and bought a car off the lot, brand new, never been driven before, and one of the tires was flat. Or one of the break rotors was misaligned, or one of the cylindars was misfiring, or the transmission didnt work, or the breaks were spotty, or the headlights didnt work properly.... if you had ANY problems you would say "hey, this isnt right, its brand new give me one thats perfect." Thats what we want from Asus. We want a tablet that is perfect. Yes, android itself has some quirks, and i can deal with software issues, but hardware issues? Not for my money. No sir!
Sorry for the long post but i, like OP and many others, are ready to throw in the towel with this infernal thing. And dont even get me started on the keyboard dock....

My Infinity was also almost perfect right away i opened the box. Except for the little, little light bleed, everything was OK - HW wise.
SW is another story, but not a part of this discussion I think.
Thank, because this is not really a cheap piece of HW, i handled it very gently.
After almost 3 months of using it, I decided to actually use it for what it is meant. It goes with me wherever I go.
I've been on vacations for 10 days, it goes with me to work and back, currently it is with me on a business trip.
Well well well. A lot of people were reporting detachments, screeches an so on. I never had them. Until now.
Left part of the tablet has started to screech few days ago, also i can feel a detachment.
I am right handed, which means i hold tablet with my left hand, on the left side. As the tablet is pretty heavy you have to hold it pretty hard.
Whenever i pick it up it screetches and i can see the screen "waves" on the left side of the screen.
I am afraid it will get worse. It feels like some day everything will just come apart and i get ending with two piecev of tablet.
Hope not.
This is my experience, and i hate to say, but i am slowly starting to regret this investment.

pileot said:
Asus had been, in my books, one of the top companies. I would never think twice before buying a laptop or computer from them. Now.... I dont know. I had a prime, i should have learned from that. Now i have an infinity. Not perfect but considering (through a series of fortunate events) it cost me about $250 i can live with that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel the same. Previously I have bought two ASUS laptop I have been satisfied with. But after owning a Infinity for less than 3 moths my LCD suddenly cracked without a scratch on Gorilla Glass and poor ASUS costumer service, I will say no more ASUS.

kabauterman said:
the first I had was perfect, then I bricked it...
I got another one and it is also perfect, I can't understand you guys.
I had no light bleeding, no cracking sounds, no scratches on the metal, no seperated screen.
Nothing what you write about, not even a bit.
I got my two tablets from Amazon Germany, maybe WW Build quality is just better than US?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is a WW and also zero defects. I had 2 units opened at the store here in Bangkok so I could choose the between the champagne and amethyst and both were fine with no issues.

Do we actually know that the I/O issues are hardware related? The reason I ask is I have a HTC One X with Tegra 3 and no matter how hard I try everything keeps flying smoothly. I can start a ten app update while switching between as many apps as I want without it even breaking a sweat. My vote is for ASUS software being sh*t.

maedox said:
Do we actually know that the I/O issues are hardware related? The reason I ask is I have a HTC One X with Tegra 3 and no matter how hard I try everything keeps flying smoothly. I can start a ten app update while switching between as many apps as I want without it even breaking a sweat. My vote is for ASUS software being sh*t.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but HTC didn't choose a cheap NAND drive as Asus did. This is not completely tegra related. Just cheap internals which Asus using.
Same goes with the wifi speed dropping when using bluetooth. Those bastards have the same antenna for both wifi and bluetooth and not even supporting 5ghz signal. So lame. I think the price difference for Asus would be something like 10$ but they decided to go cheap on this.
I was seriously considering to opening this up and installing faster NAND and another antenna but unfortunately that would result 100% surely into non working tablet.

Self-developed Nexus 4 Dock

Update:
Crowd funding campaign is online:
www.startnext.de/en/andock
Hello everyone,
Today I would like to ask you about your opinion on my self-developed Nexus 4 Dock. First, I wanted to develop the station just for me, because I couldn’t find a Nexus 4 docking station that really fits my needs. Now I’m thinking about starting my own crowd funding campaign with this station. I already got some positive feedback on the German website android-hilfe.de.
The features of my docking station are:
- SlimPort included
- Active cooling by a fan to prevent the usual CPU throttling
- Display in widescreen format unlike the usual docking stations
- NFC-Tag
- cube shape design
- Docking Station is weighted to provide more stability
I also created a website for this project: andock.com
What do you think? Would you be interested in such a station? Thank you for your opinion.
So here are some pictures:

1) Frankly, the prototype looks terrible, especially when placed next to the Apple mouse and keyboard with their curves. Hopefully that's not what the final product will look like. Some round corners might help.
2) Take the LED away. It's not going to do jack if it's behind the phone. You won't be able to see it from the front.
3) Consider making the thickness of the "gap" around the micro usb adjustable so as to accomodate a larger range of phones. One way to do that is to make the gap wider, but provide plastic pieces that can be slipped into the gap to make it narrower. Think ipod dock adapters.
4) You need a better looking power button. It looks like something from the 70s, in which case you should make the dock out of wood. (In that case, disregard point 1 about rounded corners).
5) If possible, the dock should be powered by a micro usb.

snapper.fishes said:
1) Frankly, the prototype looks terrible, especially when placed next to the Apple mouse and keyboard with their curves. Hopefully that's not what the final product will look like. Some round corners might help.
2) Take the LED away. It's not going to do jack if it's behind the phone. You won't be able to see it from the front.
3) Consider making the thickness of the "gap" around the micro usb adjustable so as to accomodate a larger range of phones. One way to do that is to make the gap wider, but provide plastic pieces that can be slipped into the gap to make it narrower. Think ipod dock adapters.
4) You need a better looking power button. It looks like something from the 70s, in which case you should make the dock out of wood. (In that case, disregard point 1 about rounded corners).
5) If possible, the dock should be powered by a micro usb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for you quick and honest response.
1) Personally I am not a friend of the “apple curves “ and I especially don’t want to get sued. I wanted to create my own design. But everyone has a different opinion about design and that’s why I asked about your feedback.
2) You can also see the LEDs on the other side
3) SlimPort doesn’t work for other phones either, but depending on the feedback I will also make adjustments for different smartphones.
4) I will think about it. It’s still a prototype.
5) It’s powered by a USB cable.

Noc2 said:
Thank you for you quick and honest response.
1) Personally I am not a friend of the “apple curves “ and I especially don’t want to get sued. I wanted to create my own design. But everyone has a different opinion about design and that’s why I asked about your feedback.
2) You can also see the LEDs on the other side
3) SlimPort doesn’t work for other phones either, but depending on the feedback I will also make adjustments for different smartphones.
4) I will think about it. It’s still a prototype.
5) It’s powered by a USB cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I like it!

Does it charge the phone fast enough to gain a charge when outputting it to a TV? How about with Bluetooth on also for controllers and the like?
I agree that it would be nice to have it adjustable to fit other phones (and cases/bumpers). This might be the only phone with a Slimport, but who's to say other phones won't have them soon?
I agree the whole thing does look a little old school, but as long as its functional.
I would also prefer no LED light, but I might in the minority. I hate how everything in my home has a glow to it LOL.
Ultimately the biggest determining factor for me in buying something like this would be price.

Noc2 said:
Hello everyone,
<snip>
- Active cooling by a fan to prevent the usual CPU throttling
<snip>
So here are some pictures:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As an N4 owner I'm excited to see any development of nice quality support h/w.
One doubt I have is for the fan cooling. I don't think the case of the N4 is really designed to dissipate much heat to the surrounding air (like most phones) with no fins and a pretty poor thermal conductivity (glass and plastic). I can't imagine that an external fan would help much, and just drive up cost and annoying noise of the dock.

mark398 said:
One doubt I have is for the fan cooling. I don't think the case of the N4 is really designed to dissipate much heat to the surrounding air (like most phones) with no fins and a pretty poor thermal conductivity (glass and plastic). I can't imagine that an external fan would help much, and just drive up cost and annoying noise of the dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can switch the fan on and off. Besides I got good results in tests with the fan on. If you run a lot of benchmarks in a row (especially while the Nexus 4 is charging and connected to a TV via bluetooth), you’ll experience a decrease of the benchmark score. The fan definitely reduces this issue. I will post some results in the next days.
I want to make the price as low as possible without any quality restrictions. It will be under 100 Euro.

Great to see people developing unique accessories for the Nexus 4, but for me this dock is just awkward.

The power switch should be replaced with something more modern, and the design should maybe better match the N4. Maybe a glossy black plastic and an led mounted under a more transparent plastic like the led on the N4 is mounted under the glass. Over all, I love the idea and would probably buy it even in its current state.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium HD app

I'd love it as a kit to put together myself and keep the cost down... already as an option.
100euros would be a bit steep imo. I can already get a dock for cheap.
Your slot should come with a way to accommodate cases too... atleast the bumper
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Your dock is interesting, but, unless you're a developer that needs a cable connection (in my opinion) it makes a lot more sense just to buy an Orb and be done with it. File transfers can be done with AirDroid (for example). Wireless charging on the Orb is just as fast as trough cable (I have one) and it doesn't have the hassle of connecting/disconnecting the cable itself.
For someone that really wants the cable connection, it's useful. The design, if you want to really produce it, I'd recommend you to make it in a way that you can plug-in most android phones with the usb dock on the bottom. Make it simpler, why leds, buttons and fan (sorry, but I really don't think you need a fan in it)? Otherwise, good work.

Hi, I don't own a nexus 4 but I'm intrigued with ur project. To me, the concept is nice: something minimalistic, able to cool down the phone and provide connectivity to another device (or computer). It'd be a good idea if u can make the cube have a glossy texture, like white or black because it will still look nice even if u don't want to smooth out the edges. Also, it would be nice if it can accommodate phones that have a screen size of 5" or more (perhaps a slightly bigger cube). Also, I think led is fine but the switch for the fan should be smaller, maybe something rounded like the buttons of the iPhone 5 or a power button of any android phone and can also disguise with the cube's color. I believe something like that would look really nice on any desk.
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda premium

Thank you for your feedback. I take it seriously.
Here is the promised article about the fan of my docking station:
http://www.andock.com/2013/04/the-temperature-of-google-nexus-4-with.html

The article + picture explains the purpose behind a dock like this, you essentially want to be able to run your N4 as a console (hence the fan and necessity of slimport) seems like a niche product for a niche phone.
Seems cool but for the same price I could get an Ouya and keep my phone for phone stuff.

I'm intrigued. If this went to market I would be very tempted to buy. Could set it on my desk, hook up sixaxis controller and jam out a few games easily.
Sent from one device or another.

this is awesome man, i hope you can built more and can sell to us or me

Is that SLS? SLA? Rapid prototyping ftw.

irishrally said:
Is that SLS? SLA? Rapid prototyping ftw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It’s SLS.
I really liked it because of the structure of the material. It’s not like the usual plastic or FDM.

threeclaws said:
The article + picture explains the purpose behind a dock like this, you essentially want to be able to run your N4 as a console (hence the fan and necessity of slimport) seems like a niche product for a niche phone.
Seems cool but for the same price I could get an Ouya and keep my phone for phone stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Judging by some of the Ouya reviews out there, it's probably advisable to stick with your phone for now.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

pnnorth said:
Judging by some of the Ouya reviews out there, it's probably advisable to stick with your phone for now.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's beta/developer hardware right now, the retail stuff will have to be better (they are planning on selling at BB/Amazon.) The software on the other hand...I already went through that once with the boxee box (solid hardware + crap software.)