Related
hi guys ...i haven't bought a transformer but i am planning to buy is it worth buying because after i read about the issues the TF is facing it just makes me think twice ..to buy it or not....and the issues about light bleed and the touch not responsive to what extent is that true and i also want to know that is the 3.1 update better than 3.0 or it is buggy ....thank you ...waiting for reply cos i am very eager to buy a tablet....well this attracts me the most bbut since the issues it has i am posting this thread ..please reply thank you
TechFreak
B60 revision fixed the problems.
staples also have -$100 off any tablet but Transformer is not one of the choices I believe since it is not in stores.
you can always return it or exchange it for something else if you have a problem with it.
I have a B60 model and haven't had any serious issues other than enjoyment. I have played with every single one of the 10.1" tablets from major players (samsung, toshiba, acer, motorola) and would put this one above all others. The fact that it is $50-$100 less than the others you mentioned is pretty incredible. Asus' commitment to fast software updates is great too.
For $299 with Staples' deal, I take the Acer Iconia.
(I currently own two Transformers).
Other than a little bit of light bleed I really do not have any issues. Mine is a B40 model.
With that said, if I were buying today, I would sure take a close look at the Lenovo because I need the ability to dock the unit.
jerrykur said:
Other than a little bit of light bleed I really do not have any issues. Mine is a B40 model.
With that said, if I were buying today, I would sure take a close look at the Lenovo because I need the ability to dock the unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I too am wanting advice. I can purchase the TF or the Galaxy tab for the same price. Also What is the difference between the b40 and b60 models(TF)and how do you tell whcih one you have> thanks
tenbeau said:
I too am wanting advice. I can purchase the TF or the Galaxy tab for the same price. Also What is the difference between the b40 and b60 models(TF)and how do you tell whcih one you have> thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's on the box as well as under the device. It'll say S/N: B40/B50/B60..XXXXXXX
XXX = being numbers/whatever that fill the rest for your serial
B60 is basically a later build that fixed most of the problems. That doesn't necessarily means all the previous builds were bad. But the later they are, the higher chances that your problem free.
I've enjoyed mine alot. If the Samsung had a microSD, it'd be the clearer winner. But because it doesn't the TF wins, and because it has the keyboard dock. I don't have one and i'm not sure i'll ever get one. But it's a nice option to have.
I have the transformer with the keyboard dock, and I have to say it was one of the best purchases I've made in a long time.
Very flexible, nice screen and fast response. I am now using it instead of my work laptop.
Emmet
Today a dev released a working netflix patch.
That combined with the $100 coupon from Staples makes it unbeatable.
I wish I had passed on the dock for now though. The battery issues with it makes it all but worthless to me as a "dock". Hopefully the 3.2 OTA fixes it. I think just the tablet though is best android tablet available and best price for honeycomb one. You could always use a BT keyboard like any other Tab.
Asus has put out consistent OTA's, and is beta testing 3.2!! Gorilla glass, good weight, gps, NETFLIX, dual cam, sdhc(dock has sdxc)etc For $299 sheesh. No 3g but I BT tether my phone for free.
EDIT: Something else to think about-The next generation of tablets with newer Tegra chips are supposed to be some crazy...5X faster...coming out in less than 6 months.
Tegra 3 (Kal-El) series
Processor: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore, up to 1.5 GHz
12-Core Nvidia GPU with support for 3D stereo
Ultra Low Power GPU mode
40 nm by TSMC
Video output up to 2560x1600
NEON instruction sets from ARM
1080p H.264 High Profile video decode
The Kal-El chip (CPU and GPU) is to be about 5 times faster than Tegra 2[15]
To be released in the second half of 2011
thanks .....how much difference will it make if i dont buy the dock...and one more thing should i wait and is there any 3g or 4g coming ??
thanks
Haven't bought the dock for my TF and after a month of use I don't think I will.
Very easy device to use without the dock in my opinion. Best gadget I have ever bought!
I'm 100% happy with my transformer (B50) and undecided on the dock. If it was <$100 for the dock I'd be completely sold on it, but at $150 it's a toss-up, tbh.
Tablet itself is great, newest ROMs for it (rooted) improve speed quite noticeably but it was perfectly satisfactory without, too.
If you can get it at $299 I'd say RUN and get it. Yes, Kal-El stuff (and it's competitors) is coming but likely not till '12 and will cost a premium to start, for sure. And in the meantime you'll have a completely usable tablet at a very reasonable price to help you really know if it's something you'll use a lot.
I was unsure myself because I wasn't sure about e-books, the prime driver for me to get a tablet. I just sold off 5-10 thousand books (yes, I'm nuts) and my wife was keen on me not acquiring more I'm now mostly ok with using the tablet as a reader (DRM still blows chunks and the "buy a book here and you can only use this reader" BS is unconscionable) and the other benefits have sold me.
Do it.
using one since may, with the dock (got the bundle) and find that I use both the dock and undock mode depending on situation. eg on bus standing = undock. sitting = dock. typing is way faster using a proper keyboard.
also with a sd card slot helps me previews picture from my camera straight.
the 2 usb ports do help me along with my work. I'd say the transformer is a one darn good productivity machine that helped me with my work for the past few months. Try to get the bundle. its cheaper.
Amazon delivered my A700 last Friday, and spent most of Friday & Saturday messing with it. I've install a large number of apps & games to try out. I have NOT yet unlocked my bootloader/rooted, in case I do decide to return the A700. I did not do a full factory reset when I got the A700 either. Finally, I'm using my A700 in conjunction with a Poetic HardBack Case.
Pros: The HD screen is fantastic. I compared it against my gal's iPad 1 and iPad 3, and it is easily comparable to the iPad 3. The iPad 3's resolution is a hair better, but one can only tell if you are looking very closely - for all practical purposes, they are on par. I found that using auto-adjust brightness, left the screen too dim to my tastes. Instead I manually set the screen to approximately 30% brightness, and found that that setting is suitable for everything except outdoor direct sunlight. When I tested outdoors, I kicked up the brightness and found that 80% was the minimum needed to be usable in direct sunlight. Additionally, there is no backlight bleed.
As an Android fan, I like to tweak my devices & am a strong believer that Android's 3rd party offerings are one of its strong points. That being said, I've disabled Acer Ring, and installed Chrome & Dolphin to replace the stock browser, Nova Launcher to replace the stock launcher, and QuickPic to replace the gallery. It is also trivial to unlock the bootloader & a rooting method has already been released.
The A700 has a very solid heft and feel to it. It does not feel like it is cheaply-built. I like having dual speakers and found that the sound was good. Finally, per the Service Guide, the A700 is very easy to dismantle.
Cons: Acer did install some redundant bloatware apps, which I will immediately rip out when/if I commit to the A700 & root it. These include the Amazon App Store, an Acer Photo & Video app, Acer Ring, and a worthless anti-virus app. Thankfully, this is the only con I could come up with except...
Heat: This deserves its own section. The A510 had reported heat issues and the A700 definitely shares that as well. Due to the internal design, the CPU/GPU mainboard is on the lower right and when used heavily, can become unbearably hot. In my experience over the weekend, I found that casual use such as browsing, e-mail, & other productivity apps, only caused the A700 to get warm but not uncomfortable.
However, when I play-tested several games - Heavy Gunner, Flick Football, & Cut The Rope, the A700 got HOT. I use a Poetic HardBack Case, which "insulates" my hand but inhibits heat dissipation. Additionally, the A700 did crash on me a few times while gaming. I presume that the crashes were due to heat, but am uncertain. After each crash, I'd remove the A700 from the case to feel it back "naked," and it was excessively hot... hot enough that I wouldn't have continued gaming had the tablet been naked. I spent about 1 hour TOTAL, play-testing the above three games and all crashes occurred within that timeframe.
Studying the photos from the Service Guide, I'm curious to open up the A700. Looking at the back panel, it is lined with some sort of metal panel. Then there are several "pads" which contact different points on the mainboard. I'm curious to see if those "pads" are thermal pads and/or whether the metal panel on the back is supposed to act as a primitive heatsink to help disperse heat. If yes to both, I'm interested in experimenting with changing out/upgrading the thermal pads and using some paste. Additionally, I'm toying with the idea of modding the back panel to make a vent.
That's it for now. I'll be happy to field any questions & post more thoughts as the week goes on.
UPDATE:
My curiosity got the best of me, so I went ahead, opened up the A700, and added some thermal paste to the thermal pads. Check out my write-up here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1735318
Beknatok said:
Cons: Acer did install some redundant bloatware apps, which I will immediately rip out when/if I commit to the A700 & root it. These include the Amazon App Store, an Acer Photo & Video app, Acer Ring, and a worthless anti-virus app. Thankfully, this is the only con I could come up with except...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should know with ICS you can deactivate most of those apps without root.
I would rather have an hour or even two so less battery life to afford a smaller battery and then Acer would perhaps had space to accommodate a wider dissipation of heat.
The Infinity in spite of its thinner frame and higher clocked chipset apparently does not get hot. Price is $50 more, but to avoid the heat, seems a better option.
DЯΦ[email protected]П said:
You should know with ICS you can deactivate most of those apps without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you do this?
Quick Note: The Infinity is $150 more actually.
On the subject of heat dissipation, I was thinking about modding the back of this case for venting as well. I believe the crashes may just be from bad software programming for certain apps. I don't think the tablet is actually OVER heating just getting warmer than other tablets. It should be within the processor's limits. I was hoping to overclock this tablet in the future to pump up it's gaming capabilities since right now it's a bit slower than the other Tegra 3 tablets due to the resolution. Hence why I want to mod the casing to allow for venting. Maybe a few vent holes properly cut will allow for the processor to release a lot more heat.
To Disable Apps: Just goto Settings --> Apps --> ALL --> Select the App you want to Disable --> Click Disable -- If the app has had updates, Select Uninstall Updates then go back to that app again and choose Disable.
I disabled Virus Scanner, WildTangent, Face Unlock, Google+, Zinio, and Evernote. Those are the only ones I found I will never use.
32gb is $500 for Infinity and launching mid July. The 64gb version is $600.
Whoops, I see now that I was wrong. It IS only $500 for the 32GB version. That's a kick in the balls. I bought the A700 because it was thought to be so much cheaper than the Infinity, now that it's only $50 cheaper it seems a lot better. Oh well I still enjoy this A700 so I'll keep it, plus a new custom ROM will probably speed this up to Infinity levels anyways.
Heat issue fix
Some people are reporting that disabling McAfee will fix the heat issue, at least for the a510. Hopefully this will fix it for the a700 as well.
rushless said:
I would rather have an hour or even two so less battery life to afford a smaller battery and then Acer would perhaps had space to accommodate a wider dissipation of heat.
The Infinity in spite of its thinner frame and higher clocked chipset apparently does not get hot. Price is $50 more, but to avoid the heat, seems a better option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Devil is in the details. I'm considering A700 instead of the Infinity for two reasons:
- I/O problems: though associated with TPI's Tegra3, I've never read about similar problems with A700 in any of its reviews (browser hiccups and the like)
- Poor speakers: "stereo" speakers placed side-to-side under one (!) small grill located at the back (!) of the pad facing away from the listener and at the right (!) side of the pad. As a result, when you're playing\watching a movie, you're:
- getting mono sound
- the sound comes from the right, not perceived center, which is off-putting
- if you're watching it on the sofa with the pad lying on your knees, or in bed with it lying on the blanked, the speaker is muffled by the blanket\clothes so much it's a big problem.
So basically since one of the main functions of the pad I'm about to buy is to watch movies at home when the desktop PC is occupied, speaker quality is a big item in choosing the pad, and TPI loses to A700 hands down.
Of course, A700 also has speakers in the back (why in Lord's name can't they be in front?), but they're genuine stereo and have larger grilles.
All Tegra 3 devices have some form of occasional hiccups since single channel (this is why the new dual core S4 beats it- more than one channel memory). As per the Anandtech review (and others) the Infinity actually has less events since higher bandwidth from clock increase. In spite of the higher clock, the Infinity apparently does not get hot (if reviews are correct).
Acer should not have used the same exact chipset as the 510, but considering how hot the 510 gets, perhaps that would have been too much for the 700.
Will be nice to see a smack-down of both devices (Acer & Asus). Problem is finding the Acer in a store, since retailers have the 510 which is also new and the same price. Asus at least has an excuse, since the Prime is now "older" by electronic standards and will be price reduced (maybe the 510 should do the same).
Still, perspective is for $450 a person can get a 1920x1200 Android tablet that has good performance. If you can put up with the heat, or do not play many high resource apps, it would be web surfer or comic readers best cost option.
---------- Post added at 01:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:58 PM ----------
All Tegra 3 devices have some form of occasional hiccups since single channel. As per the Anandtech review (and others) the Infinity actually has less events since higher bandwidth from clock increase. In spite of the higher clock, the Infinity apparently does not get hot (if reviews are correct).
Acer should not have used the same exact chipset as the 510, but considering how hot the 510 gets, perhaps that would have been too much for the 700.
Will be nice to see a smack-down of both devices (Acer & Asus). Problem is finding the Acer in a store, since retailers have the 510 which is also new and the same price. Asus at least has an excuse, since the Prime is now "older" by electronic standards and will be price reduced (maybe the 510 should do the same).
Still, perspective is for $450 a person can get a 1920x1200 Android tablet that has good performance. If you can put up with the heat, or do not play many high resource apps, it would be web surfer or comic readers best cost option.
Added:
BTW, why no reviews yet? The 700 came out first- zero reviews, but the Infinity already has a bunch of reviews. Acer not send review units out?
rushless said:
BTW, why no reviews yet? The 700 came out first- zero reviews, but the Infinity already has a bunch of reviews. Acer not send review units out?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why no reviews? Less, and mostly lacking detail and depth, but not nil:
http://www.slashgear.com/acer-iconia-tab-a700-review-25235533/
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/acer-iconia-tab-a700/4505-3126_7-35117923.html
http://androidheadlines.com/2012/06/acer-iconia-tab-a700-review.html
http://androidcommunity.com/acer-iconia-tab-a700-hands-on-and-unboxing-3-20120622/
http://enjoyit.ru/predvaritelnyy-obzor-acer-iconia-tab-a701-bolshoy-i-moshchnyy/
I've also seen some in-depth reviews (with charts comparing various aspects of A700 display with the new iPad, really technical and detailed), but they were all in Russian, so I won't link 'em here.
no reviews, no custom roms. Please developers begin cooking roms, the device has been out a month ago and the development section is still empty.
agdroubi said:
no reviews, no custom roms. Please developers begin cooking roms, the device has been out a month ago and the development section is still empty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep in mind that it was only very quietly released (in limited quantities via Amazon) here in the US last week.
Adoption takes time.
Our A700's were delivered on the same day... My review slash first thoughts would've been exactly the same as you (the OP). The heat is my number one concern. I did not buy this for gaming, but when I did install the car racing game that was already on it and a deer hunting game, I was totally hooked. Sadly, it crashes after the same amount of time passes playing each of these games. The back in each instance got very hot. I have been using mine with the Slim folio Case With Multi-Angle Stand that I bought on Amazon as well.
I really like this tablet--the speed is amazing, the display quality is excellent, the speakers are the best I have seen on a tablet (including iPad 3) even when compared to some laptop computers, and more... but if it's going to crash each time I play a game for, say, half hour, and gets hot to the touch, then I am not too sure what to do...
XooLoo said:
I really like this tablet--the speed is amazing, the display quality is excellent, the speakers are the best I have seen on a tablet (including iPad 3) even when compared to some laptop computers, and more... but if it's going to crash each time I play a game for, say, half hour, and gets hot to the touch, then I am not too sure what to do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What a shame. I'm seriously considering buying A700 instead of Prime primarily because of the speakers; and though also not for gaming, this heat issue is still a concern. A device over $100 should be sensibly engineered.
Looks like I'll have to get a google pad for the meantime and wait for S4 Krait devices or even a w8 pad.
Shame indeed... I am literally one click away from returning it. As stated, my original intention was not gaming, but after having spent time playing games on this tablet, I find it a crime to not play games on it! And the thought of playing a game and losing it all in the heat of the moment (pun intended) just kills all the excitement for me. It's almost guaranteed to crash as the temperature rises. Also keep in mind that although it didn't crash, watching HD videos on YouTube definitely does cause the temperature to go up. Perhaps it didn't crash because in between videos I paused quite a few minutes each time, and in the end did not spend that much time watching HD videos in one session.
XooLoo said:
Shame indeed... I am literally one click away from returning it. As stated, my original intention was not gaming, but after having spent time playing games on this tablet, I find it a crime to not play games on it! And the thought of playing a game and losing it all in the heat of the moment (pun intended) just kills all the excitement for me. It's almost guaranteed to crash as the temperature rises. Also keep in mind that although it didn't crash, watching HD videos on YouTube definitely does cause the temperature to go up. Perhaps it didn't crash because in between videos I paused quite a few minutes each time, and in the end did not spend that much time watching HD videos in one session.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you kindly answer a couple of questions for everyone's benefit?
1. If you launch a game, it crashes after a certain time, coinciding with a considerable heating of the pad's body?
2. If you try to launch the same game right away (without letting the pad cool down), what happens?
3. If you try launching a different (but also graphics-intensive) game right away, what happens?
4. Have you tried uninstalling\freezing the McAfee antivirus, which, as claimed by some, may alleviate this problem (not very believable, though)?
Thank you!
I've been gaming on mine and after turning off unneeded running programs, and turning off unused services (gps, auto sync...) it still gets warm but it never crashes. I've also been watching movies without issues as well. A vent or better heat sink option should have been used to alleviate this problem although I have some ideas....The Asus is not even an option for me due to their attention to detail with the speaker, and all the potential build problems that will likely occur just like their past 3 models.
I can confirm that after shutting down and disabling a few apps, specifically Virus Scanner, WildTangent, Evernote, and Google+. I can play games for quite a while without any crashing. The crashing may be caused by the virus scanner rather than the heat, cause I can run RR2HD for over an hour without a single crash now but the back does indeed get really hot. I'm currently trying to figure out how I might be able to dissipate some of that heat via a case mod of some sort.
Is there a program we can install that will run continually so that we get the tab heating up without just playing a game? Just to let it run and see if it ever crashes the tab?
Lot of negative comments on this forum. For those of us still on the fence who have been holding off - is there anything else out there that DOES meet everyones lofty requirements?
I've been thinking about the a700. I've seen it and used it and liked the screen, but haven't been able to compare to the TF700 screen. Anyone used both - pros and cons - know about the heat issue - had an a510 and disabled antivirus and never had any heat issues in normal use so not too concerned about that. The a700 has much better speakers as well.
Also just purchased a Toshiba Excite 7.7 - best tablet I have ever owned - insanely good Super amoled screen. Any Excite 7.7 owners that have used a TF700 and have compared the two screens - I'm doubting I could get used to anything else after using the Super amoled - but am still tempted by the TF700's super IPS+.
Don't buy Acer. Get the nexus 7 if you're low on money.
Prior to purchasing Transformer Infinity I did lots of google search everday to see what's the review like for transformer infinity. You will find many Iconia a700 reviews referring to TF700, and pretty much all I saw was a700 is not quite as good as TF700 except the price. Supposedly it gets really warm, everything lags, heavier etc.
jdeoxys said:
Don't buy Acer. Get the nexus 7 if you're low on money.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Money is no concern. Bought the Excite 7.7 which is arguably the most overpriced tablet out there - paying for a Super Amoled + screen and Tegra 3 quad core.
Just interested in the best tablet available.
And don't buy Acer - could you qualify that with a because....
The nexus 7 is having quite a few problems - their forum is as negative as the Infinity.
Digital Man said:
Money is no concern. Bought the Excite 7.7 which is arguably the most overpriced tablet out there - paying for a Super Amoled + screen and Tegra 3 quad core.
Just interested in the best tablet available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get an ipad.
Trolled hard.
jdeoxys said:
Get an ipad.
Trolled hard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thought about that too - ipad Retina display and crapple OS vs Excite 7.7 Super Amoled vs TF700 Super IPS+ vs Acer a700 with 1080p and superior speakers and the winnner is.....
See that's where I get stuck....
Really curious to hear from those who have owned both the a700 and the TF700
Really don't like the mono speakers on ASUS tablets. I have a TF300 - louder than the transformer prime - but still lopsided and mono. Wondering, if the screens are similar, why the Acer with better speakers is not a viable choice. Or does the Super IPS+ screen so outclass the a700 screen that its worth sacrificing decent speakers? As for Acer quality - not hearing great things about ASUS quality either these days so......
Digital Man said:
Thought about that too - ipad Retina display and crapple OS vs Excite 7.7 Super Amoled vs TF700 Super IPS+ vs Acer a700 with 1080p and superior speakers and the winnner is.....
See that's where I get stuck....
Really curious to hear from those who have owned both the a700 and the TF700
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, didn't see my little thing at the end there did you.
Sent from my 3d porn machine.
If money is not an option buy them all and try them all out at the same time for the 30 or 45 day return period. Then pick your winner. I used to do that but it takes up a lot of time and stressful.
I still think the TF700 will be the winner as long as they get fixes out quickly.
Digital Man said:
The nexus 7 is having quite a few problems - their forum is as negative as the Infinity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wonder why........ oh I get it!! That's because its the same damn company that made both tablets.
ajamils said:
Wonder why........ oh I get it!! That's because its the same damn company that made both tablets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maximum butt pain go.
Sent from my 3d porn machine.
I have both the Acer a700 and the Asus TF700 in front of me right now. I have had the Acer a couple weeks and I'm on the second one. The Acer has a very nice screen in fact one of the best I have seen until I got the Asus yesterday. It makes the Acer screen seem dull. I have heat problems with the Acer and it seems to lock up so I have to shut down frequently and restart.
I like the sound on the Acer along with the rubber backing make it easy to hold but all in all I like the Asus better. It's not as laggy as the Acer and it doesn't get near as hot. It lighter and a little faster. I don't like the big connector for charging sticking out of the bottom but I think its one nice tablet and match that with a dock and you have a long lasting battery.
That said the Acer is going back and I'm keeping the Asus. I hope the JB update will make it even better.
Here is a video doing a comparison of the Acer with the Asus 300T. Guess who won that battle....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWOKpOPaZbU
I believe in CNET's reviews when they talk about the bad of a product, so if you're like me and don't want to waste your time look at my signature to see how lag the A700 is.
Hey guys, I've owned both these tablets and though i will put my two cents in
First off, my clear winner here is the infinity tab. Most of the complaints on this form are not particularly about the hardware, more app comp ability issues and such. It is a brand new Android tablet, so expect a little time before Asus can release a firmware update, they usually do (based on past history of Asus tablets). Because of that, I can forgive the few basic glitches I have run into. Let me break it down though:
The Acer does get very warm. Not hot, but very very warm. A little bit warmer than the Ipad 3. Not to hard to forgive considering most people would get a case or some protection for it (it really only emits heat from the lower right side of the tablet). However, where the Acer really loses my vote, and why I returned it, is the hardware. Yes; it has a 1080p screen, but you have DDR2 ram and only 1.3ghz processing capabilities, so because of having to push that full HD, its my belief that it just cant keep up sometimes. The Asus has DDR3 (clocked higher as well) and 1.6ghz processing (I've overclocked to 1.8 ghz) so it tends to be able render things better. Asus also puts in better firmware built in. Overall, the Asus is the winner!!
jdeoxys said:
Maximum butt pain go.
Sent from my 3d porn machine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
O...M...G... I'm really starting to feel you should save up some dollars by stopping taking those drugs and get yourself an anally-inclined prostitute, or a rubber doll.
The real downside to the A700 is the heat issue, or lack of heat dissipation, since the Asus can get as hot but not show it as apparent. The Acer has a much better sound system then the awful TF700 mono speaker (why Asus, why?) which is fairly important for a multimedia device. Yes, the Acer is clocked less but it appears the Asus is also having a hard time keeping up which points to the Android system needing some high res tweaking. The real setback will be the community... The Asus will have alot of support built around it while the Acer doesn't seem to have attracted many developer inclined people. This is mostly due to the panned reviews, and the overshadow that the Infinity and mostly the Nexus 7 has cast over it. It's still a good tablet for those that are less demanding which are mostly people not affiliated with this website. I have one and will stick with it since it works for what I need it for which is web surfing, watching movies and listening to music... And yes, that guy is highly annoying and played out already.
Another former A700 owner here, now running with an Infinity.
I too, will back up the feedback that other "dual owners" here have given. I really wanted to love the A700, but the heat issues made it unusable for me. Were the speakers better on the A700? Yes. Did the A700 subjectively feel rock solid? Yes. Did the A700's screen look damn good? Yes.
But the TF700 is stable. The TF700's screen looks better to my eyes. And the TF700 doesn't get insanely hot after what should be normal usage conditions (i.e. gaming).
I'll keep it short.... Get the asus TF700T.
It has been said before and i agree 100%! My Acer A700 has also been send back to the store it came from(because of the heat issue and reboots).
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda premium
ajamils said:
Wonder why........ oh I get it!! That's because its the same damn company that made both tablets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you go to any forums with a new product, you will come away leaving negative, because people only post when they have issues. They are not going to sit and post all day about how much they love their tablets.
I was surprised to hear you say that about the Nexus 7. I own one and couldn't be happier. If you go to the forums looking to see what issues there are, you will definitely come away feeling negative as well.
Even on this forum, I skimmed through (my tf700 is on the way) and did not see "real" issues, nothing like the weak wifi/no GPS fiasco of the prime which is "hardware". The i/o thing seems to only affect people in very certain situations and imho is overblown. Even then I think it is fixable.
When looking for issues, I look for hardware issues and limitations.
For example, from the reviews I have read, the A700 is just a A501 with 1080p screen. The problem is that it uses the same toned down version of the tegra3. Thus, reviews complained about how sluggish it sometimes is, especially for a tegra 3. That's something I don't hink they can ever totally "fix". If they overclock it more, the heat issue witll be worse.
I know the 7.7 screen AMOLED must look nice but what is the dpi on that thing. It should be slightly worse than nexus 7 and tf700. Not as bad as the 768p 10" inchers or ipad1/2 though. For me once I stared at the Nexus 7 screen with its dpi and web surfed on it, I could not go back to my tf300 anymore (as much as I loved it), and returned it to get an Infinity.
I bought the tf700 about 2 weeks ago from best buy using the 50$ coupon that best buy messed up on. I actually bought it for 419 w/ tax going up to 450 which also includes the dock. Is this a good price for this? Well I have 2 weeks left for a full refund and I'm still debating if I should get a refund and wait for tegra 4 tablets or just keep it. There is slight flex on the screen which makes a clicking noise when I press on it but it doesn't really bother me. At first I was looking into ultrabooks but I gave tablet a try. Besides it's hard to find i5 ultrabooks for under 500. Help me decide!!
odorfreedk said:
I bought the tf700 about 2 weeks ago from best buy using the 50$ coupon that best buy messed up on. I actually bought it for 419 w/ tax going up to 450 which also includes the dock. Is this a good price for this? Well I have 2 weeks left for a full refund and I'm still debating if I should get a refund and wait for tegra 4 tablets or just keep it. There is slight flex on the screen which makes a clicking noise when I press on it but it doesn't really bother me. At first I was looking into ultrabooks but I gave tablet a try. Besides it's hard to find i5 ultrabooks for under 500. Help me decide!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a good price IMO.
I'd say this is a factor of your budget and how much you use your tablet. I got the first Android tablet, a Motorola Xoom, on launch day. I had it for a few months and used it a lot then decided to sell it prematurely in order to wait for the next best thing which in my eyes was an HD screen. Well I ended up having to wait almost a year before I got my next tablet, a TF700. That entire year I was kicking myself for not holding on to the Xoom until I actually had another tablet in my possession.
So I guess you have to ask yourself how important to you is having a tablet? At that price I'm guessing you could probably sell it for a ~$100 loss a few months down the road. Who knows though the next generation of tablets might take longer to come out, like the delay we had on the 1080P tablets. With that in mind, if I were you, I'd keep it!
$450.00 for tab and dock?
I'd say that's a good deal.
If the click bugs you trade that in for one that doesn't click.
Just picked up a TF700 myself and I was literally asking myself the same question. I've got a little less than 60 days to return this to BBY if another tab is announced for release soon.
I guess, there are a few things to consider.
1) Is the better performance/battery life of the new device going to be significant? If they jack up the resolution like the N10, it will probably be closer to par with the TF700.
2) Will a new tablet have any hardware issues (e.g. TF-Prime GPS & Wifi problems)? The TF700 is a mature product and it's limitations are well outlined. If you buy a TF700 now, you know exactly what you are going to get.
3) What new features will be on this Tab, and are they worth waiting for? TF700 has SDXC, mini HDMI, a dock with full USB, Full HD, etc. It's a good feature set. TF700 is a bit low on ram with only 1GB, I'd rather have 2GB. It's missing an integrated LTE modem that is said to be in T4, but TBH, I would always buy the wifi version anyway. Better battery life, I wouldn't pay for the extra data plan, and my phone is now tethering fine (thanks TrevE). N10 like resolution looks impressive on paper, but not so in person. I have good eyesight, and the difference isn't noticeable. It's an advertising point over the ipad. Google needs to stop chasing Apple and build more hardware features into their tablets that Apple didn't already do a year ago, but I digress.
4) Are there any applications you cannot run on the TF700 that a new tab would fix? I picked u the TF700 because my Touchpad (running CM9) keeps crashing skype; which I use daily. I run a somewhat recent nightly, and since the Camera fix (thanks for that Dorregaray) being able to use skype at all is awesome. However, having to reboot the tablet 6 times in a night and constantly mucking up the conversation is real pain. Since using the TF700, I haven't had one hiccup in skype. That is worth a lot to me, but a newer tab won't make it better.
Anyway, those are the things I've been mulling over. I will need to see what the new Transformer will look like before I make any kind of decision.
Edit: FWIW, I paid $468 for the tab & a 32GB micro sdxc card. I think you got the better deal.
Have they given a release date for any Tegra4 device? I thought one was shown at the last electronics show but it was still a development model and didn't mention anything about release times or price. You could be waiting awhile and in meantime if you keep the TF700 start stashing away some money monthly for the next wave of tablets. That could help on any loss you take or cover the difference to a model with more storage.
----------
1 - I don't think anyone can tell what the performance and battery life will be like right now. New devices and cpu's are marketed as more performance while reducing energy needs but the tech community needs products to test before accepting what is said as fact. Are Tegra4 chps supposed to run at the same power that today's Tegra3 chips do but have the better performance? That is a performance improvement while reducing the power needed if they were to make a Tegra3 to equal that performance. Someone may have a better answer regarding power saving but remember a bumped up screen size will probably draw more power anyway.
2 - Again probably hard to answer. Until the product hits the market we really won't know how it performs and what problems it may or may not have. It is a risk you take by buying the next and greatest device. Prime was the next and greatest device and we know how that turned out. We can only hope they get the message after 3 devices that they need better I/O components.
4 - As far as applications I think many people have issue with games that are released or already out and "not supported" by our device. It will take some time once a new device comes out for companies to tweak the code or whatever they do to have the games run on the device. That is done on their whim. Why some haven't not done now on the TF700 (Gameloft and EA) is a question I don't think anyone truly knows. Some guess it's screen resolution and they don't want to change the code to render the graphics properly for our device.
But really you can wait and wait and still not be satisfied because something else is a few months away. This technology is moving fast.
fsured said:
But really you can wait and wait and still not be satisfied because something else is a few months away. This technology is moving fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I had really wanted a "Wayne" (Tegra 4) device, and was waiting for that to launch to replace/augment the touchpad. The marketing slides showing kepler tech integrated into the SoC is actually a little bit exicting to me. However, I took advantage of a time limited offer to get the TFI at a reduced price. I use google docs for invoicing clients, and the Touchpad wasn't handling that well enough for me to do it on site. I found myself just waiting to get home to do it & emailing an invoice back. The TFI with the keyboard dock provides an excellent solution, and I had considered getting an ultra book for this purpose, but at about half the price of the ultrabook I was looking at, while fulfilling essentially the same purpose, having the same size profile, and better battery life, well it seemed like the better bargain.
That said, if I could get my hands on a next gen transformer within the next 60 days, I'd likely trade this in, in a heart beat.
My opinion the TF700T is viable for a while longer.
Glad the FHD tabs didn't shoot of into a numbers game as quick as I thought they would.
All I can say is after the "lobotomy" lol...my tablet has been a satisfying adventure.
It's smooth no jitters, games well (light gaming), plays my Xfinity downloads without a hitch, wifi connects stays connected, gps is quick,
browser is hanging in there...etc.
Just for a bit of comparison:
I've side by sided the tablet with my 2 year old HP AMD A6 notebook, and for what it is the tab has about the same amount of annoyance that a Win7 notebook has.
Not comparing Windows to Android just noting all devices big and small can of course suffer glitchiness.
Once the system settles in and with a little restraint as far as collecting\installing poorly written apps the Infinity remains a buy at least for me.
Hopefully when the newer tabs start popping perhaps some of us hold-outs will benefit from a much better selection of HD tablet applications.
Toastysoul said:
Just picked up a TF700 myself and I was literally asking myself the same question. I've got a little less than 60 days to return this to BBY if another tab is announced for release soon.
I guess, there are a few things to consider.
1) Is the better performance/battery life of the new device going to be significant? If they jack up the resolution like the N10, it will probably be closer to par with the TF700.
2) Will a new tablet have any hardware issues (e.g. TF-Prime GPS & Wifi problems)? The TF700 is a mature product and it's limitations are well outlined. If you buy a TF700 now, you know exactly what you are going to get.
3) What new features will be on this Tab, and are they worth waiting for? TF700 has SDXC, mini HDMI, a dock with full USB, Full HD, etc. It's a good feature set. TF700 is a bit low on ram with only 1GB, I'd rather have 2GB. It's missing an integrated LTE modem that is said to be in T4, but TBH, I would always buy the wifi version anyway. Better battery life, I wouldn't pay for the extra data plan, and my phone is now tethering fine (thanks TrevE). N10 like resolution looks impressive on paper, but not so in person. I have good eyesight, and the difference isn't noticeable. It's an advertising point over the ipad. Google needs to stop chasing Apple and build more hardware features into their tablets that Apple didn't already do a year ago, but I digress.
4) Are there any applications you cannot run on the TF700 that a new tab would fix? I picked u the TF700 because my Touchpad (running CM9) keeps crashing skype; which I use daily. I run a somewhat recent nightly, and since the Camera fix (thanks for that Dorregaray) being able to use skype at all is awesome. However, having to reboot the tablet 6 times in a night and constantly mucking up the conversation is real pain. Since using the TF700, I haven't had one hiccup in skype. That is worth a lot to me, but a newer tab won't make it better.
Anyway, those are the things I've been mulling over. I will need to see what the new Transformer will look like before I make any kind of decision.
Edit: FWIW, I paid $468 for the tab & a 32GB micro sdxc card. I think you got the better deal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you get the 60 day refund period? On my best buy receipt it states 30 days hassle free returns. Also it's a little weird that my tf700 freezes and randomly reboots. It doesn't do it frequently but once in awhile it does that.....very weird. This is actually my second tablet because the first one had slight flex but the current one actually makes a small clicking noise too. Honestly it doens't really bother me but ASus def needs to work on their quality control
Personally, waiting for the next tablet from ASUS (I assume you want a Transformer tablet) will be a very painful experience. Our tf700 was announced at CES 2012 (in January 2012), but only became available for sale at least 4 months later (depend on your location). Given the fact that ASUS has not announced any successor to our Infinity yet, I am inclined to believe if there is a Tegra 4 tablet from ASUS, it will only be available to us on the second half of the year. I have been waiting for the Transformer Book for many months but it is still not available. To me, waiting for something that is not even announced yet is a waste of time and effort.
I would strongly reccomend this tab to anyone who needs something with similar functionality to a netbook or ultrabook but I am looking forward to see what will come next. I would love to see something with a little more power hit the same nitch and with about the same price point... I'm actually waiting on the razer edge tablet to see what it turns into. anyways, I plan on hanging on to my TF700 even if I do get an ultrabook or the edge.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD
odorfreedk said:
How did you get the 60 day refund period? On my best buy receipt it states 30 days hassle free returns. Also it's a little weird that my tf700 freezes and randomly reboots. It doesn't do it frequently but once in awhile it does that.....very weird. This is actually my second tablet because the first one had slight flex but the current one actually makes a small clicking noise too. Honestly it doens't really bother me but ASus def needs to work on their quality control
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Premier Silver. Drop enough cash at best buy and you get side benefits, like a doubled return period. Most of the the other benefits are less useful. I don't bother with the complimentary Geek Squad services, for example. Even if I wanted or needed their services (I don't), I still wouldn't use it. Mostly, that's just an opportunity for them to come into your home and look for things they can sell you.
Honestly. ...maybe a extra gig of ram would make this tablet perfect for me. The resolution is ideal for me and the speed is great (running CleanRom) and it does what I hope to get from it. And I use my note 2 for the extra stuff (multi window, nfc sharing etc). And to top that, the mobile giants still have not made 100% use of the quad core as it is and until then, asus infinity is a keeper.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Tegra-4-Wayne-Project-Shield-Nvidia-Grid-Fiscal-2013,21082.html
Tegra 4 isn't shipping until QTR 3 2013. Given that time frame, I'm reasonably happy with my purchase. If the SoC isn't even shipping until then, you won't see devices until QTR 4, and that's nearly a year away. No doubt there will be better performers from Qualcomm sooner than that, but even so, I'm happy with the device I have for now.
searched but haven't even found rumors on a successor - had the TFPrime before and since it got nicked I am waiting for sth new to play with.
Have started considering the Samsung Tab Plus (whenever announced) given the higher res. Still seems that the TF700 has enough muscles and the add keyboard (+battery) is clearly a plus...
Anyhow - have there been any news on the TF700 successor that I missed
Its becomming a bit rusty given the time its already in the market :laugh:
nellycruzz said:
Honestly. ...maybe a extra gig of ram would make this tablet perfect for me. The resolution is ideal for me and the speed is great (running CleanRom) and it does what I hope to get from it. And I use my note 2 for the extra stuff (multi window, nfc sharing etc). And to top that, the mobile giants still have not made 100% use of the quad core as it is and until then, asus infinity is a keeper.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to agree about the extra gig of ram. But in response to the OP's question, yes that is a very good price. You could always dualboot it with rabbits' linux so as to gain some of the functionality that you would get with an ultrabook. The infinity will not become redundant for a while yet in my opinion so I say go for it.
For tablet with awesome dock integration the tf700 cant be beat. You also got a great deal on both. As far at Tegra 4 devices in particular Asus ones, no one knows yet when they will actually release one so you will have to play the waiting game. Vizio is the only one I know of that is coming out with one but not sold in the U.S. and doesn't have a keyboard dock option.
As someone mentioned the tf700 is a good laptop or netbook replacement. So if you're not going to play high graphic games on it like gameloft games then its a good tablet. But I do recommend you unlock and install custom rom on it as it lags quite a bit in stock form.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
The price is good, considering you got the dock with it.
Toastysoul said:
Just picked up a TF700 myself and I was literally asking myself the same question. I've got a little less than 60 days to return this to BBY if another tab is announced for release soon.
I guess, there are a few things to consider.
1) Is the better performance/battery life of the new device going to be significant? If they jack up the resolution like the N10, it will probably be closer to par with the TF700.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless the device has a battery-powered dock, I'd suspect battery life is going to be on par at best -- expect it to be worse. This may not apply if the new device carries one of those funky new battery design which last for a week and are charged in 10 minutes, but those will only get on the market in about two years, they reckon.
2) Will a new tablet have any hardware issues (e.g. TF-Prime GPS & Wifi problems)? The TF700 is a mature product and it's limitations are well outlined. If you buy a TF700 now, you know exactly what you are going to get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously true, and very significant remark. Any device will have its issues, and given the fact that the TF201 suffered from some of these as well, I'd not expect the next Transformer to be faultless either. :S
3) What new features will be on this Tab, and are they worth waiting for? TF700 has SDXC, mini HDMI, a dock with full USB, Full HD, etc. It's a good feature set. TF700 is a bit low on ram with only 1GB, I'd rather have 2GB. It's missing an integrated LTE modem that is said to be in T4, but TBH, I would always buy the wifi version anyway. Better battery life, I wouldn't pay for the extra data plan, and my phone is now tethering fine (thanks TrevE). N10 like resolution looks impressive on paper, but not so in person. I have good eyesight, and the difference isn't noticeable. It's an advertising point over the ipad. Google needs to stop chasing Apple and build more hardware features into their tablets that Apple didn't already do a year ago, but I digress.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And the N10 has both QA and availability issues, for example.
Following your digression for a bit: Apple had already lost the innovation game in the tablet and smartphone worlds a few years ago. All they have done is increase screen size, and (sometimes) resolution.
4) Are there any applications you cannot run on the TF700 that a new tab would fix? I picked u the TF700 because my Touchpad (running CM9) keeps crashing skype; which I use daily. I run a somewhat recent nightly, and since the Camera fix (thanks for that Dorregaray) being able to use skype at all is awesome. However, having to reboot the tablet 6 times in a night and constantly mucking up the conversation is real pain. Since using the TF700, I haven't had one hiccup in skype. That is worth a lot to me, but a newer tab won't make it better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If anything, the older device will probably support more apps altogether -- if you have experienced the transitions from Froyo to Gingerbread to Ice Cream Sandwich to Jelly Bean, you have noticed that we lost a lot of apps along the way that were pretty good in themselves, but just weren't given the TLC to update them to function on the new version. Backward compatibility is less of an issue when the programmer takes it into account when developing his/her app, but too often an app is just hacked together and subsequently, essentially, abandoned.[/QUOTE]
Hello everyone.
I am considering buying this tablet, as the price for the TF300TG dropped in my country to the level acceptable by me, but I am a bit worried. This tablet is one year old, yet it seems to be still quite popular. I would like to know its performance, as Antutu results show like ~10k which is quite low these days, on the other hand youtube tests show real racing 3 running quite smoothly.
Is it still worth buying?
I need a tablet mainly for hd movies and web browsing, 3G is a must. I might play some games, but this is not the main goal. I am also considering Lenovo S6000 (but the MTK actually sucks) and PIPO M9 Pro.
I will be grateful for any feedback, suggestions and opinions.
Regards.
Dandry said:
Hello everyone.
I am considering buying this tablet, as the price for the TF300TG dropped in my country to the level acceptable by me, but I am a bit worried. This tablet is one year old, yet it seems to be still quite popular. I would like to know its performance, as Antutu results show like ~10k which is quite low these days, on the other hand youtube tests show real racing 3 running quite smoothly.
Is it still worth buying?
I need a tablet mainly for hd movies and web browsing, 3G is a must. I might play some games, but this is not the main goal. I am also considering Lenovo S6000 (but the MTK actually sucks) and PIPO M9 Pro.
I will be grateful for any feedback, suggestions and opinions.
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i love my tf300 and would buy it again in a heart beat, although there are some new toshiba tablets that look nice
Dandry said:
Hello everyone.
I am considering buying this tablet, as the price for the TF300TG dropped in my country to the level acceptable by me, but I am a bit worried. This tablet is one year old, yet it seems to be still quite popular. I would like to know its performance, as Antutu results show like ~10k which is quite low these days, on the other hand youtube tests show real racing 3 running quite smoothly.
Is it still worth buying?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want an android tablet + keyboard option there's nothing else as cheap around afaik.
if you arent intrested in the keyboard it loses a lot of appeal.
robgee789 said:
i love my tf300 and would buy it again in a heart beat, although there are some new toshiba tablets that look nice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1. I love my tf300t. No issues out if it at all. Tom Tom is awesome on it unlike my prime (tf201). The screen is absolutely clear even in sunlight. I primarily use mine outdoors as a huge gps
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Yes, its still a great device especially if you grab the keyboard. I use mine everyday and haven't found a newer one that's been tempting enough to buy.I say go for it... and then root it and drop a great rom in it
Yes, i love my tf300t its the best tablet i have ever had
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using xda app-developers app
I own the TF300T and (depending on the price) I 'd say it's still a great tablet for web browsing and watching movies.
Some remarks:
- Tablet feels generally fast/smooth, unless you're installing/updating applications or during heavy access of the internal storage. Then the device becomes very slow during these occasions (it's the known I/O issue with the ASUS tablets).
- The tablet screen is not very usable in bright sunny day outdoors, as someone claimed the opposite above. Even at full brightness, I need to find shade to be able to see the screen.
- The speaker is loud, but the placement is not ideal and that hurts/changes the sound depending on how you're holding or placing the tablet. For movies, you need to be careful not to cover the speaker with your fingers. If you want clear stereo sound, it's best to use headphones.
- Screen quality is pretty decent with comfortable viewing angles.
- I can play tons of fun games with no problems at all. However: I do not like/try the heavy 3D games out there. The few I did try long time ago (e.g. dead trigger), the speed was very good. But I generally prefer the simple(r) games.
hope this helps
I've been using my Asus Transformer TF300T (WiFi only) since August 2012 and I am satisfied with it.
At its price range, there is no tablet with a hard-wired keyboard dock (not bluetooth keyboard) that can match it. You should also check out the pricing of its more high-end brethren, the Transformer Infinity TF700KG (3G) and TF700KL (LTE). These Infinity models use a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 Dual-Core processor (1.5GHz) instead of the usual Quad-core Tegra3 in order to fit in the Mobile Broadband radio. The processor may be a downgrade but the screen is upgraded to a Super IPS+ 1920x1200 display. Since you don't plan to play games to much on it, the brighter display would be a nice trade for the less powerful processor.
Some notes if you are getting a TF300:
1. The tablet experiences a weird battery drain bug (especially when connected to the keyboard dock). Unlike an iPad, which you can leave on sleep mode for weeks or months with minimal battery drain, the TF300 will be out of juice within 3 days if you do not plug it in... Turning off all radios still doesn't improve this too much...
2. The charger is very proprietary. Unlike typical Android tablets, the device-side connector is proprietary (looks like an Apple or Samsung 30-pin connector, but is not compatible with either). This part is understandable since this connector also serves as the docking connector to the keyboard dock. The more annoying thing is that the charger is not a normal 5V (10W) USB charger but is a special 15V charger that uses a USB port... Asus fiddled with the wiring so that a normal USB cable plugged into the charger produces only 5V so as not to accidentally fry your other devices, but their proprietary cable produces the correct 15V to charge the TF300. Plugging the TF300 to a regular 10W 5V USB charger will only charge the device if it is turned completely off. And it will take quite a long time to charge...
3. If you will buy the TF300 for the keyboard dock, then you would probably bring it around docked (otherwise, what would be the point of getting the keyboard dock?). You will have a hard time finding a nice, slim case that would fit on the tablet and still allow it to be docked. AFAIK, there is no case that just fits over the tablet portion of the TF300 while still allowing it to be docked and undocked from the keyboard dock. There are folio-type cases that cover the two halves of the tablet when docked but they are not form-fitted to the TF300 and are held in place by elastic bands (ugly...)...
If the keyboard dock is not a necessity and you can live with a smaller tablet, you may want to consider the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (8" tablet with 3G and S-Pen)...
Hope this helps you decide.
Best Regards!
^_^
Having my TF since around 3 months now, I have to revert my former prediction I would not buy it again, or recommend it right now:
Don't get me wrong, it is a great combination of a tablet and a somewhat capable notebook but:
- the CPU is too weak and once the Tegra 4 hits it will be outdated
- always runs at around 40 - 50 % of RAM already used by simple firing up the Tablet
- the screen is not good enough for longer sessions (had to experience that for myself first but it is true)
and the biggest reason for waiting:
Asus announced a new version of the Infinity coming up soon, the baby offers:
- 300 PPI
- 2560 x 1600 resolution
- Tegra 4
- 2 GB of ram (which will soon be the new standard)
So if you can wait a few month and don't mind paying a bit more you will probably end up with the best tablet on the market.
Hope that helped
- the CPU is too weak and once the Tegra 4 hits it will be outdated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's fast enoughimho, the main bottleneck is the storage I/O. And of course it will be outdated once the new version comes out, that's the meaning of the word outdated....
- always runs at around 40 - 50 % of RAM already used by simple firing up the Tablet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a good thing because free RAM is useless RAM. Most of the system is loaded into RAM which means the slow storage I/O is much less of a problem. And even with the whole system loaded, you have ~60% free for demanding applications.
- the screen is not good enough for longer sessions (had to experience that for myself first but it is true)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why? Is it too bright? Is the refresh rate wrong? Because it looks fine to me and I watch movies on it.
If anything I think it's main weaknesses are the speaker, poor standby times since the update to 4.2 and the large bezel.
frankgreimes said:
- the CPU is too weak and once the Tegra 4 hits it will be outdated
- always runs at around 40 - 50 % of RAM already used by simple firing up the Tablet
- the screen is not good enough for longer sessions (had to experience that for myself first but it is true)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regarding the CPU:
Personally, I think Nvidia over-sold the capabilities of the Tegra processors. They over-hyped the performance of the Tegra 2 but actually delivered that expected performance when the Tegra 3 was released, then again with Tegra 3 (where its over-hyped performance would only be delivered by the Tegra 4)...
I know this from personal experience since I bought a Motorola Atrix 4G (yes, people like me actually exist! ) for its Tegra 2 processor on Aug 2011 (Asia version) only to find out that its H.264 HW acceleration is limited to simple profile only... (its direct competitor then, the Samsung Galaxy S3, had better H.264 HW acceleration support...)
Tegra-accelerated games (THD) were few and far between and graphics performance was not as impressive as promised.
Then I bought the Asus Transformer TF300T (Aug 2012) with the Tegra 3 processor and thought: "Finally, the H.264 HW acceleration will be fixed and gaming performance would improve..." Well, the H.264 HW acceleration was fixed, but gaming performance remained "meh"...
A lot of popular games (mostly from GameLoft) don't even recognize the device and several workarounds needed to be done to get the games to play. When finally games officially supporting the tablet were released (like Dungeon Hunter 4 and Asphalt 7), I find out the games don't perform fluidly or stutters in the middle of gameplay (Asphalt 7) or are simply unplayable due to the low framerate (DH4)... Then I see my friends playing these same games flawlessly on a Samsung Galaxy Note (1st-gen)...
After some updates for the games and lots of tweaks to free up memory (RAM), I finally am able to play Asphalt 7 with a smooth framerate during the actual race (no more stuttering) but the menus are still not as smooth. I also am able to at least play DH4 (on medium detail settings)...
Which brings me to the RAM issue...
The TF300T came with a lot of gunk that I didn't and had no plan of using. I can't uninstall them without potentially breaking OTA updates. So after discovering that freeing up RAM would allow certain games like the above GameLoft games and other large games (SoulCraft, SpellStorm, etc) to run better, I looked around the forums (mostly this forum) to find utilities like App Quarantine - requires root - (to prevent applications/services from being started at boot and ever after) as well as Greenify - requires root - (to force applications you actually to be hibernated so that they don't "wake up" and "phone home" every so often and not release their RAM and CPU resources) and Auto Memory Manager (to tweak the OOM/out-of-memory settings of Android so that the OS will do a cleanup of empty processes and kill other less important processes when the free memory drops below a certain threshold)...
Regarding the Display:
The screen is not as bright as other tablets, but I knew that going in and obviously it was a trade-off to lower the cost of the unit. It is still usable, as long as you are indoors and do not have a bright light source behind you...
As I replied to Dandry's original post, for his application (general tablet use), the TF300TG (3G version) would still be a match to his needs as long as the price is reasonable (meaning lower than it's original price) and the hardware-docked-keyboard-w/-battery-pack feature is compelling for you...
Cheers!
^_^
Even better with the Official Cyanogen 4.3 Nightlies
I had mine for over 1 yr now, rooted a couple of months ago and now have the new Official Cyanogen 4.3 Nightlies rom installed. Runs great.
I have 2 of them and have no regrets
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
bcombel said:
I have 2 of them and have no regrets
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Both of my kids have each their tft300 and sharing one keyboard
Since one year now and nothing negative to say...
Go for it
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D X515m using xda app-developers app
Citruspers said:
It's fast enoughimho, the main bottleneck is the storage I/O. And of course it will be outdated once the new version comes out, that's the meaning of the word outdated....
This is a good thing because free RAM is useless RAM. Most of the system is loaded into RAM which means the slow storage I/O is much less of a problem. And even with the whole system loaded, you have ~60% free for demanding applications.
Why? Is it too bright? Is the refresh rate wrong? Because it looks fine to me and I watch movies on it.
If anything I think it's main weaknesses are the speaker, poor standby times since the update to 4.2 and the large bezel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about yours, but mine started to have ghostclicks and if I press the black border it acts touch sensitive. Sometimes the tablet runs as smooth as it gets other times I hate to work with it, kind of strange.
The RAM thing really depends how you are looking at it, free RAM should be reserved for tasks that need it, if you are constantly running on 50 % of the full RAM = less ram for the more important stuff. Believe me I have tried to remove all the startup blunder but some apps aren't just going away, i.e E-Mail clients although I am using K-9.
For basic things the screen is good enough, but when it comes down to PDF reading and looking at some more complex websites you can really tell the difference in terms of text-quality. I have seen tablet with 200 ppi + and black actually looked like black not just more grey.
Grifter thanks for your lenghty and great review and recommending some apps I really hope they are going to fix my startup problem because it gets annoying.
Disclaiming: The tablet itself is for sure not bad and the docked keyboard is a great pleasure but right now we are 2 months away from the next Infinity which will offer a lot more for for only + $ 150 so personally speaking I would wait and see this 300 ppi Tegra 4 baby in action before buying one right now. chances are it's going to fix all the previous problems the Transformer-series has had.
But if your looking for a great budget tablet you can't go wrong with the TF 300.
I've been dealing with lots of lag and my friends and dad's Nexus 10 is much smoother. Having the choice again for $100 more, I would have bought the Nexus. Keep in mind I'm on the stock rom and rooted. Can't unlock because of the rma'd issue. Hoping it's smoother with a custom ROM, which I imagine it will be, after the upgrade
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk HD
TF300T hardware is not bad given the price. You can have a Samsung for better performance if you can afford to fork out more, evidently. My main grudge is the way they treat customers after the purchase. Witness petition after petition that went unanswered. If they don't care about customers, then we simply shouldn't spend money on their products, especially on one that's so prone to bricking as this model - and not always due to users' fault as they're so fond of clamoring. If they deliberately refuse to release the Key so as to drum up service, there's even more reason to stay away.
Unfortunately, corporate moral standards have been set so low in the last two or three decades, consumers can only get them to listen by hurting their bottom line. As the adage goes, evil will flourish where decent people stand idly by. A few years ago, China banked on low prices to gain market shares. Then they understood that without improving the quality of products and services, they will fall out of the race. We should remind Asus of that principle. In this business, being # 3 is a kiss of death. I can see Ipads battling Samsung Notes. Who ever heard of TF this and that competing against anything of substance? God help them, as I don't care to.
Update on the screen quality:
I gave it another chance by taking the tablet with me outdoors (in the shade, in a bright summer day). The screen is barely usable outdoors, period. At full brightness, it's barely visible. And the glass reflects the fingerprints a lot. At some cases I could hardly tell if the screen, beneath the fingerprints, was on or off. (I am not sure if a screen protector would solve this last issue)
graphdarnell said:
In this business, being # 3 is a kiss of death. I can see Ipads battling Samsung Notes. Who ever heard of TF this and that competing against anything of substance? God help them, as I don't care to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Be reminded that the transformer line were the first mainstream tablets which had an additional detachable keyboard. That was an ASUS innovation and only now do we see similar hybrid/convertible devices from other manufacturers. Also, ASUS competes very well both with Apple and Samsung, simply because they are behind the Google Nexus devices.
TF300T Was a great workhorse for me for 14 months, I also have a TF700 which I no longer use(IO performance issues and overall slow performance due a 1080p screen resolution with a very slow Tegra SoC) and can finally can let those two go.
The TF300T is still great, specially for watching HD movies(720p only), with the docking option you can have up to 128Gb of storage. 720p videos run great, even 1080p videos run great on my 65"LED tv thru HDMI adapter as long as you disable the video on the TF300T and OC to 1.6 Ghz(Performance Mode), GPS works great, WIFI is decent enough and the multitouch feature on the touchpad was really useful. 8 Megapixel camera(rear)with AF still takes great pics specially if you use the right software and you can even make HD video recording.
My only big complain is regarding the browsing department, I tried everything you can imagine with no success, installed every single ROM, tried every single browser with no luck at all. I heard there's an IO performance issue with Asus TF300T and TF700 tablets.
My wife gave me a Nexus 7 32GB 2013 for my birthday, what an amazing machine for browsing internet content, this is amazingly fast, fast , fast. I just ordered a nexus 10 32Gb which will make my life easier and replace my TF700. I will no longer have the flexibility for the storage as I have with the transformers but who can complain if these new units can perform without glitches,lagging or slowdowns specially browsing internet and playing 1080p videos smoothly.
There is no blame to Asus or the transformer line, maybe just for the I/O issues, I had a TF101 as well(tegra 2). Tegra 3 SoC is the one to blame for. Such a poor SoC with so much publicity that was always under-performing, from the very beginning. It's time to upgrade for me. my 2 cents here.
jrsalda said:
TF300T Was a great workhorse for me for 14 months, I also have a TF700 which I no longer use(IO performance issues and overall slow performance due a 1080p screen resolution with a very slow Tegra SoC) and can finally can let those two go.
The TF300T is still great, specially for watching HD movies(720p only), with the docking option you can have up to 128Gb of storage. 720p videos run great, even 1080p videos run great on my 65"LED tv thru HDMI adapter as long as you disable the video on the TF300T and OC to 1.6 Ghz(Performance Mode), GPS works great, WIFI is decent enough and the multitouch feature on the touchpad was really useful. 8 Megapixel camera(rear)with AF still takes great pics specially if you use the right software and you can even make HD video recording.
My only big complain is regarding the browsing department, I tried everything you can imagine with no success, installed every single ROM, tried every single browser with no luck at all. I heard there's an IO performance issue with Asus TF300T and TF700 tablets.
My wife gave me a Nexus 7 32GB 2013 for my birthday, what an amazing machine for browsing internet content, this is amazingly fast, fast , fast. I just ordered a nexus 10 32Gb which will make my life easier and replace my TF700. I will no longer have the flexibility for the storage as I have with the transformers but who can complain if these new units can perform without glitches,lagging or slowdowns specially browsing internet and playing 1080p videos smoothly.
There is no blame to Asus or the transformer line, maybe just for the I/O issues, I had a TF101 as well(tegra 2). Tegra 3 SoC is the one to blame for. Such a poor SoC with so much publicity that was always under-performing, from the very beginning. It's time to upgrade for me. my 2 cents here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally managed to make my TF300T run smooth enough at 1.3Ghz(including browsing) with Latest Hydro 8 Rom(JB 4.2.1) and Greenify, App Quarantine and AutoMemory Manager Apps and latest Browse to Ram apK. I'm going to keep my TF300T and start experimenting with my upcoming Nexus 10. However My TF700 definitely goes to craigslist or ebay.