Review: Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

As the tablet space grows increasingly crowded, it's high time somebody switched up the formula and offered some hardware we can really get excited about.

Cue the entrance of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the first quad-core tablet on the market and the first running Android 4.0, aka Ice Cream Sandwich.

Not only do the quad-core processor and the all-new operating system do wonders for app performance and the user experience, but the tablet also shows off some innovative design features: just like the newest generation of highly portable ultrabook PCs, the Transformer Prime is remarkably lightweight, very thin and has long battery life. As a bonus, you can snap it onto a keyboard dock, extending the battery life by several hours and giving it a level of functionality approaching that of a laptop.

The Transformer Prime is as light and slim as Apple's iPad 2: the aluminum body weighs 586 grams (1.29 pounds) and is 8.3 mm (0.32 inches) thick. I've been testing it for a couple of weeks, and I found it easy to carry with me everywhere.

The 10.1-inch Corning Gorilla Glass display offers plenty of room to enjoy books, web pages, and games. The 1280x800 resolution panel also utilizes Super IPS+ technology for maximum brightness and an extra-wide viewing angle – Asus claims the viewing angle is 178 degrees, and I found no reason to dispute that. The screen is also very bright. Outdoors, where you'd normally long for an e-ink screen, there's an additional boost of up to 600 nits that helps overcome the glare of sunlight (if you're wondering how much that is, the iPad 2 has a screen brightness of just 350 nits). Gloomy January might not be the best time to test this feature, but the unparalleled brightness of the Transformer Prime was surprising.

Though the physical dimensions and the brightness of the screen are the first things you'll notice, the most outstanding features lie under the hood.

NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor, aka "Kal-El," replaces the Tegra 2 found on last year's original Transformer tablet. You can feel it really pushing the tablet at higher speeds. The quad-core processor is actually a five-core superchip, since there's a separate, 500MHz "companion core" that's optimized for tasks requiring lower power consumption. This helps save battery life when you don't really need all that quad-core power. By keeping the display at 50 percent brightness, the 25Wh lithium-polymer battery keeps the Transformer Prime humming for around 11 hours. You can get six more hours of juice by sliding the tablet into the Mobile Dock (an extra $150), which has its own 22Wh lithium-polymer battery. But we'll get back to the keyboard later on.

The 1.4GHz Tegra 3 processor is designed for hard gaming, detailed graphics, and heavy multitasking. Backed by 1 gigabyte of RAM, those features can actually show you how much different this tablet is from the first Transformer and all the other tablets already on the market. The user interface is screaming-fast, and graphics rendering times are significantly reduced. You first notice it when you browse the web. Page elements are loaded in moments, and page scrolling is very smooth.

To really test it, I took a look at the first bunch of games built to exploit the Tegra 3's power. Playing Shadowgun: Deadzone, I noticed the amazing, fresh details of characters and environments, and I realized how much I was missing in the previous versions of the game. I added a wireless controller, effectively turning the tablet to a console. Action is rendered with outstanding console-quality fluidity, and I was impressed by the tablet's realistic Stereoscopic 3D effects while playing Guerrilla Bob THD. I particularly enjoyed the dynamic lighting effects inside Pinball HD and Glow Ball, and I was surprised by the detailed motion blurring and advanced water effects hitting the screen while playing the jet-ski-racing game Riptide GP.

I also tested some multimedia software. Along smooth streaming video and decent sounding audio, there's faster computing for editing applications. I edited some photos in Photaf THD Panorama Pro and the tablet blew through the files with outstanding speed. And if you're among those who use a tablet to shoot pictures and videos, the 8-megapixel rear camera and LED flash of the Transformer Prime will let you snap bright, detailed shots and 1080p videos.

With Android Ice Cream Sandwich on board, I experienced more fluid scrolling and a much-reduced pinch-to-zoom response time. This showed up while browsing the web, and also within books and magazines downloaded from Zinio and Press Reader. Swiping around in the menus and dismissing notifications feels very natural, as does the new action of grouping app shortcuts into folders directly on home screen. As for the OS's ten-finger multitouch capability, there's still no real situation where you can use it to its fullest. Same with the new, geeky Face Unlock feature.

Just like the tablet, the keyboard dock is also slimmer than last year's version, which means you won't be able to use an old dock with the Prime and vice versa. The keyboard is still a 92-percent-sized QWERTY and comes with a single USB 2.0 port and an SD card reader. If you type a lot, you'll love it as much as I did, especially when dealing with all your files inside Polaris Office, which comes pre-loaded.

Pairing the tablet to the dock is easy, just slip the slate into the connection port until you hear a sharp click. It locks down on both sides. I never worried about the dock dropping off – to release it, you need to press a dedicated button on the left side.

It has its quirks. For example, since you can't disable the touchpad, you may find yourself moving the cursor around the screen while typing, causing some weird jumping between rows. [Update: You can disable the touchpad, via a key above the "3" on the keyboard - thanks for pointing that out in the comments.]

But the strength of the dock is the extra six hours of battery life, and the fact that you can turn your tablet into a decent laptop replacement.

By calling it "Transformer," the hint is that you're supposed to actually transform the tablet into a notebook. But the tablet experience is mainly centered around browsing the web, watching videos, reading books, and using touch or controller-based applications like games. So do you really want (or even need) a keyboard and a mouse for that stuff?

To each his own. Personally, I did just fine without the dock.

WIRED The first quad-core tablet, and the first with Ice Cream Sandwich. So powerful, you won't believe it until you use it. Outstanding for games. Interface enhancements are the shot in the arm Android needs. Price is good for what you get.

TIRED Wi-Fi only. 40-pin connector for charging instead of USB. Keyboard dock is pricey. Dock is lighter than tablet, making the assembly top-heavy and causing stability problems. Keyboard's trackpad has issues.

Maurizio Pesce is a Wired.it staff writer and editor covering applications, consumer electronics and the automotive industry. Follow him on Twitter as @pestoverde

Photos courtesy of Asus