Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101G Review

Stock Honeycomb for the most part

The interface is quick and fluid with very few signs of slow down. LinPack recorded a single thread score of 29.7 and a multi-thread score of 56.89 while AnTuTu gave us a score of 4679 points.

The Asus MyZine widget

Everything else remains pretty much stock Honeycomb which means it’s familiar and easy to navigate. The notification bar now shows some permanent icons for an inserted memory card or when the tablet is docked. Asus already claim that the Transformer will be upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in the future so that’s a bit of relief for those who buy it.

Media
Asus hasn’t messed around with the stock audio and video player so you’re left with limited functionality out of the box. they have incorporated SRS Premium Sound technology for the speakers but we couldn’t find any traces of that in the settings, so we’re going to have to take their word for it. The sound quality is good through a good pair of in-ear phones but feels a little weak coming through the side speakers. At max volume, it's quite loud but the tone is a little thin and weak.

The stock music player is all you get

Videos are limited to MP4 by default by that’s soon rectified by installing some third-party media players. We were successfully able to play 1080p files via microSD card and the internal storage but it refused to do so with a portable hard drive. The picture quality is really good with rich and vibrant colours thanks to the IPS display. MKV files play smoothly as well but only through the internal storage or an SD card.

Connectivity
The TF101G has full 3G HDPA+ support and is quadband GSM ready. You still can’t make calls using the SIM card though, just messaging is supported. We also have Wi-Fi ‘n’ and Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR functionality. DLNA is also present and can be accessed through the MyNet app. You can share music, photos and videos to any DLNA certified device. The built-in browser does a good job of rendering web pages as well. The memory card slot supports hot-swap but the SIM tray will require you to use a pin to access it, iPhone style. HDMI-out is present as well allowing you to quickly connect to an HDTV. This is a Type-C connector and not a Type-D that we saw on the Motorola Xoom and the Lenovo K1.

The stock browser

We also have Asus WebStorage which gives you unlimited web storage space for one year after which you have to pay a fee to continue the service. MyCloud lets you quickly browse and sort out your media files saved in the cloud.