In the torrent of tablet devices appearing on the world market, it’s increasingly difficult to spot extraordinary products. After making friends with the development version of ASUS’ Transformer tablet, you may rest assured that you won’t miss it easily. Its excellent production quality and a seamless match of its two sections, as well as a stunning user interface (Android 3.0) and extraordinary concept, all make for something to capture your attention for an extended period of time.
Its greatest feature is the fact that it’s bridging two worlds, one in which keyboard is the key, and another one that believes that keyboards are a thing of the past and that tactile management is the solution. The hardware basis is simple enough idea-wise, but as certain other companies such as Lenovo have had the chance to determine, not easy at all to implement. Theoretically, what should be created is a solid netbook with the touch-sensitive display well separated from the keyboard, and you have yourself a winning ticket. Practically, however, this causes a lot of problems that need to be solved, the biggest one being the fact that the display itself should be a tablet on its own, with its own controlling, directive and processing logic. ASUS has overcome this obstacle with elegance, presenting a functional tablet first and foremost, with the keyboard that accompanies it marketed as nothing more than a powerful addition. This is why the keyboard section brings forth some interesting add-ons, such as an additional battery, USB ports and a full-size card reader.
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When Transformer is picked up for the first time, pleasant surprises follow in quick succession. Firstly, due to its display size, it’s surprisingly light and thin. Regardless of that fact, it retains a degree of compactness, firmness and an excellent finish. The back section is matted, with a large number of tiny holes, and extremely resistant to fingerprints. On the back of the tablet, one can find a solid-resolution webcam, with another one in the front, albeit not as good, but sufficient for any video conference. The sides contain the well-known volume regulation and system startup buttons. As for the connections, what you have at disposal is a headphone output, microphone, as well as a marvellously masked pair of stereo speakers, placed as wide as possible so as to provide maximum enjoyment in films.
What’s likely to be the best part of this device is its 10.1” display. Its resolution is 1280x800, and it’s manufactured using the IPS technology. This enables phenomenal viewing angles, as well as a uniform distribution of colours and a constant contrast in the entire 32-bit palette segment. A lesser reproach could be targeted at the backlight, which bleeds through the display edges in a uniformly black environment, but this isn’t something you’ll notice often, to be honest. The display is protected by a Gorilla glass layer, which gives it firmness and resistance to scratches, and it’s been additionally treated with another external layer which reduces the visibility of fingerprints on the display surface.
The keyboard section is easily hooked onto the tablet by a lock and two connectors, and we particularly like the fact that there’s no instability, and the device feels as a whole in the true sense of the word, perhaps even more than certain ordinary netbooks. This section is virtually the same in weight as the display section, and they amount to less than 1.5 kg together, making Transformer a very portable device. With the additional battery that ASUS has implemented, you’ll allegedly gain an incredible autonomy, which we haven’t been able to test in practice, but we’ve attained a feeling that it can go well over the “nine-to-five” needs of ordinary business users. Below the keyboard section, one can see the touchpad and the accompanying see-saw “mouse” buttons. If you pay particular attention to the keyboard, you’ll see that it’s not a typical PC keyboard, which means that there are no function keys, but some new ones, such as “back” and “home”, make an appearance. The entire upper line consists of well-chosen shortcuts to the most commonly used functions in Android OS. The keyboard is surprisingly large and comfortable to use, keys are spaced and precise, and the typing sensation may not be top-notch, but it’s still satisfactory.
