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The Transformer Prime has a 25 Wh lithium-ion polymer battery inside its tablet frame, plus another 22 Wh battery in the keyboard dock. This 47 Wh total battery capacity is getting into serious netbook and some notebook territory, all while powering a device that uses a fraction of the juice.
The tablet itself in combination with the dock is easily good enough to last you a day of heavy use and up to three or so days of moderate usage. Right now I haven’t charged the dock or the tablet for a day or so now (with moderate usage) and the dock still has over 20% of its battery still to give up to the tablet.
So, I’ve told you that the average user’s battery life is going to be amazing, so what about an unusual usage scenario. The above screenshot consists of about 7 hours of screen time with automatic brightness on the standard IPS display mode. Furthermore, the tablet was on the balanced power profile and ran Glowball happily for over 90 minutes and spent the rest of the time switching up between internet browsing, Youtube and idle time on the homescreens.
Aside, idle battery life is unsurpassed due to the Tegra 3’s companion core. Following the aforementioned stress test I went to sleep with the tablet on 14% battery life with auto-sync still on; when I woke up at least 8 hours later it had only dropped 3%.
For those wondering about heat, after the Glowball session it had only mildly warmed up my bed and while the back on the tablet was slightly warm to touch, it was nothing that would be considered uncomfortable.
Wow thats a hell of a review. so much information my brain hurts 🙂
Its impressive, but the Ipad 3 has put a real dampner on these due to the low resolution and the catch up they all need to play now against Apple.
I think its a little expensive for what you get if I was being blunt about it, but its a nicely designed product and it seems powerful for even casual gaming. Retina display has pushed everything forward really which has made this look already a little out of date.
Two weeks with this tablet were more than enough for me to experience all the issues already pointed out by other reviewers plus a brand new one: the shockingly poor build quality.
Yes, the WiFi is faulty. I use both the TF201 and a Galaxy Nexus in bed and, although the signal is quite weak on the smartphone, it never disconnects and the browsing/downloading speed is very good. The same can’t be said about the tablet, which often disconnects and sometimes requires a reboot so I can use the internet again (and what’s a tablet with dodgy WiFi? A paper weight?).
Yes, the GPS is useless. Asus dropped the ball twice here, first by not testing the unit properly and then by removing the function from the specs list. Shameful, to say the least.
Now to the build quality: although the TF201 is a stunning device and both its screen and its metallic body look fantastic, my unit proved to be cheaply manufactured when the glass started detaching from the main body a few days ago. It’s a month old tablet and I’m extremely careful with my electronics.
Right now all I can do is regret as I purchased this tablet in the US and brought it back to Ireland, so sending it back will be a costly pain in the neck both for me and for my wife’s friend who would have to drop it at UPS.
I’m really disappointed with Asus and the current selection of Android tablets in the market. No wonder the iPad is flying off the shelves, all that Apple has to do is release products that don’t suck.
Cheers Davy!
I have to agree Davis, perhaps the reason it is taking so long for other Tegra 3 tablets to come out is because everyone is running around trying to find a decent supply of FHD display to create a tablet that can go head to head with the new iPad’s
It’s decent value to me Rt23ds, 20 quid more than the new 32GB iPad. It really depends if you’d prefer a higher resolution screen or the ability to type anything of length
Guil, I encountered no Wi-Fi problems that I could attribute to my review unit (the dodgy router is to blame). Completly agree on the GPS points. The review unit I had could have been cherry picked but it has definitely been around the place and all it had to show for it was a few collections of scratches on the back. Have you tried getting in contact directly with Asus? Either way it’s really bad to hear you’re having issues with your Prime
Its impressive, but the Ipad 3 has put a real dampner on these due to the low resolution
I’d have to agree Ieeko, it’s not majorly noticeable by itself by switching between a decent phone and the Prime the extra pixel density is noticeable. Shouldn’t be too long until we start seeing Full HD tablets though