The Asus EeePad Transformer Prime

I managed to get one of those elusive Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime more than a week ago but was too lazy/busy to even get it out of the box and play around with it.

As soon as I read that ICS upgrade was made available for the Transformer Prime (it ships with Honeycomb 3.2) I decided its time to test it out.

Asus did a great job with the Transformer Prime continuing what they did with the Asus Transformer. But this time around they made a much sleeker device. Weighing just 586 grams lighter compared to the iPad 2′s 601 grams (not that you’ll notice it) and is a hair thinner, The transformer prime is a great piece of hardware.

What I love about it is the microSD slot that is available on the tablet which makes transferring file and expanding the memory effortless. Also there are 2 cameras, a micro-HDMI port and a 3.5mm audio connection jack And thats just the tablet.

Plugging the tablet to the keyboard dock gives you access to a full size USB 2.0 port and also a full size SD card port aside from the obvious physical keyboard and mouse. And it also extends the battery life to almost 18 hours.

I’m in a love/hate relationship with the 16:9 aspect ratio screen. Its great for watching video and surfing the net, but feels a little awkward when held in portrait. The 1280 x 800 screen resolution is great and I really like it, especially when using widgets as every pixel helps.

The upgrade process was painless as it is with all android devices. Update is available, click install, wait for installation to complete and thats it. The whole thing took about 10 minutes including the download.

When the keyboard dock arrives, I’ll test the device as my main travel companion and see what it can and cant do for the on the go user and what will I miss in my Macbook Pro. Currently the Android tablets are lacking in the software department as it doesn’t have apps specially developed for the tablet, but I hope that will change as I think that developers stayed away from the Android tablet platform because Google themselves said that Honeycomb was a quick fix for the tablet problem.