Asus Transformer Pad TF300T Review

Value for money 

IN A mostly black and white world of Android tablets, the bright red Asus Transformer Pad TF300T is a welcome sight.

The TF300T is the latest model to be rolled out from the entry-level Transformers Pad series and it promises to offer value at an affordable price.

So, you won't see a metal back cover or Super IPS+ panel like with the premium Transformer Prime. But you can expect solid performance as the TF300T houses the same quad-core nVidia Tegra 3 processor.

As this is a Transformer model, it comes with a keyboard dock that has a multi-gesture touchpad which makes text input a breeze.

The dock also has a USB 2.0 port, SD card slot and a built-in battery that provides the tablet with an additional five hours of battery life.

If you think the red is too hot a colour for you to handle, the TF300T also comes in blue and white.

At first glance, the TF300T may look like the Prime, but on closer inspection you will see that the TF300T is slightly thicker (9.9mm vs 8.3mm) and heavier (635g vs 585g).

The tablet's IPS (in-plane switching) display has the same 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution as the Prime's Super IPS+ screen.

But the most noticeable difference is that the TF300T's display is slightly dimmer than the Prime.

Also, the TF300T is available in two capacities - 16GB and 32GB while the Prime is also available with 64GB storage.

Moving on, the design only allows the tablet to be docked in landscape mode - with the power button on top and the proprietary 40-pin connector at the bottom.

Along the left and right sides of the tablet, you will find the volume rocker, mini HDMI out, microSD card slot and 3.5mm audio jack.

While the back, like most tablets, is bare save for an 8-megapixel camera and a speaker grill.

For productivity 

The TF300T runs the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system with further minor customisation by Asus.

Along with the standard Google app suite, you'll find some interesting apps such as SuperNote (a word processing and note-taking app), Polaris Office (an office suite that handles Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files) and MyCloud (Asus's cloud storage solution that offers 8GB of storage).
The quad-core Tegra 3 processor handles all apps with no fuss.

The keyboard dock is quite comfortable to use and this entire review was typed using it.

Having a keyboard dock has its own advantages. It features both tablet-specific functions and keyboard shortcuts to most used options like cut, copy and paste.

The USB port can handle not only thumbdrives and external hard disks but also a mouse which comes in handy when playing some games.

For fun 

When it comes to multimedia capabilities the TF300T doesn't disappoint. It supports pretty much all the popular media formats such as DivX, MPEG4, H.264, MP3, FLAC and WMA.

The tablet handled everything we played on it including 1080p videos without a hitchYou can also download others like Mobo Media Player Pro to enable it play back downloaded FLV files too To see the full power of the nVidia processor and GPU at work we ran games like Glowball: Tegra 3 Only, Guerilla Bob, SoulCraft THD and Temple Run on the machine. Suffice to say, we were not disappointed.

Just like the Prime, the TF300 sports an 8-megapixel camera with backlit CMOS sensor albeit with a slightly larger aperture of f/2.2. The Prime only offers f/2.4.

The larger aperture allows the TF300 to take better images in low light environments but with no LED light present it's better to stick to well-lit areas.

Images generally turned out good with low noise and 1080p videos were equally detailed.

Conclusions 

Affordability and versatility, that's what the Transformers Pad series promises.

In terms of performance it is as good as the Prime and you'll be paying a few hundred ringgit less for the same experience.
Also, the keyboard dock makes typing faster and more comfortable and adds a few extra goodies along the way. The only catch - the TF300T is priced slightly higher than an average 16GB 10in Android tablet but that's probably because it comes with a keyboard dock.

Still, the TF300T was a fun Android tablet to use and we hated to send it back.

Pros: Solid performance; good camera; versatile keyboard dock.

Cons: A tad pricey.

TRANSFORMER PAD TF300T
(Asus)
 Android Tablet with keyboard dock
OPERATING SYSTEM: Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
PROCESSOR: 1.2GHz nVidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor
GRAPHICS: nVidia GeForce 12-core chip
DISPLAY: 10.1in WXGA (1,280 x 800-pixels) touchscreen
CAMERA: 8-megapixel (back), 1.2-megapixel (front)
CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi, micro HDMI out for tablet; SD card slot, USB2.0 for dock
MEMORY: 16GB storage, 1GB RAM
EXPANSION SLOT: MicroSD slot (up to 32GB supported)
OTHER FEATURES: A-GPS, 1080p HD video recording, gyroscope, accelerometer
BATTERY: 22-watt lithium-polymer (tablet), 16-watt lithium-polymer (dock)
SIZE (W x H x D): 263 x 180.8 x 9.9mm (tablet), 263 x 180.8 x 10.2mm (dock)
WEIGHT: 635g (tablet), 546g (dock)
RATING: 4 stars