Slashdot Mirror
Asus Joins High Density Display Club With New Transformer Tablet
crookedvulture writes "The new iPad has received a lot of attention for its high-density display, but it's not the only tablet with extra pixels. Enter Asus' Transformer Prime Infinity, which has a 10.1" screen with a 1920x1200 resolution. The display doesn't look as good as the iPad's Retina panel, which has crisper text and better color reproduction. However, the Android-based Transformer has perks the iPad lacks, like an ultra-bright backlight, a Micro HDMI port, a microSD slot, and more internal storage. The Infinity is also compatible with an optional keyboard dock that adds six hours of battery life, a touchpad, a full-sized SD slot, and a standard USB port. The Transformer's tablet component is definitely no iPad-killer. When combined with the dock, though, the resulting hybrid offers a much more flexible computing platform."
What's this obsession in the media with regards to consumer tech (phones, tablets, portable music players) in which products different to the current market leader are qualified as to whether or not that are a -killer? In the case of tablets, the iPad has its strength and weaknesses, and although it seems like a good all-round device it's not for everyone. Some people want more ports, more expandability, something a bit more like a portable computer than a portable appliance (which the iPad is marketed as). In this case it doesn't need to "kill" the market leader - it just has to offer something different that people want. In this way, we have choice.
Now of course it will be compared to the iPad, but what's this obsession that if you're not the market leader, you're not worth buying? If that were the case there'd be no market for Android phones, or even WM7 phones. Is there perhaps some deep-seated personal feeling that if you don't buy number one, you're by extension not a winner and instead a second-class individual? Or is it just the apps?
Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
So pairing a Bluetooth keyboard and a using a stand makes it a "kludge"?
Uh, yes. Is this supposed to be a trick question?
Because along with a keyboard, it adds a track-pad, full size USB ports, "another" slot for storage expansion, and of course another full day battery. It also folds up nicely similar to a netbook for protection.
It's an actual accessory designed specifically for this particular tablet, not some 3rd party attachment designed to try and fill a void.
The keyboard and track-pad play nicely with the OS. The keyboard offers plenty of shortcuts for the OS and the track-pad offers a pointer -- which can be toggled on or off with a keyboard button; Android supports pointer input along with multi-toch unlike iOS.
And because it's Android, one can plug a hard-drive, thumb-drive, another keyboard, mouse, whatever into the added USB ports, and of course the tablet itself has Bluetooth support. So the doc makes this more than a tablet.
I own an Asus Transformer, iPad, and a few other tablets for reference. The iPad is a great for what it does, but for what I like to do, it falls way short of my Android tablets. Just adding on a Bluetooth keyboard or extending the battery to an iPad doesn't resolve its shortcomings.
"It's an actual accessory designed specifically for this particular tablet, not some 3rd party attachment designed to try and fill a void. "
Right because an accessory designed for the iPad is not designed specifically for the iPad....
It's actually the other way around really. The tablet is designed for the accessory, whereas an ipad is not. So the accessory then works quite a bit better with the tablet because the tablet was designed to use it.
The iPad 3 backlight is very bright. I doubt you could make a brighter display without having a negative affect.
Congratulations. You've just admitted you've never been outside.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
There are three important differences here, somewhat related.
First is that the dock has battery cells inside - enough so to almost double the total battery life. It also charges the tablet when it's docked, rather than running it directly, so you can, for example, use the tablet alone for several hours, then use it for another hour docked, and then undock it and have its battery charged almost to full again.
Second is that the way the tablet attaches to the dock is a hinge that secures it tight and itself requires effort to rotate - strong enough to hold the tablet in place vertically or at an angle. In short, just like your typical laptop hinge. Which means that it does not require any support other than any surface you can conveniently put the dock itself on - such as your laps. Which allows it to be used exactly like a laptop, with convenient typing without having any deck or other flat hard surface on the right level.
Third is that the dock has not just the keyboard in it, but also a trackpad. You might ask why you'd want one on a touchscreen device - well, for one, it's very handy if you're doing something that involves a lot of text input and only occasional tap - such as editing a text document - because swiping the finger on the trackpad is much faster than getting your hand off the keyboard and tapping on the screen every time. The other reason is that it allows you to do things that are clumsy to do with touchscreen, but are much better with improved precision of the trackpad. Again, text editing is better like that, but also RDP/VNC, and many games, especially if you also run DOSBox.