Notebook Hunter

The 10.1in ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 (32GB) is a great buy for $699. Android Honeycomb 3.1 runs very nicely on the vibrant capacitive screen and the keyboard dock is impressively sturdy. The touchpad in particular is excellent. It may cost more than the alternatives, but the keyboard dock really does make all the difference.

An NVIDIA Tegra 2 (1GHz) processor and 1GB of RAM are a firm foundation for Android Honeycomb, and the performance is really good. The battery in the Transformer lasts about 6 hours by itself, but the keyboard dock has its own battery that extends the Transformer ’s operation comfortably beyond 10 hours.

Portability is overall the same as a netbook; the tablet weighs 680 grams while the keyboard dock weighs 640 grams, and while you can just carry the tablet around and leave the dock at home it’s worth keeping in mind that the card reader and USB 2.0 ports are on the dock rather than the tablet. The textured back surface does result in the tablet being about 13mm thick, but it provides a reassuring amount of grip.

If the 32GB solid state drive fills up a Micro SD card reader can easily expand it by up to 32GB. Otherwise the Transformer has a mini-HDMI port, an audio jack, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It’s a versatile, nicely designed functional tablet that for the price is well ahead of other tablets with 32GB solid state drives.

See the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 (32GB) in the Notebook Hunter database here.

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