Notebook Hunter

If you’ve been holding off on the 10.1in ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 because the price tag of this tablet/keyboard combo was higher than those of plain tablets, then for $562.70 until Sunday your excuse has gone. Although the Transformer’s successor, the Transformer Prime, is on the way (for an unspecified release date that’s probably next year) the original TF101 is still one of the best tablets you can currently buy. The screen is great, the tablet itself feels really solid and the keyboard dock puts many netbooks to shame.

This 680 gram tablet feels light and even when you attach the 640 gram keyboard dock it’s still as light as a netbook. A 10.1in (1,280x800 resolution) capacitive screen runs Android Honeycomb 3.2 smoothly and has a very good viewing angle. A 32GB flash drive will fill up quickly, but for a tablet it’s generous enough particularly given that the 4-in-1 card reader on the keyboard dock can expand storage. That keyboard has an additional battery built into it, extending the TF101’s life to over ten hours. The keys are small but nice and firm, and typing on them is a satisfying experience that many netbooks can’t really match.

The feature set of the TF101 is strong, because on the tablet there’s a headphone jack, Mini HDMI port and a Micro SD card reader. On the keyboard there’s an additional pair of USB 2.0 ports as well. Although there’s no 3G, the TF101 still has Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. Rounding out this extensive set of features are front and rear cameras, stereo speakers and a microphone.

See the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 in the Notebook Hunter database here.

See the special online at JB Hi Fi here.

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