ASUS Eee Pad Slider Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 4, 2011 6:48 PM EST- Posted in
- Tablets
- Eee Pad
- Tegra 2
- Asus
- Honeycomb
- Mobile
- Android 3.2
- Eee Pad Slider
- NVIDIA
Camera & Network Performance
Remember the camera issues with the original Eee Pad Transformer? Nonexistant on the Slider. You can record videos at 720p30 via the rear camera without issue. I'm not sure how useful video recording on a tablet is but it's sort of an expected feature these days so I'm glad to see that ASUS was able to deliver it trouble-free this round. The camera app also appears unchanged from the Transformer.
Image quality out of the rear camera is good enough for sharing on the web, but at full sensor resolution the images aren't that impressive.
Network performance is in-line with other Honeycomb tablets, I measured peak transfer rates of 36Mbps on a 802.11n (2.4GHz) network. The Slider doesn't support 5GHz. For the first time I was able to test a Honeycomb tablet in an environment with two APs sharing the same SSID (an extended network configuration). The Slider doesn't do all that well here, I found it all too often connecting to the weaker AP rather than one with a much stronger signal. I didn't see any obvious workarounds for the issue, but it is something to keep in mind if you use the Slider on a network that uses multiple APs behind one SSID to cover a large area.
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secretmanofagent - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
"The keys are hardly full sized, I measured x mm compared to mm on Apple's chiclet keyboard."Should there be numbers there?
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
Yes there should, fixed :)Take care,
Anand
Death666Angel - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
"I measured 14 x 11mm compared to 16mm2 on Apple's chiclet keyboard."Do you spot the mistake? In this scenario, the Apple keyboard has keys which are 4mm x 4mm = 16mm², whereas the Asus has 14mm x 11mm = 154mm². You probably meant to write (16mm)² or somesuch. :D
Anand Lal Shimpi - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
err you're very right, fixed again :)Take care,
Anand
Zink - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
So in depth. Are you using a teleprompter?tsnorquist - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link
Of course not, he's not the president =)mythun.chandra - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
Good job on the video/review! :)Hope to see more of them moving forward.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
"the tablet form factor combined with a responsive touch UI simply means you can do these things in a more relaxed position."All you people seem to have quite uncomfortable desks! :D The only place that is more relaxing and comfortable in my house than my desk and desk chair is in bed, snuggling with my wife. ^^
quiksilvr - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
The Transformer with Dock is 2.9 lbs. This slider is 2.1 lbs. Yes it is cheaper than Transformer + dock but I have seen combo sales all the time, and considering the holiday season coming up, I wouldn't be surprised to see Transformer + Dock selling for $399 with a case for good measure.To me, thickness isn't really an issue with something like a tablet. It's 10 millimeters thicker (barely 0.4 inches), but you get:
1) An extra USB port
2) A full SD card slot
3) A trackpad, giving a much more PC feel
4) Pretty much the equivalent of "lugging" a light netbook around
5) Ridiculously high battery life (that in itself is worth the extra $70. 15 hours vs 7 hours is a no brainer)
So in short, I would recommend the Transformer + dock when there is a sale. Newegg had a combo sale for those two for $399 (not anymore) so that gives me high hopes for this holiday season for other retailers to mimic it.
TrackSmart - Tuesday, October 4, 2011 - link
I'm glad the Transformer serves you well, but I've already got a laptop that weighs just 3 lbs.The idea of a 2.9 lb (or even 2.1 lb) tablet with keyboard is not appealing. It's basically laptop weight, but not as useful for real work due to the limitations of Android/IOS productivity software.
My ideal tablet would be less than 1 lb and have a much smaller form factor. Imagine how small the 7" galaxy tab would be if it had hardly any bezel. It would be about 4" x 6" and about 12 ounces. The size would be perfect for rapid thumb typing. And I could fit it into a coat pocket. Perfection.