First Impressions: Asus Transformer Prime

The first quad-core, Ice Cream Sandwich tablet, Asus Transformer Prime, has finally arrived in the Philippines and the good folks of Asus PH allowed us have a brief time with it.

At first glance, you wouldn’t view the Transformer Prime as a tablet. It is packaged with a keyboard dock and there’s no option to get it as a tablet-only device. And without 3G support, I see it as a hybrid notebook than a tablet.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a hybrid tablet or a hybrid notebook, one thing’s for sure is that the Asus Transformer Prime is a gorgeous device. It looks very solid and expensive taking its design cues from the Asus Zenbook with the sand-blasted metal with concentric patterns. Really good-looking compared to the first Asus Transformer.

The keyboard dock houses the standard Asus chiclet keyboard commonly found on their Eee PCs except for the Function keys which has no business on an Android platform. It also gives the tablet an additional 6 hours and houses the USB port and an SD card reader making it an Android-based notebook with exceptional battery life.

I wasn’t able to play much with the Ice Cream Sandwich on this one but expect a smooth experience now that the new and mature Android OS knows how to make use of multi-core processors. The Super IPS+ display may not be as fancy as Super AMOLEDs but it has its merits, like wide viewing angles and truer white colors.

For those of you who are waiting for a tablet that can also properly double as a laptop for your basic productivity, well the Asus Transformer Prime would fit the bill.