My Transformer Prime mini review
First off, I will be comparing it to the iPad 2. Prior to the prime It's pretty much still the best tab out there and had little good quality competition - somewhat of a benchmark, and it's the only other one i've used. If you can't cope with that stop reading.
Aesthetics:
Looks very nice. Very much like the iPad 2, but different color metals and slightly thinner. Feels nice too hold, but no thinner please.. it's a good thing to boast about in an argument but in reality I don't feel myself wishing tablets like the ipad2/prime were thinner.
8/10
Build quality
It feels solid and well made. Not quite as perfectly machined as an iPad 2, but pretty damn close. I'm pretty sure the rocker switch is plastic, and isn't as nice and clicky as iPad. It also popped out a quiet squeek once when I picked it up from the top left.
Keyboard dock is generally good for what it is. Not the most tactile of keyboards around, but they have a nice texture to them and the trackpad is atleast decently responsive.
Tablet = 9/10, Dock = 7/10
Screen
Generally excellent, with one glaring problem.. if the majority of the screen is white, the whites look worse than an average TN monitor. I have seen yellower though. The iPad 2 suffered this problem too, but not as bad. Vast difference between the white of my phone and the white of the screen. Apart from that, colors pop much like iPad 2 screen, blacks similar in darkness, perhaps a tad better than the iPads.
7/10, The white problem really does loose it a few marks. As a reference, i'd score the iPads 7/10 or 8/10 - it has a more prounounced bleeding than the transformer prime and slightly greyer blacks, but whites are better.
Speakers
Not a lot to say, a bit too quiet but respectable quality.
7/10
Software/OS
I fairly like Android 3.2 - I like the multiple desktops or whatever they're called, and I like the widgets. The menus look sophisticated, the home and back buttons are the bottom seem to glow and look pretty cool. Applications open quickly (Whether this is more to do with the hardware or software is debateable). Multitasking seems to work. I like being able to bring up battery status, brightness, and a few other settings as an overlay instead of having to traul through menu's such as in iOS.
I like the Camera apps functionality, though it's pretty ugly. I wish Apple would offer these manual controls.
On the downside, the stock browser is junk. Opera is far far better. Scrolling web pages is pretty smooth, still not as good as iOS. Neither is zooming. Both are closer to iOS then what I used a while back. I encountered a few bugs too, such as whenever I pressed space in the Stock browser or YouTube app it lost focus on the search bar, closing and reopening both apps fixed this.
I'm definitely awaiting ICS too see what improvements it brings. Some of it's functionality is better than iOS's implementation, but it's not as polished and refined in some areas, though again this is what I expect ICS will change hopefully.
8/10
Hardware
HDMI out (Though only mono audio for some bizzare reason)
SD Slots
Good camera relative to iPad 2's. Not as good as good smartphones.
Tegra 3 feels very fast in most places, but then in other instances you wonder what them 4(5 if you're being picky) cores are doing. Though this is more likely to be software not being well made too use the Tegra 3's speed yet
Didn't seem to run into problems with RAM at all either.
Unfortunately the Wi-Fi signal is a bit weak, definitely useable around the house, but then could be better when compared to it's rivals.
GPS is of questionable quality.
8/10
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Overall I like it. But that screen issue is going to bug me, the HDMI mono sound issue is dissapointing, build quality is almost good enough to meet my very high expectations. And I really hope they smooth out the browsing experience in general.
Assuming the iPad 3 doesn't have anything wrong with it and is up to the quality standard of it's previous versions, I'll still be choosing one over the Prime. The little niggles annoy me too much, but I will readily admit if the OS was polished up and the hardware improved on in one or two aspects, it would be a much more difficult decision.
When i've spent a good load more hours on it, perhaps i'll write up a bigger more indepth review. Who knows, maybe I will end up prefering it.
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