Mossberg Reviews Asus’s Convertible Tablet
By Harry McCracken | Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 1:15 pm
Over at All Things D, Walt Mossberg has reviewed Asus’s Transformer Prime, an Android Honeycomb tablet that has an optional, attachable keyboard. He likes it, sort of–although he likes the iPad better, and has multiple reservations.As someone who likes to use an iPad as a PC, I’m intrigued by Asus’s convertible design. It’s designed for folks like me who like tablets but also like clicky QWERTY keyboards. But I’m also worried about Walt’s battery tests, which showed the Prime running for a little under seven hours on a charge, vs. a little over ten hours for the iPad. My single favorite thing about the iPad isn’t the size or the weight or the apps–it’s that Apple claims ten hours of battery life, and–in my experience–delivers it.
Asus, on the other hand, says that the Prime will run for eighteen hours on a charge, a figure which might have me whipping out my credit card even now if I thought it reflected what I’d get in the real world. As Walt explains in his story, the fact that he got under seven hours requires some explanation: He tested using a setting called Normal, which Asus now says really emphasizes high performance. If you were trying to eke as much life as possible out of the tablet, you might be able to get more.
But what do you think the chances are that you’d really get eighteen hours?
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6 Comments For This Post
December 8th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure the laptop dock extends the battery.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
The dock/keyboard act as a second battery for the Transformer Prime.
Also, some early review units had battery/WiFi issues. See, for instance, Anandtech review (and be sure not to miss the update).
RT.
December 9th, 2011 at 8:46 am
My opinion is that discussing battery life when it's already over 5 hours is like debating how many cup holders a sports car should have. If you stay 7 hours straight in front of a tablet on a daily basis, without a place to charge it, you have some other issues yourself.
December 9th, 2011 at 10:24 am
The 18 hour figure is for the tablet docked to the keyboard. One would think the author knew this and chose to distort the claim.
December 9th, 2011 at 11:30 am
Harry: See also the review by Joanna Stern at The Verge. She updated the review to re-run the battery test using a different power setting & testing methodology, and ended up getting even longer battery life than the original Transformer — and that's NOT including the keyboard dock.
Seriously, from what you have described in your previous posts, this thing sounds like it was tailor-made for you — as long as it has the equivalent apps that you need for your work.
December 19th, 2011 at 9:11 am
Mossberg reviews are so lame. How does he keep a job in tech?