ASUS Transformer TF101 Honeycomb Android Tablet PC Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2012-05-07
·
2,030 words · ~10 min read
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it has taken me forever to do this with all the complications on my channel and
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whatnot but I am finally unboxing the assus apad TF 101 Transformer this is
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the 16 gig model and I don't have the keyboard on me today but I am still very
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excited to bring you this unboxing because even though everyone in their
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dog has pretty much done it at this point I have not yet and I am still
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excited uh the one that I had before when I did a little bit of content on
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the TF101 back closer to launch was a demo unit so I did not have a retail box
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I could not share with you the retail
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box unboxing experience the inside of
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the box is black very stylish okay the product itself is there
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and now I will move it the plastic that holds the product is
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also black ah there's all the accessories so let's have a look at the accessories themselves the first thing
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we find is a little EAD uh paper
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thingamajiggy holder it's a paper holder
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there finally managed to spit it out we have a users's manual which is obviously
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not very complete really you're using Android so what you're going to have to
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do is you're going to have to you know browse the forums try things just try
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things because andro what I discovered was a little bit hard for me to get into
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I spent a fair amount of time with a Motorola Zoom over the last little while
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and it like doesn't feel quite right at
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first but once you set it up the way that you like it it's very very natural
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to use and so this is Android Honeycomb a couple tips for using your e-pad so
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they show you how to use some of the included things including the file
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manager which allows you to use manage your internal storage um removable
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devices including the micro SD port and
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removing the external storage devices so that there you go there's a little icon there so that's one of the more Android
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Transformer specific ones you got a charger cable here so that's just a USB
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charger cable and you also have a wall
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wart so you got a power to USB power
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adapter guy right there now the
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Transformer TF101 itself actually let's see what isus has to say for itself in
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terms of what they think are the best features right off the bat here so 178
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degrees now ASUS makes they're not shy
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about advertising that they are using an IPS panel in here that is covered with
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gorilla glass that is a premium feature IPS panel means you not only have better
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viewing angles so you can pretty much see what's on the screen even from way
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over here way over here but you also have better color accuracy regardless of
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where you're looking at it from so that is a great feature they also claim up to
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9.5 hours of battery life and that is with the screen at 60 nits as I recall
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in terms of brightness and playing back 720p video next SRS 3D stereo sound
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don't bother coming in it's okay I can read these um so it does have stereo
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speakers and they do have software on here that allows you to in theory enjoy
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surround sound but my experience with those software Solutions in the past is
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that they're not that compelling I would still say though that compared to
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something like an iPad 2 having stereo speakers on the unit is a definite plus
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that is a selling point for sure because using the iPad 2 to watch videos over
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the last little while has kind of annoyed me that it only has one speaker
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and that the speaker is hidden away on the back of the unit next we have a 10
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finger multi-touch input so you can potentially put both of your hands on it
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and go like this should you so desire if you want to like fruit ninja it up and
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you're like I just want to hit everything then you can use all 10 fingers if you want next we've got a
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keyboard dock with USB and SD card reader that is optional so that also
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includes an extended battery like I said I don't have that today but that does
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use these latches right here as well as this input in order to connect not only
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the uh oh yeah no I already said that the USB SD card reader and the extended
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battery as well as the keyboard and then it folds up like a laptop and it also
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acts as a case SL screen protector it is also 680 G light really they say 680 G
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light well I would say it is 680 G of weight or 680 G heavy but you know
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everyone can interpret that the way they desire so why don't we turn this baby on
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now like the Zoom which is one of the tablets that I have have more experience
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with than this particular one like the Zoom the Transformer is intended to be
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used in portrait mode so you can actually here give me a sec I'm going to grab my iPad so like the Zoom the
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Transformer has its webcam as well as its light sensor on the top you can see
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that the logo here is right side up when you are holding it in landscape mode so
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when you compare that to something like an iPad 2 where your camera is here
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Steve Jobs clearly is expecting you to use the tablet more like how you would
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use a traditional Notepad okay so
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actually you can see that uh mine is locked in landscape mode right now or
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you would be able to see that if I could figure out how to how to unlock it
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normally it's over here oh right right cuz I set up the button so yeah I I like
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I didn't even know how to get it to Port uh to go into portrait mode because I
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predominantly use it for watching videos actually here's the thing I complained
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about before where the iPad 2's only speaker is on the back which means that
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if you're watching videos in a less than ideal environment you are not going to
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be able to hear it very well so let let's get back to the TF 101 it's
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running uh with a teg or 2 processor this is so this is something I haven't
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mentioned yet and this is a huge advantage that a lot of the honeycomb
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tablets running Tegra 2 have over something like an Apple iPad so you have
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way more 3D performance out of a Tegra 2
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than you're going to get out of any other chip on the market now there aren't a ton of games that take
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advantage of it but the titles are rapidly rolling in so even something
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like fruit ninja looks better better on Tegra 2 and
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I'm not even kidding because the fruit
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will actually be far more round and less polygon like this when you're when
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you're slicing through I mean does it make a huge difference to the gameplay experience no but it's still kind of
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cool that you do get better graphics Graphics out of the tegr 2 platform now
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in terms of a few more spec things before I just finish up with the
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physical uh look of the unit I've turned it on now
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okay um you've got a 1.2 megapixel camera in the front the camera on the
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back is a 5 megapixel camera and that is also located in an ideal location for uh
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landscape mode use where as you can see once again on the iPad 2 it is
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configured more for portrait use all right and I think that's pretty
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much it actually okay so physical layout let's have a look at the button so
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here's our power button here on the side this is a far more ideal location than
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the one on the zoom in my opinion which is on the back right here I don't bother
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getting too close it's okay I'm just showing General things so on the side
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here is means that when you're using it whether you're using it like this or
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like this you can you can kind of reach it whereas when it's on the back it's
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very awkward to reach up here it's not it's not always uh not always
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comfortable so on the top we don't have any buttons at all on this side we've
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got a microphone port or rather sorry headph headphone SL microphone Port so
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that can be used with the uh with like a headset style device we have a mini HDMI
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that is such a cool feature uh mini HDMI is don't bother getting too close it's
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okay mini HDMI is great for playing games like uh like that Wave Runner
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Style game where basically you can go like this and then you can actually
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watch the big screen at the same time so it does support 1080p output over HDMI
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finally we have a micro SD card so this is the big reason why very few people
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are buying 32 gig Transformers because you can buy the 16 gig buy yourself a
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cheapo micro SD card throw it in there and all of a sudden you've got a bunch
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more storage now in terms of the oh
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actually Gorilla Glass what does that mean means you've got a very durable piece of glass on the front and on the
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back this is a huge complaint I have about the iPad 2 so you can see the back
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of my iPad 2 I've only had this thing for about a month got a big old scratch
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there that was actually from sliding it across a granite countertop just got
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generally the back looks totally grungy and horrible already the back of the
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Transformer I mean it's not real attractive it's Brown let's be honest
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here but what it is is very durable very
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scratch resistant I guarantee you you know I'm going to do this I'm going to take a brand new Transformer I'm going
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to go like this because I don't care
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because the textured back the textured appearance of the back is going to
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really mask and really hide things like fingerprints and small surface scratches
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much better than most other surfaces out there so thank you for checking out my
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unboxing of the ASUS Transformer TF101 don't forget to subscribe to lus Tech
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tips from more unboxings reviews and other computer videos sorry guys some
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clarification about the speaker that's cameraman by the way who's visiting us
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here um he's going out to lunch but I
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can't because I'm busy so these are not the speakers sorry about that that's
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just a textured pattern on the side of the unit the speakers are actually
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located here and here on the other side
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so while that is significantly better than being located on the back it's
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still not going to give you quite the Sound Performance of a front-mounted
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speaker and I actually don't know if any of these tablets have front mounted speakers so I had originally thought
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these were in the front they're not so there small correction sorry guys one
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more note ASUS also advertises one year of unlimited web storage that comes with
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the TF101 so that's kind of cool