ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 Tegra 3 1920x1200 Tablet Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,786 words · ~8 min read
0:08
Welcome to my unboxing of the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700.
0:13
It's available in a couple different colors, including a sort of a dark
0:16
purple whiny color and then more of like a champagne
0:21
yellowy color. This is very similar to the Transformer Prime that we saw a
0:26
number of months ago and bears very
0:29
little resemblance at all actually to the original Transformer other than the
0:33
fact that it does support the additional dock accessory which gives you extra
0:37
battery life as well as a full keyboard.
0:40
turns it more into like a netbooky type thing as opposed to a tablet, which is
0:46
great because it's got tablet kind of battery life with like 15 hours of
0:50
battery life if you add the additional dock. So, there's your warranty
0:53
information as well as your users manual, which is pretty straightforward. You can pretty much find all the
0:57
information you need about using Android on the interwebs, so you shouldn't have
1:02
to worry too much about a user's manual. Included accessories are pretty sparse.
1:06
So, you've got an ASUS wall wart as well
1:09
as a charging cable. So, it still uses the same dot connector as the original
1:13
transformer did. Just like that. So, that's where your data and your power
1:16
are going to come from. And it includes actually an exceptional um
1:23
microfiber cloth. We have a couple of these in the TechTip studio. They
1:26
actually work really well. Let me go ahead and yink that. All right, moving
1:30
right along. So, what is special about the Transformer Pad Infinity? I think I
1:35
actually charged this already, so it should be working and should be pretty
1:39
much ready to go. Couple things. Number one is the display. So, it's Hold on.
1:44
Give me two seconds, guys. So, the big improvement is the display. The
1:49
Transformer Infiniti uses a 1920x 1200
1:53
that is full HD plus a little bit because it's 16x10 display that gives
1:59
you almost the same pixel density as the iPad 3, although not quite. It also uses
2:05
a an unprecedentedly fast Tegra 3 processor. The quadcore processor in
2:10
here runs at 1.6 GHz in quad-core mode and 1.7 GHz potentially in boost mode.
2:16
This doesn't necessarily increase the GPU speed, but the extra CPU speed and
2:21
the fact that it's using one gig of DDR3 memory at 1600 MHz means even with Ice
2:26
Cream Sandwich, it feels extremely snappy when you're browsing and it is
2:31
very, very, very fast, very responsive,
2:34
and actually, yeah, that's really nice. This is my first time actually using the
2:38
device, so just outstanding.
2:43
So, let's go back to home. Uh, a few more things. So, this is really cool.
2:47
Uh, they've got an IPS plus mode for the panel. So, you can either take it right
2:50
down to super super dark. You can have sort of a
2:55
pay attention. You can have sort of a happy medium. You can crank it or
3:00
There we go. You can crank it even more. So, IPS plus mode is for outdoor
3:05
readability. So, if you're sitting next to a window, if you're outside, IPS Plus
3:09
mode is going to give you the contrast and the brightness that you need in
3:12
order to not have any difficulty reading text or watching your movie or doing
3:16
whatever else that you're doing. Now, this one's still running Android Ice
3:20
Cream. Oh, okay. Let me get connected to Wi-Fi here, guys. Speaking of connecting
3:24
to Wi-Fi, that's one of the things that the Transformer Pad Infinity actually
3:28
improves dramatically over the Prime. So, it's been observed anecdotally that
3:33
you can get up to several times the data
3:36
rate using a transformer infinity versus a prime at distance from your wireless
3:41
access point. And the reason for that is they've made a a subtle change to the
3:44
design. So, instead of an all aluminum back with their concentric circle,
3:48
actually quite beautiful looking design, they've added a plastic strip at the
3:52
top. That plastic strip allows the wireless uh the wireless devices inside,
3:56
including your Wi-Fi and your GPS to communicate more effectively with the
4:00
outside world. So, the issues that plague the Transformer Prime owners are
4:05
over for Transformer Pad Infinity owners. Do I want to add a Google
4:09
account? Okay. Uh let's have a look at the externals actually while we're at
4:12
it. So, it's got a completely redesigned camera uh with a flash as well as a
4:17
microphone in. It's still 8 megapixels though, so nothing's really changed on
4:20
that front. Micro SD is still there. It's available in a couple of configurations, 32 and 64 gig. And
4:26
you've got micro HDMI as well as your uh
4:32
uh headphone out jack. Down here you see
4:35
the docking ports for the keyboard dock as well as the power and data port. On
4:40
this side you see not a whole lot. And on the top you've got your volume rocker
4:44
switch as well as your power button. And that pretty much takes care of it. So
4:50
feelwise, still very light, still very
4:53
thin. So they haven't added a ton of thickness like Apple did going from the
4:57
iPad 2 to the iPad 3. And there's advantages and disadvantages to that. So
5:02
they're using a more powerful Tegra 3 processor. They're using a higher
5:06
resolution screen. That means there's more to drive for that 25wh hour
5:10
battery. That means you're going to see about a 15 to 20% decline in battery
5:14
life in certain applications such as web browsing or watching videos compared to
5:18
the existing Transformer Prime. Whether that's a trade-off you're willing to
5:21
make is up to you. You still will get, you know, about 9 to 9 and 1/2 hours of
5:26
battery life out of it. Hence their 9 and 1/2 9 and 1/2 hour battery spec. So
5:33
whether that's acceptable to you is totally your own decision. Personally, I
5:36
would go for the more vibrant higher resolution screen. It's also extremely
5:40
high contrast versus having the extra maybe hour to an hour and a half of
5:44
battery life. We're using Corning Gorilla Glass 2, which means that it's
5:48
incredibly scratch resistant as well as impact resistance, so you're less likely
5:52
to have it shatter or break. And moving right along. Okay. Aha. Sonic Master
5:57
audio. So, the audio is pretty loud. Let me actually find something to play back
6:00
for you guys so that we can experience the audio ourselves. How about like uh
6:05
everyone's favorite Canadian superstar
6:09
No, let's go with this one.
6:13
All right. Uh, yeah, Justin Bieber Vivo.
6:18
Let's like crank it up. Slick's really excited about this. He loves Justin
6:21
Bieber.
6:30
Look how great Bieber looks in HD at 1080p. Slick. Slick's all like getting
6:35
all excited right now. Oh. Oh, that's the power button. Oops. I meant to go
6:39
for the volume button. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I haven't bothered him enough yet.
6:45
You still have to stay focused over here.
6:48
There we go.
6:52
Wow. This is actually kind of a terrible song. I've never heard it before.
7:01
Oh, wow. It got even more terrible. Okay, fine. I'm done with that. So, the
7:04
speakers on the back, only one speaker, mono speaker. So, if you do cover that
7:08
up while you're listening to music or watching terrible music videos, then uh
7:12
you'll have to uh sort of enjoy the muffled sound that you get out of it. I
7:16
would have preferred to see a stereo speaker set up, but it's not the end of the world. And as long as you got it
7:20
propped up against something where you're not totally muffling it or you hold it up here, you hold it down here,
7:24
you hold it sort of like there. As long as you're not holding it wrong, then
7:28
you'll be fine.
7:32
So, I've got Demolition Ink running. And no, I don't want it to post about my
7:36
progress on Facebook. Are you kidding me? No, I don't want Open Faint. I
7:40
especially don't want broken faint. Uh,
7:43
campaign. Here we go.
7:47
Right. Start
7:53
and see how quick the loading is. I'm just kind of curious now. I also loaded
7:57
the global demo on here so we can see what kind of performance we get out of that. I'm expecting it to be pretty
8:01
much, you know, what you'd expect from uh from a Tegra 3 processor. So, there
8:06
we go. Let's just kind of pan around a little bit. Oh, so buttery smooth.
8:13
That's really, really nice, even when you compare to uh
8:18
the uh the Jelly Bean tablet, the Nexus 7 that uh we took a look at a little bit
8:22
earlier. So, there's that. Let's load up the globalling seems faster as well. I
8:27
don't know if that's a function of the faster memory or the fact that uh maybe
8:31
ASUS has implemented slightly faster
8:34
flash for the storage. I'm not sure, but both globall
8:46
seem to load faster on this tablet than they did on the Nexus 7. So, what
8:51
happens if we hit Mr. Clown over here?
8:54
I don't know. Okay, not going to overthink this, but uh there we go. So,
8:59
that pretty much does it. It's fast. Oh,
9:02
cancel. No, no need for Flash Player. Flash Player is going away. If you uh if
9:07
you're really married to having Flash Player on your tablet, you might want to stop doing system updates at this point.
9:11
Speaking of which, postpone. Quit bugging me about this.
9:19
Let's see how uh how the web browser feels because really that's a big that's
9:24
nice
9:27
rotation. We got a bit of a delay going on there.
9:32
Well, hopefully it gets a jelly bean upgrade at some point because jelly bean
9:36
is so buttery smooth, hence the project butter name. So, thank you for checking
9:40
out my unboxing and first look at the Transformer Pad Infinity. Don't forget
9:44
to subscribe to Lance Tech for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos. And if you were curious as to
9:48
how much thinner the Infinity is compared to the original Transformer,
9:51
it's about like so very significant. Don't forget to subscribe.