Summary
As I said at the start, this review is as much about Honeycomb and tablets on the whole as it is the Transformer. I've enjoyed having the device around the house and exploring what is both a novel form factor and computing paradigm, and will give it back with a moderately heavy heart.
But how useful has it actually been? I've played some games, done a few emails and browsed the web a bit - most of it while sat in front of the telly, as seems to be the way with tablets. But in retrospect it didn't really do any of these things better than by notebook or, for that matter, smartphone would have done.
I decided against taking the Transformer out with me, and it probably would have been handy at a press event I attended this week, but so would a notebook or netbook. If I had taken it out it would definitely have been more useful with the keyboard, making comparisons with a netbook even more inevitable. And netbooks come with Windows and all the other bits of software we're familiar with.
The thing that stuck me is that the tablet is primarily a leisure device - effectively a toy. The notebook is a productivity device that can be used as a toy. The mobile phone - historically a productivity device - used to have few toy functions but Apple changed all that. Now it's all I need if I want a bit of casual entertainment on the move, as well as checking emails, Twitter, etc.
So the tablet - regardless of platform and clever peripherals - remains very much a luxury to me. It's nice to have, but all my productivity and leisure needs are already well catered for by my PC and smartphone, and there's nothing the tablet does that neither of them can't do. It's a lovely, shiny boy's toy, and falls quite far down the list of things demanding the attention of my wallet, somewhere between gym membership and vintage wine.
But within that context it's hard to find too much fault with the Transformer itself. The hardware is all pretty solid, bar the odd niggle, and Honeycomb seems to have been incorporated well. The keyboard is definitely a worthy addition, with its secondary function as a portable battery making it worth having almost by itself.
Price, as ever, remains a challenge for Android tablets. This 16GB Wi-Fi-only version seems to be priced at £380, which is £20 less than the equivalent iPad 2. The dock costs £50, which isn't cheap but seems reasonable for what it offers. Given the relative immaturity of the platform, it's hard to recommend the Transformer over an iPad given the similar pricing.
But as far as Android tablets go, this seems like a good one and the keyboard definitely brings something different to the table. The name is apposite, not just because the keyboard effectively transforms it into a netbook (or even a smartbook - remember them?), but also because it's essentially a toy, albeit a cool one.
The good:
- Solid build
- Useful keyboard
- Competitive price
The bad
- First Android tablet platform
- Some hardware lacks polish
- Competes with the iPad 2
