Asus TF700 / TF700T Review, Specs, and Price Note: This article was republished from http://www.squidoo.com/asus-tf700t We recommend viewing the article from there for better image resolution and formatting
Pros and Cons The Asus TF700T Infinity is one of the first Android tablets that boasts of a full HD display resolution and is also the company's flagship tablet for this year. But can it catch up with the New iPad's extra sharp retina display? How does its performace compare with other tablets of the same class? Read the full review below to find out.
Display 1920 x 1200 Full HD
Asus equips the new Eee Pad Transformer Infinity TF700T with a 10.1-inch display with 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution and displays Full HD movies in their native resolution. Only the New iPad (3rd gen) with 2048 x 1536 pixels provides higher resolution than what the TF700T has to offer. To protect the screen from scratches and damage, Asus uses the popular Gorilla glass which is known to be robust. The display also makes use of the IPS technology that significantly increases the viewing angle compared to conventional LCD screens.
One of its other strengths is its bright display with an impressive 586 candela per square meter luminance, which is one of the highest values measured in a tablet. This makes the TF700T easier to view outdoors or in other environment with bright lighting. By comparison, the iPad 3 comes with 397 cd/m² luminance. With a contrast ratio of 144:1, the Infinity also provides a very good performance in this area and is at par with the iPad 3. Indeed, the display delivers a crystal clear printed image, such as letters, as well as vibrant colors and great contrast.
Performace
The TF700T also has NVIDIA's Tegra 3 quad-core processor with a clock speed of 1.6 GHz. The 12core graphics chip provides enough power to bring complex games and full HD movies quickly on the screen. It's a shame that there are currently not a lot of games and apps in Google Play that can take advantage of this high resolution. Asus also installed 64 GB built-in memory, which can be expanded up to 32 GB using a microSD card. Gamers will definitely love the combination of high quality display, powerful specs, and fairly accurate accelerometer in playing their favorite 3D games.
Asus ships its flagship tablet with the latest Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich) installed so most applications run smoothly without any lag. Navigating through the menus works very smoothly while the operation of the browser and the on-screen keyboard works just as well. As can be seen in the benchmark scores comparison above, the TF700T goes head to head with the third generation of iPad, as well as other tablets in this category.
Design
The design of the new Asus Eee Pad Transformer Infinity TF700T is very similar to that of the Transformer Prime. It offers the same metal construction and leaves a similar impression of solidity everything is stable and rigid and no creaks can be heard. The docking station with keyboard is also made of metal. When the tablet is docked, the combination feels just as solid as any high-quality notebook.
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Camera Sample Image (Scaled down to fit the page)
On the back of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Infinity TF700T is an 8 megapixel camera with built-in LED flash, f/2.2 aperture, and autofocus. The quality of the photos is the best so far I've encountered from a tablet. Although it's still not a good digicam replacement, the Infinity's camera is in the same league with high end camera phones. Great photos with crisp colors and pretty sharp images come out in optimal lighting conditions. In low light, however, the images begin to deteriorate slowly. The rear camera module also records videos in full HD resolution at 1920 x 1080 pixels. On the front top corner (slightly off-center) is another camera with a resolution of two megapixels. Obviously, the quality is not as good as the back camera but for video telephony, the resolution is adequate.
Portability
The Eee Pad TF700T is relatively heavy at 1.3 pounds due to its metal housing, while the ultra-bright display brings the battery life a big drawback. The tablet only ran for a mere 3 hours and 30 minutes while web surfing with a single battery charge at full screen brightness (brightness can be adjusted manually). However, when watching videos and surfing over WiFi at moderate brightness, the battery lasted for about 9 hours, which is typical for a high end tablet. You can improve the tablet's performance further by using the included docking station with built-in spare battery that extends the battery life to about 5 more hours.
Connectivity, GPS, and Ports
The Asus Transformer Pad Prime TF201 was known for having a bad WiFi and GPS performance due to its all-aluminum casing that affected the signal strength. Thankfully, Asus has fixed this
problem with the TF700T. Upon testing, GPS performance was good in open spaces, in the city, and even in the forest, with an accuracy of about 10 meters. The Infinity also comes with 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0 - all with pretty much similar performance as the Asus TF300T. Asus hasn't made any announcements so far of a 3G version but they probably will as the TF300T had a 3G and even an LTE version. Much like its predecessor, the Infinity also has a micro-HDMI port, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a microSD slot. The keyboard dock, on the other hand, has a USB port and SD card slot.
Asus TF700T vs Acer A700 vs Toshiba Excite 10
Conclusion The new Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF700T Infinity is sure to impress many users with its high quality display, smooth operation, and average battery life. The Full HD screen is worth it for those who like to watch movies on the go and put much emphasis on high quality, lossless playback. Though not quite as stunning as the iPad's retina dsiplay, the Infinity's display is still outstanding among Android tablets. It has a very wide viewing angle, and bumping up the brightness allows for easy viewing under direct sunlight. If you want to get an Android tablet running the latest Ice Cream Sandwich OS, the Asus TF700T is clearly one of the best choices available today.
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