What's good
- Excellent screen resolution and viewing angles
- Fast, generally lag-free performance
- Excellent battery life
What's bad
- Top-heavy tablet section when docked with keyboard
- Back plate gets uncomfortably hot
- Poor bright light viewing
The Asus Transformer Pad TF701T takes the winning hybrid laptop/tablet design of its first Transformer tablet and updates the specs and display. Design-wise, it flaunts the same aluminum back with concentric ring pattern as its predecessors. Although on the heavy side at 585 grams without the keyboard dock, experts praise the build quality and did not notice any flexing or creaking. While the metal back does a better job than plastic in repelling fingerprints, it also conducts heat. Android Police noted that, after prolonged use, the tablet becomes very uncomfortable to hold.
In order to compete with tablets like the Nexus 10, the TF701T offers a 10-inch LCD display with a resolution of 2560x1600 and pixel density of 299ppi. The screen sharpness wowed critics as did the viewing angles. In bright light settings however, reviewers warn that the screen is highly reflective and difficult to view. Experts also noticed that colors are generally muted in default mode but could be adjusted with the app Asus Splendid.
As a hybrid device, the TF701T allows for a keyboard dock for a laptop experience. The keyboard adds an additional 570 grams to the weight. This added weight, according to experts, lets you rest the tablet on your lap without much trouble. Pocket Lint does note that it feels a bit top-heavy and topples over backwards easily. The actual keyboard, while small, worked well for experts. The touchpad on the keyboard, on the other hand, was a disappointment. PC Pro points out that it is far too sensitive while the actual mouse buttons are not responsive enough.
Specs-wise the tablet comes with 1.9GHz Tegra quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. Daily tasks were completely lag-free and 3D games played without a hitch. LapTop Mag did notice a slight delay when switching screen orientation, but go on to note that it wasn't a big issue. Synthetic benchmark tests back up these observations as the TF701T scored higher than most other tablets aside from the Note 10.1 and iPad Air. Critics were also pleased with the ample battery life. Without the keyboard dock, it clocked in at around 12 hours of mixed used. With the addition of the dock, this was extended to 16 hours. Other specs of note include 32GB of internal storage, dual-band Wi-Fi, microSD slot and a micro-HDMI output.
Reviews are mixed for the TF701T. Laptop Mag recommends the device saying it's, "a very good premium Android tablet." ZDNet, on the other hand states, "The Transformer design is starting to feel a little tired, and Asus has done nothing to counter the longstanding problem of a top-heavy, easily-tipped tablet section."
What the Critics Are Saying...
- Darren Yates, APCDespite being around since last September, this is still one exceptional tablet, combining the same Nvidia Tegra 4 CPU found inside the Tegra Note 7 with a 10.1-inch screen and impressive 2560×1600-pixel resolution. The difference is, the Asus Transformer TF701T also throws in a keyboard dock...
- Michael Moser, NotebookcheckAsus continuously refreshes its Transformer Pad-series. The Transformer Pad TF701T is a high-resolution 10-inch tablet that is supposed to compete with notebooks.
- Thomas Thorn, TechRadarFor those looking at a dual-purpose device, something that can be used on the morning commute to watch movies and play games with an easy switch to the creation of a word processing document for work, there is little that the Transformer Pad can do wrong.
- Bobby MacPherson, PC ProThe TF701T isn't prohibitively expensive. Remember, for that money you're getting an extra battery, keyboard, and connectivity that's unrivalled among Android tablets, as well as a good dollop of storage, with 32GB as a base. However, with that slightly disappointing display, it doesn't quite hit th...
- Romain Thuret, Digital VersusThe Asus Transformer Pad TF701T's keyboard dock makes it a versatile device with monster battery life that can adapt to any situation. Despite a few minor drawbacks, it has higher-than-Retina resolution, it's perfectly responsive and has tons of processing power for web browsing, games and multimedi...
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