The Transformer range of Android tablets has become the jewel of Asus's crown and the best alternative to Apple's new iPad.
Along with the Asus Transformer Prime and the Asus Transformer Pad 300,
the most recent tablet – the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity – keeps the
excellent keyboard docking station that made the range famous and adds
(among other things) a much improved high resolution screen.
Outwardly,
the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity is almost identical to its
predecessor, the Transformer Prime. The tablet - highly priced at £600
in the UK and $600 in the US for the 64GB version - has the same brushed
metal and concentric circle design.
The chassis is crafted from
aluminium and you'll find a 10.1-inch Gorilla Glass display staring up
at you when you lift the tablet out of the box.
There are subtle
differences, however. The Transformer Pad Infinity is a hair thicker,
with 0.2mm of added girth, although weight-wise it stays at the same
635g as the Prime – lighter than the new iPad. The
real difference lies in the beefed up resolution of the screen. As with
Apple's new iPad, Asus has taken its original model and crammed more
pixels onto the display.
You're given a 1920 x 1200 resolution in place of the Prime's 1280 x 800, although the brightness has been kept at 600nits.
Elsewhere, the similarities continue. The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. We haven't heard yet whether an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update is inbound, although it's sensible to assume we will see one before the year is out. Power is provided courtesy of the Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core CPU - which has become de rigueur
for top-tier Android tablets. Special mention goes to the Infinity
Pad's gaming prowess, since the fantastic screen and beefy processor
will combine to run any game you'd care to download from the Google Play
store.
Any Android fan should undoubtedly have this at the top of
their next-purchase list, but for those who still aren't too certain,
there's plenty here that sets this aside from the glut of other tablets
on the shelves. Read on to find exactly what makes this so special.
Features
The 10.1-inch form factor from the original Asus Transformer Prime continues with the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, and among the new crop of 7-inch tablets such as the Google Nexus 7 and the rumoured iPad Mini, there's still a lot to be said for having a larger device.
Portability
might be compromised, but if you want to browse Flipboard or play a
game on the sofa at the end of the day, that larger display will come in
handy.
The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity is 8.5mm thin by itself,
and a chunkier 17mm when you connect it to the keyboard dock. The
aluminium frame is very attractive, and the concentric circle design
will throw off the light like spokes on a bicycle wheel. The
only downside to this design, as far as we can tell, is that the grip
isn't as firm as when the rear of the tablet is given a slight
rubberised coating, à la the BlackBerry PlayBook or Fujitsu Stylistic M532.
The
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity is heavier than other tablets – such as
the Fujitsu – but it won't cripple your biceps after 30 minutes reading
an ebook. The
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity is also a well-built device. The
aforementioned Gorilla Glass display will stand a real pounding, and the
rest of the chassis feels like it can take the inevitable knocks that
occur out on the road.
You won't find any physical buttons on the
front of the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, thanks to Ice Cream
Sandwich's soft key arrangement, and even the sides of the tablet are
relatively free from clutter. On the left-hand side is a micro HDMI
port, next to the 3.5mm headphone jack. There's
also a slot-loading microSD port that enables you to ramp up the
storage space by 32GB. Without the microSD, you get 16GB, 32GB or 64GB
of internal storage, depending on which model you opt for.
The
volume rocker and power button are both located on the top of the
tablet, while the bottom is reserved for the Asus proprietary port that
connects the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity to either a charger or the
keyboard dock.
Keyboard dock
Like previous Asus
Transformers, the keyboard dock is the ace-in-the-hole with this tablet,
enabling you to turn it into a Tegra 3-powered netbook. The dock locks
into place firmly, and to release it you simply flick the switch at the
base of the hinge.
Beyond an extra input method, the dock also
gives you a full-sized SD port, a USB port and a second Asus port for
charging both the dock and tablet together.
The keyboard boasts its own battery that extends the battery life of the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity to around 14 hours. It
should also be mentioned that it is a fantastic keyboard in its own
right. The isolation-style keys give you enough travel to be comfortable
and Asus gives you as much spacing as possible between the keys.
The
trackpad is, understandably, a little on the small side, and using a
cursor on Android takes some getting used to. More than once we found
ourselves using the keyboard along with the touchscreen for navigation.
Screen
We've
touched on the screen already, but it really is the standout feature of
the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, and deserves closer scrutiny.
Firstly, it won't touch the new iPad's mammoth 2048 x 1536 resolution, but for the majority of consumers that shouldn't be much of an issue. You
get crisp, clean 1080p video on the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, and
the colour balance is excellent. The reflective screen will cause you
problems if you try using it outside, but then show us a tablet where
this isn't a concern.
If we were to gripe, it would be that the
connections could be improved. The single USB port is USB 2.0 and,
ideally, we'd have it upgraded to 3.0, which would enable us to
read/write data to the tablet 10 times faster. Also, we give you 24
hours before you lose the unsecured rubber cap that covers the port.
Interface and performance
The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity comes running Android 4.0 out of the box. No word yet on when we can expect a Jelly Bean update, but in all likelihood it should arrive in the next couple of months.
The good news is that Asus has left Google's operating system more or less alone, and the Infinity runs better as a result.
There
are a couple of extras thrown in for good measure. For example, the
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity boots up with the custom tree-themed Asus
wallpaper. You get several variations of this picture slotted in among
the rather bland, standard ICS wallpapers. There
are also several exclusive widgets to take advantage of, from
relatively generic options such as Asus E-Mail and Asus Weather to
generally useful widgets such as Asus Battery and Asus Task Manager.
Extra
widgets might not be the deciding vote on which tablet you opt for, but
these are well designed and informative extras that act as the cherry
on top of the Ice Cream Sandwich, enabling you to further customise the
five available home screens.
Asus has made the Transformer Pad
Infinity a blank canvas for you to download apps and widgets from the
Google Play store and customise it any way you want.
Just press
and hold to place your desired app on the home screen. Because this is
ICS, you can also drop apps into folders to catalogue your programs and
save space. In
its native state, the operating system on the Asus Transformer Pad
Infinity is incredibly swift. Transitions between menu screens, apps or
home screens are about the smoothest we've seen on an Android tablet.
Because
Asus has loaded the Transformer Pad Infinity with a Tegra 3 processor, a
shortcut to the Nvidia TegraZone is automatically placed on the home
screen. This takes you to Nvidia's online portal of gaming titles
designed specifically to showcase the Tegra 3's prowess. The Glowball
demo, specifically, is designed to show off Tegra 3's capabilities, and
running it on the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity was a lesson in how
tablets can be used for gaming.
The on-screen Asus keyboard is
well sized and a different design to Google's own. However, it can't
compete with physical keys, so there's very little reason to use it in
place of the keyboard dock.
Internet
Asus has kept the standard Android 4.0 ICS browser for the Transformer Pad Infinity, which means you've got Flash support and tabbed browsing as standard.
You'll
likely have to visit Google Play to download the latest version of
Flash, and here you'll also find alternative browsers, such as Opera or
Dolphin HD. Google's
browser makes it easy to catalogue favourites via the small star icon
in the top right-hand corner. You can add your favourite websites – such
as TechRadar – to your bookmarks page or the home screen directly.
You
can keep a bookmark on the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity itself, or
link it to your Gmail account so you can get to it on your other
devices. It
goes without saying that browsing the web with the Asus Transformer
Infinity Pad's Super IPS 1920 x 1200 screen is a great experience.
Zoomed pages look impressive, and the extra pixel count keeps both
images and text looking crisp. The
Asus Transformer Infinity Pad packs 1GB of RAM, which keeps browsing
smooth and lag-free, even with several tabs open simultaneously.
The
Infinity Pad tablet has 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0
connectivity as well. At present, you'll have to rely on Wi-Fi, because
Asus has yet to announce a 3G version.
Media
The
Asus Transformer Infinity Pad is, unsurprisingly, an ideal choice of
tablet for enjoying media – whether that's movies, music or books.
The
10.1-inch screen has a glossy Super IPS coating that gives colours a
darker contrast than the typical matt screen can afford. You'll notice
it particularly with dark blues and blacks.
The caveat is that the reflective surface can be a pain if you're trying to read an ebook in a brightly lit environment. We
tried playing several different types of video file and found that MP4,
MKV and AVI files all play back smoothly through the native Google
Movies app.
Of course, other options such as MX Player are
available to download from the Google Play store. These third-party
players will offer some advanced options for playback, but Google's own
player also enables you to rent movies through your Google Play account.
The
addition of the microSD card slot is an unabashed positive. This
enables you to expand on the inbuilt 16GB, 32GB or 64GB storage with up
to 32GB of extra storage – something you'll need if you plan to store
high-definition movies on the tablet. While
high-definition movies can easily take up 5GB of storage space, an
album takes up much less, and with apps such as Spotify and LastFM
available on the Google Play market, the Asus Transformer Infinity Pad
is well served when it comes to music.
The standard Android
player acts as the default music player, giving you an attractive cover
flow and the usual options for playback.
You can sort music into
playlists and use the shuffle tool to skip through tracks randomly. The
Android player is music playback at its most basic, and for more options
you'll need to find a third-party music app. The
solitary speaker grill is found on the back of the tablet and will give
you a reasonable amount of volume, although audio quality is slightly
tinny.
The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity boasts SonicMaster
technology for the audio, but the experience is still lacking. There are
no additional speakers on the keyboard dock, so the best option is to
invest in a pair of decent headphones.
You can enjoy ebooks on the
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, although, as we mentioned, be prepared
to put up with reflections from the glossy screen. The native Google
Reader app will give you access to thousands of ebooks, both free and
paid for. The
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity has a couple of useful reading apps
pre-installed. The first, Zinio, enables you to subscribe to your
favourite magazines and read them full-screen and high-res on the
tablet. The second is the Amazon Kindle app, which gives you access to
Amazon's vast library of titles. Asus'
own MyLibrary app collates your books and newspapers into one place and
enables you to quickly access and browse through your library.
A
similar app, MyNet, does the same for your music, movies and photos. We
weren't overly enamoured with the dark/light blue design, but the
interface is simple to navigate and you'll quickly grow accustomed to
it.
Apps and games
Although
Asus has installed a few useful apps and widgets for navigating the
Transformer Pad Infinity, it hasn't pre-loaded any games onto the
tablet.
Instead, Nvidia's TegraZone shortcut is waiting for you on
the home screen to take you to a selection of the finest Android games
available. Gaming
is where the quad-core Tegra 3 processor really comes into its own.
There are a few games on the Google Play store designed specifically for
the Tegra 3 processor, thanks to some pretty detailed 3D graphics. We
spent plenty of time with Zen Pinball THD, a 3D pinball game designed for Tegra 3 devices. Whether
or not you enjoy gaming on a tablet largely comes down to using the
touchscreen. It's not as intuitive or as enjoyable as using a
controller, or physical buttons such as on the PS Vita or Nintendo 3DS,
but in terms of graphical ability, tablets such as the Asus Transformer
Pad Infinity now offer a viable alternative to games consoles.
Of
course, the beauty of gaming on Android is that there are plenty of
casual games to enjoy for five or 10 minutes on your commute.
Even though the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity can handle the 3D grunt of titles such as Tiki Kart 3D and Temple Run, there's always the option to kick back with a casual game like Cut the Rope or Angry Birds. The
sheer amount of apps available from the Google Play store is
staggering, and you won't struggle to fill the Asus Transformer Pad
Infinity with your favourite downloads.
Whether you're a news junkie, media fanatic or just a big gamer, you're going to find all you need inside Google's emporium.
Because
the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity comes with a ready-made keyboard
dock, it doubles as almost a netbook-like device, so if you're
interested in working on a tablet, but have been put off by touchscreen
keyboards, then this is the answer. You're
given a full version of Polaris Office, which will enable you to open,
edit and share office documents such as word files, spreadsheets and
presentations.
Like anything else, there are rival office apps on
the Google Play market. Two of the big hitters are Quickoffice and
OfficeSuite, although these will set you back around £10 (around
$15.50).
Needless to say, the keyboard also comes in useful for
emails, and you have the standard Gmail app pre-installed, as well as a
generic email app to connect your chosen mailbox to. The
rest of the apps available out of the box include the usual range of
Android offerings such as Maps, Google+ and Google Press Reader – among
others.
You'll also find a File Manager app pre-installed that
enables you to navigate through the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity and
move or delete files.
Camera
Asus
has installed two cameras on the Transformer Pad Infinity. The first is
a front-facing 2MP camera that you can use with Skype or similar apps
for video chatting with friends and family.
The second is a
rear-facing 8MP camera that does a good job of matching your typical
smartphone snapper, although we still feel you look slightly odd
standing up and taking pictures with a 10.1-inch tablet.
Nevertheless,
we braved the puzzled stares of onlookers and tested out the
functionality of the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity's lens, and the
results were pleasantly surprising. You're
thankfully given a large amount of options to use, and can play with
the exposure and the white balance until you find your perfect setting.
There are also more universal shooting options, such as switching the
ISO and focus mode.
You
can adjust the camera to suit your shooting environment via scene mode,
so if you're tying to capture images in low light you can use the night
setting. Or, for moving targets you can opt for the action setting.
There's
no option for black and white or sepia photographs, so if you want that
retro Instagram-type look, you'll need to find it from the Google Play
store.
If you shoot in a 4:3 aspect ratio, you can take advantage
of the 8MP lens, although if you opt for the 16:9 widescreen format
you're going to be limited to 6MP. Even so, shooting with tablets is
less about megapixels and more about the quality of the lens.
We
found the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity shot clean, crisp images, and
reproduced colour balance well. Unfortunately, it did nothing to stop us
looking a tad ridiculous while out taking said pictures. Indoors with flashClick here to see the full resolution image Indoors without flashClick here to see the full resolution image Outdoors, capturing movementClick here to see the full resolution image 6MP Daytime scene modeClick here to see the full resolution image 8MP Daytime scene modeClick here to see the full resolution image
Battery life and benchmarks
We
found the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity returned the kind of benchmark
scores we really would anticipate from a top-flight Tegra 3 tablet, and
it served to cement the performance we'd already experienced while using
the tablet.
The Transformer Pad Infinity posted a better Antutu score than rival Tegra 3 tablets such as the Acer Iconia Tab A510 and the Fujitsu Stylistic M532. During general usage, the 19.5Wh battery (sans
keyboard dock) lasted remarkably well. During looped 1080p video, with
brightness maxed out and both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi running, the Asus
lasted for 407 minutes – almost 7 hours of activity.
Of course, with the dock added that gets bumped up – to 14 hours, according to Asus. The
dock itself acts as a reserve battery and will charge the tablet up
from its own stored power when the two are connected, meaning you can
detach the tablet with the maximum amount of charge.
Either way, you won't struggle for power or longevity with the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity. BenchmarksAntutu: 12,323 SunSpider: 1,730 Peacekeeper: 382
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