Asus eee pc slider
Nowits brother, the Asus Eee Pad Slider has arrived, and manages to stand out inmuch the same way.
Thespecs are fairly typical for tablets these days. The Eee Pad Slider features a1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip, offering dual-core power and goodgraphics performance, which powers Android 3.1 out of the box (though you canupgrade to 3.2 as soon as you get it connected to the internet, and an Android4.0 update is on its way).
There's1GB of RAM to keep multitasking smooth, along with 16GB or 32GB of internalstorage, though a microSD card slot means you can boost this. Wi-Fi is presentup to 802.11n, as is Bluetooth.
Thescreen is a generous 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS affair, so there's plenty ofspace for Android 3.2 to show us what it's got. We'll go into full detailsabout the screen's quality on the Performance page.
Theobvious major feature draw for the Eee Pad Slider is its slide-out keyboard.Offering a wide range of keys, it's got options for Home, Back and Menu, aswell as a few keys to help you quickly conserve power if you're concerned aboutyour battery life. Specifically, you can turn Bluetooth on and off, turn Wi-Fion and off, and adjust the brightness.
Asushas taken the same route as other manufacturers when it comes to customisingAndroid on tablets, and has included a carefully picked selection of apps andan original widget to make the Slider stand out.
TheAsus Launcher is a slick widget that displays various bits of information,including the last website you left open, the currently playing music, calendarappontments, the weather, the date, and a slideshow of your photos.
It'sa lot of stuff to cram into a widget, but it works really well thanks to asimple, no-nonsense design. We certainly prefer it to the utilitarian launcherwidget included on the Lenovo IdeaPad K1.
Asfar as the apps go, the most useful is surely Polaris Office, given the natureof this tablet. It's a really good inclusion, with a slick, surprisinglypowerful interface and options to create text documents, spreadsheets andpresentations.
Theword processor is particularly impressive, with tools for indenting, reflowingtext, including media, tweaking fonts and loads more. In fact, we used it andthe Slider's keyboard to write this entire review, with no problems in general(though a regular auto-save function would be gratefully received).
Cleverly,Asus is including an impressive cloud deal with the Slider. Asus' WebStorageoffers unlimited online storage free for a year with the Slider. The app for itis easy to use, though it's a shame that you're unlikely to see it integratedinto apps in the way Dropbox often is.
Amazon'sKindle client is included for readers, as is Zinio for buying and readingmagazines, along with Press Reader for getting the newspapers right on yourdevice. They're a killer trio of apps, all offering a great array of content,even if Zinio and Press Reader don't give you the flexibility in thepublications that you get from Apple's Newsstand on the iPad.
Asushas also beefed up the built-in media options with MyNet, which adds mediastreaming both to and from the Slider.
TheUSB port on the side adds a few handy features, too. The first is that, likethe Asus Eee Pad Transformer, you can plug in a USB mouse and control thetablet that way. If youre doing a lot of word processing/spreadsheet work, youmight find this quite useful.Italso works a USB host for mass storage, so you can plug in USB drives or memorycards (with an adapter) and use the included File Manager app to browse andmove files.
Ontop of all this are the usual Google apps, including the Android Market.Nvidia's Tegra Zone is also bundled, making it easy to find games, if you want.No games are included, which is unsurprising considering how this tablet feelsmore work-focussed.
Ofcourse, behind the screen is where things get interesting. By grabbing the topof it, you can pull it up, so it slides back and sits up at an angle to revealthe built-in keyboard.
Thefront of the device is glossy black with a silver rim, like a lot of tablets,including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but the keyboard and rear case of the EeePad Slider are a kind of chocolate colour, with a matt finish.
It'san unusual direction for tablets, but one that we think works for this one. Themore we used the Eee Pad Slider, the more we found it to be an office-focussedtablet, and the aesthetic really fits that. Overall, it bears far more of aresemblance to a BlackBerry Boldhandset than the iPhone, and we doubt thatscoincidence.
Thebuild quality of the two halves of the Eee Pad Slider is excellent, feelingtotally solid and without any noticeable give. Our only (admittedly very mild)concerns are with the joins between the two.
Wedon't expect the hinge to break on anyone for no good reason, but the way thescreen just sits loose and wobbly when in the upright position is odd comparedhow solid the rest of the device is.
There'salso a ribbon connecting the screen to the keyboard. While we've no doubt thatthis offers a huge power consumption advantage over using Bluetooth to connectthe two, it's an obvious weak point if your Slider should take an unexpectedtrip to the ground.
Aroundthe sides, you've not only got your microSD card slot, but also the Lock key, avolume rocker, a reset button that's far too easy to press, a mini-HDMI portfor video output, Asus's proprietary connection for USB connectivity andcharging, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a full-size USB port.Havingtwo separate sliding halves in this tablet inevitably means it's a lot thickerthan the competition. At 273 x 180.3 x 17.3mm, it's around twice as thick as aniPad 2, and at 960g it's around 50 percent heavier.
Theweight difference really does tip it from being comfortable to hold to beingjust too heavy to keep in one hand for long. Between this and the slide-outfunction, which puts the screen at a great angle for both desk and lap use, itbecomes clear that the Eee Pad Slider is less of a competitor for tablets likethe iPad, and is more targeting replacing netbooks and smaller laptops.
TheEee Pad Slider looks set to be available for around £450 in its 32GB version,which isn't as cheap as the keyboardless half of the Eee Pad Transformer, butis good value compared to most other Android tablets.
TheAsus Eee Pad Slider earns itself a huge tick in the performance column in onevery simply way: this is the smoothest Android tablet we've seen yet.
Scrollingbetween Home screens is as slick as you like, the app list flashes up and awayin an instant, apps load quickly, the multitasking list is smooth and stable –this is Android at its very best, for general use, without a doubt.
Itstill suffers from Android's common imperfections, though. When zooming orpanning in the browser, it's fast and responsive, but there can be a stutter,which makes it difficult to be precise. Sometimes, particlarly in the browser,there will be a mysterious lag when typing in the URL bar, which isfrustrating.
Thebrowser is fast to load sites, certainly, but consistently lagged just behindan iPad 2 running iOS 5 in head-to-head tests (both with Flash turned on andoff). Android 4.0 looks set to boost Android tablets in this area, but that'sthe situation as it stands.Andyes, Flash 11 is available as ever from the Android Market. And yes, browsing apage with Flash content will drastically reduce the responsiveness of thebrowser. In addition, many iPlayer videos had an odd black mark that appearedoccasionally, while going between fullscreen and a smaller window within thebrowser often caused the audio to go slightly out of sync.
However,the videos did play, and play smoothly, so for those of us who can't livewithout Flash, performance is about as good as we can get at the moment.
Mediastored on the device played impeccably. HD video in particular was absolutelybrilliant, with both 1080p and 720p files playing back smoothly. The killer isthe crisp, clear screen, though. It's absolutely perfect for video, and the waythe screen sits up on the Slider when the screen is out makes this an idealtablet to keep you entertained on a long journey (well, save for the batterylife, as we'll explain in a moment).
Thatscreen really is the best thing about the Eee Pad Slider. At 1280 x 800, it'snice and high resolution, with text appearing crisp and easy to read. More thanthat, though, colours are vibrant and hugely appealing, and the viewing anglesare excellent. It's also brighter than a lot of Android tablets. It's one ofthe best tablet screens we've seen, to put it simply.Ofcourse, the keyboard is a big feature for the Eee Pad Slider, since it's prettymuch its reason for existing. And the good news is that is isn't bad. The keysare fairly small, but a nice gap between them makes them easy to find withoutconcentrating.
Infact, we found it easy to hit the right key first time over 90 per cent of thekeyboard, despite its size. You will inevitably miss more keys than you wouldon a full-size keyboard, but no more so than other small, portable keyboards.
Mostof the 10 per cent where we weren't hitting the right keys was hunting forthings like Control and Alt, which are slightly displaced because of the Home,Back and Menu keys.
Theonly really annoying aspect was that it's ludicrously easy to hit the up arrowbutton instead of the right Shift key. We did it constantly throughout thisreview, and it gets more annoying every time.
Youwill, of course, come to accomodate the layout as you get used to it, but evenafter hours of use, we were still nudging that damn up arrow.
Still,though, we give the keyboard a thumbs up, and the angle of the screen makes thewhile thing reasonably comfortable to use. Any small mobile keyboard has layoutfoibles, so we don't begrudge them too much, even if they can be annoying.
Thelast big thing for tablets is battery life, and this is probably the Slider'sweakest area. It's rated for eight hours, but when we tried streaming videoover Wi-Fi with the screen's brightness turned all the way up, we got justunder five hours out of it.Thisisn't terrible, though. You can expect a good deal more battery life than thatif you're just using it type documents, for example. Though it's certainly wellbehind what the iPad can give you, let's remember that this is more focussed onthe netbook/small laptop market than the iPad, and compared to most laptopsthis is great battery life in a far lighter package.
Andas is so often the fashion, the Eee Pad Slider features front and rear cameras.The 1.2-megapixel front camera is as good as it needs to be, picking up adecent amount of light. The angle of the screen when slid out will give theperson you're chatting to a lovely view of your nostrils, but it works wellenough.Therear five-megapixel camera turned out to be surprisingly good on a sunny day,though the 720p video footage it takes was rather weak, with a huge amount ofartefacting ruining any semblance of detail.
Verdict
OurScore 4.5
Itbecame clear to us when using the Eee Pad Slider that Asus isn't going afterquite the same market as the iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. It's too heavyand too thick to be in quite the same bracket, because of its keyboard.
Butas an alternative to a small laptop, it really comes into its own. Suddenly itseems small, and light. Fast, too, compared many lower-powered Windows 7machines. It even comes with a great office suite ready to go. This is a tabletfor the office, the desk at home, or the briefcase, and it really works.
We liked:
Thescreen is absolutely brilliant, which is always the first thing you want to seea tablet get right.
Thesame goes for the touch control and overall performance. Though smoothness inthe browser and some other areas isn't quite as perfect as the iPad, this is amore than capable machine.
Theway the keyboard slides out puts the screen at an ideal angle for on a desk oryour lap – something that's clearly been thought through. And the keyboarditself is pretty good for a small mobile offering; good enough to write thisreview on.Theincluded apps are very useful, but quite understated, too. It's not bloatware –this is a great suite to have available from the off.
We disliked:
Theonly real disappointment with the Eee Pad Slider is the battery life. It's wellbelow the likes of the iPad, and we'd hoped for better. As we said before,though, it holds its own against the kind of laptops it's most likely toreplace, so it's not a deal breaker.
Similarly,it's chunkier and heavier than other leading tablets, which is a shame, butinevitable when you consider the extra mechanics and casing required for itstwo halves. And again, it compares favourably to laptops.Ourother gripes are only very minor foibles, really.
Thekeyboard is still harder to use than a full-size one, even if it's very goodoverall. Some people may never find it comfortable, but this is true of allsmall keyboards.
Androidstill needs some spit and polish here and there – hopefully Android 4.0 willbring at least some of that, and we're really looking forward to seeing theSlider with future versions of Android on.
As atablet, this is a slightly flawed gem with a gimmick that not only makes itstand out, but makes it genuinely useful.
Butas a laptop replacement, this is nippy, light, versatle and hugely desirable.As tablets increasingly become work tools, we fully expect the Eee Pad Sliderto be right at the forefront of the revolution, thanks to its smoothperformance, stunning screen, handy software and more-than-adequate keyboard.
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