The Asus Transformer Prime is getting a lot of
media attention for being sued by Hasbro, which claims that its name is too
similar to Transformers Optimus Prime and that its advertising invokes
similarities to Cybertron, the home planet of the Transformers. Whether or not
Hasbro wins its case is beside the point. The controversial tablet also gives
the iPad 2 a run for its money. Here’s why…
Bright Display
The 1280 x 800 Super IPS+ display has impressive
viewing angles and outdoor visibility, with video and images looking amazing in
outdoor and indoor lighting. The iPad and iPhone incorporate standard IPS, but
the Asus Transformer Prime kicks it up a notch with IPS+,
which is 1.5X brighter.
8MP camera
The Prime has a camera that can actually take
decent pictures, unlike its iPad 2 competition. The Prime not only has 8MP, but
an impressive aperture of f2.4, meaning that the hole of the camera is wider
than in most other mobile devices, resulting in sharper images. Asus also put
in a back illuminated sensor, which lets in more light and results in more
detailed images, especially under low light conditions. Furthermore, it can
shoot video in 1080P and has a 1.2MP front facing camera, whereas the iPad 2
has 720P video and a 0.7MP camera.
Fast Processer
The NVIDIA
Tegra 3 quad-core processor (SoC) means that the Prime is more
powerful than the iPad 2. Your games, apps, and everything in between will load
super fast, meaning the Prime rivals the processing speed of many desktop PCs
and that your games will rival the speed and graphics of your Playstation 2.
The Tegra 3 chip is supposedly 5X more powerful
than its Tegra 2 predecessor, which only has 4 cores. The Tegra 3 has 5 cores,
one of which is a companion core which powers the tablet when it is in sleep
mode or when you’re doing something like reading email. The processor is most evident
when gaming, so you’re better off buying a less expensive tablet if you don’t
plan on playing any games or utilizing graphics intensive apps on it.
Slick Touch Responsiveness
The iPhone invented the concept of a smooth touch
screen display. In 2007 it resembled some sort of alien technology. However,
these days touch screens are everywhere and they only way they can be improved
is by making them ever more accurate. According to Asus, the Transformer Prime
increases responsiveness by over 100%. Whereas other screens react at 110ms+,
the Prime reacts at 50ms, making it the most responsive touch screen display on
the market.
The iPad 2 beats out the Prime when it comes to its
Honeycomb operating system. Even though the Prime will be upgraded to Ice Cream
Sandwich, it’s safe to say that the iOS will be the winner in many people’s
eyes. The operating system “makes” a PC, laptop, or tablet and the aforementioned
hardware improvements may mean little to many people, albeit improvements which
make the Asus Transformer Prime a true competitor with the iPad.
