Asus Transformer Pad 300 Series Hands-on Review

posted by Daniel P. / Feb 28, 2012, 10:36 AM

Asus Transformer Pad 300 Series Hands-on Review

We thought "Tegra 3 on a budget" when Asus unveiled the Series 300 Transformer Pad sole representative, and after handling it for a while at the MWC, our initial reaction only got confirmed.

The Transformer Pad 300 drops the aluminum for plastic and the price dips a $100 below the Transformer Prime to $399. It’s still a serious computing machine powered by NVIDIA’s quad-core Tegra 3 chip, but it’s slightly bulkier and with added heft. The Transformer Pad 300 is 0.39” (9.9mm) thick and tips the scales at 22.4 ounces (635 g) - that's heavier than the aluminum-clad Infinity Pad.

The plastic is fairly sturdy to the touch, no flexing, and it is patterned for a better grip. The downgrade in build material has allowed for a few color options, like blue, white and red, so you can choose one to match your style.

The screen on the Transformer Pad 300 is the same great display as on the Transformer Prime - it’s an IPS+ one with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. It doesn't look as stunning as the Full HD display on the Infinity 700, of course, but up until recently the 300's resolution didn't bother anybody, and now you have the $100 off incentive to warm your heart.

When it comes to connectivity, Asus will be offering a 4G LTE variant as well, both with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory, that can be built upon with a microSD slot.

The optional keyboard dock accessory is with nice tactile feedback and well-spaced keys, plus it adds 5 more hours of battery life to the 10 hours off the grid the Transformer Pad 300 offers. Tegra 3 on a budget indeed, but you want be disappointed with the tablet experience once this baby lands with Ice Cream Sandwich onboard.

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11 Comments

1. sregor19

Posts: 2; Member since: Feb 28, 2012

Any idea when these will become available?

posted on Feb 28, 2012, 12:17 PM 0

2. Commentator

Posts: 3723; Member since: Aug 16, 2011

Beginning of Q2 I think.

posted on Feb 28, 2012, 1:04 PM 0

3. c.hack

Posts: 614; Member since: Dec 09, 2009

5 cores and it still stutters with live wallpaper. Nice hardware, too bad its crippled by Android.

posted on Feb 28, 2012, 2:28 PM 0

4. ian132

Posts: 28; Member since: Feb 20, 2012

Im srry but what live wallpaper it was static it just changes based on the time of day and this was the dual core model with a chip that isnt even avaible yet. Maybe you can point me to the part of the video where you saw this lag Cuz i thpught it was smooth as butter:p

posted on Feb 28, 2012, 4:55 PM 0

5. Mario1017

Posts: 336; Member since: Sep 04, 2011

this doesnt have a dual core version...

posted on Feb 28, 2012, 10:30 PM 0

7. ian132

Ya it does because the nvidia quad core doesnt have a wireless radio which the dual core snapdragon chip does. If you were paying attention in the video the tablet was connected to hspa+ meaning dual core

posted on Feb 29, 2012, 4:11 PM 0

8. Mario1017

No. The 300 is a quad only. The Infinity is a quad core and also has LTE that comes with the DUAL CORE S4 only. And yes the Tegra 3 has a radio that connects to HSPA+, it just does not have LTE. Either way even if this was the dual core version, it would perform better, it benchmarks A LOT higher. And also if you would know a thing or 2, the tablet was connected to HSPA+, meaning T3, not the S4 with LTE

posted on Feb 29, 2012, 7:13 PM 0

9. ian132

Yo come on man read the article there is a lte version shall I quote it for you or can you read no offense. Oh and I rather have the quad core to play games especially with nvidia having there own marketplace with quad core optimized apps. Where as half the games on the android market aren't even optimized for dual core. Plus your right the quad core should be able to do hspa + but the article states that the one with wireless connectivity to carriers has the s4.

posted on Mar 01, 2012, 3:03 PM 0

10. Mario1017

And I see you also don't know how ICS works, ICS has GPU acceleration. That is the ability to make use of whatever hardware is in in the device to its fullest. That way developers don't need to worry about making the app for each processor or phone. And I was wrong on the LTE part, and not sure why it works on T3s in some devices and not others. either way the Snapdragon S4 is much better.