ASUS Transformer Pad TF701T - Powerful Beast

Overview

ASUS announced the Transformer Pad TF701T (formerly known as the new Transformer Pad Infinity) at Computex 2013 in Taiwan. Back then, the Transformer Pad TF701T was one of the three Android tablets (Google Nexus 10 and Toshiba Excite Write) to boast ultra-high resolution (2,560 x 1,600 pixels) displays. 

Within five months, the 10-inch tablet market saw the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, Sony Xperia Tablet Z and the Apple iPad Air. With so many contenders, can the Transformer Pad TF701T help ASUS fend off the competition and establish itself as the productivity tablet to get? Well, this review will attempt to answer this question. Here's a quick look at its specs and how it compares with the current competition:

Design and Features 

The design of ASUS's 10-inch tablets hasn't changed much since the Transformer Pad Prime in 2011, and it's good to see the company standardizing it across its product portfolio. You still see the elegant metallic spun finish on the rear which is comparable in aesthetics and quality to the Apple iPad Air. Still, the ASUS Transformer Pad TF701T has made minor design enhancements, so what are they?

The TF701T is 14g lighter than its predecessor, the Transformer Pad TF700T. It is also thinner at 8.9mm, compared to the tapered chassis (8~10.4mm) of the TF700T. However, we feel that ASUS could have done much more as the competition is a step or two ahead this time. The TF701T is still thicker and heavier than some flagship tablets: 

• Apple iPad Air - 7.5mm, 469g (Wi-Fi)
• Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition - 7.9mm, 547g (4G LTE)
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z - 6.9mm, 495g (4G LTE)

Display

ASUS collaborated with Sharp to build the 10.1-inch Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) display panel on the TF701T. For an in-depth explanation of how IGZO technology works, do check out our feature article on "Sharp Wants to Change Your World with IGZO & ICC Technologies". 

In a nutshell, IGZO technology is able to achieve twice the resolution of conventional LCDs without sacrificing power efficiency unlike conventional display technologies that sip more power. We've seen how the use of IGZO technology lowered the power consumption for the TF701T in our reviews of the iPad Air and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition.

The 10.1-inch display has a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels (299ppi), which is a tad higher than the Apple iPad Air (264ppi) and on-par with the recent Android flagship tablets such as the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition and Toshiba Excite Write. Text and images look great on the TF701T.

While Apple and Samsung shrunk the bezels around the displays of their latest 10-inch tablets, ASUS chose to retain the thick bezel around the display of the TF701T. Considering that the slate is mainly designed to be used in landscape mode, the wide bezel can be a benefit for users with large hands. On the other hand, if ASUS can shrink its bezel size, there is a possibility that the TF701T will have a smaller footprint like the iPad Air.

Keyboard Mobile Dock 

The keyboard mobile dock has been a signature design component of the Transformer series. ASUS first introduced this concept in 2011 with the Eee Pad Transformer , and it's a perfect accessory for road warriors who need to punch out documents on the go. 

The keyboard dock sports a full-sized QWERTY keyboard with quick function Android keys such as auto brightness, camera, Bluetooth and toggle to enable or disable the Touchpad. While it seems like it is built using aluminium, the keyboard dock is actually made using plastic. As a result, we noticed a degree of flex in the center while typing on the keyboard dock. The keys are chiclet styled and offer decent tactile feedback, but they feel a little small compared to the standard notebook keyboard.

The keyboard dock also comes with a USB 3.0 port on the top right corner, a 36-pin connector port on the top left corner (for battery charging and connecting to the PC for data syncing), and a SD card reader (supports SDXC cards of up to 64GB capacity) on the bottom right corner. 

Weighing at 570g, the keyboard dock is almost as heavy as the TF701T tablet (585g)! This is mainly due to the dock's built-in 4,170mAh battery. According to ASUS, it is able to provide up to 4 hours of extra battery life.

Handling

The handling of the TF701T is not as good as the rest of the 10-inch tablets due to its weight. Most tablets of its class, except the Toshiba Excite Write, are lighter and slimmer, and this makes the TF701T feel like a brick. 

On a positive note, the brushed aluminum design gives the TF701T a premium look and feel, and is certainly more solid than the plastic Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition and Xperia Tablet Z.

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean

The TF701T came with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, but it received an over-the-air (OTA) update to Android 4.3. Aside from the minor new features of Android 4.3,  ASUS also has some of its own software customization baked into the stock Android interface which include cleaner, simplified icons and menus as seen in the new PadFone Infinity and Floating Apps as seen in the entry level MeMO Pad HD 7. 

Overall, we like the redesigned interface on the TF701T as it does not seem as cluttered as competing tablets from Samsung. While it does not offer as much features as the Samsung counterpart, the TF701T boasts some cool features which deserve mention here: 

• App Backup - back up either data or complete apps to local or external storage.
• App Locker - an additional layer of security to prevent unauthorized access to apps on the tablet. 
• SuperNote 3.1 - handwriting app that converts your scribbles into text and can be shared in JPEG, PDF and TXT formats. 
• ASUS WebStorage - 5GB Webstorage space is free for TF701 users.

Performance Benchmarks

The TF701T is powered by NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core 1.9GHz processor and 2GB RAM. Touted as "the world's fastest mobile processor" in January, we had two previews of its capabilities at CES 2013 (web browsing and computational photography) and MWC 2013 (benchmarks and low power consumption).  

In case you don't know, the TF701T is the third tablet device to be powered by the Tegra 4 processor after the Toshiba Excite Write and HP SlateBook x2. 

We'll be comparing the TF701T against the latest crop of 10-inch tablets with high resolution displays such as the Apple iPad Air, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition, Sony Xperia Tablet Z and Toshiba Excite Write

Quadrant

Quadrant is an Android OS benchmark that evaluates a device's CPU, memory, I/O and 3D graphics performance.

The Android 4.3 update gave the TF701T a huge boost in the Quadrant benchmark, ranking it second behind the Snapdragon 800-powered Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition. Its score put it at a huge lead over the similarly-spec Toshiba Excite Write. To illustrate the disparity in benchmark performance, the TF701T had an initial score of 14,278 when it was running on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. 

3DMark 2013

Originally developed as a PC benchmarking tool, 3DMark is now expanded to support multiple platforms including Android OS. The Ice Storm benchmark is designed for smartphones, mobile devices and ARM architecture computers.

For an in-depth understanding of 3DMark for Android, do head over to our article, "3DMark - Android Device GPU Performance Review." In a nutshell, 3DMark consists of two test sections:

3DMark now consists of three test sections: Ice Storm, Ice Storm Extreme and Ice Storm Unlimited. Most recent flagship devices easily maxed out the score on Ice Storm; as such, we will focus on Ice Storm Unlimited.

3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited uses off-screen rendering resolution at 1080p, higher quality textures and post-processing effects to create a more demanding load for the latest smartphones and tablets. It also disables vertical sync, display resolution scaling and other operating system factors affecting the result, thus making it ideal for chip-to-chip comparisons of different chipsets.

The TF701T held its own against the A7-powered iPad Air and the Snapdragon 800-equipped Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition. 

SunSpider Javascript

SunSpider Javascript measures the browsing performance of a device. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience.

The Tegra 4 processor displayed its prowess in the SunSpider Javascript benchmark with an excellent score of 663.4 ms, which puts it in second position behind the iPad Air. In actual usage, web browsing was found to be smooth and snappy. The overall user experience is also responsive and lag-free.

Camera

The imaging capability has always been a key feature of its flagship tablet devices since 2011 when the Eee Pad Transformer had the best camera among tablets of its time with an 8-megapixel rear camera with CMOS sensor and F2.4 aperture lens.

The TF701T is no different; it comes with a digital still camera class sensor with three lens element on the front and four rear lens elements and F2.4 aperture lens (for its rear camera). It has a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera which supports still and motion picture recording. Here's how how the rear camera of the TF701T performed in our standard imaging test: 

Battery Life

Our standard battery test for tablets includes the following parameters:

• Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%

• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on

• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

The TF701T lasted 9 hours and 19 minutes in our standard battery test (without its keyboard dock), which places it as the undisputed leader of its tablet category. It's rather impressive considering that the iPad Air and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition have larger batteries that theoretically should give them longer battery mileage. Why isn't that the case?

Taking a look at the Power Consumption chart, you can see that the iPad Air and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition have higher power consumption than the TF701T. ASUS managed to achieve this low level of power consumption because it uses an IPS screen that's based on an IGZO-TFT manufacturing technology. We reported ASUS using this display technology in a recent news piece. The other comparison tablets still use conventional display technologies and thus you can see most of them sip power at a similar level. 

In our Portability Index where where each device is assessed on its ability to balance battery mileage against its size and mass, the TF701T did not clinch top spot even though it has the longest battery life. It is mainly bogged down by its thickness and weight, which puts ASUS in an unfavorable position when compared to the likes of the iPad Air and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition when it comes to general handling.

Conclusion

Where does the TF701T stand in the crowded tablet space filled with equally powerful competitors? Well, ASUS did a pretty good job with the TF701 although there is room for improvement if it wants to maintain its relevance in the near future.

What we like about the TF701T are its solid design, good build quality, great display, functional keyboard dock which also doubles as an extra battery pack, an almost stock Android interface, smooth performance and long battery life. Good camera imaging performance is a bonus too, although it's a seldom used feature on tablets.

However, we felt that ASUS could have made more improvements to the design of the TF701T in view of increasing competition from Apple, Samsung and Sony. These three companies have made great strides in designing their tablets this year, and ASUS lagged slightly behind in this aspect. The TF701T is heavier and thicker than most 10-inch tablets, although people who focus on premium build and finish will have no qualms about the TF701T.

Having said that, the TF701T is in the running for the best productivity tablet as its keyboard mobile dock remains one of the key selling points. At just S$749, it is hard to find any other tablet that can rival its overall package and strong suite.

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