I must admit that I love these comparison type posts. It puts one device up against another, typically looking at specs and other hard features allowing us as users to look at what matters most to us in a tablet.
Previously, I had written about how I thought that the Kindle Fire wouldn’t dethrone the iPad from tablet dominance but that maybe the Prime would. The Fire seems to be targeting a different set of users (smaller size and a heavy emphasis on multimedia) as compared to the iPad where the Prime seems poised to take it on directly.
Asus Transformer Prime vs iPad 2
The Asus Transformer Prime and the competing iPad 2 are both leading tablet PCs with similar price points around $500 and similar levels of functionality.
The Apple iPad 2 places an emphasis on app use and internet access, while the Transformer Prime places heavy importance on multitasking and performance. Both tablets have certain features in common, such as front-and-back cameras and multi-touch screen technology.
The Prime features a 10.1 inch multi-touch screen display with WXGA Super IPS pressure-sensitive touch technology. The tablet is small and light, measuring one-third of an inch thin and weighing 1.3 pounds.
Despite its tiny appearance, it packs a fair amount of performance into its small case, utilizing the NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad-Core CPU for high performance with multitasking and high performance media use, including 1080p video output for movie viewing and 1 GB RAM.
The tablet is one of the first to use the latest Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich. It features front and back cameras with 1.2 and 8.0 megapixels respectively. Additionally, a docking station with a full keyboard can transform the Prime into a mini-PC with 18 hours of battery life. An incredible feature that really separates itself from the iPad in terms of using the tablet for productivity.
The Apple iPad 2 features a 9.7 inch LED backlit multi-touch screen with a 1-gigahertz dual core processor custom designed by Apple for multitasking support. It weighs 1.3 pounds and is 0.3 inch thick, making it portable enough to rival many other tablets on the market.
It features 512 MB RAM for multitasking and media use and features a front and back camera for webcam use and camera use alike. The total battery life is over 11 hours, which decreases slightly when plugged into a dock with a keyboard.
Overall, it is designed as an improvement over the original Apple iPad, and it serves that purpose. For light media use, it provides sufficient processing power and multitasking ability.
For multitasking purposes and processing power, the Prime outperforms the iPad in nearly every way. It nearly doubles the random access memory, with one full gigabyte against the 512 MB offered by the iPad. Additionally, the quad-core processor provides high performance that is nearly never seen in tablet computers.The iPad features only a dual-core processor, which is enough for light app use but not enough for heavy multitasking.
The Prime also has a better display than the iPad, with Super IPS touch-screen technology, Gorilla Glass construction and 1080p video output. Both tablets have similar camera quality, and the iPad is slightly more portable, although the Transformer Prime battery outlasts it by 7 hours.
It will be interesting to see what happens as users get exposed to the Prime. Will it persuade new users to give it a try? Will it provide enough of an appeal to sway existing iPad users? Time will tell.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Its gigahertz! not hurtz…
The cameras are just about the same? The Asus transformer prime has an 8mp camera and the iPad 2 has less then 1 Mega pixel. And I don’t think its fair to compare the Asus transformer prime with keyboard dock compared to just the iPad 2 for battery life. The Asus transformer prime is a great tablet but the only thing I hate is that it is so hard to get a case for it. Haha. Let’s see what the iPad 3will beat the Prime or will it be a iPad 2S.
i have both the prime and ipad 1&2. the prime has twice the hardware at the same price as a low end ipad 2. i really hope this would set expectations on Apple’s future pricing scheme. unless Apple comes out with something awesomely better to justify their higher prices, theyre going to have an interesting competition.
Did the guy who wrote this even try out both tablets. Does he know anything about what is needed for multi-tasking? I own a prime, and make frequent use of iPads at work. Even though I own one, I must admit the prime has clunky software that inhibits its performance. The touchpad is unresponsive as compared with the iPad. Things just go wrong on the prime in a way that you wouldn’t expect with an ipad. The system lacks a lot of the elegant simplicity of the iPad and it shows when you actually use it.
David Crawley is full of it. “Full” of “Clunky software”. First off, it’s ASUS. ASUS doesn’t Bloat down ANY of their products with preloaded software. The only pre-loaded two pieces of software on the Prime or other Transformers that is of any concern is Polaris Office and SuperOneNote. Polaris is the absolute BEST Office suite on any mobile platform outside of MS Office itself — and ITS FREE on Asus TF’s. SuperOneNote needs no comment, as the ruling scribe/note/organizor on the mobile market across all platforms.
Just keep making things up buddy! Maybe you’ll believe it!
It probably boils down to two things:the platform you want to use(I wanted android) and whether you are going to be using the pad for more than just a toy(I was), therefore there’s only one thing to do:Prime, every time! lol.
Seriously though, I have had one for a week or so and am so pleased I went for it, it’s coming with me to Scotland this weekend in favour of the laptop because it does more or less the same job for much less space, ad I think the wifi is better overall. Really happy.
I think these comparison tests are all superfluous since the iPad 2 is a year old and the competing Android tablets are all new. Give it about a month then do a comparison with iPad 3. The hardware will be on par or better. I still prefer iOS stability and the AppStore still has not only more but better Apps. Especially games. And for anything else not on the AppStore, there’s jailbreaking. Oh, and once you do that, the experience only gets better!
Pleasantly surprised with my Prime. I’m very anti mac and have been looking for a viable alternative for ages now. The quad core and ice cream sandwich combination makes this a powerful little beast with battery life to match. Excellent
D
hi all,having read review after review,comments after comments i decided to go for the prime(just didn’t want to get sucked in by apple)and at first it was amazing,build quality superb,looked very slick and modern and the idea of a docking station with keyboard,card slots,usb port and hdmi swung it for me.but i had trouble with wifi where it would not connect to internet when in a different room to my router,or internet would lose connection when i went out of the room,something that my phone or my sons laptop never did,i have recently got my money back but wished that the prime would do what it said it would do.
Many of the features of the prime are as expected – USB and SD card availability a big plus – but for clunky software and very unresponsive screen zooming making reading a newspaper almost impossible. I’d exchange for an iPad if I could. More an Android issue than a Transformer bug I suspect
I suspect you either don’t own a Prime, or got faulty one. Mine is perfect