Asus Transformer Pad TF300T Review: Tegra 3, More Affordable

Features
By Andrew Ku
published

The new Transformer tablet from Asus costs less—and yet it still manages to impress us. A follow-up to the acclaimed Transformer Prime, the Tegra 3-powered Transformer Pad TF300T is perhaps the best bargain we've ever seen from an Android-based tablet.

Battery Life And Recharge Time

We are in the process of re-benchmarking a host of tablets in our SoCal lab in order to gauge whether MP3 playback (accelerated by NEON or not) has a notable impact on battery life. Unfortunately, these tests consume a great deal of time, so we had to pull some of our battery life benchmarks in order to get this story finished in time for the TF300T's launch.

The Transformer Prime TF210's results are improved from last week's review, too. We made a decision to use the Balanced power profile for all Android 4.0-based devices moving forward because that's the default setting. Previously, we employed the operating system's Normal mode, which was eventually renamed Performance. As you might expect, though, it had a profound impact on our benchmarks.

Asus' Transformer Pad TF300T trails the battery life of its Transformer Prime. This may come as unexpected considering the TF300T operates at slightly lower clock speeds. However, Asus equips this mainstream tablet with a slightly smaller internal battery. As an upside, the TF300T reaches a full charge faster than any other model we've tested.

At maximum brightness, we achieved close to six hours of battery life while browsing the Web with Asus' Transformer Pad TF300T.

With brightness standardized to 200 nits, we extended the TF300T’s battery life an additional 30%. That's not enough to match Apple's iPads, which lead the pack thanks to very efficient IPS displays from Samsung and LG.

Quick recharging is where the Transformer Pad TF300T truly shines, achieving a 90% charge in under two hours and a full charge in just two hours and 13 minutes—again, the fastest score we've seen from any tablet.

Andrew Ku
32 Comments Comment from the forums
  • samuelspark
    Yay. Excellent price/performance tablet. :D
    Reply
  • burnley14
    Looks like a great tablet. The screen could use a little work, especially the resolution, but everything else checks out well. I too will be interested to see a tablet like this one running Windows 8, could be a game-changer.
    Reply
  • netadmin
    "Fortunately, Asus is sticking with $149 as the price for TF300T's complementary accessory."

    Maybe it's just me, but I don't see anything fortunate about paying the same price for an inferior product. Based on reviews at other sites, the keyboard dock for the TF300T has a 16 Wh battery compared to the 22 Wh battery for the Prime dock. Is it being suggested that 27% lower battery capacity does not make any difference in price? I understand that ASUS has to make a profit, but would it not be reasonable to lower the price a little bit, at least?
    Reply
  • vicsrealms
    Looks like a great tablet, but I can't even find the Asus Transformer Prime anywhere. Maybe it the availability is good I may try to manage to pick one up, but i have given up on the Prime.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    I really would like to see a successor to the Transformer Prime with a display with the same or higher resolution as the 3rd gen iPad. That'd be quite something.
    Reply
  • xkche
    3 weeks ago i buy a TF101 :( for just $10 less than this price....
    Reply
  • frabber
    it's 80 euros below retina, it would be a bargain if it had a retina display
    Reply
  • Stardude82
    Oh... you're in Bakersfield... I'm sorry. :-P
    Reply
  • mobomofo
    How come no one has pulled the "Does it play Crysis?" yet.
    That joke can't die. We gotta keep it alive people.

    +2 for the Bakersfield joke. Good eye.
    Reply
  • everygamer
    Anyone get a PS3 or other mainstream game controller paired with the Transformer via bluetooth without rooting?
    Reply