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Asus Transformer vs Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

by on02 September 2011

Index

Finding differences between two similar pieces of hardware is not an easy task. Both tablets have Tegra 250 (Tegra 2) System-on-a-Chip (SoC unifies processor, graphics, chipset, GSM, UMTS modul) clocked at default 1GHZ with 1GB DDR2 memory and options of 16GB, 32GB SSD. Samsung is the only one that has a 64GB SSD model at the moment. Tegra 2 has two cores so multitasking runs pretty good, both on the Tab 10.1 and Transformer TF101. The models we compared come with 16GB SSD drivers and Android 3.1.

The only weird thing was the PDF opening speed. To put it bluntly - it sucked on both. It was very laggy to zoom pictures and letters on 30+ pages PDF with pictures. This was the tablets’ biggest weakness we could found. Notebooks and Netbooks are much faster in this respect than any of the tablets we’ve seen. Maybe quad core can make things thing fast enough.

Playing HD video (720p) from YouTube or HD trailers fits the machines just fine. Asus’ advantage is that it has mini HDMI (1.3a) that will let you connect your 16GB and 32GB tablet and play your favorite ripped movie. It works great on bath as well as basic surfing, tab browsing, typing, playing games and any other thing you can imagine doing on a tablet.


transformer-vs-galaxy-10

Android Market has hundreds of games and we’ve seen that Nvidia is heavily promoting its games for Tegra, which is a pretty nice wake up call to the competition. Tegra Zone offers many 2D and 3D optimized games for Tegra 2 tablets. One of these games, perhaps even the most interesting so far, is Sprinkle.

water2

They both have more or less the same WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. Samsung has an option for HSDPA+ modem which is much faster than standard 7.2Mbits HSDPA but at this time Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 of any kind is very hard to find. We could not find any Asus EeePad Transformer TF101G – 3G version available but the specification claims up to 28Mbit a sec for its HSDAP+ capable machine.

galaxy-9

Conclusion

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 is currently the most compact tablet in its class, but Transformer TF101 boasts better connectivity. Asus’ docking station also comes with a battery that extends battery life to as much as 16, but both laptops will be good for 8+ hours of intensive work.

Both tablets’ performance is pretty similar, seeing as how both use Nvidia’s Tegra 2 SoC, which has proven to be good in multitasking  and Android 3.1.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks sleeker, it is easier to hold in one hand, but you may find connectivity a bit lacking. On the other hand, Transformer boasts a more robust build, mini-HDMI and microSD card reader and while a bit heavier, the finishing touches are quality. Thanks to the docking station, Transformer will turn into a notebook, which is not the case with Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Price difference is at about €40 in Transformer’s favor. You can find this Asus tablet at about €400, here, while Galaxy Tab 10.1 is still unavailable in the EU. However, Galaxy Tab 10.1 is available in the US, where it sells for $499. The keyboard dock for Transformer alone sells for €100 Euro in Euro zone and $120+ in USA but it makes perfect sense to get it as it makes this tablet stands out from the crowd.

Asus transformer is definitely worth considering as it is a netbook and tablet at the same time, while Galaxy 10.1 is basically just a nicer tablet.


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Last modified on 02 September 2011
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