Asus Transformer Pad TF701T review

KEYBOARD DOCK

The TF701T has much more potential for productivity than most other Android tablets, purely because it comes with a detachable keyboard dock. It’s thinner than the dock bundled with previous transformer models, even though it uses the same locking. Asus has upgraded the full-size USB port to the faster USB3 standard and the card reader now supports SDXC cards, which is on top of the Micro HDMI, micro SDXC card slot and 3.5mm audio jack on the tablet itself.

The Chiclet-style QWERTY keyboard uses reduced-size keys, which are tightly grouped together and could be troublesome for anyone with larger hands looking to type quickly with accuracy. There’s a surprising amount of travel in each key, so it was at least more comfortable than using the Microsoft Surface Touch cover, but it will take some getting used to before you banish typos completely. The function keys have been replaced with Android shortcuts, letting you quickly toggle brightness and Wi-Fi, take a screenshot or control multimedia playback. There’s even a small touchpad directly below the keyboard, letting you completely ditch the touchscreen and use the tablet as an Android-powered laptop if you prefer.

The other reason to keep the dock close by is its secondary battery. Without it, the TF701T managed a little under ten hours in our video rundown test, but once connected it lasted an impressive 15h 17m. Unfortunately, you’ll need to use the proprietary Asus charger to top up both tablet and dock with power as there’s no Micro USB port, but it can at least charge both parts at the same time when docked.

CAMERA

You’ll probably want to detach the keyboard to use the 5-megapixel rear camera, which has tap-to-focus and a burst mode that can capture 100 shots in less than five seconds. ISO and white balance are both within easy reach, as is a selection of image presets including HDR, panorama and a GIF animation mode. As usual with tablet cameras, though, quality is only average. The TF701T managed to capture a reasonable amount of detail in our outdoor images, although it still managed to blow out the sky on an otherwise dismal day.

Detail dropped off rapidly as we turned down the lights

Moving inside, it coped very well with our brightly lit studio scene, preserving lots of detail and capturing accurate colours. There was a drop off when switching to the dimly lit shot, losing definition in the darker areas and some detail in the more brightly lit parts of the scene, but it still did reasonably well considering it has no built-in flash. It even managed to preserve a surprising amount of detail in our low-light shot, although it struggled with the glare from our LED fans and still created a lot of noise.

There’s plenty of settings to tinker with, if that appeals to you

Video produced some respectable results too, capturing plenty of detail in brightly-lit scenes even when taking motion into account. Once the lights dimmed, however, it struggled to lock an exposure with the rotating fan LED in shot. There is a touch auto-exposure setting, so you can manually adjust the exposure mid-recording, but this is still a tough test that the TF701T didn’t impress in.

CONCLUSION

With a screen that rivals the Google Nexus 10 for clarity, ample performance and a near Vanilla Android experience, Asus has produced a fantastic Android tablet with the TF701T. Whether or not you need the dock will determine whether it’s the right tablet for you. If you’re after something purely for entertainment, £500 is a lot of money compared to cheaper 10in alternatives such as the Sony Xperia Tablet Z or iPad Air. If you do a lot of typing though, and want a tablet more than a laptop, then this a great device.