To Jake and other people who might own an Eee Pad Transformer:
I'm in the market for a tablet, since I've built my gaming computer I no longer use my Xbox 360 or PSP (couldn't care less for exclusives) and thus I would sell them and put the money towards a tablet.
I've been very attracted to the Eee Pad, mainly because of the IPS display, keyboard dock and ofcourse Honeycomb. And while all the reviews on youtube are nice, I'd love to hear some opinions from people who own one and use it on a day to day basis before I commit to buying one.
Even though you failed to summon me by name, I'll bite:
The Transformer itself is fine, but according to many XDA posts it suffers from really bad quality control. I'm not sure I believe this because my own seems perfectly built and considering my shit luck this seems unlikely for a product that is apparently so hit or miss. Still, there are too many reports to completely ignore them.
I think most of the reviews for the Asus are mostly accurate, the only thing is nobody mentioned in their reviews that Asus have cut a few corners to achieve this pricepoint. My assumption was the low price was purely because Asus does not enjoy the same reputation as Motorola or Samsung or Apple in the west.
The Transformer doesn't scream cheap crap like, say, the Viewsonic Gtablet. But the Transformer is still entirely plastic, the bezel is kind of thick in this day and age, and there definitely have been some hardware omissions to save costs - no LED to indicate charging or notifications, 1.2MP front camera as opposed to more usual 2MP and no flash on rear camera, extremely short USB cable (can't even imagine this was a cost cutting measure).
The stores here got the Xoom on display a few days after I got my Transformer and I have to say I like the Motorola in hand better. It's only slightly heavier but same thickness almost, but it feels much sturdier and has a metal backing. It also has more pleasingly rounded corners as isn't as long as the Transformer, and screen seems less hollow when tapped which is nice on a touchscreen device. The Xoom still seems like a much worse purchase though, especially given the price.
But Asus have done some things well. The Transformer has a nice design and finish that sets it apart from all other standard tablets; it has smartly positioned buttons and hardware orientation, makes more sense than tablets with buttons that work best in portrait mode; the keyboard dock transforms it into a real netbook unlike some other designs (*cough* Acer) where docking and undocking is a hassle.
Still though, if you want a finished product I can't recommend Honeycomb tablets right now. It's not like I'm getting force closes all the time or have horrid battery life, but there are enough bugs on Honeycomb to make it seem unfinished.
For instance, there is already a serious lack of tablet-specific apps in the Market - yet Google doesn't even offer the tablet tab in the Market if you aren't in the US. This is totally stupid, Honeycomb is officially on sale outside the US now and the tablet apps section is absolutely necessary considering the lack of tablet apps.
Then there's the browser. In so many ways amazing with tabs, with the way and speed at which it renders pages, with full Flash support. But I fucking hate it, because it lags like crazy when I'm typing in text boxes. Massive lag, as in you can type in a sentence and then watch it being typed out. I can't even post on forums through the stock browser.
So we're not talking about huge bugs, but little things that make the user experience less than it could be. I definitely don't think it's wise use of your money if you're spending more than the Transformer on a Honeycomb tablet.