TomTom for Android to launch 'fairly soon' according to company co-founder

TomTom for iOS has been out for a long old time now, but there's never really been any traction behind an Android version appearing. There is now hope though, as co-founder of TomTom, Peter-Frans Pauwels, has told ?Pocket-lint? that the app will be released "fairly soon." 

He couldn't put an exact date on the launch, but went on to say "I can confirm it is real" and that the "summer season is important for us." He also confirmed that the Android version would contain the same feature set as is iOS compatriot. There was no indication of price, but make no mistake. TomTom is a premium application that will come with a premium price. 

Many Android users would question the need for TomTom -- especially given the length of time without having it -- when we have a perfectly good, and free, satellite navigation system in Google Maps Navigation. Only time will tell on that one, but for many TomTom is satellite navigation so we're looking forward to seeing it land. 

Source: Pocket-lint

Intel powered Orange San Diego officially on sale today

The Intel era has officially reached European shores, as the Orange San Diego becomes the first device to launch carrying their hardware. The device was unveiled in London last week, but officially goes on sale today priced at £199.99 on pay-as-you-go, and free on a 2-year contract starting at £15.50 per month. 

As you can see, we've got one, and over the next week or so we'll be putting it to the test to really see what's what. First impressions are good based upon an albeit brief hands-on at the launch event. As a phone, it's relatively unassuming. It has a nice screen, it's light enough, it has 16GB of on-board storage and 1GB of RAM -- but that's not really what we're interested in. It really is what's inside on this one, and we'll be spending a lot of time looking at how this Intel device stacks up against other higher priced, higher spec'd devices. Battery life is key, as is performance. Can Intel really deliver high-end performance, with the added bonus of superb battery life. There's only one way to find out. Stay tuned. 

More: Orange San Diego hands-on and first impressions

Toshiba Excite 10 Review: Don't Let The Name Fool You, It's Just Another Tablet

The Tegra 3 tablet battle is in full swing now, with four full-featured tablets on the market at the current moment (ASUS Transformer Prime, Transformer Pad 300, and Acer Iconia Tab A510 being the other three). Today, we're going to take a look at the newest one of the bunch: the Toshiba Excite 10. This is the first device to come out of Toshiba's newly announced Excite line, with 7.7" and 13.3" models coming in early June.

Toshiba has come a long way and changed up its philosophy on Android tablets quite a bit since the original Thrive, but is it enough to take the Tegra 3-tablet-crown? That's a tough call, because at this point in the game, it's hard for many users to put one device above the others - it could be the keyboard-sporting Transformer Prime or Transformer Pad for some, or the all-day-battery-life-packin' Acer A510 for others. It's difficult to say where the Excite 10 fits into all this, as its high price tag and questionable build quality left me scratching my head. While there are things that I absolutely love about the Excite, it definitely has its fair share of downsides.

With that, let's get into it.

To avoid confusion: this review is for the newly-released Excite 10 with NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor. Not the Excite 10 LE with a TI OMAP 443. 

Display: 10.1 1280x800 TFT LCD with Gorilla GlassProcessor: 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3RAM: 1GB DDR3Storage: 16GB/32GB (64GB version coming soon); full-size SD card slotCameras: 5MP rear shooter with flash, 2MP front cameraPorts: microUSB, microHDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack, Toshiba proprietaryBattery: 25 WhOS: Android 4.0.3Dimensions: 7" x 10.3" x 0.35"; 1.32 lbs.Material: AluminumPrice: 16GB: $449; 32GB: $529; 64GB: $650Buy: Direct from Toshiba or on Amazon (16GB, 32GB, 64GB pre-order)Thin and light. This tablet's form factor is reminiscent of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and that's definitely a good thing.The aluminum back looks (and feels) great. Upon taking it out of the box, one of the first things I noticed about this tablet is how impressive the back looks. And, while it is aluminum, it's nothing like the Transformer Prime's body (that's a good thing).The speakers sound fantastic. Toshiba incorporated some software tweaks that drastically enhance the audio. It's a lot like the Dolby Digital settings on the Acer A510, but on steroids. Full-size SD card slot. This is a unique feature among Tegra 3 tablets, and a welcome addition to anyone who frequently uses full-size SD cards, like photographers, for example.Front-facing camera has a light that lets you know when it's in use. There's a little blue light right beside the front-facing camera that turns on when the cam is in use. It's a small detail, but those are often the best kind.Lots of light bleed around the display. This is one of my biggest pet peeves on any device. It makes me question the overall build quality when there is any amount of light leakage, and there is an insane amount on the Excite 10.Sub-par battery life. It's not bad, per se, but I would like to see a few more hours from a single charge.No full-size USB port or host cable. If you want to use a USB mouse, keyboard, or gamepad with the Excite 10, you'll either have to shell out the money to buy a USB host cable or do without. Toshiba could've at least included one in the package (much like Acer did with the A510).Absolutely massive charging cable. Seriously, this thing's ridiculous. It's like an ASUS adapter ate another ASUS power adapter. And a pound of donuts. No, I'm not exaggerating.The power button is hard to find without looking. The power button doesn't stick out as far as the volume rocker or orientation lock, so it's a bit hard to find without looking.No charging light. Trivial? Perhaps, but most tablets have some sort of charging indicator on or around the power button. I tend to just glance at this to see if the tablet in question is still full, and I can't do that with the Excite 10.

The first thing I noticed about the Excite 10 is its attractive aluminum back. It feels nothing like the aluminum on the Transformer Prime; in fact, I initially though it was plastic. While that may sound like a negative, it's actually one of my favorite things about the device: since it's aluminum, the shell is stronger than plastic; however, it doesn't have the cold, metallic feel of the Prime. With that said, though, the backing of this device doesn't feel as "sturdy" as the Prime (but doesn't scratch as easily, either).

At a mere 0.35" thick and 1.32 lbs., the Excite 10 is one of the thinnest and lightest tablets I've ever held. That doesn't take away from the feeling of a premium tablet, though; it feels solid and well-made. There's little-to-no flex on the back of the device, no "creaking," and none of the buttons have any play in them whatsoever.

 

On the left side of the device you have the power button, orientation lock, and volume rocker. The top is clear of any and all buttons - the only thing you'll find here is the microphone. The right is adorned with the 3.5mm headphone jack, microHDMI port, microUSB port, and the full-size SD Card slot. The stereo speakers are located on the bottom of the device, with the proprietary charging port in the center.

 

Speaking of buttons and ports, the power button is recessed more than I would like; both the volume rocker and orientation lock switch extend out from the side of the device quite a bit farther than the power button, making it difficult to find without actually looking at the device. This is something that may go away over time, but after about a week of using the Excite 10, I still have to look nearly every time I need to toggle power.

It's a little difficult to see, but the power button (far right) doesn't extend from the body of the tablet as much as the orientation lock and volume rocker.

The speakers are located on the bottom of the device, and while they produce pretty fantastic sound for a tablet this size (more on that later), they're easily muffled if the tablet is placed in a stand that puts the tablet directly on the surface below it. Adversely, if placed in a stand that angles the speakers down towards a hard surface but still lifts the tablet off of it, it actually bounces the sound upward, resulting in a bit more volume.

You can almost see how scared the ASUS charger is of the Toshiba monster.

The proprietary charging port is located in between the two speakers. While  a device with a proprietary port is nothing new, you should see the adapter for this thing. It's HUGE. Like, I'm afraid to bring it around my other chargers because I fear it may eat them-huge. The overly-large adapter is complimented by an overly-fat cable, too.

Overall, the build quality is pretty good, but there's an overall lack of polish and attention to detail, which I find bothersome. Speaking of lack of attention to detail...

This is where my biggest issue with this device shows its ugly face: I'm talking about light bleed. I can't stand to see light bleed on a device - it screams of shoddy build quality, rushed production, and cut corners. And my Excite 10 has it worse than any device I've ever seen. There are, quite literally, no less than ten areas of light bleed all around the edges of the display. Granted, this may not affect every single Excite 10 unit in existence, it's hard to imagine that there aren't quite a few more out there with a similar issue.

Seriously, Toshiba?

Past the light bleed, though, the Excite 10's display is actually pretty nice. Like the Acer A510, the Excite 10 has a TFT display; however, the color reproduction on the Excite 10 appears to be quite a bit better than the A510. In fact, it's pretty comparable to the IPS panel on the ASUS TF300 (it may even be a bit more vibrant). It's not oversaturated like many displays can be - reds and pinks are crisp without being overbearing, blacks are black, and whites are bright enough that they don't look like light gray.

As far as durability is concerned, the Excite 10 features Gorilla Glass, so you don't have to worry too much about it getting scratched up. With that said, it also collects fingerprints worse that other tablets I've used. Don't get me wrong here - all tablets collect fingerprints, but they seem to be more noticeable and harder to wipe off on the Excite 10. Instead of easily coming clean with a microfiber cloth, you'll find yourself doing little more than smearing the prints all over the screen, which can be quite frustrating.

The guts of the Excite 10 have all the makings of a great Android tablet: quad-core Tegra 3, 1GB DDR3 RAM, full SD card slot, microHDMI out, microUSB, fantastic speakers, etc. How that translates into everyday usage, though, is a bit wishy-washy. When opening programs, there's a certain amount of lag on the Excite 10 that's not present on other Tegra 3 Android tablets. Similarly, I noticed a lot of hiccups when streaming videos on both Netflix and YouTube. The video would briefly pause for a second or two at sporadic intervals, regardless of which video or service I was using at the time. I've encountered this anomaly several times during my use with the Excite 10, so I definitely think it's an issue with the device itself, not the service in question.

For watching movies and listening to music, though, the Excite 10's speakers are outstanding... for a tablet. This is mostly due to an array of software tweaks incorporated by Toshiba, which I'll cover in detail in the 'Software' section of the review.

Despite its few hiccups here and there, the Excite 10 actually performs very well. Transitions are fluid, switching between apps is incredibly fast, and there's almost zero lag (aside from the aforementioned issue, which only happens occasionally).

One area where I'm not impressed, though, is battery life. It's... well, not good. In fact, I only got about 6.5 hours of screen-on time. That's Gmail, web browsing, typing up notes for this review with a Bluetooth keyboard, streaming music, and one episode of River Monsters on Netflix. Throw in some heavy gaming (like Shadowgun), and you'll see that drop below the six hour mark, which is beyond sub-par by today's standards. To be fair, I feel like this is likely due to the fact that Toshiba stuck a smaller battery in the unit to cut down on size and weight, as the Tegra 3 processor has proven time and time again to be extremely battery efficient.

Still, if you're not a heavy user, you can probably make it through a day with this device. If, however, you plan on using it for a full day of work/school, you may want to bring the charger along for the ride, which will take up at least half of your bag.

 

One really nice feature of the Excite 10 is that Toshiba decided to forego the microSD card slot in lieu of its full-size brother. This is perfect for anyone who uses full-size SD cards often, like photographers for example.

Are you ready for this? The Excite's 5MP rear shooter is... not very good. That really shouldn't surprise anyone - it's the common story with basically every tablet on the market today. Reds and pinks are ridiculously over-saturated, while other colors are dull and bland. I seriously wonder why manufacturers even bother putting rear-facing cameras on tablets. Like my Dad always says, "if you're not going to do it right, don't do it at all!"

Enough of that, though; I'll let the pictures do that talking.

  

 

See? Told you they were pretty crappy.

When it comes to software, Toshiba left stock Ice Cream Sandwich mostly untouched. I say "mostly," because they did add a few software tweaks, many of which are actually pretty nice additions.

For starters, there are a few new entries in the notification area: Audio enhancement, auto-rotate, screen, and "Enable Balanced Power." While all three are simple toggles, "audio enhancements" has a variety of options available in the Settings menu, including SRS wide surround, SRS volume boost, SES voice clarity enhancement, Toshiba Audio Enhancement, Toshiba Auto Ambient Noise Equalizer, and Toshiba Auto Volume Adjustment. Basically, all these combine to make the audio experience better - and they actually work. Quite well, in fact.

While many of the aforementioned options are pretty self-explanatory (SRS wide surround, volume boost, etc.), there are a few entries with ambiguous names - mostly the Toshiba-specific offerings. The Toshiba Audio Enhancement, for example, is supposed to "optimize audio quality according to speaker characteristics" - still pretty ambiguous, huh? From what I can tell, it dynamically adjusts the audio according to what you're listening to/watching. The differences are pretty subtle, but it does make a difference. I think.

Along those same lines, Toshiba's Auto Ambient Noise Equalizer "increases faint audio components above ambient noise for more clarity" - again, a subtle difference that gives whatever your listening to more detail and crispness. Finally, Toshiba incorporated an auto-volume adjuster so you can let your tablet decide how loud things need to be. I found this setting to be quite annoying, as it often turned the volume down lower than I wanted it, but I guess it could be helpful if using headphones.

The fact that these audio enhancements have a quick toggle makes it very easy to hear the difference, which can be quite drastic in some cases. Of course, each setting has to be tweaked to the liking of the listener, but I love the fact that these are in place to begin with. And, when combined with the 'sound effects' in Play Music, they can really make a difference to how good your tunes (or movies) sound. So, just to make it clear: this is the best sounding tablet I've ever heard.

As for the other two additional toggles, auto-rotation is pretty self-explanatory, but what about enable balanced power? Honestly, I'm not sure. I know that it has something to do with improving longevity of battery life, but the only noticeable difference is in the way that the display renders color. With EAB toggled, everything is more dull. Otherwise, I can't say what changes are being made. I've reached out to Toshiba for more details and will update when I hear something back.

There is also an entire section for haptic feedback settings on the Excite 10, which allows you to change when you feel vibrations, as well as how strong they are. I elected to disable this feature, because there's no way I want to feel my tablet vibrate every single time I touch it. Fortunately, this doesn't disable haptic on things like the software keyboard, so you'll still have that (which I can't live without). While were on the topic of haptic, I have to say that I love the vibration motor in this tablet. The vibrations are very crisp and precise while typing, which makes a huge difference in the overall experience. I can't stand the slow, "chunky" vibrations of the Transformer Prime, so this Excite 10 is a breath of fresh air in that department.

Of course, Toshiba just had to include a metric ton of bloatware on this device - in fact, it's more than I've seen on any other tablet:

Book placeCrackleDemoFile manager (not bad)LogMeInGames HW EuchreHW SolitaireHW HeartsHW SpadesBackgammonWildTangent (called "Games" after an update)Media PlayerQuickoffice LiteKasperskyNews PlacePrinter ShareRdioRegisterService Station (software updates)User's Guide

Yeah, that's twenty pieces of bundles software on this device. Granted, not all of it is bad and  most can be disabled, it's still bloat-y. Speaking of bloatware that's not too bad, let's take a closer look at Toshiba's proprietary additions.

Like many manufacturers are doing nowadays, Toshiba decided to include its own file manger in the Excite 10. At first glance, it looks pretty useful. After actually using it, though, it's very limited, and in some cases, downright annoying. Why? Because it defaults to Toshiba's other proprietary junk, like Media Player.

For example, if you tap an image in the 'Screen Capture' section of the File Manger, instead of being prompted to open the image with the Gallery or other options, it defaults to Toshiba's Media Player. That's just the first annoyance, though; when opening an image directly in the Media Player with this manner, it's not aware of the rest of the contents of the folder. Ergo, it has no idea there are more images located in the same folder as the one currently being displayed. Therefore, you can't just swipe through all the images and will have to navigate back to the file manger each time you want to look at a something different, which can be very annoying. If, however, you disable the Media Player in the Settings > Apps > All apps menu, you will be prompted to select an appropriate app (including the stock Gallery).

Speaking of the Media Player, it's Toshiba's way to listen to music and watch video from other devices on your home network. But... I couldn't get it to work. Even if I could've, though, it's so ugly that I'm not sure I would've actually used it. However, if you choose to use it, the 'Photos' category will be aware of the rest of the folder's contents, so you can actually swipe through like in the stock Gallery.

 

As their names suggest, News and Books Place(s), are Toshiba's answer to news aggregation and a bookstore, neither of which are very good efforts.

News Place is basically the most boring, un-customizable news aggregator that I've ever laid eyes on. Is it useless? Not entirely. Is it the best method of consuming news? Not a chance. It offers absolutely no features at all, and I mean that in most literal sense possible. Basically you are presented with a pre-selected batch of news in a psuedo-Pulse format with no way of customizing what you see. Once you read an article, that's it - there are no other options; no sharing, opening in the browser, nothing. At all. However, for casual news reading, I actually kind of like it. Granted, I use Pulse for most of my news browsing, News Place's simple and straight-forward format is slightly refreshing. Will it be the first app that I launch when I want to check the news? No. But I could see myself firing it up every once in a while just to see what's going on in the rest of the world.

In the same sense, Books Place is Toshiba's bookstore thingy. It's powered by Blio, so it's basically just a frontend to that service, which aims to change the way we read books, blah blah blah. If you're interested in books, there's a good chance you already have an e-reader service. Otherwise, I'm not really sure what sets this apart from the others.

As far as the rest of Toshiba's bloatware, most of it is borderline completely useless. "Register" is basically nothing more than a browser shortcut that takes you directly to Toshiba's warranty registration page, while 'Demo' is a weird video guide that "highlights" features of the Excite 10 - clearly something that was designed to be used in a retail environment. The User's Guide is also pretty self-explanatory - it's a PDF of, you guessed it, the user's guide.

And then there's the Service Station. This 'app' actually replaces the stock Android "System updates" panel and serves as central place to find Android version number information, tablet model number, part number, and serial number. I was slightly shocked to see this screen the first time I went into System updates, but after looking it, I'm pretty indifferent to its existence.

Despite its downsides, the Excite 10 is actually a very nice tablet. It has a premium look and feel, solid performance, and some pretty fantastic and useful software tweaks. Of course, it's a bit on the pricey side compared to the competition, and the amount of light bleed on my review unit is absolutely absurd. If this is an issue across all units, then Toshiba really needs to step up its quality control game, because this type of carelessness is unacceptable.

Then there's the question of battery life - it isn't horrific, but considering the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (original) gets roughly nine hours of battery life in a similar size chassis, six-ish hours is definitely on the weak side. This means that you'll have to carry that atrociously huge charger with you more often than you would with other tablets.

However, if you don't need all day battery life from a tablet and can deal with a bit (or perhaps a lot) of light bleed, then the Excite 10 is a very functional, fast tablet that feels fantastic in the hand.

Zipwhip Lets You Send Text Messages From Your Comp or Tablet (Order Espresso Too) [Video]

They’re calling it “Textspresso,” and it’s brought to you from the clever minds at Zipwhip who have come up with the world’s first, text-enabled espresso machine. Using an Android based phone, anyone can order up a cup of coffee by doing little more than shooting off a simple text message. Once your SMS is sent, the robotic barista whips up a custom cup of coffee and and lets you know when it’s ready by messaging back.

Don’t expect to find one of these Textpresso machines at your local coffee shop tomorrow (the barista from the Samsung ad is safe). This proof-of-concept was little more than Zipwhip showing off their cloud-based SMS technology in a very unique, and pretty damn cool way (I have a thing for robots). Zipwhip did mention that they would be open sourcing their Textpresso machine in the near future so that anyone can build one of their very own, and place in their home or office (margarita machine, please). You can see the Texpresso in action via the video below.

So, what exactly does Zipwhip do when they’re not building fancy expresso robots like this? If their name sounds familiar, Zipwhip is the company behind group messaging and cloud texting apps currently found in the Google Play Store from their partnerships with T-Mobile and Sprint (and may have come pre-installed on your Android device). With their latest application for all Android devices, they provide a way for users to send and receive text messages from their Android phone, directly on their desktop computer or tablet.

I’ve come across a few solutions like this in the Play Store in the past, but none that have Zipwhip’s level of polish. If you ever wanted to send or receive text messages while taking advantage of your computer’s full keyboard, you have to give Zipwhip a try. The app can be found for free right now in the Google Play Store.

[Zipwhip Blog | Play Store Link]

[Review] Asus Transformer Pad 300: 85% Of The Premium Tablet Experience For 80% Of The Price

Meet the TF300T, the newest addition to Asus's ever-expanding line of Android tablets. While the model number may suggest that it's the successor to the TF201 - the Transformer Prime - that's not exactly the case. Pick one up and it's immediately clear that this is really the successor to the TF101 (the original Transformer, or TF); it's wrapped in plastic like the 101 (the 201 is aluminum), and the dimensions are a bit more portly, as with the 101.

Perhaps more importantly, the price marks this as a successor to the 101 - and shows that the 300 slots below the 201. At just $400 for the larger 32GB model, the TF300 makes it clear that ASUS is trying to hit every corner of the market (and they're doing a damn fine job, at that). For the same price as the 16GB TF101, you get twice the storage and twice the cores.

Top to bottom: TF300T, TF201 (Transformer Prime), TF101 (Transformer)

That's not to say the 300 is the perfect budget tablet, though. While it does offer a lot of the same hardware and excellent user experience as the Prime in a cheaper package, it makes some concessions to get there. Read on to hear what the 300 does right, what it gets wrong, and where its more expensive brother is better.

 

Expected to ship the week of April 30, 2012.MSRP: $379 for the 16GB model, $399 for the 32GB model, and $149 for the dock.Nvidia Tegra 3 (quad-core) CPUAndroid 4.0.3Available in Royal Blue, Torch Red, and Iceberg White.10.1", 1280x800 display, up to 350nits of brightness8MP rear camera1GB of DDR3 RAM7.11"x10.35"x0.38" (HxWxD), 1.39 lbsASUS UI customizations, preloaded apps8GB free cloud storage for the lifetime of unitLike previous Asus tablets, it feels solid, and build quality seems as good as ever.The price is phenomenal. $379 entry point for a 16GB quad-core 10.1" tablet? Yes please.Smooth and snappy performance all around.Thinner and lighter than the (fairly fat and heavy) TF101 (.38" vs .51", 1.39 lbs. vs 1.49.)Great WiFi performance, and GPS works as it should.ASUS's customizations are fairly minimal and for the most part genuinely complement stock ICS well.Solid battery life.Respectable 8MP camera.It's plastic, and not premium-quality plastic, either. That said, it doesn't feel bad, but it's not the most confidence-inspiring package.Occasional unexplained force closes.Earlier docks (TF101 and TF201) are not "completely" compatible with the TF300. The TF101 USB/charging cable won't work with the TF300, either.As with the Prime, the speaker is on the back.  Which means that everyone who isn't you will be able to attest to the sound quality.Like the TF101 and 201, there's some backlight bleeding.For the third Transformer in a row, it's damn near impossible to type on the dock without bumping the touchpad, thereby causing the cursor to move and click elsewhere. It's almost like being pranked by a 14 year old.

I suppose I'd be remiss in not pointing out a few other issues. The 300 will be offered in 3 colors - blue, red, and white - but the red and white won't be available until June. Also, supplies may be fairly constricted at launch, which is certainly an issue for some people. While these are noteworthy concerns, I don't think it's fair to consider them in a review of the hardware - after all, not being able to buy the tablet in white doesn't mean the user experience is any different.

 

In a sentence: truth be told, the TF300 just might be the best choice for somebody looking to buy an Android tablet on a budget right now. The Prime offers an equally excellent experience, but the slimmer package may not be worth the price premium for many people.

You should buy it if: you're in the market for an Android tablet, but don't want to fork over premium dollars.

  

The original Transformer (which I'm singling out because it was also plastic) felt of quality, but that was partially thanks to the fact that its dimensions and weight made it feel like a brick. The TF300 feels good if a little budgety, with little panel gap and just a bit of give. Still, that bit of give (particularly in the back panel) and an overall plasticky feeling make me question the dropability of the 300, though it feels like it could certainly still take its fair share of bumps and bangs while riding in a road warrior's bag. All told, it's not especially noteworthy in either direction. And despite being plastic, I don't mind the feel (perhaps because I'm accustomed to it by now), so much that I even prefer the feel of the 300 to the (always cold) aluminum-clad Prime.

 

As with the 201 (and as mentioned above), the speaker is once again placed in the most illogical place imaginable: the back. While it does put out respectable sound, you have to cup your hand behind it to really hear it well, something that's not comfortable for more than a few minutes at a time - and something you shouldn't have to do in the first place. That said, it puts out good quality and a ton of volume.

The TF300 is virtually identical to the TF201, with the exception of the upgraded RAM (DDR3 in the 300, DDR2 in the 201) and slightly slower clock speeds in Performance mode. Accordingly, you'd expect pretty similar performance, and you'd be right. The TF300T drove exactly like the more expensive Prime, and since all-around performance is the most substantial metric when reviewing a device, that earns it high marks.

One thing that gives the 300 a leg up over the Prime: battery life. While I find the Prime's battery life to be more than adequate (I only charge it once every 4 or 5 days), the TF300T seems to go just a little longer - to the tune of roughly 9 hours of moderate use. But perhaps more importantly, leaving the 300 docked doesn't seem to drain battery life more than normal, unlike the Prime (my Prime, when docked, will go from 100% charge to totally dead in less than two days, without use).

 

As with the Prime, the TF300 features three different performance modes. In Power Saving mode, if 1-2 cores are active, they'll clock as high as 1 GHz, 3 cores will hit 720MHz, or all 4 will top out at 600MHz. For Balanced mode, all four cores will max out at 1.2GHz, and for Performance mode, 1 core will go up to 1.3GHz while using 2+ cores will bring things back down to 1.2GHz. Personally, I left things in Performance, though I'd imagine the difference between Performance and Balanced is probably virtually nil.

Finally, it's worth noting that I experienced 4-5 force closes during my 5 days with the TF300T. While that's not a lot by any stretch, it's more than I'm accustomed to with other Android devices, so it's worth including in the spirit of full disclosure. Surprisingly, Maps accounted for 3 of those force closes, though after the initial 3 I haven't had an issue.

 

The display on the TF300 is more or less exactly what you'd expect on a $380 10" Android tablet.That is to say, it's not enough to stand out in either direction. While it's not as bright as the Prime's display (350 versus 600 nits), it's bright enough for most viewing situations. The viewing angles aren't noteworthy either - they're good, but nothing special. Colors and black levels once more place the display firmly in the middle of the pack.

Then again, being average isn't necessarily a bad thing. Screens have remained fairly standard in recent Android tablet history, and that's because they're generally tried-and-true. In a nutshell: it's a pretty standard display for a 10" tablet at the ~$400 price point.

Unfortunately, the dock's build quality doesn't quite measure up. The keys feel good and clicky (but still quiet), and at first blush the build quality is good. Apparently that's a false impression, though - after just a few hours of use, the 'T' key went flat. It still works (in fact, I typed about half of this review using the TF300 while docked), but it's noticeable enough that it can throw off your vibe while typing. Much more importantly, it's enough to cause concern about the dock's long-term durability.

 

Around the outside, the dock offers an SD card slot and USB port, as well as the charging port. As mentioned above, the trackpad is more or less useless, because it's virtually impossible to use the keyboard without bumping the trackpad. The result is that you'll be typing an email, bump the trackpad without realizing, and suddenly you're typing 5 lines up - or in a different email. While that alone isn't enough to make the trackpad useless (in fact, I'd say that makes it hyperactively useful), the sole solution is to disable it while typing... which quickly evolves into just leaving it off all the time, since constantly toggling is annoying as all hell.

 

Anyone who's been following Android in even the most peripheral sense probably has a pretty good idea of what to expect with Ice Cream Sandwich, and anyone who read my Prime review should know exactly what to expect with ASUS's custom UI. And the bloatware remains the same, too: Polaris Office, SuperNote, App Backup, App Locker, Asus Sync, Asus Webstorage, MyCloud, MyLibrary, MyNet and Netflix. And, once again, they're all refreshingly useful in their own right.

All told, ASUS's customizations complement the excellent user experience offered by ICS well.

With a starting point of $380 and packing a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU, the TF300T offers a compelling package. It's a lot like a Corvette ZR1: blazing-fast, but swathed in plastic and made with a few compromises to keep it (relatively) cheap. Then again, that's probably an acceptable trade-off for most people - myself included.