Asus Transformer Pad (TF300T) review

Broadly speaking, the Transformer Pad looks like... well, it looks like a tablet. Since a tablet is basically all screen and bezel, it's hard for any device to look notably different from any other. The Transformer Pad does have a nice-looking back, to be fair: its tree trunk-like ringed pattern reflects light really nicely, and looks and feels a lot better than the slippery back on most other plastic tablets. It's not the metallic beauty the Prime is, but it's quite well made, very solid and sturdy. The tablet is available in Royal Blue, Iceberg White, and Torch Red — mine was Royal Blue.

Despite the lesser materials, the Transformer Pad is both thicker and heavier than the Transformer Prime, though not by much — 1.39 pounds to the Prime's 1.29, and 9.9mm (0.39 inches) thick rather than 7.9mm (.31inches). It's still slimmer and lighter than the original Transformer, though, and I didn't notice it feeling any bigger than most other tablets I've tested.

On every surface but the back, the Transformer Pad is pretty nondescript. As you hold the tablet horizontally, there's an Asus logo above the top left corner of the display, with a proximity sensor and camera lens centered above the screen. The only other blemish on the front — I call it a blemish because I tried to wipe it off a few times — is a downward-pointing arrow that indicates where you line the tablet up to insert it into the keyboard dock (more on that in a minute).

I almost always complain about one port location or another, so it's nice to know someone out there does it right — everything on the Transformer Pad feels like it's in exactly the right place. The single-button volume control is at the top of the left edge, just above the micro HDMI port and micro SD card slot; the power button is right around the corner, on the top. That means you won't mix up the two buttons and crank up the volume when you're trying to turn the tablet off, a problem I have all too often. The headphone jack is on the right side, where it will almost never be in the way as you hold the tablet horizontally (though it could get in the way in portrait mode). The dock connector, obviously, is on the bottom.

The only thing that's poorly placed is the single speaker. It's located on the back — itself a bad decision, since sound is directed away from you — and it's placed exactly where the fingers on your right hand will naturally gravitate as you hold the Transformer Pad sideways. The speaker is loud enough to blast through your fingers, and actually outputs pretty good, clear sound, but it gets awfully quiet — it's kind of fun to mess with the sound by moving your hand around, but if you want to actually listen to something you'll have to move your hand to some awkward spot to keep the speaker free.

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