Prime considerations
On board, is 1GB of DDR3 RAM and running the show is a Tegra 3 chipset. The Infinity uses the T33 version clocked at 1.6GHz – when firing on all cores – or 1.7GHz when running on just the one. This makes it the most powerful Android tablet on the market and, basically, it goes like stink. Take its average AnTuTu benchmark score of 12,300 this is a good 2,000 points better than the Prime. Still these are test conditions – the very fast Infinity is faster than the very fast Prime – yet in everyday use, there is little, if any, discernible difference between the two.
AnTuTu and Sunspider results
I hear that in the UK the Infinity will only be available in its 64GB guise, presumably to put some clear blue water between it and the 32GB Prime. Assuming you have two 32GB memory cards to hand – one for the tablet and one for the dock – then this arrangement gives the Infinity a potential 128GB of storage. However, this does have an impact on price, which I’ll come to.
Stock ICS homescreen
The operating system is Android in its Ice Cream Sandwich incarnation and thankfully Asus has resisted the temptation to ‘do a Samsung’ and mess about with it. Will the Infinity get Jelly Bean? More than likely.
Browser
The cameras are pretty impressive for a tablet. The rear boasts an 8MP sensor, LED flash and a bright f2.2 lens while the webcam makes do with a healthy 2Mp. Video can be recorded at 1080p and 30f/s in H.264 through both and, naturally, the webcam lets you Skype till you drop. With only the one speaker the sound the Infinity makes is no more than adequate. The Acer A510 easily beats it soundly on this front.
Trackpad on board so you don't need to tap the screen
The dock part of the Infinity partnership is very similar to those that ship with the lesser Transformers though they are not interchangeable. As with previous docks you get a USB 2.0 port that will happily power an HDD and an SD card slot and a second battery. The Infinity’s batteries are the same as those in the Prime: 25Wh in the tablet, 19.5Wh in the dock.
Next page: Cost-effective?
COMMENTS
Re: nice hardware...
Difficult to understand how you can describe the world's most popular mobile OS that way compares to an as yet unreleased but still highly critisised OS.
Re: I have a TF300
Oh please, enough of this Microsoft troll bullshit. How can you even begin to compare an OS you've never used with Android? It may well be better, but right now you have no bloody idea if it is or not. Get a life, get a girl, get a job, get something but please f**k off while you are doing it.
Really nice machine
I've been using one of these as a note taker for the last week - it's a fantastic peice of kit!
RDP to a windows machine and having a better resolution that the desktop it is connecting too, whilst still being readable, is really usefull!
Movies look just absolutely stunning
Working on documents and presentations, comfortably, whilst out and about is great (actually the reason I brought it).
And it fits in my handbag without being too heavy (which is just one reason why I would not a crappy notebook for the same price)
all it needs is a TrackPoint
to all intents and purposes this thing *is* a laptop... it's like the fondleslab equivalent of a ThinkPad W520.
And AFAIK there's no way to get a laptop with that kind of resolution for less than £1000 (maybe £1200?).
600 squids is still a lot of money for a toy - although this one looks to be usable for work, too - hopefully in 3 years' time there'll be a decent supply of ex-corporate examples on the used market...
