[Q] Asus Transformer Prime vs Any 600$ Netbook

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I will start university Soon. I went to my local Best Buy and i saw some good rebates on Laptops and Netbooks. But i always wanted to get a tablet for School and Late night movie watching/e-mail checking (because going on my gaming rig just to check some mails isn't always practical, and the 4.0Inch on my nexus s is just to small). I will have to do some word and powerpoint documents on the go (mainly editing because i do most of it on my Desktop computer), i heard Polaris does a good job, is this true?

Is the Asus Transformer Prime a good alternative to your average College Netbook?
How much will it cost in Canada? (With the deck of course)

Bump. Need some advice.

i have the original transformer and with the dock it is far better than any netbook ive owned. even in terms of power. i have a few office apps installed and all of them work great. the tegra 2 out performs my netbook in terms of graphics. can hardly play anything on my netbook. on top of that the prime has a tegra 3 wich will only be better. so in my opinion the prime would be superior. its a tablet and a netbook and some what of a gaming device with some very usefull office apps.

Originally Posted by Freemantig

i have the original transformer and with the dock it is far better than any netbook ive owned. even in terms of power. i have a few office apps installed and all of them work great. the tegra 2 out performs my netbook in terms of graphics. can hardly play anything on my netbook. on top of that the prime has a tegra 3 wich will only be better. so in my opinion the prime would be superior. its a tablet and a netbook and some what of a gaming device with some very usefull office apps.

Thanks exactly what i needed. Just pre-ordered it with the dock.

Originally Posted by Freemantig

i have the original transformer and with the dock it is far better than any netbook ive owned. even in terms of power. i have a few office apps installed and all of them work great. the tegra 2 out performs my netbook in terms of graphics. can hardly play anything on my netbook. on top of that the prime has a tegra 3 wich will only be better. so in my opinion the prime would be superior. its a tablet and a netbook and some what of a gaming device with some very usefull office apps.

can you do all the office tasks needed on the transformer? personally i would think windows or mac is a must in college because all the different software that they might utilize during college. a tablet to me seems like an additional accessory..

Originally Posted by jblah

can you do all the office tasks needed on the transformer? personally i would think windows or mac is a must in college because all the different software that they might utilize during college. a tablet to me seems like an additional accessory..

When you say "all the office tasks needed," that's a bit too broad. The Transformer+dock does NOT replace a "real" notebook (e.g., one running a full office suite) for anything beyond simple editing and text entry. Things like headers and footers aren't supported (either at all, or very well), inserting images, etc. It does work extremely well for taking notes (and I personally use Evernote, although for business meetings as opposed to classes; same difference).

If I were in college and could afford it, I'd have a good desktop-replacement notebook sitting at my dorm room or apartment for doing hardcore, complex work, and a Transformer Prime+dock for carrying around campus taking notes. The combination of very light weight, extremely long battery life (18 hours or so, or a nice, very full day on campus), and the ability to read textbooks in tablet format (which is SO much more comfortable than on a notebook) would be awesome.

If you simply cannot afford both a notebook and a tablet, then I guess I'd opt for as lightweight a notebook as I could get that has as long battery life as I could fine. Today, I'd probably take a look at an Ultrabook, to save the money over a MacBook Air and because I'm a Windows guy.

The Tegra 3 Chip is FAR more powerful than any Atom chip (netbook x86 ULV chip). It has much more power saving features and is far more efficient (18-hour battery life O_O). The Prime is will be fully capable of running Windows 8 which Microsoft can supply with an ARM variant of Office. By then of course, OpenOffice, Google Docs, Etc. will all be compatible with Windows 8 ARM. Android also has some wonderful variants, but Google Docs needs to be a lot better for Tablets.

Get the Prime.

Originally Posted by xTRICKYxx

The Tegra 3 Chip is FAR more powerful than any Atom chip (netbook x86 ULV chip). It has much more power saving features and is far more efficient (18-hour battery life O_O). The Prime is will be fully capable of running Windows 8 which Microsoft can supply with an ARM variant of Office. By then of course, OpenOffice, Google Docs, Etc. will all be compatible with Windows 8 ARM. Android also has some wonderful variants, but Google Docs needs to be a lot better for Tablets.

Get the Prime.

Google Docs is a web client, it doesn't need an app or program on a PC.

I'm going to buy the Prime, hopefully. I can use it for making notes from classes, and when I get home, all the work I do will be uploaded to Docs. Then I can reread them and format them with headers, footers and stuff like that on my MacBook Air or Linux PC.

Originally Posted by redbullcat

Google Docs is a web client, it doesn't need an app or program on a PC.

I'm going to buy the Prime, hopefully. I can use it for making notes from classes, and when I get home, all the work I do will be uploaded to Docs. Then I can reread them and format them with headers, footers and stuff like that on my MacBook Air or Linux PC.

You cannot use Google Docs on a web browser on the Transformer with the keyboard for some stupid reason. Also, the Google Docs app is really ****ty.

Hopefully for most people, the Transformer Prime can replace both a tablet *and* a netbook, ultraportable or MBA. It's a hassle to transfer files back and forth to a PC or Mac. And it would mean one less computer to feed+support.

For me personally, the only issue would be the lack of OneNote, but it shouldn't be a show-stopper. Polaris should be enough for schoolwork, but I'm not in school anymore, so that's only my guess.