Asus "Best and Worst Tablet Moments"

[Blairware]

Starting with The Prime (I'm not including the TF101 and TF300 because they don't invoke the level of controversy, nor do they polarize their owners into "You want to take this discussion outside buddy?" kind of dialog's, the way Asus' shiny metal tablets do.

As far as that polarization, it's obvious that people get quite "intense" over these tablets, for a number of reasons. I have Love/Hate emotions toward my Asus Tablet. I LOVE the device's potential and the look feel (sans defects) of the Infinity. It is indicative of how these affect people that in one Video review out there, the reviewer continuously goes on about how "premium" the Infinity is, and how it is "THE BEST ANDROID TABLET" in the SAME VIDEO he crashes the browser so bad, he can't even get it going again for more than 5 minutes! Then he shows how the tablet has a horrendous creak/clicking/screen separation issue, concluding that "it will probably break in the next few days, and that TWO OTHER ASUS INFINITY TABLETS he has in his possession do the same thing, yet in the same breath says it is so "premium" and has such amazing"Build Quality" compared to the (admittedly) plastic crazy Samsung Note 10.1. I understand what he meant, thats what I mean by POTENTIAL. - If fabricated and constructed properly the Infinity is amazing. The problem? It doesn't happen consistently enough in Asus factories

So, I considered the two extremes I have witnessed over the last year, and these are what I determined were the best and worst moments

Asus' Worst Tablet Moment:

They put the TF201 out there, knowing full well that WiFi reception was compromised, and that GPS was non functional - what, were they hoping that the tablets amazing looks and the fact that wifi worked at all would be enough to overcome the problem? Anyone who defended them came off a jackass because either a) They knew the design was compromised and sold it anyway, or b) They DIDN'T KNOW, which means they sent a product out without testing it. And then the put the whammy on it, with the sneaky, deceptive move of taking down the GPS spec quietly hoping they could get away with it. They didn't. People caught them in the act, and started posting in XDA and elsewhere, and THEN Asus came out with a statement. Tehre is no way they were going to do so if they weren't caught. How do I know? Easy one. Every thing they did up to that point shows they were NOT going to be upfront about the issue. Then they sealed the deal by showing a nice "Fixed Prime"at MWC way back in February when all the early adopters (those people who love your products again, Asus) had all BOUGHT the Prime. HUGE slap in the face to that group, me included. Resulting, eventually in

Asus BEST Tablet Moment

This is, like everything I have posted strictly opinion, but I have some facts to back it up, at least for myself. You can believe what you choose. So most of us caught word the you could take a Prime to your local best Buy, and as long as you actually had a receipt (I think there was an exception or two, but cannot verify) they would hook you up with a shiny new TF700 Transformer Infinity Pad. With a long list of possible defects, build issues and so on and so forth. What a lot of folks do not know is that Asus sponsored that program at Best Buy, and logic dictates that they did a similar deal with Amazon customers. I was amazed, and pleased like others that Best Buy was taking back an 8 month old product, with no special warranty or purchase protection plan (I sure didn't have one) and providing the new product in it's place. Even is pricing matched it was an unprecedented move to all ALL those returns, with so little fuss. A few store/managers fought the tide, but overall a HUGE number of people got new product, if all the posts are to be believed. Personally, I believe them; here's: why

While returning my 7th Infinity (Update: I still have the 8th one. Not because I ever achieved "perfection" but because I got a middle ground "acceptable" tablet in each area and that has no glaring, stand out kind of issues.) I was something on the Best Buy screen to this effect: "Exchange for current model - OK per manufacturer" That one line leads me to think that Asus, having enough embarasment and bad will from the Prime/Infinity conundrum, has chosen to quitely buy back, or rather exchange the problem child for the new model. Again, just my opinion, but it does make a lot of sense, don't you think?

The funny part? When the Prime owners started posting, and even petitioning Asus to "Replace my Prime with an Infinity" they were told to stop being ridiculous. Asus is NOT going to do that, ever. I assume they considered options like replacing the back shell of all the Primes, but the cost or recalling and rebuilding was prohibitive (and imagine what a colossal mess THAT would have been; Asus can't even handle normal RMA's never-mind mass refurbing like that!) ​

 

[junrider]

I remember that time... It was a rollercoaster ride being for us who fell in the so called minority. But thank god the "minority" had enough voice to get Asus to quietly do the right thing. Too bad for the other Best buy and Amazon customers who purchased a defective prime and do not know about XDA, but I guess its the price for not being updated on their tablets. It was rather an easy transaction too returning the prime as did on Oct 11, I even had a geek squad lady on the customer service (under staffed I guess) and all she had to do was check the computer and she told me a giftcard or exchange. It was exchanged for an infinity, still had it light bleeds and had to manually update still dont know if it was the server on the tablet at fault (but others here had similar issues on that day). Well see how the inifinity will pan out, but i doubt well ever see Asus doing an exchange like they did with the prime since they fixed the GPS and wifi issue that was a major complaint of the prime.

 

[Blairware]

I remember that time... It was a rollercoaster ride being for us who fell in the so called minority. But thank god the "minority" had enough voice to get Asus to quietly do the right thing. Too bad for the other Best buy and Amazon customers who purchased a defective prime and do not know about XDA, but I guess its the price for not being updated on their tablets. It was rather an easy transaction too returning the prime as did on Oct 11, I even had a geek squad lady on the customer service (under staffed I guess) and all she had to do was check the computer and she told me a giftcard or exchange. It was exchanged for an infinity, still had it light bleeds and had to manually update still dont know if it was the server on the tablet at fault (but others here had similar issues on that day). Well see how the inifinity will pan out, but i doubt well ever see Asus doing an exchange like they did with the prime since they fixed the GPS and wifi issue that was a major complaint of the prime.

Indeed - they really did the right thing at least in the BB replacement deal. Think about it, best Buy is a mess, and they do have issues, but no way were they going to foot the bill for all those tablets, without even having the Purchase Protection that they sell. I saw every person that tried got a new tablet, so again, I know Asus was involved from what I saw on the screen. Asus also knows that the major upset audience was the folks on the forums, and those are the ones they ended up replacing, so it works out pretty good for all. This has been going for months now, and as you saw it is still in effect.

One other thing on the Infinity, Yes GPS works well, but WiFi is also like 5 times that bandwidth of the Prime. Range is not the best device I own, but range is also decent. You probably noticed that the trick they used on the Prime - cranking the hell out of WiFi is still in place on Infinity. Look at battery statistics and often it is using more than the screen, which being HD is a huge drain itself. I think they reasoned that since it helped the Prime, it would show that they REALLY fixed reception on Infinity, LOL! Finally, the HD screen has proven to be a mixed blessing. It really is hard to distinguish in Movies and photos unless you zoom WAY in, but Text of all things looks amazing. All the reviewers and folks that INSIST this is needed and necessary, also cannot say exactly WHY it is a "Must Have" They HATED that the Note 10.1 is 1200x800 when last year that was an "Amazing experience" Honestly, it DOES look amazing,and the HD is awesome, but it's Asus incredible Back-lighting that makes it truly shine (Pun intended) It can just go so BRIGHT. The downside? A number of Games are not compatible and may not ever be, since the developers don't see enough devices to justify the rework for HD. SIMS Free Play is one example, I could play it on Prime, but not in Infinity. Not that much if a deal. After over a month with the Infinity, I will say, I am glad I upgraded and did not go for the Note 10.1 (I have a Note Phone, so it did not "wow" me and the plastic Tab does not compare to Asus on look and feel. It's MOSTLY fixed... JB is good. I/O will probably always remain the one major FAIL for Asus. they have the issue on every tablet they make to some degree, with the Nexus 7 being effected the least, and the Prime & TF300 probably the most.

 

[junrider]

For my own use I switch from infinity to the note due to I/O issues and crackling speaker. I was overall satisfied even without the FHD. The prime I switched out for the infinity the other day was my cousin's that I had bought for him. I compared the wifi side by side and the note had a good 10dB over the infinity, but the infinity was indeed better than the prime. I get to play with his infinity every other day just to make sure there isnt any problems to suit his needs, I have yet to try out the bluetooth on his inifinity on JB, since that was one of my dissatisfaction with the infinity I exchanged.