[Q] Considering to buy TF201 - any known issues?

[asestar]

Hello dear XDA

I'm planning to replace my aging Galaxy Tab 8.9 and this Asus TF201 was one great option (for very little money!). I have extensive experience rooting and flashing android devices so my first reaction is to check XDA scene before deciding. Basically choice is between this or Acer A510.

I'm asking a few questions that must have been asked before, but forgive me for asking again as I have to decide rather fast.


My questions:
1- Is there any problem with wifi reception? I read in reviews that it was very weak (probably due to metal cover). How is your TF201 wifi compared to other android phones?

2- Is the latest official release 4.1.1? Are you happy with it?

3- How bad are the speakers? Do they get muffled easily?

4- Is bootloader locked? Is it easy to unlock and flash TWRP/CWM?

That is all

 

[Theoriginalgiga]

To answer a couple of your questions, I just bought a second 201 for my girlfriend's Mother so I think they're a great tablet especially over a TF300.

1) I live in apartment and don't have any reception problem on 2.4GHz, though have an issue with 5GHz. I can see this having WiFi issues, but nothing really major has affected me. In a large house or outside, I could see WiFi being an issue. I can compare it to a Galaxy Note, S3 and S4 and it's unfortunate to say that the phones do have better wifi coverage.

2) I do believe that 4.1.1 is the latest release for this tablet, but to be completely honest I got my first one already rooted (from swappa) and just dropped harry bean on it and haven't looked back. As for the new one I just got, I played around a little with it and it isn't bad at all, but I could see potentials for lag there.

3) the speaker is back facing so it isn't great. If you cover it, it will muffle, but I only watch a TV show or two before bed so I don't use my speaker much.

4) from my understanding, yes the bootloader is locked, there's a process to unlock it and even a process to pull the NVflash from the device to make it unbrickable. But from my readings there's issues with mismatching MAC addresses making it almost impossible to unlock the bootloader on certain primes. I thankfully haven't had to deal with any of that.

My advice, pick one up, preferably pre-unlocked or maybe even pre-rooted, but if not here's some useful links I've found.

Flatline (NVflash pull, do this first from what I understand)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2455920
Unlock and install of TWRP on JB
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2038464

 

[asestar]

Thanks for the suggestions. I live in a wooden house, router is on 2nd floor not far from where we spend most time. We use 2.4ghz only. So I guess this one can be an issue.

The tablet is intended for my wife, who uses it mostly to watch foreign tv-shows posted on obscure forums. These are in Flash.. yeh I know.

So,
Question 5... Does it support flash? I mean if i install the apk, would browser use it? Any experiences?

 

[pooblej]

Thanks for the suggestions. I live in a wooden house, router is on 2nd floor not far from where we spend most time. We use 2.4ghz only. So I guess this one can be an issue.

The tablet is intended for my wife, who uses it mostly to watch foreign tv-shows posted on obscure forums. These are in Flash.. yeh I know.

So,
Question 5... Does it support flash? I mean if i install the apk, would browser use it? Any experiences?

If you install firefox from playstore and flash.apk - Flash sites will work again!

 

[asestar]

And so its done.

I'm now proud owner of a golden Asus TF201 with dock. Must say first impressions are excellent, compared to Galaxy Tab 8.9.

Screen is nice, however colors are not as saturated as on Samsung (uses PLS screen).

Audio seems to be adequate, not much more. Probably gonna invest in some portable speakers or such.

Build quality is top notch. A bit heavy though.

Battery life is excellent, especially since I know how power hungry Tegra3 can be.

Tegra 3 over Tegra 2, there is no competition. Its a whole different class of hardware. A bit like going from Intel Atom to Core i3.