Today’s story from ASUS makes us sad to be early adopters. ASUS chose to go with an aluminum backing on the Transformer Prime, which has translated into poorer WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS performance in the quad-core tablet. GPS performance was so bad that ASUS removed it from their spec sheet entirely on their product page.
ASUS sent us a note this morning indicating they’ve come up with a fix for these issues, and it’s not a good one if you already own a Transformer Prime. Rather than figuring out a way to fix the current model of Transformer Prime, ASUS is introducing a new model, the TF700T, which ASUS believes will enhance WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS performance.
In addition to a new back panel, the TF700T adds the following upgrades to the tablet:
Panel/Display: The new display will provide a screen resolution of 1920×1200
Front Facing Camera: The 1.2 megapixel FFC was replaced with a 2.0 megapixel camera that allows HD video capture
Otherwise, the Transformer Prime TF700T is the same Transformer Prime we’ve come to know and love and maintains the form factor of the tablet. The TF700T will fit in the standard Transformer Prime docking station.
If you’re still within your return window on the Transformer Prime tablet, you may want to consider sending it back and waiting for the upgraded version, which should be launching in the next few weeks. Seems a bit silly that, after several months of delays, the Transformer Prime still launched with a flawed panel.
Hopefully ASUS will do the right thing here and provide the back panel free of charge to those who already purchased the Transformer Prime. ASUS has had a strong track record for providing timely updates to the original Transformer, quickly becoming a community favorite in the tablet world. How they handle this situation will determine how well their products are adopted in the near future.
It will ship with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, though there is no specific release date just yet. It will retail for $599, well above the $499 price of the 32GB TF201. We don’t know what sizes the tablet will come in, but we’d imagine the $599 will fetch you the 32GB version.
