I'm wondering if I really "need" this thing if I already have an android smart phone with a large screen. To what use can I put this thing that isn't already covered by my desktop and smartphone? Ok... Well maybe I wouldn't want to watch a movie on my smartphone while traveling on a plane. But what else?

morriea wrote:The Prime has an IPS+ display while the TF300 has just an IPS display.
Hence the difference. Sorry for not being clearer.

"IPS+" is a marketing term in the vein of "retina" which means high-nit backlighting, anyway. It's darn useful outside, however.

davidmcbeth3 wrote:I don't know but the cpu performance, from performance testing websites, is not impressive

Are you comparing it to the Celeron one, because that's not really apples to apples.

bloodystinktube wrote:on a different note, does it actually have 12 cores in the graphic card? or are they virtual cores or something like that?

12 "cores", "pipelines", or SPUs in a graphics controller isn't all that unusual, given that most high-end video cards have them in the hundreds. nVidia, primarily being a GPU manufacturer, put an inordinately powerful one in their SoCs, at least compared to the offerings from most other companies. Realistically, this becomes visible mostly with games that take advantage of the hardware acceleration. Hence the "Tegra Zone" software.

mdnorman wrote:I'm wondering if I really "need" this thing if I already have an android smart phone with a large screen. To what use can I put this thing that isn't already covered by my desktop and smartphone? Ok... Well maybe I wouldn't want to watch a movie on my smartphone while traveling on a plane. But what else?

Well, I guess it might be more fun to play Angry Birds on a 10 inch screen.

Shinespark wrote:There are anecdotes of Asus servicing unlocked Transformers but obviously YMMV. You don't buy a refurb counting on warranty service anyway.

I'm not worried. I bought a Square Trade extended warranty so I am covered.

harder wrote:This would be a good deal if it was running Windows 8 instead of being yet another crappy Android tablet.

Hmmm... I wonder if one could install Windows 8 on it.

I don't think so, cuz it has just one GB of ram and window requires 2 GB at least

If your in the market for a tablet and was waiting for a good deal this is likely it. It's a great tablet in quality of specs. For the price without the keyboard dock it would be a deal the fact that it comes with it leaves little reason not to buy.

I'm an Asus fan - they make good, innovative products, and I have the Google Nexus 7, a 12" Win7 tablet, and an e-ink note tablet they didn't release in the USA.

This'll be a Christmas present for a cousin. One that I happen to like. :-)

mdnorman wrote:I'm wondering if I really "need" this thing if I already have an android smart phone with a large screen. To what use can I put this thing that isn't already covered by my desktop and smartphone? Ok... Well maybe I wouldn't want to watch a movie on my smartphone while traveling on a plane. But what else?

Not just on a plane ... movies/TV in a restaurant or a doctor's waiting room ... AND ... trying to figure out where the heck you are on a Google map while in the car ... reading ebooks in bed (the larger page size means you won't be reaching up to turn a page nearly as often) ... stuff like that.

bloodystinktube wrote:does anybody have any idea how often this deal will come up?

Probably, but only people who work for Woot.

If you can do without the keyboard/dock, you might want to let her get you the Google Nexus 10 instead. Or maybe some other tablet that's been announced recently or will be in the next week or two. (Do a little checking to be sure.)

But if this is the device you want - and it's a good one, to be sure - then a Transformer in the hand is worth approximately two that may or may not be beneath the overgrown, cone-shaped Christmas bush.

No color options (If I remember correctly, red white and blue were the standard colors)?

I wonder what we'll get.

I bought an Asus netbook, and if it has any similarity to the tablet, the screen will crap out in a year. It doesn't light up (the background is faintly visible) for several minutes and it has to be placed in just the right position, I suspect because the connections are prone to loosening owing to the design. Painfully slow too. It has completely defeated the purpose of having a light laptop, so I just bought a Macbook Air. I LOATHE Apple, so it was a hard choice.

ronfronberg wrote:How does this compare to a chromebook?

Chromebooks are based on a different idea than other notebooks and laptops, so it's hard to compare them without having a specific purpose in mind (what you want to do with the device).

Physically, Chromebooks have bigger screens, and they can't turn into tablets because their keyboards don't detach.

The two most recent Chromebooks are cheaper than this device and are new-in-the-box with new-device warranties.

If you presently spend nearly all your computer time in a browser, then a Chromebook may be a good device for you. If you don't, you'll probably be more satisfied with a notebook/tablet/Transformer.

leronis wrote:Any thoughts on this being a refurb? What might I expect - open box, returned as a lemon, or used and potentially abused? Given that there's the Groupon deal for a new one - albeit minus the keyboard dock - can I be comfortable getting this one instead?

In my experience, woot refurbs are Good Stuff.

I remember the enTourage eDGe sale, though, where the company supplying the product to woot scraped the absolute bottom of the warehouse barrel and supplied returned devices that had very obviously not been examined, never mind refurbished.

But even on that deal, the one I got was in new and untouched condition.

Not having a Square Trade warranty available is a bit annoying. The thing is, though, that if you get any kind of electronic device, and it's good out of the box, then most warranties are just free money to the seller.

A warranty that covers accidental drops and liquid spills can be useful, but you probably won't see that kind of coverage in the manufacturer's warranty that comes with new devices.

harder wrote:This would be a good deal if it was running Windows 8 instead of being yet another crappy Android tablet.

Hmmm... I wonder if one could install Windows 8 on it.

No but why in the world would you want to ruin a nice tablet by putting such a crappy OS on it? One of the best parts about this tablet is it's Android OS.

cedaroo wrote:Thank you! Being able to backup photos while traveling (SD card to micro-SD) was my only 'card reader' concern. Does the usb port on the dock not provide the same functionality?

Thank you for your help! If you have time please do let me know about partitioning and/or if the *internal* drive (ideally with and without the dock) shows up as /mnt/sdcard (and not /mnt/sdcard2) - both of which are issues with the stock Toshiba Thrive rom.

Thank you!

Yes, you can use the USB Port on the dock the same way; however, you may not always want to carry around the keyboard with you. This is a tablet first and then can "transform" into a laptop by snapping in the keyboard. When the keyboard is attached, you are limited to using it while it's open and it does not open 180 degrees. It's more like 100 degrees so if you want to put the tablet on a flat surface (like on the treadmill at the gym), you'll want to remove the keyboard.

By the way, you can plug in many devices into the USB port and it works right out of the box. For example, I use a wired XBOX 360 controller to play a 3D game called Dead Trigger. I have plugged in external hard drives using NTFS and it reads it just fine. Absolutely incredible.

heathalweaon wrote:I love this tablet. I paid 300+120 for the keyboard for a new one about a month back. The biggest issue I have found is with Polaris office. YOU CAN'T DO ANY SORT OF DATA MODELING or halfway difficult formulas with the xls editor. Just keep this in mind if you are buying the tablet for business purposes.

That's a software issue -- not a hardware one. Go to the Android Play Store and install any other application you want that can do what you're looking for. Just because it comes pre-installed with something doesn't mean that's the one you have to use.

beachbumdeac wrote:Has anyone who owns this tablet tried to root it? Any thoughts on it?

I have the 700 and I rooted mine. It required me to unlock the ROM before rooting. I did this so I could use a special program that allows me to use my PS3 controller using bluetooth proprietary protocols. It works just fine.

Now that I've done this, I wish I didn't. The moment you unlock the ROM (you can do this with utilities provided by Asus), you cannot re-lock the ROM. Normally I wouldn't care (and I didn't at the time) but now I know the moment you do this you will no longer get OTA updates. All updates will need to be done manually and it's not as easy. To update your ROM to the newest versions, you first have to wait for ASUS to post the non-OTA version on their website. You cannot use the OTA version because it is not a full install but an incremental one instead. So, once a month or so goes by and it's available, you then download it, put it on a MicroSD card, and then flash the ROM using the built-in flash utilities. It's recommended you use a 3rd party one so you can backup your old ROM in case something goes horribly bad and you semi-brick your tablet.

bloodystinktube wrote:does anybody have any idea how often this deal will come up? i want to order it right now, but my gf wants me to wait... i'm assuming she wants to get me one for xmas, but this is an awesome price for a tablet i've heard nothing but good about. i don't want to miss out on it...

This is the NEW woot. Expect it to be on the regular woot page tonight. Then, in a week or so it will probably be offered on tech.woot. Then, when it still isn't sold out, it will be offered on the sellout.woot site, afterwards it will be in some side deal, and then finally a moofi deal. Although I make no promises because I do not work for woot.

still have it with dock its great highly recommomend

I have always bought stuff refurbed from woot and I am yet to be disappointed. If it makes you feel any better, you are saving $120.00. In this economy thats a win!

leronis wrote:Any thoughts on this being a refurb? What might I expect - open box, returned as a lemon, or used and potentially abused? Given that there's the Groupon deal for a new one - albeit minus the keyboard dock - can I be comfortable getting this one instead?

cengland0 wrote:This is the NEW woot. Expect it to be on the regular woot page tonight. Then, in a week or so it will probably be offered on tech.woot. Then, when it still isn't sold out, it will be offered on the sellout.woot site, afterwards it will be in some side deal, and then finally a moofi deal. Although I make no promises because I do not work for woot.

unless it sells out ?

I have this exact tablet and I must echo sentiments made by others. This is a fantastic tablet.
The current OTA ("Over the Air" update) puts the Transformer Pad to Jelly Bean, so it'll run that if it's still on ICS.
HOWEVER, if it's running older firmware and you intend to root, I would suggest (as others also have) to check out xda-developers. The use of a boot unlock tool voiding one's warranty is not something every person would prefer.
Use of the OTA update to the current stock version provided by Asus of Android would make any rooting impossible for now. (emphasis on "For now".) however, I can't say enough positive things about it. I've had lots of positive comments about it too. It's a great tablet for the price, especially with the dock. If you've been waiting for a tablet, or for a better one for a good price I'd recommend this one.
The screen is bright and fairly sharp. While not incredibly so (it *is* only 1200x800) it's still HD, and things in 720p play back great. I believe there's 1080 support for HD out also.

I have the TF700 - the Tranformer Infinity Pad (I just had to go for the higher resolution screen), but if I did not have that I would jump on this. The tablet is well constructed, and is an excellent performer. The dock is a bonus for this price as well.

Great deal.

Recently got the 700 with the dock for my wife (early holiday gift, work travel made it so). She's been in love with it from day 1. I can say that if this deal was available when I was looking, I would have jumped on it. Asus is great support, and the hardware for tabs is just fantastic.

MrFats wrote:I have this exact tablet and I must echo sentiments made by others. This is a fantastic tablet.
The current OTA ("Over the Air" update) puts the Transformer Pad to Jelly Bean, so it'll run that if it's still on ICS.
HOWEVER, if it's running older firmware and you intend to root, I would suggest (as others also have) to check out xda-developers. The use of a boot unlock tool voiding one's warranty is not something every person would prefer.
Use of the OTA update to the current stock version provided by Asus of Android would make any rooting impossible for now. (emphasis on "For now".) however, I can't say enough positive things about it. I've had lots of positive comments about it too. It's a great tablet for the price, especially with the dock. If you've been waiting for a tablet, or for a better one for a good price I'd recommend this one.
The screen is bright and fairly sharp. While not incredibly so (it *is* only 1200x800) it's still HD, and things in 720p play back great. I believe there's 1080 support for HD out also.

Voodoo OTA Rootkeeper and SuperSU (both free in the market) will allow you to keep root when making the jump from ICS to JB. Lots of instructions to google out there -- my TF700T is JB and rooted.

Refurbished vs. New - Pricing Thoughts

Refurbished + Warranty
As new in box product would include warranty I am adding Square Trade warranty to today's offer for a total price picture of product including warranty.
$299.99 + $5 + $54.99 = $359.98

New in Box
Checking for every day pricing of product I used two dealers known to be above board sellers with every day good pricing.

B&H PHOTO VIDEO = $349.95 + free shipping (TF300T) http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=852329&Q=&is=REG&A=details and $99.95 + free shipping (dock) http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/852331-REG/ASUS_TF300_DOCK_BL_Docking_Station_for_Transformer.html
Total for all new at B&H = $449.94

AMAZON = $376.99 + free shipping (TF300T) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007P4YAPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A17MC6HOH9AVE6
and $108.86 + free shipping (dock) http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Transformer-Mobile-Dock-TF300T/dp/B007SHJIP6/ref=pd_bxgy_pc_img_y Total for all new at Amazon = $485.85.

I am sure if you go looking across the web you may find different new in box pricing from what I have above but both of the sellers I have used often prices below others so I felt they were two good pricing competitors to use. So, what does the math say? Amazon total was $39.91 more that B&H so I'll use the better B&H price to compare. New in Box at B&H is going to cost you $89.96 more if you compare to the Woot price including the ST warranty. Without warranty you save, $144.95. I think the fairest comparison is when you include warranty as the new product comes with one but, you do save a good chunk if you go without. But the bottom line is, Does a discount of $89.96 warrant buying a refurbished model over a new one? For me, no I would go with new. But saving $144.95, that I would have to really consider. In any event, it seems the woot offer today is not only competitive but a very good discounted price.

heathalweaon wrote:I love this tablet. I paid 300+120 for the keyboard for a new one about a month back. The biggest issue I have found is with Polaris office. YOU CAN'T DO ANY SORT OF DATA MODELING or halfway difficult formulas with the xls editor. Just keep this in mind if you are buying the tablet for business purposes.

I agree. I don't use polaris office - I downloaded Pro Office and am very happy with that.

Cannot convert to Windows 8, but I'm ok with that.

I do love my tablet and like haveing the usb port, and sd card access.

Very happy with the Asus Tablet

Does an Android tablet have to be linked to a Gmail account to function?

How does this compare to the iPad 3 and iPad 4?

Seriously...I just put down an order on walmart for the 32gb model...canceled that rightaway and got this....Does anyone know if the square trade warranty is good? thx in advance!

ivanivanovich wrote:Probably, but only people who work for Woot.

If you can do without the keyboard/dock, you might want to let her get you the Google Nexus 10 instead. Or maybe some other tablet that's been announced recently or will be in the next week or two. (Do a little checking to be sure.)

But if this is the device you want - and it's a good one, to be sure - then a Transformer in the hand is worth approximately two that may or may not be beneath the overgrown, cone-shaped Christmas bush.

i went ahead and bought this one. i hope she doesn't feel bad, but when it comes to electronics, i tend to do a lot of research first, and had my eye on either an ipad mini (after retina), or one of these (the higher res one though.)

the one she was going to get was a name i've never even heard before, that the place she works just started carrying. i told her we can go ahead and check it out, and possibly cancel this one before woot ships it, but i doubt i'll be doing that. lol...

Just a heads up, Office Depot is going to offer this tablet (the 32GB version) on Black Friday for the same price. It does not include the keyboard, but it is new. Just sayin'...

harder wrote:This would be a good deal if it was running Windows 8 instead of being yet another crappy Android tablet.

Hmmm... I wonder if one could install Windows 8 on it.

I now see why you have 0 quality posts.

Can you hook this up to a printer from the USB port on the dock. And will it work. Are there drivers for it?

davidac wrote:Can you hook this up to a printer from the USB port on the dock. And will it work. Are there drivers for it?

There are no drivers to support direct USB printing from Android that I know of. This app works pretty good for printing, and its much cooler once set up.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pauloslf.cloudprint&hl=en

I've really wanted one of these for a while. When I thought about what I would use this for...taking notes at a customer site, web browsing, email, watching Netflix...I decided I didn't need the absolute latest and greatest version of this hardware. So I pulled the trigger.

Thanks to all of you who posted good information that helped me make up my mind!

MaliciousCodez wrote:I just ordered the TF101 for $30 cheaper from Groupon. I'm returning Groupon's and buying this TF300 from Woot! for just a little extra. Thanks Woot!

ditto.

MaliciousCodez wrote:I just ordered the TF101 for $30 cheaper from Groupon. I'm returning Groupon's and buying this TF300 from Woot! for just a little extra. Thanks Woot!

And Groupon didn't have the keyboard!

ronfronberg wrote:How does this compare to a chromebook?

I recently got the $250 samsung chromebook and am returning it. It is slooooow and when you connect a wireless mouse to it the pointer has serious lag.

I have an ASUS laptop and Nexus 7 and they both are great. So I recommend the brand highly.

charliecarroll wrote:Refurbished vs. New - Pricing Thoughts

Refurbished + Warranty
As new in box product would include warranty I am adding Square Trade warranty to today's offer for a total price picture of product including warranty.
$299.99 + $5 + $54.99 = $359.98

New in Box
Checking for every day pricing of product I used two dealers known to be above board sellers with every day good pricing.

B&H PHOTO VIDEO = $349.95 + free shipping (TF300T) http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=852329&Q=&is=REG&A=details and $99.95 + free shipping (dock) http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/852331-REG/ASUS_TF300_DOCK_BL_Docking_Station_for_Transformer.html
Total for all new at B&H = $449.94

AMAZON = $376.99 + free shipping (TF300T) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007P4YAPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A17MC6HOH9AVE6
and $108.86 + free shipping (dock) http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Transformer-Mobile-Dock-TF300T/dp/B007SHJIP6/ref=pd_bxgy_pc_img_y Total for all new at Amazon = $485.85.

I am sure if you go looking across the web you may find different new in box pricing from what I have above but both of the sellers I have used often prices below others so I felt they were two good pricing competitors to use. So, what does the math say? Amazon total was $39.91 more that B&H so I'll use the better B&H price to compare. New in Box at B&H is going to cost you $89.96 more if you compare to the Woot price including the ST warranty. Without warranty you save, $144.95. I think the fairest comparison is when you include warranty as the new product comes with one but, you do save a good chunk if you go without. But the bottom line is, Does a discount of $89.96 warrant buying a refurbished model over a new one? For me, no I would go with new. But saving $144.95, that I would have to really consider. In any event, it seems the woot offer today is not only competitive but a very good discounted price.

Awesome info!

Asus says this comes in Royal Blue, Iceberg White and Torch Red. This one seems like its charcoal grey. Anybody got any ifo?

pupyluvr wrote:Does an Android tablet have to be linked to a Gmail account to function?

How does this compare to the iPad 3 and iPad 4?

Yes you must have/create a gmail account for MANY functions. If you don't it would still work, you just couldn't open calendar or buy apps from the Google store, etc...

IPads MUST use iTunes. This is a stand alone computer. You can plug phones, USB, SD, microSD, HDMI into this one. This one has almost double battery life when the keyboard is attached. Etc...

harder wrote:This would be a good deal if it was running Windows 8 instead of being yet another crappy Android tablet.

Hmmm... I wonder if one could install Windows 8 on it.

Having owned an iPad, I was very pleasantly surprised when I got a $199 (Samsung) Tablet running Android. Maybe "crappy" at one time, but fully functional now.

gregmobile wrote:I bought an Asus netbook, and if it has any similarity to the tablet, the screen will crap out in a year. It doesn't light up (the background is faintly visible) for several minutes and it has to be placed in just the right position, I suspect because the connections are prone to loosening owing to the design. Painfully slow too. It has completely defeated the purpose of having a light laptop, so I just bought a Macbook Air. I LOATHE Apple, so it was a hard choice.

I have an Asus Netbook with a screen still working after 3 + years.

I have this exact unit and wanted to make one comment. It is an Android Tablet so everything you know about that applies. Here's my contribution. The dock does not charge off of 5v, i.e. not USB. The tablet part does. The supplied charger, though the connection is a USB plug, as shown, does deliver 5 AND 15v. Point is you cannot charge the dock with anything but the supplied charger. I bought a spare, just in case.

Just to be clear, you can charge the tablet seperately off of 5v, and while in the dock. The dock however takes 15v.