Wesleyresearch.org.au Review:
Wesley Research Institute - Medical Research Brisbane - The Wesley Research Institute Brisbane - linking science, medical research and clinical practice to provide better outcomes for patients.
Country: North America, US, United States
City: 90014 Los Angeles, California
- D. M. Mayo - Well made and easy to useWe watched the infomercial and I scoffed... "nothing they sell on TV is that easy." I was wrong. IF you don't fill the cup over the MAX FILL line, the NutriBullet could not be easier to use or clean afterwards. We keep all the ingredients ready to go and it has become a healthy substitute for grabbing something quick (like a cookie or worse). It is that easy and fast.
The weird thing is that even though most of the drinks I create from it are bright green... they taste amazingly good and fruity and filling. And my husband loves them even more than I do. We use it every day.
This is a good product... the goofy guy on TV is actually telling the truth. - H. Wang - Excellent laptop-replacement tabletI've extensively used a lot of tablets, due to both longtime interest in mobile technology, and my line of work. To give you an idea of my frame of reference, I've either owned or used the following tablets: Ipad 2 (owned), HP Touchpad (owned - 2011 firesale!), Motorola Xoom / Galaxy Tab 10.1, LG G, original Asus Transformer (work). Heck, I've owned the following Windows Mobile / PocketPC devices from back in the day - HP Jornada, Toshiba e800. My phone is the iPhone 4.
With that said, this is one of the best tech gadget I've ever owned. The unanimous rave industry reviews (and very positive end user reviewers, even taking wifi issues etc. into account) aren't wrong.
* BUILD AND FORM FACTOR: evocative of but actually feels higher quality than the Ipad 2 and Macbook Air, which is a minor miracle at this price point. Beautifully machined aluminum, minimalist but not cold. The resolution of the screen is the best out of any current tablet, and can be crazily bright enough that it is useable outdoors in sunlight. It's definitely a fingerprint magnet though.
* COLOR - for those deciding between the gray or champagne, I received the champagne, and I actually called to confirm that I received the right one. It's much more silver than gold, it's basically silver aluminum with some gold highlights when the light catches it the right way. This is *exactly* what I wanted - it's reminiscent of the classic aluminum MacBook Pros, but with a touch of warmth from the gold. In short - it's not very gold at all.
* PROCESSOR - the Tegra 3 quad core processor is noticeably snappy, making the whole experience (even with Honeycomb) feel next gen. I've been getting great battery life, ~ 10-12 hours of normal mixed used, on balanced setting. With the dock, you're at 18+ hours. The NVIDIA fifth "stealth core" does its job seamlessly. It just works. For a quad core tablet with blazing power, this is again pretty mind-bending and next-gen. Is a quad core necessary? Strictly speaking, no. The Tegra 2 / OMAP / Snapdragon tablets do just fine, for the most part (although the un-overclocked Touchpad is noticeably slow), but every non ipad tablet lagged behind the iPad 2 in terms of real world performance (opening menus, browsing, launching apps). This isn't because Apple's processor is faster, but rather because if the sheer level of optimization between Apple hardware and software, which is industry-leading. With the Tegra 3 processor, though, this is the first non Apple tablet that both objectively is, and also noticeably feels, faster, more responsive, and more powerful than the iPad 2. It just brute forces past all of the Apple optimizations. For me, that is huge, especially if I'm going to be spending over $400 on something. Slowly but surely, more and more apps are optimizing for quad core (especially games), but even without that, I'd get a quad core for the general performance benefits alone, as it translates across every app.
* OS / SW - I really like the iOS UI for phones, it's simple yet powerful, but for a tablet it's always just felt incredibly limiting / frustrating / slightly condescending. I even prefer WebOS to it. Android Honeycomb is a nice balance between power, customization and being relatively easy to pick up, just perfect for the tablet form factor. My 2 year old toddler figured out how to use it in about 20 seconds (similar to WebOS and iOS). That being said, I'm looking forward to ICS, which should make things even more stable (HC still crashes occasionally)and uniform. The fact that the Prime gets an ICS in a month or two is fantastic. The pre-loaded Asus apps are relatively minimal and unobtrusive, and some actually are quite nice, such as the Asus cloud. Polaris Office is solid. The Android Market could be improved though, especially in terms of sorting and organization. Finding the right app can be a bit of a crapshoot.
CONS: Basically the same nits as others have pointed out.
* SPEAKER: the rear-facing speaker placement is a bit dumb, because it gets covered up relatively easily by your hands or when you set it down. However, you can still hear it even if it's completely covered, it's pretty loud, and it's located where the tablet tapers inwards so it doesn't get completely covered by a flat surface when setting it down. I don't mind the lack of a second speaker per se, as you hardly get stereo sound from any of the other tablets that have two speakers. I would say the sound quality of the Prime is on par with any other tablet, but it is just a bit easier to muffle. A jawbone jambox bluetooth speaker or the like works beautifully to supplement this tablet. It's certainly not needed, but it's a nice addition.
* CHARGER - the proprietary charger really annoys me. Until Asus comes out with more accessories, I'm basically stuck with using my one charging cord. Even charging via the dock requires the proprietary connector. It's not worth deducting a star for (at least for me), because it's more of an annoyance in light of how great the rest of the device is, but sheesh.
* PRODUCT LAUNCH - for a $21 billion company of 110,000+ employees, Asus still can't do a good product launch to save its life. This doesn't detract from the end product per se, but it's worth mentioning because so many pre-orders (on Amazon and elsewhere) were bungled or delayed. Asus is starting to consistently put out really great products, but in order to get to the "next level"(Sony, Apple etc.) in the eyes of the average consumer, they're going to really need to work on marketing and sales execution.
OVERALL: this thing is pretty ingenious, especially with the accessory dock / keyboard. Hopefully a harbinger of good things to come in the Android tablet space.
<<UPDATES AS OF 1/24/2012>>
These are discussed more in the comments, but I thought it would be useful to update the main review.
* ICS - I updated to ICS the first day it was out (good job Asus in pushing this out two days earlier), to absolutely no problems. It was like any other firmware update. The system notifies you that there's an update available, you tap yes, and voila. ~10 minutes later, ICS is installed. It's pretty seamless - no loss of applications or data. I haven't noticed wholesale differences, but everything is smoother, more streamlined, and sometimes faster. It's a definite plus. Asus has already provided multiple firmware updates (on top of ICS), which is a very good sign that this product is being actively supported.
* WiFi - it's been pretty definitively proven that an all-aluminum back-plate is not the best for enhancing WiFI signals. Asus attempted to make up for this via "antenna differentiation," a fancy way for saying that there are two antennas instead of one. In practice, mine has very good wifi reception up to about 25-30 feet from the router. Specific numbers: wifi analyzer average value of -50 to -60, and speedtest of up to 18mbps, exactly on par with my laptop. However, once you get really far away from the router (i.e. outside, or more than 75 feet from the router), the performance erodes at a higher rate than the comparison laptop (wifi analyzer -90). For my purposes, this is extremely useable, and I never noticed the supposedly weak wifi until I started doing actual tests out of curiosity. A lot of people have had luck with installing repeaters and / or more powerful routers, but I haven't needed to go that route. Asus has announced that they're making a new Transformer Prime variant, the 700T, due in a few months (supposedly). This one will have a different, non-metallic backplate, similar to the original Transformer (i.e. plastic). For me, I'm happy to sacrifice a slight amount of WiFi range for the distinctive spun-aluminum backplate; those who don't feel this way should perhaps wait for the 700T if they can.
* Dock - my champagne dock finally shipped yesterday, about a month after the actual tablet arrived. I can understand this somewhat if this device were sold out by the millions, but I don't think that that's the case (even though it looks like this tablet is, deservedly, a hit as far as Android tabs go). It's just an almost mind-bogglingly bad manufacturing / supply issue with Asus. It's like they make 10 at a time and call it a day. Hopefully it's just the first month hiccup - it looks like there are more docks (esp. the grey) among different retailers and that's a good sign. My original criticism stands though - Asus is insanely bad at product launches.
* Accessories - I ended up purchasing this MoKo(TM) Premium Quality Slim-Fit Folio Cover Case with built-in Multi-Angle Stand for Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201 10.1-Inch Android Tablet, and the Skinomi Techskin screen protector. The case is not as whiz-bang as some iPad cases - it's the same tired black pseudo leather, but it's cheap and it gets the job done in terms of functionality. The skin is ok but seems to, ironically, scratch easily. I've had better luck with Invisibleshield with past devices.
* Overall - I'm pleased to report that the tablet is still working great. After a month of use, I'd say what really sets it apart is the Tegra 3 quad core, which is an unadulterated good. I can't imagine using a tablet without one now. The form factor and build are great, but with the caveats noted above. - John Mark - An honest book that even offers hope in some unexpected corners.This is a consumer guide for those looking for a more traditional liberal arts education. Nowadays, those students tend to be conservative and moderate students - you know, the ideologically and intellectually "diverse," aka the untouchable. These students often learn early on that they have to be courageous and more willing to engage others who may disagree with them. They may be looking for a school that has not yet abandoned the mission to teach, much less teach anything to do with the Western tradition. Faculty who are not afraid to engage them, however laughable, regressive and benighted the students' views may be. This book provides some surprising direction for those who have such values. For everyone else, any college's viewbook will suffice.
The authors argue that there are many institutions that have not yet fully succumbed to rigid leftist intellectual orthodoxy. The really interesting part is that many of these schools are rather well-known and some even have sterling left-wing reputations. Yet they have departments that still offer dialogue and engagement, even with ideologically heterodox students. See for example, the chapters on Reed and UC Berkeley (yes, that one). There are others. Some very well-known and highly-regarded places are really trainwrecks when it comes to undergraduate education. All this was eye-opening for us. We confirmed much of what was said about those on my son's list of schools through personal visits.
The college search for the intellectually diverse student really comes down to a question of finding schools with institutional self-confidence and intellectual integrity. Those institutions with that self-confidence and integrity have no fear of creating an environment of acceptance and tolerance if not embrace for those few non-leftist students who dare to enter (according to the authors, several highly selective liberal arts colleges actually fit this profile - again we confirmed this personally). Oddly, the students in these places tend to be happy and intellectually engaged, and this applies even to perpetually aggrieved leftists. Institutions without these important values tend to impose a rigid intellectual culture where dissent is feared and suffocated; thoughts and words are punished, inferences are drawn about the heart of the accused, and in these places the student body tend to be passive and unengaged (a problem common in large state universities). This book shines a light on the high points of over a hundred schools, making it possible to draw inferences that cannot be drawn from the happy talk in the viewbook. - pwrplayg0al - Love this pillowI was in a constant search of the "perfect" pillow for YEARS. I did a lot of reading of reviews about this pillow before i actually purchased, and I must say I was hesitant about the $100.00 bucks to lay out after reading most of them. I went with my gut though & purchased this AMAZING pillow. It came quickly in the mail & it DID NOT SMELL like chemical it DID NOT make NOISE while you slept and it DID NOT make your head HOT. I am a very light sleeper and if this pillow was noisy I wouldn't be able to sleep, if it smelled like chemical it would trigger a migraine, if it was hot well who could sleep? What I needed from a pillow is soft comfortable support! what I got from this pillow is soft comfortable support it was a WIN / WIN situation. if you are on the fence to spend the $$ - think about all the pillows you spend tons of $$ over just one year or will spend and are not satisfied - I'm happy I bought it, I'm happy I'm not searching anymore. PLUS its washable and will keep its shape!