Asus Transformer Infinity: Australian Hands-On


Asus completed its Australian tablet trinity today by outing the Transformer Infinity locally. The Transformer Infinity is the gadget maker’s high-end gaming and media tablet, so how does it feel now that it’s finally in our hands?

Design

If you’ve ever seen a Transformer tablet before, it’s a fair bet you won’t be stunned by the design of the Infinity. It’s not a radical departure from anything we’ve seen before, but it does have some subtle improvements that you might not notice upon a cursory glance.

It’s a 10.1-inch-display nestled inside a super-thin and super-light chassis. It weighs just 607 grams and measure 8.5 millimetres at its thickest point. The edge-to-edge metal has been interrupted by a rubber-looking margin that runs along the top of the device. This margin doesn’t go more than an inch or so deep on the device, and it’s there to improve Wi-Fi and GPS network communications. Essentially, it’s the improvement Asus made to the Transformer so that it didn’t have to give everyone free GPS dongles again.

Like the Transformers before it, the Infinity is compatible with its own keyboard dock, but unlike the Prime, the dock itself is actually thinner and lighter. As a result, the Infinity’s keyboard dock isn’t going to be your best friend if you use it with a Transformer Prime for example. Why? Well you’ll always end up overbalancing it due to the added weight the Prime carries around. The keyboard dock will ship with the tablet when it goes on sale this week.

Specs

The Asus Transformer Infinity carries a 10.1-inch, Super IPS+ display running at a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. It’s powered by a quad-core, Tegra 3 processor which renders stunning games and images and actually looks good when you tether it to a TV via HDMI.




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It’s packing a massive battery that has a claimed life of 9.5-hours on a single charge, which can be upped to a whopping 14-hours when plugged into the keyboard dock. That’s an impressive figure, and if we translate that into the real world, it measn we’ll be able to watch movies on a flight between Sydney and Los Angeles without running out of juice halfway across the ocean.

The 8-megapixel camera is a welcome addition, as is the 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat that doesn’t make you look like an 8-bit character.

Pricing

We were worried when we heard last month that the pricing would be $999, but Asus today confirmed that number. That means you’re paying almost $200 more than US counterparts, which Asus has blamed on the cost of doing business in Australia.

For that $999, you’ll get a 64GB Transformer Infinity unit and the keyboard dock which can in some cases run you an additional $149 if purchased separately.

The good news is that if you do decide to import, Asus will honour the one-year warranty, which is global. The only thing is that you’ll have to organise the courier of the unit yourself.

We’ll bring you a full review of the Transformer Infinity as soon as we get our hands on a review unit.

Also: What Will Be Your Next Tablet? 45 Tablets Compared


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