ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Tablet Review

ASUS Transformer Keyboard Dock

The ASUS Transformer TF101’s optional keyboard dock is one of the most impressive accessories that we have seen for any tablet. Sure you get a full chiclet-style QWERTY
keyboard, but it also gives you a touchpad, two USB 2.0 ports, a memory card reader (MMC/SD/SDHC) and another 24.4Wh battery! The touchpad and mouse buttons are a life saver for those
that want a tablet, but also want the ability to type long e-mails or
write papers on it.

To use the keyboard dock you just line up the center of the table
into the hinge and push it down with a little force until it clicks into
pace. To remove the dock you just slide the lever that is located above
the number 4 key on the hinge to the right and you once again have the
tablet.

Our favorite feature though is the print screen button, which might sound silly for some, but we hated the fact that we could capture print screens when we used the Motorola Xoom.

Here is a shot of the Transformer in the docking station with it closed. As you can see it really does transform into a notebook! The left side of the docking station has 40-pin connector for charging or connecting the TF101 to your PC and also a high-speed USB 2.0 port. The USB port has a cover on it with magnets, which is cool until you try using it as you have to hold it open while plugging in a USB device. We plugged in Corsair Flash Voyager USB 3.0 drive and had no issues using a USB 3.0 drive on this USB 2.0 tablet.

The right side of the keyboard dock has another USB 2.0 port and the memory card reader. We tested the memory card reader with a Kingston 32GB SDHC memory card and had no issues with the reader. It should be noted that the USB ports support the NTFS file system, so files over 4GB in size can be used. This is great for those that want to play large HD quality movies.

The trackpad measures 3.2 x 1.5 (82 x 39mm) which is a reasonable size and it was just slightly offset to the right of the space bar. Usability is great, but if you move around the cursor around really fast you will notice a small amount of lag or ghosting when moving the cursor around. The mouse button is easy to use and the double click functionality worked just fine.