Asus Transformer Prime review

All of our media tests were blazingly fast, smooth and played without any problems thanks to the powerful quad-core processor housed inside the Asus Transformer Prime.

Video

One of the most impressive video tests was for the Battleship trailer, which used a high frame rate and managed to looked colourful and clear, and played in full 1080p resolution. Every video we tested played smooth and fast.

The Transformer Prime may be a little wider and longer than its Apple and Samsung rivals, even though the screens are pretty much the same size, although that's not a negative pronouncement, and in fact means the Prime is a bit easier to grasp for long movie watching sessions.

For those of you who like loading up your devices with digital media you'll be pleased to learn that the Transformer Prime will happily play a wide range of video formats including; MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, DivX and XviD, although it's worth noting there's no support for Quicktime.

The default video player is very basic in nature and available via the Gallery application – where all your video files will be stored – offering up the standard play/pause controls and a scrubbing option.

You can always pop over to Google Play and download a third-party player which will offer you a more fulfilling experience, but the pre-loaded option will be perfectible servable for most.

The well-known YouTube app also makes an appearance on the Transformer Prime, as it does on most Android devices, offering up an excellent user interface allowing you to easily navigate the video sharing site.

Music

Music playback on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime also worked reliably and sound quality was excellent.

Like most tablets, the speaker on the Prime isn't exactly state-of-the-art quality, and is only serviceable in a pinch when you absolutely can't use headphones.

Yes that is just the one speaker, instead of the two speakers we saw on the side of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, so there's not the same stero sound effect here.

That said, the Transformer Prime is just a bit louder than both the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Apple iPad 2 when we cranked up the volume, even if the sound quality wasn't that great and sounded a bit distorted at times.

No tablet on the market has really exceptional sound, though, and the Asus Transformer Prime is in the same league.

Like with video, the Prime offers support for a large array of audio files including; MP3, AAC+, eAAC, WAV and WMA.

Photos

The stock Android photo gallery is present on the Asus Transformer Prime, providing you with a one-stop-shop for all your photographic storage – although video shot via the tablet's cameras will be chucked in with the images you've snapped, which can be a little annoying to sift through.

The gallery can also pull through photos from some of your social networks including Google+ and Picasa - although there's no Facebook integration here.

There's nothing really in the way of editing options, with the gallery only offering you crop and rotate tools, so if you fancy get fancy with your photos then you'll need to dig out a relevant app from Google Play.

The Prime does offer you some sharing options, allowing you to broadcast your pics via Bluetooth or email, as well as posting them to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google+.