Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Camera
The Asus Transformer Prime offers up two camera options, a rear facing 8MP snapper and a front facing 1.2MP camera.
The camera app can be accessed straight from the lockscreen if you wish to take a quick snap, or via the traditional camera app icon on the homescreen or in the app list.
Photos we took with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime looked clear and colourful.
In a few cases, the colours weren't as vivid as those taken with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but they were always sharper than the somewhat blurry images we took with the Apple iPad 2 with its lack-lustre 0.7MP camera.
Asus doesn't offer any extended features for taking photos on the Transformer Prime, but you can change basic settings such as white balance and exposure as well as choose from eight scene modes including indoors, portrait, sunset and night.
There's also a single-LED flash next to the camera on the back of the Prime, which is useful when shooting in low light or complete darkness – although your subject can't be too far away from you if you want it to show up in the picture.
There's a digital zoom available, although picture quality becomes dramatically reduced when used, and since Ice Cream Sandwich has been added to the Prime, you also get a panorama mode to play around with.
None of the settings really add to the value of the camera or compete with a more powerful smartphone or digital camera. Photos, like the Eee Pad Transformer Prime's screen, tended to look a bit washed out but still useable.
The Transformer Prime has a much faster shutter release than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, however the auto-focus wasn't always as reliable.
Video
One initial complaint when shooting video with the Asus Transformer Prime was that, when we recorded a 1080p video with the tablet, we noticed a few stuttering problems during recording. But playback of this file was smooth and didn't have any stuttering.
Asus recommended we try again without any apps running in the background, and the test recording didn't stutter at all when doing this, with smooth-as-butter playback.
Recorded videos also looked super-crisp, which is an important finding compared to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which tends to film grainy and almost unusable videos.
As it stands, no tablet is ideal for shooting photos or recording video, because you can't hold the device in a way that makes it easy to capture stills or video - there is often a shaky-cam look no matter how you hold them.
The Transformer Prime is no different, although the somewhat more rigid design and wider bezel makes it a hair easier to grip.
