Asus EEE Pad Transformer TF-101 Android 3 tablet computer

Tablet computers running the Android operating system have hitherto been rather a disappointment.

The older version of Android was designed for small phone screens, not large tablet screens, and so nothing quite worked properly.

But the new Android 3.0, designed for touch-screen tablets (in fact it doesn't work on phones at all) is a massive improvement. The first one we looked at, Motorola's Xoom was very impressive, but the Asus EEE Pad Transformer (model number TF-101) takes things even further.

Like the Xoom, the Transformer has a 10.1in screen (which has the same high resolution as the Xoom's, and looked great). It has the same Nvidia Tegra processor, which makes things very fast and smooth. Some tablets suffer from ‘lag' – when you tap a button on the screen, it takes a while, or multiple presses, before anything happens. Not on the Transformer – everything was very slick. The one problem was that the web browser kept crashing when we used Google, a minor but annoying error.

But the most interesting feature of the Transformer is what gives it its name – a small detachable keyboard. When the keyboard is attached the device looks and feels a lot like a netbook PC.

The Acer Iconia Tab W500 does the same thing, but that product was poorly put-together, flimsy and unimpressive. The Asus product gets it just right. The keyboard snaps neatly into place and is locked in with a switch – pushing this back releases it again.

Android isn't completely designed for keyboard use, and we found ourselves switching between using the keyboard, with its touchpad, and touching the screen itself for various things. But the keyboard is designed for Android, with special buttons for various features, and it allowed us to use the Transformer properly, with the included Polaris Office software for word processing and spreadsheets, email and more. With the keyboard attached we were able to use it for typing out long emails and documents with ease.

The downside of all this is the weight: despite the plastic construction, it's 680g for the tablet on its own, which is fairly heavy (some 70g more than the itself not-very-light iPad 2) and that increases to 1340g with the keyboard attached. For viewing videos or playing games it quickly got tiring.

An extra battery is included in the keyboard which extends the battery life to around 16 hours (it's around nine on its own), though some users have reported a fault that prevents the extra battery from working. At the time of writing Asus was working on fixing the problem.

Otherwise, it has some good tablet features: GPS with Google Maps, connections to wireless networks and Bluetooth, a memory card reader and two USB sockets (both on the keyboard section, not the tablet itself).

The 16GB model we reviewed costs £430, or £380 without the keyboard. The 32GB model costs about £50 more. It's a fine tablet either way, though we recommend keeping the keyboard if you'll be doing a lot of typing.

Editor's note, 26 July 2011: This review originally said that the EEE Pad Transformer had a slot for a mobile phone Sim card. This version doesn't but a future version is expected to. The sentence has now been corrected.