The Asus Transformer Prime has been one of the most highly anticipated and talked about tablets that has come through in a long time. However, it has been plagued by a lot of unfortunate circumstances with its release. Supplies of the product have just simply not been available to meet the demand. Even though the tablet was released in early December, it is only becoming available in very limited quantities as of now in late January.
Recently, there have been complaints surfacing about issues with the wifi and GPS connectivity with the device and message boards are filled with mixed opinions and observations from various consumers and enthusiasts with the product. We wanted to put our observations in the mix with our Asus Transformer Prime 64 GB tablet that we just received in a couple of days ago amid all the rumors and complaints about the wifi and GPS issues.
It has been difficult to place a finger on the exact reason of supposed wifi issues. However, by far the most common observation and speculation from many is that the metal casing that the device is enclosed in is preventing both a good wifi and GPS signal. Many have been wondering whether or not this should affect their decision to buy this tablet.
Observations from others
There have been a lot of supposed findings from Prime owners that have posted their results and even YouTube videos showing the wifi performance problems of the prime. These are the wifi problems that we have seen posted:
- Poor signal strength
- Poor signal throughput
- Signal drop offs
Setup
Asus has been rumored to be working and releasing updates to “fix” both wifi and GPS on the Prime and the latest of those releases happened just a few days ago. We did confirm under the Settings and “About Tablet” we did have a firmware jump in both the GPS and wifi firmware versions simply in the upgrade from Honeycomb to ICS.
So with that being The first thing we did was unbox our Prime and checked the firmware updates that were available. The first firmware update we had was the Ice Cream Sandwich update. The update only took about 5 minutes on our Prime to install and ICS rocks!
As soon as we finished the ICS update we checked and there was a firmware update immediately afterwards for the camera, which downloaded and installed in the background. So far as of 1.25.2012 these are the only updates we have been prompted to install.
Wifi Observations
As we mentioned in the outset, there have been a lot of people who have said they are having major throughput issues with wifi throughput. How did this stack up in our Prime?
We did not find this to be the case with our unit. We are not saying here that some units do not have these issues, however, the 64GB model that we have been testing with runs Speedtest just as fast as our laptops at reasonable distances from the wireless AP.
What did we find with the Prime and wifi? It does seem that the Prime’s wifi range may be more limited than others. In moving some 40 to 50 feet away from the router and through walls, the Prime’s wifi started to drop off, however, everything was still very usable with this tablet. We were on a relatively small 12MB cable connection and at 40 to 50 feet away from an old WRT54G Linksys router we were still getting in the 4-6 MB download range which isn’t bad considering the obstructions we were testing through. However, the throughput at good wireless strength seems to be on par with other wireless devices on our unit.
The key here is the wireless signal strength. With our unit the wifi signal strength was the real issue with the device. So far, the updates that Asus has released for the Prime have not cured the wireless issues, but we are certain to see future updates to address more of the issues.
GPS issues
GPS is another story with the Prime. We found that GPS performance was severely hindered in our unit. Even outdoors with a clear sky using GPS Test app we struggled to lock onto any GPS satellites. While it is doubtful that most would use their Transformer Prime to replace their GPS unit in the car, GPS functionality is also crucial to the performance of certain apps. In fact many apps simply will not load without a fix on GPS position since by nature they rely on this functionality to work. Hopefully, again the GPS function will be fixed with a software release in addition to the fix that was released very recently, which does not look to have been successful. Many have reported that GPS worked better before the fix than after.
At least Asus has recognized there is a problem and continues to try and resolve the issues. It almost seems like at this point if Asus believes the metal casing is causing the issue, that they would be willing to replace the back of the unit with a plastic cover which would alleviate the issue here. Apple certainly bit the bullet on the iPhone 4 when the antenna problem caused dropped calls, etc. They issued free iPhone cases which would rectify the issue along with the software update.
Final Thoughts
The Transformer Prime is an awesome tablet and it is a shame that these issues have hindered this Tegra 3 tablet from achieving the greatness that it deserves. Hopefully, Asus will be able to come through for Prime owners and get this figured out.
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