[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] BarryH_GEG:
About half a dozen posters started quasi-sympathetically with "I understand people may be having issues" and ended with "but mine's perfect." Their bias is inherent on multiple counts:

1) The radio components used in the Prime are latest generation, high quality, from top named suppliers (EG: Broadcom), and widely used in other devices. The claims of different performance for Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth make no sense since, at this early stage, every device is manufactured using the same parts, on the same assembly line, the same way. They're also using the same s/w assuming comparisons are made using the latest ROM.

2) Asus has admitted in Taiwan, Sweden, and eventually the U.S., that their choice of a metal back cover affected wireless performance and are moving away from the design in the TF700 for that reason. Some really smart people here (not me) have talked about the Faraday Effect and the impact of metal on RF signals.

3) There are a couple of YouTube side-by-side comparisons between the TF1 and Prime clearly showing the Prime gets both a weaker signal and it’s subject to fluctuations that other devices don't experience. The Prime's Wi-Fi performance is much improved when the glass front vs. the metal back are facing the router. Anand did an analysis of the Prime's Wi-Fi and it is clearly not as effective as the TF1 that preceded it and other plastic-backed competitors.

4) The BT/Wi-Fi issue that seems to impact every device when used in parallel because they share the 2.4GHz frequency brings the Prime to its knees. Why? What's so different about the Prime?

Here's my theory after participating in the GPS threads early on and the Wi-Fi/BT thread. The metal back cover was stupid and Asus tried to compensate for it by adding a second Wi-Fi antenna that other devices don't need. Even with that, the Prime when it's metal back cover is facing the router performs worse than the TF1 and other tablets. It always will because s/w can't overcome h/w issues. Also because of the Faraday Effect, the metal back cover wreaks havoc with both GPS and BT. I also think BT is ratcheted up as high as Asus can get away with in order to get any type of range because of the metal back further compounding signal interference.

Conclusion: No Prime is "perfect" at least when it comes to wireless and never will be. People claiming it is are either content with what they're getting (low bar), so enamored by the Prime they can't see any wrong (fanboy), or use the Prime in such a way that the environment is static and acceptable (fat, dumb, and happy).

And the Apple comparisons are foolish. No one considering an iPad is looking at the Prime and with Asus' feeble attempts at marketing they never will. To say the only reason Asus or Android haven't taken more market share from Apple is because prior to Teg3 devices were slow is asinine. If ICS gets its act together app-wise, along with h/w improvements, by the end of 2012 you might see some market share movement. Once the iPad3’s released in the spring it’s more likely Android will fall even further behind. That's not my guess, that's what multiple analysts that follow the industry are saying. When comparing the Prime, it's only competitive set is other high-end Android tablets. Period.

Further, Apple never intended for the non-3G iPads to have GPS. Asus by the inclusion of a GPS chip and antenna did and I'm assuming they expected it to work at least as well as the TF1. And the reason it exists at all is because it's a feature standard and expected in a high-end Android tablet.

Using the iPad2 as a defense for Asus' thrown together metal back cover also doesn't hold water. In the below FCC schematic you'll see the placement of the iPad2's antennas. If you look at the back cover, there are perforations directly over the antennas that also serve as the speaker grill. Between that and significantly more engineering resources applied the Wi-Fi iPad2 doesn't suffer from signal loss and fluctuation the way the Prime does. And at least Apple was smart enough to deviate from their own chosen design by adding a plastic bar over the antennas on 3G models with GPS.

So, bottom line, if you're happy with what you've got terrific. Asus made a bunch of needless and dumb decisions for vanity. Because of that, the Prime will always be handicapped whether people choose to accept it or not. And I’m guessing in spite of Gary Key’s claims to the contrary that the TF700 will have working GPS and better Wi-Fi performance making it the Asus tablet people choose once it’s released. Between the low number of Prime’s being sold due to availability, other devices coming on to the market, and Asus’ own TF700 being released, that’s what will cause what the OP is afraid of happening to occur. Not people legitimately *****ing about sub-par wireless performance.