[Asus Transformer TF700] alienedd:
I've seen a few hit or miss issues that have been coming to light since the release of the TF700 infinity. On some devices, it seems to work and on others, not as well or not at all. From this, it seemed quite necessary to have a thread to identify the issues that others may encounter and for what they should check to know if they have a "good device" or whether it should be returned. Please let me know if their are any items that should be related to this list. If you wish to discuss your tablet's attributes (both good and bad) further, Pretoriano80 has made such a thread: [Infinity issues/defects/good features] Share your issues, defects or best features

Make sure you charge your tablet before using! Explanation in point 3.

Also, do not update past 9.4.5.26 during these tests if you want to use NVFlash!

1- Does your device have good build quality?

Some people have found that there are scratches on the device, frame's bent, the display is poorly set, the ports may be improperly mounted or other such things. It is recommended that if you encounter any of these that you return the device to get another one since you paid a lot of money for a "good" device. The tablet might click at corners, some of the backlight might bleed through around the edges of the display, or maybe show a slight but often not serious protrusion of the screen from the device. It's up to you to judge whether the extremity of this occurrence on your device are serious enough to warrant a return depending on your definition of "quality".

A possible test for "light bleed" is to take a picture from the camera in either a dark room or the camera lens covered (objective is to take a "black" photo). Open the image in the gallery app and turn up the brightness on the device. In this fashion you should be able to notice any "severe" cases of light bleed like this. If the light bleed is little and only noticeable during startup, then it's probably nothing to worry about.

2- Does your device have haptic feedback? (Does it vibrate properly?)

When you turn on and off your device, it should vibrate. This vibration will be subtle like the feeling of a working electrical appliance and not like a console joystick. If it doesn't, then it probably is defective. There are various methods to getting some type of jiggle out of the tablet if you want a more extensive test. One example is to add such feedback to your on-screen keyboard via Settings -> Language & Input. I'll just go over the basic "Android Keyboard". Select the sliders button next to the keyboard, look for "vibrate on keypress", put a little check next to that, then go into "advanced settings". By default, these vibrations are set to 1ms which is a duration too short to provide any feedback. Adjust the "Keypress vibration duration settings" to something like 100ms in order to ensure that the buzz happens. Finally, verify that your default keyboard is set to the "Android Keyboard" and then open up something like SuperNote where you can type. You should have some buzzing upon every keypress. When done with this test, just go back into the keyboard settings and disable the "vibrate on keypress".

3- Is your battery life ~9 hours in power-saving mode or ~6 hours in balanced mode?

Some people have noticed that they either never reach this amount or never come close to it. This is kind of an expected behavior since on the first page of the instructions manual (you did read the manual, right?) it mentions this:

"Fully charge the battery up to eight hours for the first-time use. The battery reaches its maximum capacity after one full charging and discharging cycle." Therefore, one is supposed to charge the battery for up to an 8 hour period prior to use and then discharge the battery (until ~10% or so). You may encounter a variant of this concerning "a few cycles" but still, right after tearing the plastic off the box like a rapid child at Christmas, ensure that you just plug it in and forget about it for 8 hours (or until the charging light turns off). Otherwise, it can have a lasting negative impact on battery life.

More information about Li-ion can be found here.

4- Does the GPS work?

The TF700 shares a few things with the TF201 Prime (which had notoriously bad wireless, including Wifi communication, Bluetooth, and GPS). Some owners of the Prime didn't remember to check GPS even when everything else worked and later needed to get a Dongle. Ergo, why I put it here high on the list. I believe many of the issues dealing with hardware and software have been addressed by ASUS so if your GPS doesn't work, try updating (not past 9.4.5.26!) the device or send it back since it might be hardware related. Make sure that when testing, you have the "find location via wifi" option turned off if using Maps. Otherwise, test with a tool from Google Play Store like GPS Status or GPS Test. Note: testing may involve going outside and dancing with the device as the first connection is often the most difficult to get.

When GPS is working, you should see a little circle with a blinking dot inside in the lower right-hand corner. Sometimes, the dot might not blink and can seem to influence how well GPS programs work. Its a strange thing but with a simple solution (from myself encountering it on both the TF300 and the TF700): just open the notifications bar and close it again. The dot should be blinking. If not, try actually turning off and then turning back on the GPS via the notifications bar.

5- Does mini-HDMI work?

Though not necessarily a tendency of faults in the infinity, it is important to check all the offered functionality of the device prior to making it a permanent fixture in your life. Remember that if you don't have a friend with a mini-HDMI cable, Walmart (and many other stores) will accept returns provided they are within a particular time period. Feel free to use this return policy to test your device.

6- Can you watch video/youtube/netflix/etc while using a bluetooth headset?

Some people have noticed that there is a huge decrease in speed when watching a video while using a bluetooth headset for audio. The cause of this is unknown and the only explanation we know of is "because wifi and bluetooth share the same antenna". This seems plausible except that many other devices also use the same antenna for both functionalities yet do not display this behavior. Due to the underlying fact we do not know whether it is software or hardware related, it is advisable to return the product.

7- Does the headphone jack work?

Just for thoroughness and ease-of-testing, plug in a set of ear buds and make sure you hear sound. Some have complained that the quality is mediocre due to a humming noise but that the noise is negligible. If the noise is too pronounced, there still is the mounted speaker and if point 6's test was successful, bluetooth is still an option.

8- Does your device feel quick to respond? If not, are you on firmware version .26?

It has been widely noted that version .26 of the firmware made the tablet very snappy. This also helped the device to recognize more microSD cards but also caused problems with NTFS-formatted drives. If you aren't getting the response you want, try upgrading to .26 (not beyond that). Additionally, if your microSD card is NTFS, you may want to reformat it (backup whatever you want to keep first) to FAT32 or exFAT until the issues with NTFS are ironed out. This point also concerns point 9 further down.

9- Can you receive OTA updates? (This should be fixed since Aug 7)

Provided that you are on version .21 or .22, you should be able to receive updates from ASUS for your device via the "About Tablet" option in settings. If you cannot, this might be indicative of another issue which has yet to be identified. You can apply updates without OTA via these methods:

(easiest way)[HOW TO]Tired to wait the .26 with WW TF700 device?

(another way)*** Firmware News & Alternative Install Methods*** Ver. 9.4.5.26 27/07

(requires root)[HOWTO] Manually updating firmware using "dlpkgfile" download via Asus FOTA server

(requires unlocked bootloader)[HowTo] Restore Stock Recovery and Install .26 OTA Manually with Unlocked Bootloader

(requires unlocked bootloader and TWRP custom recovery)[CWM] Repackaged OTA update 9.4.5.26 US/WW versions

Make sure you do not update past 9.4.5.26 if you want to use NVFlash!

10- (Only if this is important to you and then only if you are willing to forego any ASUS warranty) Can you unlock the bootloader? (This should be fixed since Aug 7)

Bonus Warning: ASUS has noted that using their bootloader unlocker will void your warranty and all OTA updates for your device will cease. However, without this unlocking, you will not be able to run custom ROMs nor will you be able to use NVFlash to make your device brick-proof.

[Device is unlocked][Video Added] Bootloader Unlock Tool Released [25.7.2012]

If you are still within your store's "grace period", you may want to try this out to verify if your device will ever be able to run non-ASUS android systems. There's no way of knowing at this moment if the bootloader unlocker will work on your device without actually trying to unlock it. If it does not work, it might be due to their service being unavailable, your serial number might not yet be in their database of devices for the unlock to succeed, your device serial number internally might not match your external serial number (on the sticker), or the problem might be something else entirely. Many of those whose bootloader would not unlock did not receive OTAs either so this shares the "issue which has yet to be identified" from point 9.

If you can give your tab a :good: to all of these points, then you have a good device! Congratulations! :highfive:

Maybe check out these threads next:

[INDEX]-[Updated -25 July 2012]-ASUS INFINITY TF700 - INDEX THREAD-DEVELOPMENT-PART#1

[RESOURCES] How to Root, Unlock, ROMs, Recovery, Tips & more [VIDEO TUTORIALS]