[Transformer TF300T General] joelalmeidaptg:
Hey guys, I have seen many posts of people asking why should they buy a TF300T, what is good and what isn't, so I decided to create this post to share my personal experience with this device.

I bought this tablet back in July 2012. At the moment I had some money saved, waiting for something I like to pop up and to be able to buy it.

I've always been a kind of "techy" person. I have a desktop computer that I built myself piece by piece running Windows and Ubuntu (my favorite OS). I'm also familiar with various programming languages, on both OS's. At the moment, the only Android device I had (and the very first one) was a Sony Ericsson Xperia x10 Mini, all unlocked and running Gingerbread and full speed (I just loved flashing ROM and tweaking my little baby to the top). At the time I though tablets were kind of useless... After all, they are just extra-big Android phones that people just use to show off and which only purpose was to play silly games and visit Facebook, having to pay an exuberant amount of money just to buy them.

I was aware of the existence of Transformers - I liked them from the first moment

I set eyes on a video-presentation - but they were just too expensive.

One day I was surfing on an online shop and I found TF300T. I couldn't believe what I was sawing. A quad-core Transformer, 32GB of internal memory, 1GB of RAM, Ice Cream Sandwich, and 500€... Dock included. It was cheaper than an iPad 2, and had a dock with an extra battery and USB port. Not to mention SD-card's and HDMI. Some days later watching reviews and thinking about playing with ROMs, Java and HTML made me decide: I was going to buy a Transformer!

The first impressions

The first time I used this tablet was magical. Everything worked as expected - it was fast, and the dock was just like I expected it to be. The tablet just felt good in my hands. The rear camera is amazing, at least in my opinion: great image quality. The screen has amazing colors and is really snappy (although it is kind of a fingerprint magnet).

Although it was good, there were some problems with it: browsing was extremely slow (in the beginning I didn't noticed this much because it was my first time with a tablet) and apps kept force closing, which was kind of annoying. Well, nothing that couldn't be solved with an custom ROM: but that would have to wait some time. There was also the problem with I/O. Transferring files with the cable was a pain in the ass: the only way I was able to transfer files to the device with efficiency was using Airdroid.

ASUS, the mighty ASUS

One of the things that I really liked (and was surprised by) was how ASUS handled its devices. Let's start with the software on the tablet.On my x10 Mini, Sony putted a lot of crappy software on it, that had nothing that other apps on Market couldn't do, filled the device internal storage/RAM and that were just annoying. They didn't even included a file manager, one of the basic things all devices should have! But that's not what happens on my TF300T - not at all. The tablet came with a super-useful-and-user-friendly-and-awesome file manager (that I use until now), a complete Office suite, an app for taking notes (one of my favorite from ASUS apps) Supernote, and app for backups, for locking other apps so nobody could open them without a password, Splashtop (watch me using Office and playing games on my tab), an amazing swipe-able keyboard with a super-friendly layout, among others. And the wallpapers! One that changes according with the time and weather, another with the battery juice, and one for slide-showing all your photos.

And now, the support. ASUS is the best regarding software updates: we were the first tablet having JellyBean, not to mention regular updates. And unlike Sony, ASUS seems to care about its older devices. Also, ASUS releases the source code of their ROMS: a developer dream.

ASUS also released their own tool to unlock their devices, making the task really easy. And, besides all their warnings about warranty, they still honor it if its proven not to be our fault to damage the device.

Unlocking, installing custom ROM's, Developers, Kernels

After a couple of months using the tab without any hardware problems, I decided to unlock. I read in the forums about some people that weren't able to unlock it, but everything went smooth. Reading instructions on the forum with extreme care, I was able to install TWRP in minutes and get a new ROM installed.I couldn't believe how fast my tablet became. Using CleanROM / Hydro / CM9/10 without a custom kernel proved to be like a miracle to the tablet. I can't explain how much has changed, you can only tell by using it before and after. It was a HUGE difference.

A few days ago, I decided to try a new kernel. I read a lot about untermensch's kernel and decided to go for it. The tablet just went from perfect to heaven-like. I can now reproduce 1080p movies WITHOUT ANY GLITCH AT ALL! It's just so amazing!

This tablet also has a big level of development, New (and good) ROMs keep appearing, along with mods and kernels to make our tab even better, if possible. This makes me really happy about this device. Of course, if you have the 3G version of the tablet, you probably won't be so happy. The development for it is almost nonexistent.

Camera

The 8MP rear camera of the tablet is awesome. It has a great image quality. But what really make me love it was the fact that it takes pictures so fast and is able to capture perfectly "things moving". Bellow you have a photo I took on a cyclist competition. I also would like to advert you to not go and take pictures with this beats at a public event like I did if you don't to end up with lots of people staring at you.

The video recording is astonishing. It records at 1080p and has perfect image quality.

Games

I'm not so much of a gamer, but all the games I tried to play with it ran smoothly and fine. Of course I don't play "hardcore" games, I prefer to stick with Cut The Rope, Angry Birds, Granny Smith and so on.

Once I installed GTA Vice City just to test it out and the game ran pretty well. The dock helped a lot when playing (specially for cheats :p )

Battery

Having a second battery on the dock, and being big, this tablet has a huge battery capacity, and can stay turned on for days with average use. Here's a print of my battery usage stats using CM10.

Final thoughts

If I didn't buy a tablet and was to buy one now, I would definitely buy this tablet again. It can do anything and even more. In the beginning, when I though that a tablet was useless, I was SO wrong. I ended up downloading torrents, playing lots of games, browsing every website, taking notes and lots of photos, even office stuff like spreadsheets. I pretty much do ANYTHING with it. It's so portable (because of its battery), flexible thanks to the dock and it's software and so stable. I take it everywhere I go (even to the bathroom - that's one of the things this tablet to best - take the place of a newspaper :laugh: ).

That's all I have to say about my tablet. I hope I helped you decide if you should or not get one TF300T. I'll keep updating this post with thinks I did with my tablet and maybe some hints. I would also like to thank all the developers that helped making this tablet such a marvelous device. Sea! :angel: