Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 Mobile Docking

by Asus

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 1.1 x 7.3 inches ; 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B004U78628
• Item model number: TF101 DOCKING
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (386 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,776 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Some things are meant to go together

Easily switch between tablet and PC mode with the docking station designed especially for the Eee Pad Transformer. The station not only extends the tablet's battery life up to 16 hours¹ but also features added functionalities which include a near full-sized QWERTY keyboard, a multi-touch touchpad, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and a 4-in-1 SD card reader.

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Key Features

• Enhance productivity with the docking station's 92% sized QWERTY keyboard that adds additional 6.5 hours of battery life, to instantly turn the Transformer into PC mode with up to 16 hours of battery life. ¹
• 4-in-1 SD card reader lets users transfer files between their devices and the tablet quickly, easily and safely.
• Large sized multi-touch touchpad is not only comfortable to use but supports intuitive gesture inputs.
• Connect mice, keyboards, USB memory sticks and USB HDDs to the tablet with the docking station's 2 USB 2.0 ports for enhanced computing experience.

Relax, ASUS Has You Covered

Ranked as the #1 most reliable PC brand by 3 independent sources², readers and editors alike choose ASUS as their trusted notebook and netbook. We tirelessly strive to exceed expectations of quality to ensure you an unmatched peace of mind every time you start your PC.

We also back our commitment with the industry's most comprehensive warranty.

• 1 year North America warranty
• Free one-way standard shipping
• 24/7 tech support

What's in the Box

TF101 Tablet Docking Station

User manual

Specifications

• Input/Output: 2 x USB 2.0
• Card Reader: 1 x 4-in-1 Card Reader / MMC / SD (SDHC/SDXC)
• Battery: 24.4 W/h Li-polymer battery (up to 6.5 hours)¹
• Dimensions: 10.67" x7.28" x 1.1" inches (W x D x H)
• Weight: 1.41 lbs (with battery)
• Color: Espresso

© 2011 ASUS Computer International. All Rights Reserved. ASUS is a registered trademark of ASUSTeK Computer. All specifications and terms are subject to change without notice. Please check with your supplier for exact offers on selected models. Products may not be available in all markets. Product may not be exactly as shown in photos. All trademarks are registered to their respective companies. ASUS shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.


¹ Actual battery life varies with usage. Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations.
² Rated number 1 Windows-based PC maker in PCMag.com's Service & Reliability Report 2010. Rated number 1 PC brand according to SquareTrade, the leading direct-to-consumer warranty company (for more information visit http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109/ ). Rated number 1 reliable PC maker in Q2 2010's RESCUECOM report http://www.rescuecom.com/2010-2nd-Quarter-Computer-Reliability-Report.html

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Product Description

Asus Keyboard/Docking Station for Eee Pad Transformer easily switch between tablet and PC mode with the docking station designed especially for the Eee Pad Transformer. The station not only extends the tablet's battery life up to 16 hours1 but also features added functionalities which include a near full-sized QWERTY keyboard, a multi-touch touchpad, 2 USB 2.0 ports, and a 4-in-1 SD card reader.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

194 of 197 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great keyboard turns your tablet into a netbook. May 6, 2011

By Donato Orlando

I've had this keyboard for 2 days now. The build quality on the keyboard itself is great and really makes your transformer look like a netbook. There is no flex in the keyboard which I have seen on my expensive laptops. It is only 8% smaller than a standard keyboard so it's been pretty easy for me to type on. In fact I'm typing this review from my keyboard now. The chicklet keys are great and make it much easier to figure out which key your finger is on. The usb ports recognize my ntfs formatted usb hard drive. I don't have an SDXC card to test it out but from what I'm seeing it should be able to read those cards to giving you a big boost in memory in case you could only pick up the 16gb Transformer like most people so far. The trackpad is nice and responsive but a bit too sensitive. I have found my thumbs inadvertantly hitting the trackpad, but you can disable the trackpad and use a usb mouse or bluetooth mouse with your transformer, pluss the touchscreen still works great. There are plenty of dedicated android buttons. Including a screenshot button brightness, volume, media player wifi, bluetooth, home screen, internet, and menu buttons. Having the ctrl buttons are great when I'm using splashtop to control my PC from my Transformer. Too bad it's missing a recent apps key, but that's always on your screen to click anyway.

Now to the software glitches that keep me from giving this five stars. There are times I've had the keybaord stop responding and have had to remove the transformer and put it back in to get it back on. Also it inadvertantly disables wifi even though my finger was nowhere near that key. Others are having this issue to, and disabling the trackpad seems to reduce the frequency by which it happens, and we're hearing Asus has already heard of the issue and is looking into it. This should be able to be fixed with software considering the keyboard itself even has it's own firmware.

Also another thing to note is that since the Transformer is heavier than the dock it is a bit screen heavy but Asus seems to have alleviated most of this issue with the way that the whole part that connects to the transformer itself also protudes out the bottom to act as a stand to angle the keyboard and help shift some of the weight.

Overall it's a great accessory. Adds 7 hours of battery life, holds your screen up for you, has 2 usb ports and a full size SD card slot. It's obvious Asus really thought about the design of this dock, and it wasn't simply designed to be an added keyboard, but to give your Transformer that netbook feel with a screen that is better than any I've seen on a netbook.

Update 5-9-2011
I've been using the keyboard for 5 days now and wanted to post an update to the software issues I mentioned. For some reason mine have seen to gone away. I can leave the trackpad enabled and have no issues with it losing keyboard or trackpad connectivity, and it's stopped randomly disabling the wifi, so I upped my rating to 5 stars.

Update: 6-11-2011
Been over a month with the keyboard. Asus has an update to the keyboard firmware that fixed a few issues the keyboard was having. I wish there was a battery meter built in on the dock, but there are some widgets out over at XDA that handle this. Keyboard still types very solidly. The battery on the keyboard is great. Sometimes I'll charge just the dock so I can use the tablet away from the wall, then when the dock is done charging plug the transformer into the dock and charge while typing away with buddies on google chat. I probably dock and undock my keyboard over 3-6 times a day and the mechanism is still solid and works very well. This is a great sign since Asus has said this keyboard dock will work with future transformer tablets. That's great knowing I can use my most expensive and favorite accessory going forward.

165 of 172 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great accessory for Transformer owners June 21, 2011

By Mike P.

Amazon Verified Purchase

The keyboard is a large reason why someone would choose the Transformer over a different tablet, myself included. If you have used an Asus netbook you will be familiar with the keyboard. Despite the size I find I have no issues typing, the separation between the keys helps and the keypress is a good range and feel. I do have to turn the touchpad off because my large hand keeps tapping in that space and Honeycomb OS doesn't allow you to disable "tap to click". But that is easy because it is one of the great quick keys in the top row. The USB ports are cool for additional storage or game controllers, and the extra SD card is nice for backing up or browsing photos off your digital camera. The extra battery life is extremely convenient when traveling, and having the complete unit in its clamshell adds some perceived sturdiness to the unit (if nothing else, the battery section is protecting the screen from shattering).

EDIT 01/01/12: As I document further below, this *used* to have a power management problem, and in fact if you receive a serial number B40, B50, or B60, you will need to contact ASUS for a repair. However, I purchased a replacement dock from Best Buy where I could see the serial number began with B90, and it does indeed work great. I've updated my rating to 4 stars.

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THE FOLLOWING is no longer an issue, but I am leaving in place for posterity
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The caveat I reference in my title is the battery. Asus designed the keyboard to use
its battery to keep the Transformer charged, but it has no disconnect circuit. So any time the keyboard is attached, even if your tablet is at 99% or 100% and is in standby (not using power), the keyboard battery discharges at 5% per hour. As a result you cannot carry it as a netbook in a bag without losing power. There are reports online also that if the dock battery is at 0% for too long it can never be recharged and you need to RMA it.

EDIT 7/21/11: This became a dealbreaker for me so I returned it to Amazon for a refund. Asus now acknowledged a problem on their Facebook page and say a fix is in the works. If that ends up being true, I will definitely buy one again.

EDIT 9/20/11: As you can see in the comments, Asus acknowledged there was a hardware flaw. If the serial number is a B40, B50, or some with a B60, it needs to go back for warranty repair. And from personal experience with their motherboard support, the Asus RMA process is horrible; they keep losing my information. So I would recommend buying from a store like Best Buy so you can see the serial number on the box ahead of time.

93 of 96 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect accessory for your Transformer May 10, 2011

By Alex Tamulis

I finally got my Transformer companion piece, the TF101 Keyboard/Docking Station. I preordered it on amazon.ca and memory express and the latter called me yesterday to let me know it had arrived. I heavily used the tablet itself for 2 weeks before having the docking station, and I've been using it docked for 2 days now.

The docking station turns your tablet into a netbook that weighs a bit under 3 pounds (the keyboard weighs 1.4 pounds by itself). The two fit together easily and there's a slider lock that locks it into place. Even when docked, you can still use the touchscreen for everything except the touchscreen keyboard. The Function keys are all optimized for Android OS and boy, they're handy. You can toggle Wi-fi and Bluetooth on/off, adjust the screen brightness, access your browser, search on Google, access the Settings, all with its dedicated key. The chiclet style keyboard is 92% of full-size keyboards and the keys are very responsive. Same goes for the trackpad. Sometimes it can be a bit too responsive depending how hard you press against it.

There are 2 USB ports that are accessible via a piece that flaps open but it seems to be a magnet-like piece, so be ready to use your nails to pull it out. I bite my nails and it was a bit hard to get to them, but nothing major. I tested the USB ports with various devices: USB portable hard drive (1TB) and a 16GB USB drive. I posted a few pics on this page for you to see.

I also used a bluetooth mouse (Logitech M505) and it worked flawlessly. The external drives were recognized immediately and icons pop up at the bottom of the screen to inform you that an external hard drive has been plugged in. You can either access it right away (and that will take you to File Manager, which is the Windows Explorer of Android) or unmount them. But you need to remember to unmount the drives before disconnecting them, at all times. If you unplug it without clicking on the unmount icon, Honeycomb might freeze up for a few seconds. It looks like it's a bit lost, hehe. So make sure you always unmount your device before unplugging it and all is well. This is something that can be addressed in future firmware updates.

I want to emphazise that having the option to attach all these external drives and being able to access them in File Manager makes the tablet a device for creation. You're now able to copy, paste, move all those files from the tablet to the drives and vice versa. You can have a Word or Excel file saved on the USB and you can quickly open them using Polaris Office (pre-installed on the tablet). You can edit these files and save them onto your usb drive, your external hard drive or even a SD card. If you don't have any of those and you want to save it onto the microSD card, that's fine too. This was one of my pet peeves with the iPad, since it's a device that allows you to access and play media and stuff, but you can't alter, edit, move, paste, etc (unless you are connected to iTunes via a PC or Mac). The Transformer gives you the option of using it on its own with no strings attached.

All of a sudden I'm able to back up files from my USB onto my external hard drive on-the-go, without the need of a PC or Mac. I must say there's a bit of a learning curve for some people when accessing File Manager since the folder system might look confusing to some in the beginning. But it's something you can grasp within hours, if you're an iOS person who's not used to Android. That freedom of being able to edit files that easily, that's pretty neat.

Bluetooth/wireless mouse worked without a problem, but I haven't used it that much. I heard it stops working sometimes and you need to undock the tablet in order to make it work again. That has not happened to me yet. We shall see. A lot of the issues that people may face with Honeycomb will get fixed with firmware updates in the coming weeks or months. But these minor issues don't affect the overall experience. It just shows a promising OS that's still maturing. The Motorola Xoom received its Android 3.1 update today, and we'll be getting the same update in a week or two.

I still need to mention one of the most important features imo: battery life. The keyboard has an extra battery that will add 6.5 extra hours to your battery life. So now you got 16 hours of battery life with your netbook combo. Other devices like the Blackberry Playbook are now getting keyboard docks because Asus came up with this idea but I don't think they'll have a battery built in. And this feature is really, really important, especially if you don't like charging multiple devices all the time, you know you can count on those extra hours if you get stuck somewhere in the boonies where you can't charge it. Fyi, the tablet will always be 100% charged and the docking battery will be the one getting depleted, provided they're always connected.

Minor issues with the keyboard: the keyboard stopped working a couple of times when I was scrolling down the trackpad using two fingers. It also disabled wi-fi while I was doing that same thing. I was reading an article and doing 2 finger scrolling and I experienced a few glitches, and I've read that others have also experienced similar things so it looks like it will need a future update to address this issue.

Ok, so recapping:

Pros: Physical QWERTY keyboard, responsive trackpad that can be toggled off if you keep bumping into it, Honeycomb-specific function keys, 2 USB ports, 1 SD Card reader, connector between Transformer and dock, "net-tablet" on the go, portability, and another battery that adds 8 hours to get a total of 16 hours of battery life.

Cons: keyboard might be a bit small for people with big hands, it might be difficult to dock/undock, Shift Key is a bit small, no Alt key on the left side, it might feel heavy for some people, 2 finger scrolling can disable wi-fi, the arrow keys can't be toggled off.

I tried to think of all the pros and cons that came to mind, if you have more, please add them in the comments section below. I do think this device adds lots to your Transformer, so I gave it 5 stars.