Asus remoulded the conventional tablet design with its pioneering Transformer range of Android devices, in particular the Transformer Prime.
The concept brought together the fluidity of a touch-based tablet interface with the convenience of a physical keyboard in one handy package.
Now the company is about to challenge its own well-established product with a new twist on the idea and a different operating system – Windows 8.
Operating SystemAsus’ Transformer Prime now runs version 4.0 of Google’s Android platform, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).
This is easily one of the most stable and best performing Android builds we’ve seen to date and literally flies along with Apple-like fluidity. Android’s party trick was always multi-tasking and it’s as good at this as it ever was but now with the added capability of a fast app switcher complete with a swipe-to-close function.
This brings the multi-tasking straight to the surface of the operating system, as well as making it much easier to handle.
The Asus Tablet 600 runs Microsoft’s Windows 8, however, calling it Windows 8 isn’t entirely accurate because, as this is an ARM-based device it uses the specially made ARM optimised build known as Windows RT.
At time of writing, this is still the Release Preview non-final build in the run up to a full release later in 2012, but we’ve already been treated to some video footage of features we can expect in the full version.
Microsoft is picking up with Windows 8 where Windows Phone left off – it’s a colourful system which uses ‘Live Tiles’ as app shortcuts but also widgets which feedback live information from their respective apps.
It also has Windows Phone’s continuous scroll ‘Start’ page which is populated by these tiles. The whole approach is dubbed ‘Metro’ UI by Microsoft and it is quite an intuitive approach.
Performance also appears to be typically speedy as Microsoft has proven particularly adept at optimising its mobile platforms.
Most interestingly, this is the first tablet platform we’ve seen which fully makes use of the vast screen real-estate your typical 10-inch slate provides.
Generally, tablet interfaces are essentially blown-up versions of their smartphone equivalents, which leaves you with a lot of room to fill with undersized widgets and app icons.
With Windows RT/Windows 8, not only do you get true multi-tasking (something not present on its mobile forerunner, Windows Phone) but you can actually use multi-tasked applications simultaneously in the same screen space.
A sliding gesture from the left of the screen brings in an app switcher which, much like on Android, shows you a carousel of currently active apps in small thumbnail windows.
You can scroll through this and activate individual apps you want to use, or, alternatively, drag an active app into the screen alongside whatever else you were doing.
As with Windows 7 for
PCs and OSX for Mac, you can snap multiple windows into the screen and use them simultaneously. This means you could have a mailbox and Twitter feed running alongside a web browser or Office document meaning productivity is a very real option on a tablet for the first time.
This leaning towards productivity is the major difference of Windows RT versus Android. On Android you’re pretty much limited to buying either the full version of Docs To Go or using Polaris Office, both are great programs but compared to the options on Windows they’re a workaround - Android isn't aimed at productivity.
Windows RT, meanwhile, is going to come with a fully touch-optimised version of Microsoft’s Office suite pre-installed and combined with the keyboard this is going to make it a fully blown work laptop right from the word go, as well as being as good a gaming and multimedia entertainment centre as the Transformer Prime.
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12:07 PM
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