I did my due diligence and my searches have come up with no threads that covered this yet.
Here is the screenshot for what I am referring to.
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"lightbox_share": "Share",
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}
...and here is the story.
I noticed that while streaming data/audio over bluetooth the wifi performance (the already pitiful performance) drops to essentially nothing and often times out.
IE: I first noticed something was wrong and the wheels began turning when I had been watching Netflix and decided to pair with my Bluetooth speaker so I didn't have to keep cupping the side of the tablet for decent audio. Netflix timed out every time I paired.
While testing this I didn't notice any difference with Bluetooth "on" but only while it was transmitting something. For the purpose of my speed tests I was playing white noise over a Bluetooth speaker from an app in the background.
I know slim to nil about the real nitty gritty of hardware in tablets but I can only suspect that they share the antennae or in the worst case I have a lemon and need to RMA.
Has anyone else noticed this?
also obligatory:
"wifi sucks" "SD/Internal Memory writes are absurdly slow" "stock browser is bad, use opera"
Edit: post title clarified and pun-ified
Oh my!
I have bluetooth on about 75% of the time because that is how I text from my tablet (paired with my phone) I haven't noticed any changes in my wifi at all when BT is on/off. However I realize that is NOT the same as streaming audio/data.
Since I do have it on so often, I'll check it out and see what happens with mine.
slugbug2010 said:
Oh my!
I have bluetooth on about 75% of the time because that is how I text from my tablet (paired with my phone) I haven't noticed any changes in my wifi at all when BT is on/off. However I realize that is NOT the same as streaming audio/data.
Since I do have it on so often, I'll check it out and see what happens with mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did notice that it only occurs while data is being continuously sent.
While doing my test I had a white noise app sending audio to a bluetooth speaker.
(gonna add that to the OP so other people dont get confused)
i just bought a bluetooth keyboard and mouse today, and i can tell you that my wifi signal while these devices are active have dropped greatly... instead of getting half wifi bar in my living room i now get 1 bar.
I have also noticed that my bluetooth mouse has some pretty bad lagg, pretty sure its not the mouse because it works find on all my other tablets. Im guessing its all due to the metal case. GO ASUS!
jzen said:
i just bought a bluetooth keyboard and mouse today, and i can tell you that my wifi signal while these devices are active have dropped greatly... instead of getting half wifi bar in my living room i now get 1 bar.
I have also noticed that my bluetooth mouse has some pretty bad lagg, pretty sure its not the mouse because it works find on all my other tablets. Im guessing its all due to the metal case. GO ASUS!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good Lord, man, just return it already. You have posted in every single possible bug thread saying that you have that bug. I'm waiting for the guy to post that his tablet is giving him metal splinters so you can post in that thread saying yours is too. Or the my tablet is making me go bald because the metal case is holding all of that radiation in, and you posting mine is too!
Exhausting, I tell ya.
Semantics said:
Good Lord, man, just return it already. You have posted in every single possible bug thread saying that you have that bug. I'm waiting for the guy to post that his tablet is giving him metal splinters so you can post in that thread saying yours is too. Or the my tablet is making me go bald because the metal case is holding all of that radiation in, and you posting mine is too!
Exhausting, I tell ya.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you even have a prime? I'm guessing not, otherwise you would know that all these issues I speak of are true. I wanted it to be a great tablet but in the end... almost every feature it has is flawed and no miracle version of ICS will fix it. Every problem with the device (except screen bleed) all comes down to one major design flaw (the metal case).
Crap wifi, crap gps, crap bluetooth and deciding to copy apple with a metal case was an epic fail because they did not use their heads.
Now, you can cry, kick and scream like a baby or make fun of me all you want, but I guarantee after you have spent a week or two with the prime you will go back and read my words of wisdom and know that I was not joking, or just making it all up.
If ICS or an update from Asus somehow fixes these issues I will give everyone on the prime xda forum $100 bucks (it will never happen, its a defective device pawned off onto us so Asus could make a quick profit.).
I have only posted in the prime forum to warn others of how bad the Prime really is, its just a shame that most of you are too ignorant or embarrassed to admit the truth. Take the word of someone who knows tablets, the prime is the definition of fail.
If you don't mind having crappy wifi, no gps and bluetooth that makes the crappy wifi even crappier then by all means go out and spend the $500 on the prime (you deserve it for not having a brain.). As for me and other intelligent users, we will either return it or just chuck it on CL or Ebay and wait for the real next gen tablet to comeout from a company that is not looking to screw over their customers for a quick profit.
This forum is filled with all kinds of problems the transformer prime has. And most of them cannot be fixed with a simple software update. These people are not trying to ruin your day, they are just trying to warn you of the many problems you will face if you decide to get this device now.
jzen said:
Do you even have a prime? I'm guessing not, otherwise you would know that all these issues I speak of are true. I wanted it to be a great tablet but in the end... almost every feature it has is flawed and no miracle version of ICS will fix it. Every problem with the device (except screen bleed) all comes down to one major design flaw (the metal case).
Crap wifi, crap gps, crap bluetooth and deciding to copy apple with a metal case was an epic fail because they did not use their heads.
Now, you can cry, kick and scream like a baby or make fun of me all you want, but I guarantee after you have spent a week or two with the prime you will go back and read my words of wisdom and know that I was not joking, or just making it all up.
If ICS or an update from Asus somehow fixes these issues I will give everyone on the prime xda forum $100 bucks (it will never happen, its a defective device pawned off onto us so Asus could make a quick profit.).
I have only posted in the prime forum to warn others of how bad the Prime really is, its just a shame that most of you are too ignorant or embarrassed to admit the truth. Take the word of someone who knows tablets, the prime is the definition of fail.
If you don't mind having crappy wifi, no gps and bluetooth that makes the crappy wifi even crappier then by all means go out and spend the $500 on the prime (you deserve it for not having a brain.). As for me and other intelligent users, we will either return it or just chuck it on CL or Ebay and wait for the real next gen tablet to comeout from a company that is not looking to screw over their customers for a quick profit.
This forum is filled with all kinds of problems the transformer prime has. And most of them cannot be fixed with a simple software update. These people are not trying to ruin your day, they are just trying to warn you of the many problems you will face if you decide to get this device now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go make another thread for your personal vendetta.
For all its faults, the prime is still fantastic. It works great with a few minor quirks that will likely be ironed out with ICS or a patch down the road.
I made the thread to clarify this bug in particular so I could determine if it was my device that was acting up, or a reproducible problem with other primes as well.
That being said, I would not recommend the prime, as it is, to anyone without moderate-advanced android knowledge because they would not understand the difference between potential and current iteration.
Good day sir.
I really wish people would only post if they know what they are talking about. 90% of the problems with the tablet are software related. Hardware pretty much works or it doesn't. Software is what has random results with stuff not working, or working poorly. Just like the update that came out fixed GPS. Updates dont fix hardware issues, so that means the GPS issue was software.
I will be able to test this tomorrow when my Prime finally arrives, I plan on using my tried and trusty Bluetooth Rocketfish headphones with my Prime while I test out it's Youtube/Netflix functionality.
dabbill said:
I really wish people would only post if they know what they are talking about. 90% of the problems with the tablet are software related. Hardware pretty much works or it doesn't. Software is what has random results with stuff not working, or working poorly. Just like the update that came out fixed GPS. Updates dont fix hardware issues, so that means the GPS issue was software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhm, last time I checked radio interference wasn't a s/w problem. With all the threads on Wi-Fi and GPS I was kind of wondering how BT would perform. With everyone's conditions being so different, it would be intersting to see if others streaming to external speakers or moving data had similar issues. OP, does moving the position of the BT device relative to the Prime have any impact?
BarryH_GEG said:
Uhm, last time I checked radio interference wasn't a s/w problem. With all the threads on Wi-Fi and GPS I was kind of wondering how BT would perform. With everyone's conditions being so different, it would be intersting to see if others streaming to external speakers or moving data had similar issues. OP, does moving the position of the BT device relative to the Prime have any impact?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No sir.
I tested this in multiple locations in my home with 3 different devices at varying distances with consistent results. +-10%
Logitech bluetooth speakers
Belkin x51 bluetooth receiver
Jawbone earpiece
jfortier777 said:
No sir.
I tested this in multiple locations in my home with 3 different devices at varying distances with consistent results. +-10%
Logitech bluetooth speakers
Belkin x51 bluetooth receiver
Jawbone earpiece
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if BT & Wifi don't work well together (as with my current Android tablet), then I think this will be the 'final' thing that is going to get me to cancel pre-order (I'm in the UK) until things are sorted
A shame
Verified here. My experience with a set of Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth headphones is:
1. Run Speedtest, strong 24Mb/s speeds.
2. Connect headphones and play music.
3. Wifi drops to about 4Mb/s for a few seconds.
4. Wifi stays connected but stops transmitting/receiving.
5. Any app that tries to connect to the Internet fails.
6. Turn off Bluetooth and connection is restored.
Definitely a problem. However, I don't know of any reason to assume it's not fixable in a firmware update, so I'm not going to knee-jerk react to it.
Hmmm....
Very interesting, I thought it was just my phone's mobile hotspot acting up yesterday when I took the 3 year old to the park. My Prime was connected to my phone running relatively smooth and after I connected my bluetooth headset to my Prime, my Prime's ability to load images on forum boards was very inconsistent. Didn't pay it much mind.
On a somewhat related note, the bluetooth range for prime seems to be pretty damn good.
wynand32 said:
I'm not going to knee-jerk react to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no sport in that.
BUYMECAR said:
On a somewhat related note, the bluetooth range for prime seems to be pretty damn good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a software update needs to take the BT radio strength down a peg.
You think? I was pushing the kid on the tire wheel which was like 20 steps away from where the prime was sitting on a table with my roomie and was still getting stable playback from the Prime.
I also noticed when first pairing the headset, there was a listing for "Ken's phone" but the closest person to us was a family sitting about 4 tables away and each table probably had 4 feet between.
BUYMECAR said:
You think? I was pushing the kid on the tire wheel which was like 20 steps away from where the prime was sitting on a table with my roomie and was still getting stable playback from the Prime.
I also noticed when first pairing the headset, there was a listing for "Ken's phone" but the closest person to us was a family sitting about 4 tables away and each table probably had 4 feet between.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what I mean, do you really need bluetooth to reach 30 feet and thereby killing your wifi.
I was thinking maybe tune the BT's power down to half and perhaps give Wifi a lil breathingroom?
Just a thought.
wynand32 said:
Verified here. My experience with a set of Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth headphones is:
1. Run Speedtest, strong 24Mb/s speeds.
2. Connect headphones and play music.
3. Wifi drops to about 4Mb/s for a few seconds.
4. Wifi stays connected but stops transmitting/receiving.
5. Any app that tries to connect to the Internet fails.
6. Turn off Bluetooth and connection is restored.
Definitely a problem. However, I don't know of any reason to assume it's not fixable in a firmware update, so I'm not going to knee-jerk react to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Certainly no knee jerking planned, but now that I know it's universal I can comfortably await an update that fixes it... and an unlocked bootloader.
I'll test this and respond. I have been having problems with my prime, while tethered to a Galaxy Nexus, failing to stream after 2-3 minutes. I did a side by side with the OG Transformer without fail. Thanks for pointing out bluetooth
EDIT: First let me point out my current testing. Transformer and Transformer Prime, side by side tethered to a Galaxy Nexus. Streamed an episode of Farscape via Netflix for 20 minutes without a problem. Pressed Home, opened Subsonic and tried to stream an episode of One Tree Hill. The Prime doesn't resolve the page with the flash video at all, while the OG Transformer loads the page just fine. I disabled the bluetooth, which was enabled but not connected to any devices. I disabled and enabled WiFi on the Prime, still no dice. Then I connected the Prime to my home WiFi, and it works. Connected the Prime to the Galaxy Nexus again, and no dice, but the OG Transformer is still surfing the net. Bluetooth is disabled right now, but it wasn't disabled when the prime's WiFi to GN broke.
Now as I write I toggled tethering on the GN off and on. Disabled wifi on the prime and re-enabled. Connected Prime to GN and internet is working again. I am commencing a stream of One Tree Hill. BT Disabled. In 5 Minutes I'll enable Bluetooth and see what happens.
---------- Post added at 03:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:20 PM ----------
Looks like I can confirm this. Was streaming just fine, speedtests and all that fun stuff. Not more than 4 minutes after enabling BT the internet went kaput. Interestingly.. I enabled bluetooth in the middle of a speedtest upload, and the speedtest immediately stopped.. at about 150kbps as opposed to the 5000 it should have reached. The second speed test recovered though. I went back to streaming video though, and the problems came back. I need bluetooth, so this is unacceptable.
Related
I know that there's plenty of evidence that the metal caseback may be (most likely is) a cause of poor GPS and WiFi reception. However, it cannot be the only cause, and I think there's a good chance that even with the metal case, the proper software could make this tablet run pretty well. Check out this photo:
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That photo was taken at the end of January, in my house, after about two minutes of satellite acquisition. Two 32 Gb Primes, both BCOK# series, .11 firmware. Since the WiFi on both was about the same and the GPS on the left one was great, I sent back the one on the right (I got the HHGregg $399 mistake deal on the left one).
Fast-forward to yesterday. Since the .13 firmware didn't change the GPS build number, I hadn't even bothered to test GPS since updating. On a whim, I tested it yesterday. Zero satellites. Even after five minutes of scanning. Zero. The only thing that changed was the firmware -- same hardware as before. In my car, outside on a clear day, I managed to pick up 3-4 birds sporadically but never for long and I never got a single location lock, in ten minutes.
I know it's easy to blame hardware and I know that there are a number of design choices that might have been made differently, but I guarantee you that software is playing a huge part in this as well.
I made this same argument when the .11 firmware completely borked the GPS on my prime - it had been working reasonably well before that. I ended up returning that one to best buy. The replacement I got works much better.
slybarman said:
I made this same argument when the .11 firmware completely borked the GPS on my prime - it had been working reasonably well before that. I ended up returning that one to best buy. The replacement I got works much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oddly enough my GPS was working before (6-9 birds 5-6 locks) albeit weakly with the .11 update but I just retested it yesterday since the .13 update and 1-3 birds but no lock.
slybarman said:
I made this same argument when the .11 firmware completely borked the GPS on my prime - it had been working reasonably well before that. I ended up returning that one to best buy. The replacement I got works much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I wish we could get a consensus of users who have had similar results. I feel like most of the discussion is just a knee-jerk regurgitation of the "metal caseback" or "damn pogopins" talking points and nobody is really looking into what these firmware updates may be effecting. I'm somewhat hopeful on the one hand -- if firmware can completely screw up GPS that was working as well as this one was, then perhaps the next update could fix it and improve it if they really get a bead on the problem.
It is the hardware, can't you guys just accept this.. please..
JoeyLe said:
It is the hardware, can't you guys just accept this.. please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can only assume you're being ironic and wanted to post your neat Picard picture. There is absolutely NO WAY that this could be blamed completely on hardware. I tested the exact same device in the exact same spot in the exact same house under basically the exact same environmental conditions (clear night, around the same time). The picture shows my GPS before the update, and I can assure you that last night I got no satellites at all. That's after soft resets, cold reboots, and two factory resets. Software was the variable in this equation.
I was surprised to note the same with my 32GB Gray Prime as well. Prior to .13, I was able to get as many as 8/10 birds locked indoors, and 12/14 locked outdoors--both WITHOUT wifi turned on. I didn't test it while driving because that's not a concern of mine, but I was happy to know that the Prime could serve as at least a stationary GPS device.
I tried it yesterday, however, on a whim, and I got the same results as the OP. Took FOREVER to lock outdoors, and never got more than 7/10 for a second or two. Indoors, I get nothing. And that was with wifi turned on. This was the first time I'd tested it since installing .13.
Clearly, this has something to do with software. I have no idea if the Prime will ever serve as a navigational device, but I can absolutely testify that GPS on my Prime was MUCH better prior to .13.
dcAndroidFan said:
I can only assume you're being ironic and wanted to post your neat Picard picture. There is absolutely NO WAY that this could be blamed completely on hardware. I tested the exact same device in the exact same spot in the exact same house under basically the exact same environmental conditions (clear night, around the same time). The picture shows my GPS before the update, and I can assure you that last night I got no satellites at all. That's after soft resets, cold reboots, and two factory resets. Software was the variable in this equation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After having owned many android devices, sometimes it can be software. the Prime could be a combo of both...
I remember when I had the HTC Mogul and people were saying it didn't have GPS.. they even opened it up and one guy swore up and down that it doesn't even have an antenna for GPS. A few months later, a firmware comes out and it enables GPS and it worked pretty well
http://gizmodo.com/365925/confirmed-sprint-mogul-gets-rev-a-and-gps+enabling-rom-update
Not saying this is the same case as the Mogul's shell was plastic, but there could be some software that's hindering the operation of it as there are folks that seem to have had a weak but working GPS.
(God I miss my Mogul)
Its probably not all software, its probably not all hardware. It's 99% likely to be a combo of both. Erusman's thread shows there obvious hardware flaws including PCB boards and pogo pins, RF signals ect. I think it'll be at least another 2 months before this gets sorted out totally, unfortunately by then I may have jumped boat completely. I'm trying to have faith but staples has stopped stocking the prime yet again, due to complaints, and if I cant continue returning for the product I'll have to just get a refund and wait to see what MWC brings. Mostly because I have $300 staples rewardS
jyan_osu said:
... there could be some software that's hindering the operation of it as there are folks that seem to have had a weak but working GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly -- I was one of those people, only mine wasn't "weak". I think 12 birds with 7 locks inside a house is pretty good. In my car, I got 11+ locks and accuracy to 20 feet sometimes. For a WiFi tablet that's pretty good. I'm trying to figure out how many more of us there are out there. If there's a substantial group, I'd like to see if we can get a dedicated effort from the fix-it guys like the random reboot, unknown serial #, and BT dropout issues got.
slybarman said:
I made this same argument when the .11 firmware completely borked the GPS on my prime - it had been working reasonably well before that. I ended up returning that one to best buy. The replacement I got works much better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I concur.
I went from 13 sats in view and 9 locked on .11 to 0/1 in view and 0 locked on .13.
JoeyLe said:
It is the hardware, can't you guys just accept this.. please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is the hardware, on SOME Primes, it is the software on most Primes however, can't you guys just accept this.. please..
It's not hardware! How can it just break then fix its self! I have told you guys before it has something to do with the tegra 2 power saving feature or something along the lines of AGC or something else! Hardware is not an issue!
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
dcAndroidFan said:
I can only assume you're being ironic and wanted to post your neat Picard picture. There is absolutely NO WAY that this could be blamed completely on hardware. I tested the exact same device in the exact same spot in the exact same house under basically the exact same environmental conditions (clear night, around the same time). The picture shows my GPS before the update, and I can assure you that last night I got no satellites at all. That's after soft resets, cold reboots, and two factory resets. Software was the variable in this equation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah sure, explain why people suddenly get a better signal by just pushing hard on the side of the tablet (yes, this also is hardware). It is just a combination of the backplate, pogopinns and other hardware. Accept it.
JoeyLe said:
It is the hardware, can't you guys just accept this.. please..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give it up. Too many of us have the same hardware and NO issues!
I bought mine knowing there were GPS issues, and my box doesn't say GPS at all. It came with Honeycomb and I didn't bother testing GPS at the time, and have since upgraded to ICS (.11) and I get no satellites, even outside.
I let it sit for about 20 minutes and from time to time it'd have one or two satellites in view, but they quickly disappear.
I tried the "squeeze the bezel" trick with no luck at all as well.
The .13 update is not yet available to me OTA, and reading about other's issues with it I'm reluctant to update, especially considering my prime has been utterly amazing on .11. If an update comes along that no one is having issues with I'll give it a whirl and test GPS again to see.
JoeyLe said:
Yeah sure, explain why people suddenly get a better signal by just pushing hard on the side of the tablet (yes, this also is hardware). It is just a combination of the backplate, pogopinns and other hardware. Accept it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because like I've said, sometimes it can be chalked up to hardware. Yes, like the pogopins. But I've made sure my pins connect, and after doing so on one s/w version I had almost decent GPS, and on another s/w version have no GPS.
Did my chip suddenly just die or something? My backplate somehow assimilated another layer of aluminum?
I doubt it...
BTrack said:
Give it up. Too many of us have the same hardware and NO issues!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have any idea what hardware you or anyone else has.
JoeyLe said:
Yeah sure, explain why people suddenly get a better signal by just pushing hard on the side of the tablet (yes, this also is hardware). It is just a combination of the backplate, pogopinns and other hardware. Accept it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of challenging me to explain your question about the magic nerve pinch, please focus on the point of THIS thread. The GPs on my Prime, and apparently many others, actually worked pretty well. Without pinching it, or taking it apart and attaching foil, and without running wires through the HDMI port, and without clipping external GPS receivers on it. And it had the metal caseback, and the pogopins of death. And the GPS worked. Pretty darn well, in fact.
Then the SOFTWARE got updated. Now the GPS doesn't work, and no amount of shaking, pinching, or coddling will fix it. Address THAT TOPIC instead of making ridiculous assertions about how hardware is the problem with all of them.
clackity said:
You don't have any idea what hardware you or anyone else has.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know what aluminum feels like. And I know what plastic feels like. And I can assure you that my hardware has an aluminum caseback. As to what's INSIDE there, yes -- there may be some variation and I'm not going to open mine up to find out -- but I can assure you it worked a lot better on GPS and Wifi before the .13 update. And the caseback didn't change.
Prior to the .11 update on 1/17, mine saw about 15-16 birds driving in my car (its a soft top). After that update, I get nothing. Same exact thing happened to my Dad's too.
BTW. I know this because since my GPS was weak to begin with, I tested it before and after that update, since that update was to fix the GPS. I did not move the table during the tests or the update.
I believe 100% that GPS is a Software/Firmware issue. I also know that there have been threads about this before.
That being said I had GPS working fine on my tablet when I got it and performance has gone down with every update. I am now on .14 and I have no GPS at all. Inside, outside, vertical, horizontal, with a phone, without, clear skys, rain, etc. The only 2 things that I haven't tried is taking off the back of the tablet and using gps tether, reason being that it worked before and now it doesn't and tethering has nothing to do with the internal GPS.
I'm almost thinking that they disabled the GPS in one of the last updates 13 and 14 for sure.
EDIT: What do you know it must be like going to the doctor. It hurts until you go there then everything is fine again.
My Prime is seeing 4 satellites in view right now however the gps has not "locked" yet.
The weirdest thing is that I left GPS on for a couple of hours with the screen sleep turned off and got nothing and now in the time that it took to edit this I got some satellites in view. I'm at a loss.
Has anyone else had similar experiences?
@Gary Key any input on this? Other than GPS my tablet is 100% functional, I haven't experienced any of the other problems wifi, reboots, etc.
it is hardware, it's been proven. the GPS and wi-fi antennas are connected via pogo pins and in some primes te pogo pins are touching, giving you great performance and in others they are not touching giving you no GPS.
GPS works on mine with .14, but doesn't lock to as many satellites as with .11, nor does it maintain as consistent a signal.
Personally, I believe the GPS issues are a combination of hardware and software.
cordell507 said:
it is hardware, it's been proven. the GPS and wi-fi antennas are connected via pogo pins and in some primes te pogo pins are touching, giving you great performance and in others they are not touching giving you no GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't buy the pogo pin theory. However the aluminum back might have something to do with it.
And how exactly has this been proven? Not to start a flame war but nobody has replaced the pogo pins with solder and put the prime back together. They have only added antennas to the device and/or removed the back plate. Lets get with the scientific method here. Change one variable at a time.
In my case the only thing that has changed is the version of the software on the tablet. The newer the software/firmware the worse the performance.
l33tlinuxh4x0r said:
I believe 100% that GPS is a Software/Firmware issue. I also know that there have been threads about this before.
That being said I had GPS working fine on my tablet when I got it and performance has gone down with every update. I am now on .14 and I have no GPS at all. Inside, outside, vertical, horizontal, with a phone, without, clear skys, rain, etc. The only 2 things that I haven't tried is taking off the back of the tablet and using gps tether, reason being that it worked before and now it doesn't and tethering has nothing to do with the internal GPS.
I'm almost thinking that they disabled the GPS in one of the last updates 13 and 14 for sure.
EDIT: What do you know it must be like going to the doctor. It hurts until you go there then everything is fine again.
My Prime is seeing 4 satellites in view right now however the gps has not "locked" yet.
The weirdest thing is that I left GPS on for a couple of hours with the screen sleep turned off and got nothing and now in the time that it took to edit this I got some satellites in view. I'm at a loss.
Has anyone else had similar experiences?
@Gary Key any input on this? Other than GPS my tablet is 100% functional, I haven't experienced any of the other problems wifi, reboots, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a multipage thread about this already (GPS performance acceptable, then degrades after .13 or .14 updates). Here's what's going to happen: You'll probably get flamed, a bunch of people will insinuate that you're an idiot for even SUGGESTING that it's not completely a hardware issue, and a few will mock your methods as unscientific. Debate may or may not go back and forth for a while, and then the thread will slowly die. And one day, .15 or .16 will come out, and maybe your GPS reception will magically improve again. Who knows?
I don't think that GPS will ever be GREAT (lots of birds with green-bar signal strength) but I do think that software updates are effecting the ACCEPTABLE GPS that a number of these units seem capable of achieving.
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10charsnow
l33tlinuxh4x0r said:
I don't buy the pogo pin theory. However the aluminum back might have something to do with it.
And how exactly has this been proven? Not to start a flame war but nobody has replaced the pogo pins with solder and put the prime back together. They have only added antennas to the device and/or removed the back plate. Lets get with the scientific method here. Change one variable at a time.
In my case the only thing that has changed is the version of the software on the tablet. The newer the software/firmware the worse the performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has been pretty extensively discussed in this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1474391
The aluminum case is definitely a major problem for GPS and Erusman "solved" that problem by attaching external antennae to his Prime so that the GPS can get a relatively clear signal. He experimented with several different types of internal antennae, hard wired the GPS antennae to replace the Pogo Pins, etc all with very poor GPS results until he ran an antennae out the back of his Prime.
To me (and most people who followed Erusman's testing), this indicates that the GPS's main problem is a hardware one, that hardware being the aluminum backplate of the Prime.
I have had varying GPS performance with the different firmware updates, which indicates that software can be a factor. However since I have also had generally poor GPS performance regardless of which formware I have been running I am pretty sure that software isn't as much of a factor as encasing the GPS antennae in what amounts to an aluminum faraday cage .
Not another one of these. I posted this on another forum. To the OP, if this is software please explain my results. Now even though it was picking satellites it wasnt really that useful as it didnt really track me on the spot when doing turn by turn.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=22657457&postcount=65
What HE said...
dcAndroidFan said:
There's a multipage thread about this already (GPS performance acceptable, then degrades after .13 or .14 updates). Here's what's going to happen: You'll probably get flamed, a bunch of people will insinuate that you're an idiot for even SUGGESTING that it's not completely a hardware issue, and a few will mock your methods as unscientific. Debate may or may not go back and forth for a while, and then the thread will slowly die. And one day, .15 or .16 will come out, and maybe your GPS reception will magically improve again. Who knows?
I don't think that GPS will ever be GREAT (lots of birds with green-bar signal strength) but I do think that software updates are effecting the ACCEPTABLE GPS that a number of these units seem capable of achieving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I pretty much agree. I doubt it will ever be truly accptable to the level of say, a TF101 - though I was told that my replacement C1 Serial Number Prime would be "At LEAST as good as a TF101" by a tech support manager. Seems that where the Prime is concerned NOTHING is a "given" Some days I get some GPS activity, some days not so much. What is apparent with my current unit is, GPS is EXTREMELY inconsistent, and not just from session to session, I mean from minute to minute. I can have 11 sats in view, using 5, and 10 seconds later lose half of them,or ALL of them, all without even moving the Prime so much as a millimeter.
I guess I will never be able to use my Prime as a "professional GPS device" Or as an unprofessional GPS device, or as a GPS device of any type. Sucks... and will continue to irk me for as long as I have and use a Prime. Probably for a long time after as well. I suspect that any mention or thought of Asus will no doubt bring the Now you see it, Now you don't GPS screw up to mind.
Know what would be great? Not having to see ONE MORE comment like "I didn't need the GPS anyway" or the classic: "If I want GPS, that's what my phone is for." That's terrific! Then if you buy a new car and the $1800 Navigation doesn't work, and the manufacturer decides to just stop supporting navigation in that model, you will be all set with your phone.
Don't TELL me how a tablet doesn't NEED GPS, and don't TELL me that the iPAD 2 WiFi doesn't HAVE GPS. I didn't BUY an iPAD 2. I bought a device that said "GPS" on the box and on the web. My GPS doesn't even work for LOCATION, never mind navigation.
Tell me again how I can just return it if I don't like it. That's the Problem... I do LIKE IT... I FREAKING LOVE IT, all the more reason why I want it to work properly. And I don't want to return it, I want to exchange it, or fix it. If it will never work, well, then I will never be completely happy, but that doesn't mean I can go get one of the many "Comparable" devices (Like Best Buy offered me when the oversold Pre-orders. There ARE no Comparable devices.
SO I am stuck using an add-on Bluetooth GPS Tethering device. Works ok. Bug me that there is GPS hardware right here in the Prime that doesn't work. Bugs me a lot. I am an engineer. Crap that doesn't work, or works poorly bugs me.
It's like the "Real Feel" weather people. Telling me that it's 60 degrees, but "feels like" 63. Not to ME! To ME, it feels like 66. Don't TELL me how to FEEL!
No one can tell me how to feel about this either. It feels like I got ripped off. Rant over (for today)
I think its the software too.
I was sent a c model that works perfectly in every way except the gps which will not lock on to any sats. BUT using free nav usa I can lock on to sats and stay connected. IT IS NO GOOGLE MAPS BUT it does work. Sooooo is it software ?
Ok, so I'm only marginally tech savvy, but lets say i wanted to set up optimal GPS conditions for my prime (which has never seen a satellite). How would I do that and what programs do you recommend.
So far I've tried putting my prime next to a window running GPS Test and letting it sit there for uo to 10mins.
Thanks
@SmartAs$Phone:
I know exactly how you feel. My prime's box didn't have GPS listed, and I was aware of the issues going in, so to me I knew ahead of time and I was okay with that. Bestbuy, on the other hand, was still advertising GPS as a feature at the time (End of January) and last I checked on their site they're still advertising it.
But for the folks that bought thinking "Yes! Full on GPS!" and it didn't deliver I can certainly understand the frustration. Double so, considering that when it didn't work they came here and found many others with the same problem, and they realized that had the done more searching up front they would have known about the issue.
In the end, however, no software is going to fix this problem as has been proven by the various hardware mod threads. For those willing to mod, that's a fine solution. For those not willing to mod, well, I don't know what the solution is.
Well, my C1 model had relatively OK GPS with .11
At my front door I could get 11 sats and four locked and it said about 48 feet accurate. BUT, use maps and my location jumped around and was typically 200 yards or more off.
With .14, I get a lot more sats, more locked, and 36 feet accurate. And on maps is locks dead on to where I am.
Can firmware improve GPS? Clearly. Did it get better from .11 to .14? Clearly.
Now the good part. If I was lucky I got a few sats intermittently indoors (1 to 3) after a few minutes. NOW, I get 7 sats and a lock with 72 feet accurate, and the map is about 100 feet off, but on the right street.
Say what you will. I don't have anything special. Same metal back.
*grabbing popcorn*
shinzz said:
*grabbing popcorn*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont forget the large size soda.
Clevatreva lol, all treva did was play with birds by the door. Other more tech people opened their primes and proved to themselves its Purley hardware..... Sillytreva
Sent from my GT-I9100
snakeybidder said:
Clevatreva lol, all treva did was play with birds by the door. Other more tech people opened their primes and proved to themselves its Purley hardware..... Sillytreva
Sent from my GT-I9100
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dcAndroidFan said:
Here's what's going to happen: You'll probably get flamed, a bunch of people will insinuate that you're an idiot for even SUGGESTING that it's not completely a hardware issue, and a few will mock your methods as unscientific.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems like I pretty much called this one.
I am also thinking that gps issue is mostly software problem. When I bought tfp there was android hc. I had seen 15 sats and connected to 13. Whith .11 it dropped to max 6 visible but I was able to get a fix. Now with .14 I can see max 4 sats with no fix. I`ve got no problems with reboots nor wifi.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
l33tlinuxh4x0r said:
I believe 100% that GPS is a Software/Firmware issue. I also know that there have been threads about this before.
That being said I had GPS working fine on my tablet when I got it and performance has gone down with every update. I am now on .14 and I have no GPS at all. Inside, outside, vertical, horizontal, with a phone, without, clear skys, rain, etc. The only 2 things that I haven't tried is taking off the back of the tablet and using gps tether, reason being that it worked before and now it doesn't and tethering has nothing to do with the internal GPS.
I'm almost thinking that they disabled the GPS in one of the last updates 13 and 14 for sure.
EDIT: What do you know it must be like going to the doctor. It hurts until you go there then everything is fine again.
My Prime is seeing 4 satellites in view right now however the gps has not "locked" yet.
The weirdest thing is that I left GPS on for a couple of hours with the screen sleep turned off and got nothing and now in the time that it took to edit this I got some satellites in view. I'm at a loss.
Has anyone else had similar experiences?
@Gary Key any input on this? Other than GPS my tablet is 100% functional, I haven't experienced any of the other problems wifi, reboots, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with you 100% I'm an Avionics Tech I work with GPS rx's all day. We have a GPS generator and with the unit right under the gen it shows about the right -dbm however is unable to obtain a constant lock. If I pad the signal down it gets better and locks on solid. IMO its an AGC problem which is a software setting for this chipset. I have been temped to open my prime up and solder smb connectors to the main board and hook it up to a good GPS antenna, but I know it still wont work. People here dont seem to understand RF and how antenna's are a specific length ect. I'm not bashing people but a clip lead isn't an antenna nor a valid test.
I am having the exact same problem. At times I get no love, no birds, like right now. Zippo, nada, But last time I checked, I was getting lots of satellites. Very inconsistent and I can't find any reason for it..
l33tlinuxh4x0r said:
I believe 100% that GPS is a Software/Firmware issue. I also know that there have been threads about this before.
That being said I had GPS working fine on my tablet when I got it and performance has gone down with every update. I am now on .14 and I have no GPS at all. Inside, outside, vertical, horizontal, with a phone, without, clear skys, rain, etc. The only 2 things that I haven't tried is taking off the back of the tablet and using gps tether, reason being that it worked before and now it doesn't and tethering has nothing to do with the internal GPS.
I'm almost thinking that they disabled the GPS in one of the last updates 13 and 14 for sure.
EDIT: What do you know it must be like going to the doctor. It hurts until you go there then everything is fine again.
My Prime is seeing 4 satellites in view right now however the gps has not "locked" yet.
The weirdest thing is that I left GPS on for a couple of hours with the screen sleep turned off and got nothing and now in the time that it took to edit this I got some satellites in view. I'm at a loss.
Has anyone else had similar experiences?
@Gary Key any input on this? Other than GPS my tablet is 100% functional, I haven't experienced any of the other problems wifi, reboots, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well now that the GPS dongle is a go, I can release my findings on how well this solution performs for our Transformer Prime tablets. Asus pushed out a FOTA last Thursday to add software support for new GPS dongle. most probably never noticed it as it was a forced update.
First off, here is Asus official literature on how to install it and enable it: ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/asus/EeePAD/TF201/E7282_TF201_GPS_Extension_Kit_QSG_English.pdf
Here is where to go to sign up, register, and fill out dongle application info. You will have to log in first to register. If this is your first time or never logged in before, make a free account then proceed. https://vip.asus.com/login.aspx or Just go to Asus event page where it has detailed info on it http://event.asus.com/ASUSPad/TF201GPS/
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Here are Pictures of what it looks like by itself and attached to the prime. please note these pics are zoomed up to try to show more detail on what it looks like. They dongle is not as big as some seem to exaggerate it being. its actually small, thin, very lightweight, and build quality is very good on it. The engineering sample I have matches the color of my prime, the Amethyst Gray version.
www.landofdroid.com/2012/exclusive-first-pictures-of-the-asus-transformer-prime-gps-dongle/
[UPDATE] SCROLL DOWN TO BOTTOM OF POST FOR UPDATED HIGH RES PICS
The GPS Dongle, IMO, is a great design and implementation of a viable solution to a problem the consumer thought Asus forgot about. Well they didn't and are now providing us with a solution/Fix. Once GPS dongle is attached and locked, it doesn't budge at all. its attached very securely. you will likely use auto screen rotate so the screen can flip upside down so you can hold the prime with the dongle pointed towards the sky. Basically hold prime upside down. which won't matter because screen rotates to show everything right side up properly.
Now to the good stuff. I tested this dongle based on what some of the more hardcore GPS users are always saying to test. I made sure to cut wifi off, cut off all location services, and do a fresh reboot on tablet before starting my GPS tests. So the prime wont be using any Agps data. Which in my case, never helped my prime anyways before. Keep in mind my Prime, by its own internal GPS chip, has never seen a GPS satellite or lock indoors, outdoors, or while driving. I attached dongle and got satellite fixes and locks immediately. Actually within a few seconds. It was very fast. This is night and day difference in my experience with GPS. I am now seeing alot of GPS satellites indoors and getting locks. It got even better and accuracy improved as I went to my balcony. More satellites and locks increased also.
Now I already know some of the more hardcore GPS users will be like so what and say My GPS can see satellites and get locks also. The real test comes when you try to move or drive. Normally the prime internal GPS would instantly lose its locks And/Or accuracy is very poor. Well that's not the case anymore. I made sure to especially test this while driving. FOR PEOPLE WANTING TO USE PRIME FOR NAVIGATING WHILE DRIVING OR WHATEVER, THIS GPS DONGLE NOW PROVIDES A REAL WORLD SOLUTION AND WORKS VERY WELL. I don't have a mount in my Magnum for the prime so i either had it sitting on my lap or on the passenger seat. I wasn't about to put it on my dashboard to be sliding all around and possibly break it..lol. Once I got in vehicle and activated GPS, it immediately start picking up alot of satellites and locking on to them. I was seeing like 16 satellites and having 9-10 locks. Accuracy was very good. within a few feet actually. Once I proceeded to drive, The dongle consistently held the satellites and locks. Even once I hit the highway and proceeded to speeds in excess of 60-70mph, GPS Dongle still held all its 15+ satellites and I always had at least 9-10 satellites locked. I never lost a satellite lock once or it would always fluctuate between 9-10 locks or more. I tested this while driving repeated times over several days. Accuracy was always very good. I set my GPS test to show me accuracy in feet and not meters. always showed accuracy within a few feet. Accuracy saw best results of about 4Ft. and worst of about 10ft. All very good. It consistently held satellites, locks, and accuracy.
I know some are wondering, since this doesn't have a pass through to allow charging, how is battery life. I'd have to say for the time I used it, it hardly drained the battery at all. my battery drain came from cutting on super ips+ mode so i could easily see the display while outdoors or driving. I did attach dongle to prime and left the GPS on for a while, at normal brightness settings, to see how much of drains battery. well to me, it hardly drained the battery at all. Plus if you really concerned about battery life, you could easily put prime into battery savings mode to make battery last that much longer. I can easily see this Gps dongle being able to survive long trips navigating. While traveling, if you just using the prime to Navigate with GPS on, then you should have no issue with the battery lasting the whole trip. This will easily last a several hour long road trip, even longer if prime put into battery savings mode.
I have attached screenshots of my GPS Test app results. I also tried using GPS Status and worked well. This dongle also worked great with Google earth, cached mode. So it'll work just great with any offline Navigation app. CoPilot is one I hear thrown around alot for being a great offline one. REMEMBER, I ONLY TESTED THIS WITH WIFI OFF, ALL LOCATION SERVICES TURNED OFF, AND AFTER A FRESH REBOOT. SO MY SCREENSHOTS REFLECT THAT ONLY. I NEVER TESTED THIS WITH WIFI OR OTHER LOCATION SERVICES TURNED ON EXCEPT FOR GPS. ALSO ALL TESTS WERE ALWAYS AFTER A FRESH REBOOT OF TABLET AFTER OTHER THINGS WERE TURNED OFF.
First set of pics was while indoors and on my balcony. I'm higher up and there are alot of tall buildings and such surrounding me.
This is what I saw while traveling in car. keep in mind it consistently held these locks. I never once lost the locks or GPS satellites. Always held at least 9-10 locks or so.
I will entertain any reasonable questions about its performance, design, or battery life you may have. Please keep the hating down to a minimum. This is an informative thread for those curious to how their dongle will perform once they receive it. Not a thread to debate on why you don't like it, or why you hate Asus, or whatever. This is a real solution for people who truly want to use prime as a navigation device while driving. My results surely could've even been better if I had a car, window, or dashboard mount. all tests was while it was in my lap or on the passenger seat, or when I propped it up with GPS facing the up on my center console right before my transmission gear selector stick. I can see this working great for people driving, hiking, or even flying. it now sees alot of satellites and always hold the locks. no more dropped GPS reception or going off the grid..lol
Thanks to Asus for allowing me to test this out in advance and Thanks to members involved in a Positive movement of Prime forums. Thanks also to all the great developers we have in developement section using their free time to make this product even better for us. Its greatly appreciated. Also Thanks to members actually helping out others here in XDA. All we want is to learn more about our devices, share information and tips, and learn how to modify device with the best tweaks, mods, and custom ROMS/Kernels. People don't want to be up here fighting with each other everyday. There comes a time when enough is enough. Can't wait to see what else Asus has in store for us in the future. Whether it be software updates, any further hardware tweaks, or future products. All I can say is, in my experience, Asus has treated me well. They have done more than any other company I've seen before. Especially here in the forums. They are trying their best to fix problems and provide solutions and that's all that matters. Asus has me on board for future products as the Prime was my first Asus experience. For me, its been a great one. A very exciting roller coaster ride here in XDA..lol
P.s. something I forgot to add. another member pointed this out. MAKE SURE TO REMOVE THE 2 RUBBER PLUGS IN THE DOCK CONNECTORS BEFORE YOU ATTACH THE GPS DONGLE
UPDATE: NEW HIGH RES PICS ADDED!
Up Close front of dongle. part that will facing you
Back of dongle. part that covers back of tablet.
A look at the 40pin connector inside the groove of dongle piece
Up close look at 40pin connector
GPS Dongle attached to my prime. Front view
GPS Dongle attached to prime. view from the back. I know the back of my prime needs cleaning..lmao
[UPDATE 4/19/2012]
Well some people have started receiving their dongle. We have a member, Dude2k5, who has opened up his dongle to see what makes it tick inside. So thanks goes to him for these new pics of what the GPS dongle looks opened up.
update: Gps(Dongle) Extension Kit Test Videos link added. Courtesy of JJdevega
if you want to see confirmed videos of the dongle getting locks indoors, outdoors(stationary), and while driving, Click on the link
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1610199
pix will be back up soon
Awesome dude! Great post, great information. This was a really cool move by Asus. I'm looking forward to getting my dongle.
Edit: have you encountered any problems with it at all? Any negative impacts on the functionality of the tablet?
Looks Great! Can't wait to get my dongle on!
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
demandarin
First, thanks for the detailed, in depth review of the GPS dongle! It sounds very promising, and for those who require GPS for navigation or other functions, this sounds like it now gives the Transformer Prime GPS service on par or better then the competition!
I'd also like to say that it's very gratifying to see that Asus didn't simply "remove" GPS from their spec sheets for the Prime, but continued to try and find a workable solution to an ongoing problem.
While I don't personally see myself using my TP for navigation in the car, it is gratifying to see a company that doesn't leave their customers in the lurch after they've made a substantial purchase!
Thank You!
gruntguy said:
Awesome dude! Great post, great information. This was a really cool move by Asus. I'm looking forward to getting my dongle.
Edit: have you encountered any problems with it at all? Any negative impacts on the functionality of the tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I haven't encountered any issues with it at all. It has been working perfectly. Off course when not in use, I just detach it. I don't really think there are any negative impacts on functionality. Maybe except for it can't be docked to keyboard while GPS dongle is attached. Or that it doesn't have a pass through to allow charging at the same time. But in my use, its barely sipping the battery. No excessive battery drain at all while in use. So best thing would be to detach it while its not in use. When its attached, it doesn't get in the way at all when using the tablet. whether you have GPS facing up or down. Of course facing up will yells best GPS results. Either way, its not in the way at all or adds any extra bulk or whatever to tablet. we have have some talking about Modding the free dongle to work on keyboard also. which is possible because of you look at close up pic of connector, it seems to be held in there by only 2 screws. so you could easily remove it and fabricate a solution to work while docked also if you choose.
I have not received any update on my Prime.
I changed from DE to WW rooting it long time ago and I do not receive OTA anymore. How can I receive this now?
The PDF link to FTP Asus does not work.
Your link to the manual is broken.
It is ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/asus/EeePAD/TF201/E7282_TF201_GPS_Extension_Kit_QSG_English.pdf
I'm glad ASUS came up with a fix, but the fix doesn't allow you to use the dongle and the keyboard attached, or dongle and charge.
I know this has all been said before on other forums, but when you spend £500 on a device that includes a keyboard dock, you shouldn't have to expect an add-on to negates the keyboards use.
A good interim solution, but hopefully ASUS will come up with a better solution, or allow us to trade in our Primes against the TF700.
Thanks for the great post though.
Is it worth mentioning for those peeps who do not use the dock that there are two rubber bungs that protect the locking mechanism catches on the tablet itself. and these need to be removed before fitting the dongle!! (not that anybody has ever tried to dock with the bungs in lol)
CBers said:
I'm glad ASUS came up with a fix, but the fix doesn't allow you to use the dongle and the keyboard attached, or dongle and charge.
I know this has all been said before on other forums, but when you spend £500 on a device that includes a keyboard dock, you shouldn't have to expect an add-on to negates the keyboards use.
A good interim solution, but hopefully ASUS will come up with a better solution, or allow us to trade in our Primes against the TF700.
Thanks for the great post though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would also be nice if Dongle had a power plug on it so you could have it plugged into power with Dongle attached...
leppie said:
Your link to the manual is broken.
It is ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/asus/EeePAD/TF201/E7282_TF201_GPS_Extension_Kit_QSG_English.pdf
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, I fixed it in the OP.
slef2003 said:
Is it worth mentioning for those peeps who do not use the dock that there are two rubber bungs that protect the locking mechanism catches on the tablet itself. and these need to be removed before fitting the dongle!! (not that anybody has ever tried to dock with the bungs in lol)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reminder. I added it to the OP.
CBers said:
I'm glad ASUS came up with a fix, but the fix doesn't allow you to use the dongle and the keyboard attached, or dongle and charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now ASUS just needs to release a pass-through/extension cable that will allow the Prime to be charged while using the dongle and/or use it with the dock.
copc said:
Would also be nice if Dongle had a power plug on it so you could have it plugged into power with Dongle attached...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
CBers said:
I'm glad ASUS came up with a fix, but the fix doesn't allow you to use the dongle and the keyboard attached, or dongle and charge.
I know this has all been said before on other forums, but when you spend £500 on a device that includes a keyboard dock, you shouldn't have to expect an add-on to negates the keyboards use.
A good interim solution, but hopefully ASUS will come up with a better solution, or allow us to trade in our Primes against the TF700.
Thanks for the great post though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This to me is the solution. We didn't have to pay for it so nothing is coming out of our pockets. It's not a big deal that we can't plug in our docks or be able to charge it while dongle is attached. As for me if I'm using GPS out on the road. I don't use my keyboard dock since all I'm using it for is the Navigation. I won't need to have it plugged in since it doesn't drain battery and putting in power save saves even more. Just be content and happy that Asus is doing this for us. You can't say that for the rest of them and I understand how you feel about it. But the past is in the past can't change it. I'm moving forward knowing that I'm satisfied with my prime dongle and all
TF201 GPS Extension Kit Specifications
Dimension L 180mm x W 13.12mm x H 22.77mm
Looks like I was bang on with size estimate.
jjdevega said:
As for me if I'm using GPS out on the road. I don't use my keyboard dock since all I'm using it for is the Navigation. I won't need to have it plugged in since it doesn't drain battery and putting in power save saves even more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using navigation doesn't drain your battery?
First hating Post!!
Just thought I'd post the first hate posting on this...I HATE your wallpaper man!(joking)
Waiting for someone to ask you to make a video of you driving with the Dongle attached to the Prime or they wont believe that it works. lmao!!
Wait for it, wait for it....
I think it would be a good idea to mod the dongle into some dash adapter. Then just slide it in when you get into car, etc.
From the pics, it looks pretty strong.
Wonder how quick we will see the insides of this thing?
ylexot said:
Using navigation doesn't drain your battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it barely drained power while it was in use. Asus already pushed the firmware support and power management for it last week. Prime, with dongle attached, should have no issue lasting a very long trip while navigating. Especially in battery savings mode. what will determine more how fast your battery drains will be your brightness settings on display.
jjdevega said:
This to me is the solution. We didn't have to pay for it so nothing is coming out of our pockets. It's not a big deal that we can't plug in our docks or be able to charge it while dongle is attached. As for me if I'm using GPS out on the road. I don't use my keyboard dock since all I'm using it for is the Navigation. I won't need to have it plugged in since it doesn't drain battery and putting in power save saves even more. Just be content and happy that Asus is doing this for us. You can't say that for the rest of them and I understand how you feel about it. But the past is in the past can't change it. I'm moving forward knowing that I'm satisfied with my prime dongle and all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I don't see the need to use the keyboard while navigating with the Prime in the car.
When will ASUS provide us a fix for our poor WIFI instead of ignoring the issue? They have all these new devices but fail to take care of our issues. Is this how they treat their early adopters? How can you sell a Wifi only device with poor wifi? They need to replace the back cover or replace new hardware or just have a recall. This is unacceptable. If you buy a car and you only get 5 mpg when you should get 30mpg, i'm sure they would recall that car. My luck, first ASUS device and i get first reboot issues and poor GPS & Wifi.. I love the device as far as looks and game performance but, what what good is that if i cant get online to read my emails and browse?
While I agree with you I think Asus put themselves in a tough spot. Short of taking every Prime sold and doing hardware changes of whatever type, they can't fix this problem. Someone mentioned that they probably did the gps dongle and quick because a suit was filed against them for it. It was a universal problem with probably every unit. I could be wrong but I don't think they have admitted a problem with the internal gps, just the metal backing possibly blocking the signal.
This wifi/bt thing, it technically works. It may not function ideally but it functions. They may not be under the legal pressure as the gps, it being advertised, etc. It would be great for a solid solution to be found for this but I'm not going to hold my breath over it. The company knows the f* up exists.
Don't take this the wrong way... But speak for yourself. I have no issues with my Wifi. Its just as strong as my Galaxy Tab 10.1 using Wifi analyzer. I am also an early adopter SN#BC
jjdevega said:
Don't take this the wrong way... But speak for yourself. I have no issues with my Wifi. Its just as strong as my Galaxy Tab 10.1 using Wifi analyzer. I am also an early adopter SN#BC
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Click to collapse
So you say... I thought the same thing also before going thru the WiFi/BT fallout thread.. pair some bluetooth headphones with your TF201, play some music or run netflix and run speedtest while its going and I dare say you'll be disappointed..
NeoMagus said:
So you say... I thought the same thing also before going thru the WiFi/BT fallout thread.. pair some bluetooth headphones with your TF201, play some music or run netflix and run speedtest while its going and I dare say you'll be disappointed..
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Click to collapse
I've been through this before I even created a video just to prove Wifi/BT works fine when both are used for streaming. Just check out my Youtube video.
I did this late at night. Didn't want to wake the wife so I'm pretty quiet. My internet connection is caped at 10mbps
What was a little strange about the Speed test was that when I ran the test for the first time it yielded only 1mb but after running the test several more times after that it coincided with the wifi strength of it having full bars so I was getting 7mbps and more. I made the video on the second floor in my bedroom. The router is located on the first floor opposite corner of the house.
Edit: Besides. The OP is talking about Wifi and I was responding to his claims of everyone having weak wifi which is false since I have no problems with wifi.
jjdevega said:
I've been through this before I even created a video just to prove Wifi/BT works fine when both are used for streaming. Just check out my Youtube video.
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Click to collapse
Seeing how no one has posted a video showing anything but a huge dropoff in bandwidth Id be willing to watch if you link it - but yours is probably like everyone elses including mine. If it isn't then feel lucky its adequate to you.. going from 30m/b down to 2m/b is not to me
**from what I'm seeing its just like mine most of your tests your losing half your bandwidth when its on ..2-4mb occassionally with a spike ..2mb really is all you need to stream both so if it works for you great but I wouldn't say theres no issue we should not be losing that much bandwidth (its alot more for me personally)
Nothing will be done because nothing is wrong.
Welcome to the wireless spectrum and the laws of physics. Inconsistent speedtest results? Drop-offs? Turn on a microwave, kill your stream? Yeah, welcome to wifi.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2387493?start=0&tstart=0
Deal with it.
Whats also important to note, the prime is not at all the only Tablet that is in this "wifi situation". Especially the best known Tablet on the world, the ipad, suffers from about the same issues.
Wifi is a radio signal, its the same thing with FM radio stations... In one room you always get interference with Station X while in the other room its perfectly clear. One day it might work well while the next one you cant hear a thing. Its similar with wifi and there are alot of factors involved.
As for me i did several "tests" with wifi analyzer and speed test and my tablet and 2 smartphones (DHD & SGS II) all around my house and in the garden. There is simply no consistancy in one spot the prime has the best signal and the best throughput in another it has the worst, in the end all devices performed more or less the same.
But thats just my situation, there is always the possibility that your device is defective in some way and if you feel somethings wrong i suggest you try RMA or just buy a wifi repeater But i guess thats about the only things you can do.
Btw: there was an intersting article i read a while ago about a Parisienne Hotel where some nerds (some of them actually invented wifi) had a convention/meeting. Everyone was using the wifi heavily and soon the system wouldnt work at all. They started talking to the tech guys of the hotel and... The wifi was set up totally wrong, all routers and repeaters worked on the same channel with wrong settings. The guys then shut down half of the repeaters changed the channels and tweaked the settings and voila wifi was amazing. I thought that was a pretty funny
Can someone with more technical experience chime in on this. Its obviously clear that the wifi signal on the Prime is subpar, which is a shame because we paid a pretty penny for this device, and the reason for this sub performance is due to a blatant oversight by the manufacturer. Which, has been resolved, but only in the new tablet model, which in my opinion is even more of a slap to the face, especially (again) considering how much the tablet costs. Now, I am not complaining much about this because while a crappy old phone can get 70mbs a wifi connection my Prime can only get, usually, around 30mbs, though I have seen it hit 70.
But here is my main concern, and I am sure ALL OF YOU can feel the pain of this. It appears that due to the weak signal, the device overly excerpts its resources to try and attain more signal, HOWEVER because of this it seems like the battery suffers quite extensibly, which is what leads me to believe the reason my battery usage shows wifi usually 100% as the top most used butter sucker-upper and it's usually by a landslide. This, if it is the case, really upsets me. Because, while I can live with an average 30mbs wifi connection (because cmon thats more than the ISP even provides), I would not be happy knowing that due to this manufacturer oversight the battery drains an addiotal 20-30% quicker than it would if this were not the problem.
Am I wrong here? Is wifi really not a problem for the battery? It is just odd to me that wifi shows up as using sometimes 50% of the battery!... And OMFG im NOT even joking, just checked battery usage and wifi is showing 94% of the battery.. that seems like a bug there is no way that could possibly be correct! 94%! lol wtf!
Jep i've been seeing that as well. It started with .21 when ever you use wifi the battery drains noticably faster. I also wrote a PM to Gary about that with screenshots and everything, i really hope they can change it back to the way it was before .21 because my wifi didnt improve, but my battery life did get worse.
robproctor said:
Can someone with more technical experience chime in on this. Its obviously clear that the wifi signal on the Prime is subpar, which is a shame because we paid a pretty penny for this device, and the reason for this sub performance is due to a blatant oversight by the manufacturer. Which, has been resolved, but only in the new tablet model, which in my opinion is even more of a slap to the face, especially (again) considering how much the tablet costs. Now, I am not complaining much about this because while a crappy old phone can get 70mbs a wifi connection my Prime can only get, usually, around 30mbs, though I have seen it hit 70.
But here is my main concern, and I am sure ALL OF YOU can feel the pain of this. It appears that due to the weak signal, the device overly excerpts its resources to try and attain more signal, HOWEVER because of this it seems like the battery suffers quite extensibly, which is what leads me to believe the reason my battery usage shows wifi usually 100% as the top most used butter sucker-upper and it's usually by a landslide. This, if it is the case, really upsets me. Because, while I can live with an average 30mbs wifi connection (because cmon thats more than the ISP even provides), I would not be happy knowing that due to this manufacturer oversight the battery drains an addiotal 20-30% quicker than it would if this were not the problem.
Am I wrong here? Is wifi really not a problem for the battery? It is just odd to me that wifi shows up as using sometimes 50% of the battery!... And OMFG im NOT even joking, just checked battery usage and wifi is showing 94% of the battery.. that seems like a bug there is no way that could possibly be correct! 94%! lol wtf!
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Click to collapse
you do bring up a great point but wifi will always be the biggest battery drainer. along with display brightness. its a good theory THST if wifi was so poor, it would waste extra power trying to maintain or always look for a signal. Thing is, I don't consider wifi performance THST bad across devices to warrant that. what you saying is like if wifi barely even had a signal and was always connecting and disconnecting the signal. then yeah, extra power is being used to try to maintain it. but that's not the case with majority of primes. some primes have great wifi strength, others have decent strength, others have huge dropoffs in speeds after moving so far away from the router. But i haven't heard of anyone not being able to really pick up their home signal or even barely. wifi in prime good enough across the board to properly see and maintain signal. some peoples issues are when you move far away from the router and the dropoff in speeds.
like I said before, wifi will always be biggest battery drainer. I leave my wifi on 24/7 and I'm overclocked and I still get great battery life. maybe in last update Asus did increase the power signal output of wifi. but nothing so drastic to drain battery dramatically faster. we have an update coming so we will have to see how battery life is after it. whether it improves, gets better, or gets worse.
---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:32 PM ----------
DONT make duplicate threads of exact same question. I will request for the other one to be closed if it hasn't already.
@ OP, there is no need for duplicate threads posted within a minute of each other. I have deleted your other thread named the same. If this was done in error, please contact a Mod to request correction.
Also, if this thread starts to turn into another complaining/whining thread, it will be locked. Almost everyone is aware of the limitations of this device (or lack there of), and there are more than enough threads already posted discussing wifi/gps issues.
My battery drain is only when Im docked. The wifi kills the battery in the dock pretty fast as it's constantly trying to charge the tablet. If I set wifi to turn off during sleep then theres no drastic drain and acts normal. Just like if it was undocked. When undocked even with wifi always on even on sleep it doesnt drain fast. Maybe 1-2% an hour. This issue has been mentioned before on another thread regarding battery drain during docked.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk 2
kabrutus said:
When will ASUS provide us a fix for our poor WIFI instead of ignoring the issue? They have all these new devices but fail to take care of our issues. Is this how they treat their early adopters? How can you sell a Wifi only device with poor wifi? They need to replace the back cover or replace new hardware or just have a recall. This is unacceptable. If you buy a car and you only get 5 mpg when you should get 30mpg, i'm sure they would recall that car. My luck, first ASUS device and i get first reboot issues and poor GPS & Wifi.. I love the device as far as looks and game performance but, what what good is that if i cant get online to read my emails and browse?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I consider myself a huge prime fanboy...with that said I'm also realistic. Short to the point answer regarding wifi and will they fix it? NO. They cant fix it, if they could have they would have done it by now. In fact they don't believe you even have a wifi problem but if you care refer to this link http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/ipad-and-tablets/asus-transformer-pad-infinity-700-review-50007211/ Also note the backplate on the infinity-thats your fix it will cost you to get it, sorry but it is what it is. If anybody on here tells you they can fix the wifi with an update think, why are they even attempting to fix a problem they wont acknowledge even happens?... Wifi performance among primes is not consistent, some may do well some may not. I knew this when I bought my prime but I can live with it. I had the original transformer and the prime cant hold a candle to the wifi performance it had. But overall the the OG transformer can't hold a candle to the prime.
Secondly, as far as reboots it's pretty much the same thing. They can't fix it and it's not just the prime simply google ICS and reboots and you will see. Again the performance will not be consistent some may reboot others may not. But whatever is causing the reboots up to this point is A: not exclusive to the prime and B seems to happen on devices updated to ICS or currently running ICS. I know these are bold statements but unless many people out there across a varying rage of devices are imagining reboots while running ICS then there must be an issue. That said I hope they fix both problems I just wont hold my breath. I am however very happy with my prime "limitations" and all.
My Prime was purchased the second week of February, C1 serial. My Wi-Fi is great actually. My router is in my office on the second floor, in the back of the house. If I am in the office, I actually top out my connection...as fast as can go. However, I'm in the basement 70% of the time (basically the living room) and I can still top out my speeds, or very close to it. That means I have the first floor between us, with 2 ceilings/floors between us also. There is one spot in the house ( basement, directly below the router) where I get maybe half my speeds, but I believe it's just a dead spot and not the Prime. It also works fine at work, and when running on my phones wifi hot spot. I realize all Primes are different as far as GPS and Wi-Fi, and I'm very lucky to have gotten a problem free device.
in my opinion to the wifi problem the problem isnt really the prime most of the time the problem is interfiernce or poor signal from the router, i have a c3 model and really cant complain about the signal if anything the only problem i can see with the prime is the stock browser, i find it impossible to browse through this forum with the stock browser at first i thought it was down to wifi connection but then soon realised that it was down to the browser as i have no problems with downloaded browsers.... so as to the will they fix it, i say you need something to be broke before you can fix it and i dont see anything broke, i just see sh*t happens so deal with it radio signal problems lol
jjdevega said:
I've been through this before I even created a video just to prove Wifi/BT works fine when both are used for streaming. Just check out my Youtube video.
I did this late at night. Didn't want to wake the wife so I'm pretty quiet. My internet connection is caped at 10mbps
What was a little strange about the Speed test was that when I ran the test for the first time it yielded only 1mb but after running the test several more times after that it coincided with the wifi strength of it having full bars so I was getting 7mbps and more. I made the video on the second floor in my bedroom. The router is located on the first floor opposite corner of the house.
Edit: Besides. The OP is talking about Wifi and I was responding to his claims of everyone having weak wifi which is false since I have no problems with wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may be missing it but don't see the bluetooth streaming part... I see that it is connected but are you actually playing something through a bt headset or bt speakers?
My wifi is ok enough, but for example when I play spotify over bluetooth speakers things start to crap out and stutter. Not right away, but give it a minute or 2 and it will. Which sucks... No bt streaming and it works fine. This is what people are referring to when they speak about the bt/wifi issue.
dagrim1 said:
I may be missing it but don't see the bluetooth streaming part... I see that it is connected but are you actually playing something through a bt headset or bt speakers?
My wifi is ok enough, but for example when I play spotify over bluetooth speakers things start to crap out and stutter. Not right away, but give it a minute or 2 and it will. Which sucks... No bt streaming and it works fine. This is what people are referring to when they speak about the bt/wifi issue.
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Click to collapse
Yes when I turned the bt on I also showed myself turning on my bt headset. Once it paired and the bt icon turned blue I started streaming then continued on with speedtest. I guess its a little hard to see it in the dark. Ill have to make another video during the day.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
mikeyxb said:
in my opinion to the wifi problem the problem isnt really the prime most of the time the problem is interfiernce or poor signal from the router, i have a c3 model and really cant complain about the signal if anything the only problem i can see with the prime is the stock browser, i find it impossible to browse through this forum with the stock browser at first i thought it was down to wifi connection but then soon realised that it was down to the browser as i have no problems with downloaded browsers.... so as to the will they fix it, i say you need something to be broke before you can fix it and i dont see anything broke, i just see sh*t happens so deal with it radio signal problems lol
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Click to collapse
It is not a router issue or interference. For example, today i sat a coffee shop in China. I had my phone and laptop and Prime sitting on a table. My laptop and phone both showed 6 wifi connections available where I was sitting with signal showing a consistent 3 to 4 bars. My Prime got consistently just 1 connection, and that was only 2 bars for a pizza restaurant across from where I was. The tablet could not once sniff out the coffee shops connection, and only showed every 5 minutes for a second or two 1 of the other wifi connections available in the building. I've repeated and done this test in other places, the Prime struggles with wifi signals, it can't hold or them very well, runs slow, and drops connections. If I moved to a different seat I might have a perfect line to catch the signal of the coffee shop, but it is maddening the radio doesn't seem to be multidirectional in any way.
Btw, my wifi didn't used to be bad till .21. I attempted a factory reset, which did not improve things. I never had complaints about my wifi until then, so I am crossing my fingers a future firmware will improve it, but it seems rather hopeless.
In the market looking to buy a 2nd tab in the family.
Seen a lot of offers for used TF201 (some with dock) for the same price as a new TF300...
What do you guys recommend to get, is the WiFi signal issue present in all TF201s and if yes, is it that bad? Or should i just get a new TF300 and forget about TF201?
Does the GPS dongle improve also WiFi signal (indirectly i suppose)?
What advantages does TF201 have over TF300 that should make me choose it over the latter for the same price (or even less)?
Thanks!
I have a C3 serial and it's pretty good.. I think the later versions were better.
But you will get a whole load of people post that the TF701 is better. SDCard fits, Wi-Fi signal is stronger, GPS get's location quicker..
sjrixon said:
I have a C3 serial and it's pretty good.. I think the later versions were better.
But you will get a whole load of people post that the TF701 is better. SDCard fits, Wi-Fi signal is stronger, GPS get's location quicker..
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Click to collapse
TF700 is a different story with a different price, at least in Europe
In scope of this thread is an used TF201 vs a new TF300
There's no denying the TF201 has been plagued with support issues. I returned my first one for WiFi problems. My second one the WiFi is fine. I stream movies on it regularly with no issues whatsoever, for example. GPS has been very bad on both without the dongle.
If you get it from a place that'll take a return/exchange it's a good buy, if not though, I'd recommend looking at other options. It's a great device when you get a good one only caveat that is even for a good one, if you are buying specifically for a lot of GPS stuff don't bother.
zerozoneice said:
Does the GPS dongle improve also WiFi signal (indirectly i suppose)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dongle does nothing to help with WiFi signal. Strictly to help GPS.
GPS is unusable and is not an official feature anymore. Wifi works fine, however max throughput speed is not great, it's fine for streaming video's.
I think it's a great tablet _and_ the screen is great, very good outdoor use. The TF300 does not have this.
Personally.. my wifi was ok, GPS no good but the non-responding apps & powering off while sleeping were deal breakers for me.. I'd stay away from it especially used and unable to return. Luckly someone here found Best Buy willing to take the Primes back under manufacturer defect and I was lucky enough to have that happen for me. Delivering a TF700 tomorrow.
Just a few of my screenshot issues.. if ya want more I'd be more than happy to send them to you.. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1765997
Stay away. Stay far away.
nyijedi said:
Stay away. Stay far away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you guys are scaring me
thing is i found a TF201 32GB with Dock, GPS dongle and case for less than a new TF300...guy says it's a C10 serial and has no wifi issues...
is there a serial# tracker that can verify if there is a wifi problem? were only few batches affected or it's a general build issue.
i got a TF300 today and playing with it but i can return it within 24h if there's something wrong with it...
I had a C1 Prime that I bought in Feb and exchanged for a 700 this past Friday. Wifi by itself was fine for the most part, but when I turned the B/T on using at the same time bandwidth plummeted (20 megs to about 2megs down), known issue.. my opinion I'd skip it for the 300, at least you know you wont have wifi/gps issues with it
zerozoneice said:
you guys are scaring me
thing is i found a TF201 32GB with Dock, GPS dongle and case for less than a new TF300...guy says it's a C10 serial and has no wifi issues...
is there a serial# tracker that can verify if there is a wifi problem? were only few batches affected or it's a general build issue.
i got a TF300 today and playing with it but i can return it within 24h if there's something wrong with it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wifi works fine on my Prime. Don't read into everything you see on the forums too much. People like to blow things way out of proportion and make big deals out of nothing. They will make it sound like wifi doesn't work at all on the Prime and/or will complain that the signal drops off when they are outside their house 50 ft away, or that they only get 2 bars while their laptop gets 3 when in the same location. It's all bs; wifi is completely normal on the Prime. As for those that do have legitimate issues (very few from what I have seen) they are in the minority and should be contacting ASUS for RMA.
GPS on the other hand is not a supported built-in feature so don't expect it to work out of the box without the GPS dongle.
jordache16 said:
It's all bs; wifi is completely normal on the Prime. As for those that do have legitimate issues (very few from what I have seen) they are in the minority and should be contacting ASUS for RMA.
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Click to collapse
LOL, be glad you got a Prime then that supposedly works 100%.
There are plenty of people here including myself who will disagree with you, and I'm no noob by anymeans, my router (Linksys E3000 "High Performance") is less than 5 feet away from me here buddy Its been reiterated over and over the metal backplate is a signal killer. I can't express how happy I was when Best Buy took the thing back.
jordache16 said:
Wifi works fine on my Prime. Don't read into everything you see on the forums too much. People like to blow things way out of proportion and make big deals out of nothing. They will make it sound like wifi doesn't work at all on the Prime and/or will complain that the signal drops off when they are outside their house 50 ft away, or that they only get 2 bars while their laptop gets 3 when in the same location. It's all bs; wifi is completely normal on the Prime. As for those that do have legitimate issues (very few from what I have seen) they are in the minority and should be contacting ASUS for RMA.
GPS on the other hand is not a supported built-in feature so don't expect it to work out of the box without the GPS dongle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
WiFi technically "works," but works like crap compared to other devices. This is not really debateable. I've tested my Prime on the same network in the same spot next to a Galaxy Nexus, iPad 1, and Nexus 7. Once you move a few feet away from the router (not exaggerating - a few feet), the Prime drops speed at a ridiculous rate. For example, next to the router, all devices, including the Prime, will get over 30 Mbps. As I move away from the router, in the same spot, my other devices will all pull between 15 and 20 Mbps, and the Prime will be lucky to see 3-5 Mbps. And then if I keep moving away, the Prime is always the first one to lose a signal, while the other devices will still download at about 1-6 Mbps. It really depends on your use case. If you'll be using it regularly in areas with good WiFi, you'll be fine. But don't say you weren't warned if you try and use it in areas with weak WiFi.
As for the GPS, just assume the Prime doesn't have it, because it is not functional. Hell, Asus admitted this much when they took it off the box. It does work with the dongle, but you also can't charge the Prime when the dongle is plugged in, so forget about keeping your Prime charged using the GPS on a long road trip.
jordache16 said:
Wifi works fine on my Prime. Don't read into everything you see on the forums too much. People like to blow things way out of proportion and make big deals out of nothing. They will make it sound like wifi doesn't work at all on the Prime and/or will complain that the signal drops off when they are outside their house 50 ft away, or that they only get 2 bars while their laptop gets 3 when in the same location. It's all bs; wifi is completely normal on the Prime. As for those that do have legitimate issues (very few from what I have seen) they are in the minority and should be contacting ASUS for RMA.
GPS on the other hand is not a supported built-in feature so don't expect it to work out of the box without the GPS dongle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please speak for yourself ok?
The prime works fine for me when I'm close to the router, but degrades quickly as you move away. And I'm not talking about 50ft outside the house, I'm talking about the kitchen... 30 ft from the router with a door in between. Locations where other devices, such as my phone, have no issue keeping a decent connection...
Overall you can still browse pretty fine yeah and most of the time stream music. But for me there are hiccups, youtube videos (hd) pause and/or buffer regularly when not in the same room as the router, etc.
GPS is useless, but that is no issue for me as I have no need for it. IO is not great either, supposedly better with the TF700t.
So it' not useless but it is pretty weak and can (or will) cause issues in areas where your connection is not great... Just keep that in mind.
Other then these issues the prime is excellent, beatiful and sleek. The dock is awesome. But to be honest, I wish I could trade it in for something else or that there was some model like this on the market (a non-asus one in this case).
I love my Prime, but under no circumstance or influence could I possibly recommend it to anyone.
It's amazing when you have a model that works fine coupled with a good firmware version (or some custom ROMs I guess), but it's entirely too easy to get a bad mixture.
Mine is running fine after the mods in the development section (still haven't unlocked my bootloader), but WiFi is certainly dampened when compared to other devices. I've heard that certain channels and passcode encryptions are handled better than others. We're all still playing around to achieve optimal signal and it seems that messing with a bit of conductive foam inside the tablet helps to ground the antenna and improve reception. But that requires opening up (not hard) the tablet and technically voiding warranty (just have to be careful and clean).
The BlueTooth/WiFi complaints are completely true and valid depending on what (amounts of) data the BT is pumping out. I generally don't see too hard a hit with your average BT headset, but I think that using any actual stereo headset is going to cause your WiFi to become downright deplorable.
I can use my WiFi in most any room of both houses I spend most my time in *(where each house has 2 routers)*, and over most of my work-place *(which uses a pretty powerful commercial-grade router)*, and I only get a random reboot maybe once every few weeks or so (usually during heavy use, right after I've started bragging but just before the awesome game/app loads up lol). I can go anywhere between one and seven days on a single charge depending on use, that is my favorite part of the tablet/keyboard combo. Having a native setting to use the mouse pad for touch gestures is awesome. The two speakers located directly beside each other don't sound too bad, but are very uni-directional and lose against the outdoors. The screen is magnificent: I can use it any time, anywhere, and everything isn't over-saturated like many competitors' screens (arguably under-saturated though, depends on opinion, eyesight, and luck of the draw). Useful to have the extra mSD and SD slots though I never use the SD in the keyboard; I leave my mSD in at all times and have changed its mount point to within the /sdcard/ directory so that apps can actually access and make use of it. This is only possible because of the leather case I have, otherwise the mSD would long ago have ejected somewhere. /rant
Tl;dr:
It's a great, fun toy which tries to appear productive and savvy; it's entirely unreliable just like its manufacturer and will cause great embarrassment if "shown off;" and I absolutely would not recommend it to someone who does not want to dig down into fixing and patching and playing with the hardware and software.
*EDIT:
Also, as mentioned, GPS is not even worth mentioning
Which is why I do not recommend ASUS to customers regardless. They produce great PC components, they just have some serious quality control issues which are usually covered pretty well by warranty. But none-the-less, their inconsistencies in physical components makes them a general no-no for me.
zerozoneice said:
In the market looking to buy a 2nd tab in the family.
Seen a lot of offers for used TF201 (some with dock) for the same price as a new TF300...
What do you guys recommend to get, is the WiFi signal issue present in all TF201s and if yes, is it that bad? Or should i just get a new TF300 and forget about TF201?
Does the GPS dongle improve also WiFi signal (indirectly i suppose)?
What advantages does TF201 have over TF300 that should make me choose it over the latter for the same price (or even less)?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Prime was fine, maybe even better then fine. But if $300 is about what you were going to spend on a used Prime, I would go get the new 300. WiFi was good with the one I played with at the store the other day. Put it in a case and no one will ever know it's not a Prime.
Seriously - either get a TF300 or better, a TF700.. just pretend the TF201 never existed.
IF you have no use for a GPS (and think very carefully about that - Google Now, for example, relies on both not-fine(WiFi - really - you can't say the opposite of fine that rhymes with course?) and fine (GPS) location for a lot of things it does... and more and more apps are location aware...) and if you don't mind subpar WiFi and Bluetooth, then it's a nice tablet.
Unfortunately, since the TF300 is cheaper and the TF700 is the same price - but with a higher res screen AND both have working GPS, WiFi and BT - you'd be nuts to go with the TF201.
And to be honest - given how Asus has bunged up the entire TF201 fiasco, I'm not even comfortable recommending a Transformer at all. I'd wait for the Samsung Note 10.1 in two weeks, or any of the growing number of Transformer like Android tablets coming out soon.
I agree with buxtahuda all the way. The only reason I can hand my prime to another person to play with without fear of mockery is that I have repaired the improper backplate grounding to the wifi and gps antennas so the both now work well. This required taking it apart (which I didnt mind since I got it so I could do that). The second part of the equation for not being embarassed by my prime is that I put one of the new Jellybean (actually I have tried them all) roms on it. There seems to be no game playing issues or lag with these but since they are prebeta they are missing some features of the hardware.
My boss asked me to recommend a tablet for her after she saw my prime with dock in action at a meeting. I told her to get an Ipad.
whycali said:
I agree with buxtahuda all the way. The only reason I can hand my prime to another person to play with without fear of mockery is that I have repaired the improper backplate grounding to the wifi and gps antennas so the both now work well. This required taking it apart (which I didnt mind since I got it so I could do that). The second part of the equation for not being embarassed by my prime is that I put one of the new Jellybean (actually I have tried them all) roms on it. There seems to be no game playing issues or lag with these but since they are prebeta they are missing some features of the hardware.
My boss asked me to recommend a tablet for her after she saw my prime with dock in action at a meeting. I told her to get an Ipad.
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Click to collapse
Care to elaborate on the grounding issue? Are you talking those small spongy things?
dagrim1 said:
Care to elaborate on the grounding issue? Are you talking those small spongy things?
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Click to collapse
Correct. We figured out forever ago that they carry continuity, so they're essentially a wire going to the case for grounding.
Or so I gather.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium HD via my tethered HTC Vision