Just chime in and tell me how your WiFi/GPS is, and how your prime is operating.
If you don't have anything positive towards this thread GET OUT. I'm trying to get a better understanding of how everyone with a BCOKAS model is doing.
My wifi is decent/crap, I have to be within 10 feet of any router for a good connection. GPS is worthless
I'm waiting on "Gary Key" to come out with his amazing solution of fixing this. That's why I haven't RMAed or Unlocked yet.
Besides the WiFi, I LOVE THIS DEVICE. I could use the GPS on my phone.
Sooo hows your BCOKAS Prime ???
WIFI: Range is horrible
WIFI + BT: Recently tested this feature.... performs extremely poorly. Will do more test.
GPS: I can get few birds (including inside of the house) & few will lock with pathetic signal. However, everything disappears once it starts to move...
That's including aGPS... horrible.
Browser: Adequate once Chrome browser was deleted. However, still getting the "wait" pop-up window or force close on occasion.
Games: Don't really game on my Prime but it works well when I do (games look good as well).
Streaming Media from Network(movies): Due to poor WIFI range, it doesn't work well once I am 15+ ft away from the router.. however, if I am within 10ft range.. it works well. Also, if my Prime is idle for few mins. (5+).. & if I wake up my Prime... screen flickers & I see screen tear... & when I unlock it.. it'll freeze/lag & Prime will reboot. (This continues even after soft reset.. haven't done factory reset yet)
eReader: Probably the main reason why I continue to use Prime. MyLibrary from Asus is my fav. eReader app. Yes, I mainly use Prime for reading eBooks... (not exactly the reason why I purchased but it works well).
WIFI:
My wifi range is very similar to my GNex so it's not terrible. I just ran a Speed Test and was getting around 4-5D and 4-5U on the wireless here at my work which the signal strength is around -70dB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS:
2-3 birds outside, nothing inside and I never get a lock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
BT:
I have a lot of trouble getting things to connect to it but it can be done. Performance with wifi on is poor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OS:
Been getting launcher crashes of late so I installed GO HD and that seems to have helped, but I will say that apps in general are not very stable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than that, I'm in the same boat David. Waiting to unlock based on what I hear from RMA's. I started a thread a couple weeks ago to try and gather info from those who RMA'd for BT/WIFI issues but at that point no one really had. Maybe we can get some results now...
My bcokas
I have had this one since late Feb or early March (my 2nd one).
Only one or two uncommanded reboots--I am not a heavy user--I do not know enough about it to be a serious user, YET.
I am pretty computer knowledgeable, though.
I just took my prime outside (Anchorage, Alaska at the International Airport)
I have a wireless G network at our office. It is on the second floor inside a wooden frame building-close to, but not visible through a window. I connected with the WiFi Analyzer using the speedometer style gauge and received -73 to -75 DB at approximately 300 feet away on our ramp (aircraft parking area). I did not attempt any downloads--pretty chilly outside today.
Next, I loaded the GPS test app from Chartcross, and while outside (completely wide open), got no birds. This did not surprise me. I have found that if no birds are visible, a complete shutdown & restart will usually bring the GPS back to life. IT DID!!
Within 30 seconds of starting the app (after the complete restart), I had 12-14 birds visible and 10-11 in use. Signal strength never exceeded 31 on the graph. The usability remains poor, even though numerous birds in view. The coverage drops off to none frequently but reconnects quickly. As a commercial pilot, I am very familiar with GPS usage. This one cannot be classified greater than "Very Poor". I have the Dual xgps150a that I use via Bluetooth and it works flawlessly.
I have not attempted to use Bluetooth & WiFi at the same time, and therefore cannot comment on that aspect.
Overall, I am not dissatisfied with the Prime. I had no expectations of using the built-in GPS when I purchased it. The WiFi could be a bit better; but I consider it to be usable.
My biggest complaint with the Prime is not the hardware, it is the software. Specifically, the crappy browsers that I have tried (5 or 6). I absolutely hate "TABS" I refuse to use them on my PCs. I am not saying that they are bad, I just don't like them. The only browser that I even remotely can tolerate (thus far) is Dolphin. It still uses TABS, but at least it has a home button. Doing anything on a tablet browser (to me--so far) is like flying from Anchorage to Seattle via Tokyo, Manilla, and Santiago. I guess I am saying that I find all of them to be very user-unfriendly.
I guess I have whined enough.
Jerry In Anchorage, Alaska
Wifi is perfectly fine, no problems with it.
I've only gotten a lock with GPS once, and that was while I was sitting outside.
Haven't tried bt+wifi.
Have been getting some not responding messages with the browser occasionally when opening it.
I don't really game on it, but from the small amount of time I've used N64oid it certainly wasn't unacceptable.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA Premium.
I have had mine since mid January. No obvious issues with wi-fi and I'm able to stream music from my NAS drive to my bluetooth headphones while using the internet. I don't know if it's relevant but my broadband speed isn't exactly stellar (8mb max) whereas I notice that many of those with drop out issues when using bluetooth seem to to have a much higher speed normally.
GPS works in that satellites show indoors and out but the strength doesn't appear to be that great (I get locks but the values in GPS Test have never got near 30). Having said that, I probably would never use a tablet for satnav because of the size - it's far too big for my car whereas my Galaxy S2 phone is much more suitable and less distracting!
I've used most browsers but now mainly use either ICS+ Browser. I've (very) occasionally seen the 'wait' message but other than that everything is good and overall I'm (touch wood!) happy with my Prime.
Bcokas here. Wifi is fine and same as my old Droid charge and now my gnex. GPS got locks the one time I tried it months ago, been off since and never tried navigation with it so can't help with that. I've only tested bt with wifi using a sixaxis controller, seemed fine about 30 ft from router but didn't do a speed test to see if and how much it affected signal strength and speed.
I just got a BC0KAS TF201 back from RMA in Texas. My original complaint was black screen (nothing shows up on LCD), GPS nonexistent (ordered 12/28), and weak wifi. After all the parts replaced (GPS foil, conductive sponges, etc..), screen finally works but thats about it. No satellite locks still indoors or outdoors and still weak wifi.
junrider said:
I just got a BC0KAS TF201 back from RMA in Texas. My original complaint was black screen (nothing shows up on LCD), GPS nonexistent (ordered 12/18), and weak wifi. After all the parts replaced (GPS foil, conductive sponges, etc..), screen finally works but thats about it. No satellite locks still indoors or outdoors and still weak wifi.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a lame story bro.
I'd RMA until they got it right. It sucks that you have to sit there and just take it, while Asus adds you to the satisfied Prime owner statistic.
Overall I have been happy with mine and would compare to some of the more favorable responses here.
Wifi: I initially thought that the .21 made a difference but have re-evaluated. At the furthest point in my house from the router (several walls, 1 floor, 40 ft) I get about 3-4 times slower speeds than other devices. It is still fast enough to surf, stream videos etc.
BT: don't use it much. Wifi speeds are the same whether it is on or off.
GPS: The patches in the dev section actually made some difference. I get a few sats inside with no lock. Outside, I get 11-12 with a lock. GPS test says the accuracy is 30 ft which I doubt would be enough to navigate, but who cares??
Regarding crashes when browsing and so on, I was getting a lot before I unlocked. In the end I just figured screw it, unlocked and installed a rom. I did that about 6 weeks ago and I could count the number of crashes on one hand. Maybe a factory reset would have had the same effect but where's the fun in that
skygunner27 said:
That's a lame story bro.
I'd RMA until they got it right. It sucks that you have to sit there and just take it, while Asus adds you to the satisfied Prime owner statistic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not really mine. Its my friend's prime, but i used my creditcard to pay for it. Its his first tablet so hes pretty new to the game. As long as the prime works he can deal until there is a real fix for it, then Ill tell him. I have the receipt (ordered well before the GPS announcement) and all the paper work for the RMA (so there is history that I have complained about the GPS and weak wifi), so they cant deny me the GPS. Couldnt tell if the bluetooth+wifi works since I dont have any bluetooth headphones to test it. I wanna give it a few more months to see if there is any development in the prime.
Thats why I refunded my money, I had few B0CKS and where all the same GPS and weak wifi. Im holding out for something that I can be happy with.
wifi works great. better than my Ipad & atrix phone as far as download speeds, reception strength, and signal stability goes.
wifi/BT works fine. I'm able to transfer big movie files from my phone to prime while prime is hooked up to wifi internet and streaming movie at same time. no slowdown of speeds and movie plays just fine streaming while BT in the background transferring big file.
Gps- never tested outdoors yet. plus I hook up my phone to prime through BT GPS. works great.
overall my early BC model from 12/22 has been performing great for me. no real issues what so ever to complain about really. I'd easily purchase this again if i had to do it over again. my Ipad has nothing on my prime. No comparison to Prime & Android experience. Very pleased with device and its performance. IMO, Asus did a great job on it as mines works as expected and more.
Thanks for the responding!
My wi-fi performance isn't stellar, but it isn't horrible either. I can get better signal than my, older, hp laptop in some areas of my house. I'm happy enough with it to not want to RMA.
I rely on my phone any time I need GPS so I have never actually tested it on my Prime. Seems like redundant use of technology for me. For the same reason, I haven't loaded any music onto my Prime--I have it all on my, more portable, phone.
I love ICS. Sure, I have some difficulty with the browser some times, but I expect Google will be continually making this better. I usually just check in with FB with it anyway. For any serious browsing I use a computer.
One of the things I love the best about my Prime is the dock. I've had zero issues with it and love the short-cut buttons. I'm currently writing a book, completely on my Prime, and it and Polaris Office have been wonderful.
I've been using my BC0KAS TF201 from Best Buy since mid January, and I'm pleased with it overall.
Wifi is nothing to be proud of, but acceptable. Downstairs is not a problem, but upstairs I get slower speeds, which is to be expected.
GPS is absent. I'm lucky to get a lock anywhere, and I've never seen more than 3 sats while driving.
I haven't used bluetooth much.
I use chrome browser and it works fine.
Battery life is somewhat of an issue for me; I keep it on about 50% brightness most of the time, and the battery goes down quite fast at times. Fast charging makes up for it though.
My wifi is usable. I even connected once to free mcdonalds wifi from the parking lot (slow, but checked my email which is what i needed to do). I will have a weak signal upstairs, but netflix worked fine.
Wifi + bt. Again, usable, but signal drops when i feed my stereo bt music and try to watch netflix (really real world?)
No reboots till two updates ago. Way better with .21
Gps is completely useless. I was one of the few who wanted this to replace my aging gps as a nice bonus. Tried all the gps patches from the thread, 1.0rc seems to make things more stable in gps test, but i no longer get locks whatsoever. Also, no skymap fun as its twitchy.
Screen goes through fits with tearing along the left side. Sometimes need to reboot to fix it. Minimal backlight bleeding, didnt even notice till the 3rd time i turned it on, and i was looking for it at that point.
I love this thing enough to have kept it since early jan (bb.com fiasco unit). Not unlocked. Still scared even though i reallllly want to...
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
My WiFi slightly beats out the Galaxy Ace and Wildfire in terms of range and the DL/UL speeds are still pretty good at the furthest away point in my house.
GPS is non existant as far as I can tell, not really got the patience to test it properly though.
Never really use BT+WiFi together so can't comment on that.
My Rear camera doesn't work, just a green glitchy mess. Not sure if it's hardware or software though.
Gaming is good on it, got plenty of emulators working very well and games like Shadowgun run and look great.
Wifi-up to par with my Droid x
Wifi+Bluetooth- no issues
Gps - not so great, its picky about location and view of the sky
Sent from my DROIDX using xda premium
Wifi matches Droid X in speed and signal strength.
I don't use BT on my tablet.
GPS - outside, 10/10 lock/view, vs. droid x 10/16. Inside, maybe 1 in view, no lock. Droid X will get 6/8.
OS, no issues. I did have to wipe going from HC-->ICS, but I wasn't expecting apps to survive anyway,
*edit*
I had issues with triangles appearing on overlays and random bars on the edge of the screen, but those have gone away with the .21 update. The triangle tearing thing was always fixable by just swiping apps off the recent apps list.
Wifi is fine my E4200 version 1 is in the center of the house and I get a decent connection both on the front and back steps and I use the prime to watch network streamed tv show replays with no problems or stuttering in the house. Gps is good in the house at times and non working at other times same outside. Location and weather effect this I believe. My browser hasnt given me any problems to speak of, overall I'm pleased.
Related
With the results of the vote in the GPS (possible issue) thread running at 30% functionality, left me asking what are the other 70% of us doing wrong?
I thought this would be an opportunity to gather data for analysis. It is not a chat thread or for discussion on causes, or trouble shooting.
Just maybe something well show up, as it appears Asus doesn’t have a clue and keep blaming the case. While the case does seem to be attenuating the signal compared to my Samsung Galaxy S2 it doesn’t explain the hit and miss nature of the TF201. And we all have the same back panel on our TF201’s.
On one occasion with the TF201 sitting on a park bench found 9 Satellites and used 5. (Using GPS version V 6.8.13) Without touching a thing they all disappeared. Then nothing!
The best I can do now is 1 Satellite found.
Test procedure:
Outdoors only in a wide open space.
Use “GPS Test” from The Market.
Update AGPS then turn Wi-Fi off.
If all reports could be posted in the following format.
1. Model:
2. Build:
3. GPS Version:
4. Satellite’s in view:
5. Satellite’s In use:
6. Time to first fix:
7. Has the GPS worked in previous builds of ICS
8. Did GPS work in Honeycomb
9. First 8 digits of serial No
Just maybe a pattern will emerge.
Thanks all.
1. Model: 64Gb Champagne
2. Build: IML74K.TW_epad 9.4.2.11
3. GPS Version: V6.9.13
4. Satellite’s in view: 1
5. Satellite’s In use:0
6. Time to first fix: N/A
7. Has the GPS worked in previous builds of ICS: Yes briefly
8. Did GPS work in Honeycomb: Not tested
9. BCOKAS08
Not sure what you're trying to accomplish here.
There isn't a single Transformer Prime on this planet where GPS works great.
So It is what it is: the metal design is beautiful, but it restricts GPS signals. And as there is no real a-GPS for Wifi tablets(as they have no cell-site triangulation possibilities), this becomes a real and unsolvable problem.
And Asus DOES has a clue, according to Asus there is no GPS on the Transformer Prime. The same as there is no GPS on other Wifi tablets like the iPad's. Asus made a big mistake advertising with GPS before release though.
So if you really want to use GPS on the Prime, you're out of luck and should return it. A full refund would be fair if you bought it early.
I've never been able to lock onto more than 3 and then for only a few seconds. That was with HC and now ICS. If I use my Prime for navigation I use my BT GPS receiver and a full mapping capable app which I've already tested and works great. I suggest if anyone bought a TP for navigational purposes return it immediately.
Non-issue (for me at least).
YoMarK said:
Not sure what you're trying to accomplish here.
There isn't a single Transformer Prime on this planet where GPS works great.
So It is what it is: the metal design is beautiful, but it restricts GPS signals. And as there is no real a-GPS for Wifi tablets(as they have no cell-site triangulation possibilities), this becomes a real and unsolvable problem.
And Asus DOES has a clue, according to Asus there is no GPS on the Transformer Prime. The same as there is no GPS on other Wifi tablets like the iPad's. Asus made a big mistake advertising with GPS before release though.
So if you really want to use GPS on the Prime, you're out of luck and should return it. A full refund would be fair if you bought it early.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 why do people still not realize it's the aluminum condom to protect from GPS waves
PrimeTimeBro said:
+1 why do people still not realize it's the aluminum condom to protect from GPS waves
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ohh really.
Please explain TF201 sitting on park bench found 9 satellites, using 5.
Without touching the device all satellites lost and no further seen.
Don't like the odds on those condoms.
The aluminium case explains the poor signal to noise ratios, not the sudden loss of all reception on a stationary device.
mile high said:
Ohh really.
Please explain TF201 sitting on park bench found 9 satellites, using 5.
Without touching the device all satellites lost and no further seen.
Don't like the odds on those condoms.
The aluminium case explains the poor signal to noise ratios, not the sudden loss of all reception on a stationary device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same reason when you are on the edge of losing a FM or AM radio station it can be crystal clear with a inch of movement. Try to navigate turn by turn with the Primes GPS as soon as you start moving signal is too weak to keep it. If your device just dropped all satellites without any movement it's just a glitch and has nothing to do with the overall problem of the Primes GPS.
mile high said:
Ohh really.
Please explain TF201 sitting on park bench found 9 satellites, using 5.
Without touching the device all satellites lost and no further seen.
Don't like the odds on those condoms.
The aluminium case explains the poor signal to noise ratios, not the sudden loss of all reception on a stationary device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because it sees them but fails to hold them when moving because the signal is weak.. Why can't people accept that?
PrimeTimeBro said:
+1 why do people still not realize it's the aluminum condom to protect from GPS waves.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this has been pointed out about the aluminum back. But as mentioned we all have the same aluminum back then ...
WHY are some Primes always able to see and get a GPS fix.
Why is ASUS even bothering with updating the GPS driver if GPS in not in the spec's?.
WHY has someone not show GPS results with the aluminum back off?
Off topic WIFI why the frack would I want to use G setting to get good WIFI? That's like not using my 5th gear in the car and staying in 4th.
I love the Prime but the aluminum back shield is a frack up period. Stock seems to have dried up around here (impossible to get). I wonder what's up.
My new Prime had never seen 1 single satellite for the 4 days or so I have had it.
Last night, I open Google Maps and click on Resteraunts and simply pick a Pizza Joint nearby. Then I click on NAVIGATE for it to navigate me there (I was just playing around on my couch in my living room, not in my car).
The bottom of Google Maps said "Searching For GPS" and I said "Fudge It" and just laid it on the coffee table. I closed my eyes and about 12 minutes later (I looked at the clock) my tablet says in a woman's voice "Turn Left on Birch Drive!"
I couldn't believe my ears. I quickly opened GPSStatus, GPS FIX, all that. Then I noticed that Google Maps said "Searching for GPS" again. Google Maps needs a lock to navigate you so It actually got a lock for a split second, which was exciting.
However, the other apps were showing 4-5 Satellites, and they have never shown one before. It wouldn't lock, but the fact it was all the sudden showing some satellites was quite exciting since my GPS had appeared to be Dead on Arrival.
So, if you have time and can stop playing with the tablet, set up a route on Google Maps, choose for NAVIGATION, and set it down, maybe by a window, and wait 15 minutes. Maybe you will get a lock.
In my opinion, my GPS works VERY SLOW. It took literally 10 or more minutes to see any satellites, then started loading a few more slowly till I got up to 5. Again,I couldn't get it to lock onto any anymore, but I was in my living room and I have 14 mature trees in my yard (I am talking BIG trees).
Maybe give that a shot and see what happens. Because my tablet had seen NOTHING ever, but I was only trying it for 5 minutes at a time then I would get pissed.
yhzhrm said:
Yes, this has been pointed out about the aluminum back. But as mentioned we all have the same aluminum back then ...
WHY are some Primes always able to see and get a GPS fix.
Why is ASUS even bothering with updating the GPS driver if GPS in not in the spec's?.
WHY has someone not show GPS results with the aluminum back off?
Off topic WIFI why the frack would I want to use G setting to get good WIFI? That's like not using my 5th gear in the car and staying in 4th.
I love the Prime but the aluminum back shield is a frack up period. Stock seems to have dried up around here (impossible to get). I wonder what's up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All Primes will see and get GPS fixes NONE of them will keep it awhile moving.
No one wants to destroy a $500 device but if your willing feel free.
G gets better range with Wi-Fi in general and the Prime lacks good range with it's Wi-Fi for the same reason GPS sucks the aluminum sheild if it's not good enough for you return .
PrimeTimeBro said:
All Primes will see and get GPS fixes NONE of them will keep it awhile moving.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true!
My Prime must be bad unit because 97 percent of the time it never sees any satellites and it has had actually only had a fix maybe three times out of 100 tries.
I'd be happy to get a fix period each time I tried
Hence my original WHY with the same aluminum back can some Primes get fixes while others don't even now satellites exist in orbit?
My bad unit is going back. I'll wait for the 700 series or a revised TF201 with a new back. Until then My HP Touchpad running ICS will do for now. Yes, no HD video or camera but that's fine.
GPS works on all other sanctioned Android tablets (with market access).
yhzhrm said:
Not true!
My Prime must be bad unit because 97 percent of the time it never sees any satellites and it has had actually only had a fix maybe three times out of 100 tries.
I'd be happy to get a fix period each time I tried
Hence my original WHY with the same aluminum back can some Primes get fixes while others don't even now satellites exist in orbit?
My bad unit is going back. I'll wait for the 700 series or a revised TF201 with a new back. Until then My HP Touchpad running ICS will do for now. Yes, no HD video or camera but that's fine.
GPS works on all other sanctioned Android tablets (with market access).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I forgot to mention asus terrible qc on the primes I'm sure there's plenty where gps is totally borked bottom line is gps will never function as a turn by turn on primes with aluminum backplates. End of story
look at my youtube video... it was honey comb and nearly perfect...
with new updated ics its worthless...
I don't see any satellites and I have never seen any on either of my TFP's. I have owned 2 so far and they both didn't see any satellites period. My GPS light stayed yellow and never went green no matter if I used wifi or not. So why is mine not seeing any Sat's, but you guys complain when you have a weak signal. I am in the process of trying to return mine I bought from BB, but I am waiting my 14 days to see if they will get some in stock. If they do, the customer rep will send one out to me or the store nearest me, and then I would have to send mine off. That's what the customer service rep told me to do. It's not that big of a deal to me, but the unknown serial was, so that's why I got rid of my first one.
PrimeTimeBro said:
All Primes will see and get GPS fixes NONE of them will keep it awhile moving.
No one wants to destroy a $500 device but if your willing feel free.
G gets better range with Wi-Fi in general and the Prime lacks good range with it's Wi-Fi for the same reason GPS sucks the aluminum sheild if it's not good enough for you return .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wrong. I get no gps satellites period .. no fix no nothing... no matter which configuration i try
Well generally not the responses I had hoped for.
JoeyLe said:
Because it sees them but fails to hold them when moving because the signal is weak.. Why can't people accept that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does stationary device, placed on park bench, mean to you?
Not moving...9 satellites, with a fix, then suddenly nothing. No satellites in range. TF201 still sitting on park bench!
As an aside my Wifi is perfect. In fact better signal strength and bandwidth better than both my phones and similar to my laptop.
I don't want turn by turn navigation (have TomTom for that). Just a occasional fix on Google maps. Wifi is generally too inaccurate.
And I do know a little about GPS. RAIM, FDE and Baro aiding help keep me alive in my 9-5 job.
If you are happy with your prime great.
But do check the bottom of the box your Prime came in. The spec still show GPS. Mine is a late model Prime. So regardless of Asus removing it from the web site I feel I am entitled to some form of GPS functionality.
Happy to do that Wifi assisted and it should work in a wide open space. But it doesn't for 70% of owners.
So my question once again why are the other 30% of TF201's offering some sort of GPS functionality?
yhzhrm said:
Why is ASUS even bothering with updating the GPS driver if GPS in not in the spec's?.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also wonder about this. Why waste the time and effort?
Here's how i fixed my GPS problem:
I pulled out my Galaxy SII. Got a fix in 2 seconds.
True Story.
i can get about a 20m accuracy lock while indoors in a matter of seconds, but it never improves in accuracy.
Satellite’s in view: 0-4
Satellite’s In use: 0
Time to first fix: 2minutes
1. Model: 32 Champ
2. Build: IML74k.US_epad-9.4.2.11-20120117
3. GPS Version:V6.1.1.17
4. Satellite’s in view: Fluctuates but up to 11
5. Satellite’s In use:Fluctuates but up to 6
6. Time to first fix:3 mins
7. Has the GPS worked in previous builds of ICS: n/a
8. Did GPS work in Honeycomb:Yes and Much better before
9. First 8 digits of serial #: BCOKAS02
In Honeycomb It was working very well but since the update its way more flaky, as it will go from 9 sats in view and suddenly lose them all.
#### Any one else notice that the GPS Icon Doesn't Blink anymore unless you click the clock menu and then go back####
I've had my Prime for about 2 weeks and have been very happy with it.
I'm posting this because I'm sure there are many other potential buyers hesitating due to all the negative discussions recently.
Initially, I was reading about WiFi and GPS issues online. The stores I asked were telling me of WiFi and GPS issues... blaming it all on the metal casing.
Even so, I took the plunge and got it based on the following:
WiFi: Anandtech's testing seemed to show WiFi performance is comparable to other tablets in his tests after he got some new retail sample units from Asus.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5175/asus-transformer-prime-followup
GPS: Will be using it at home, so no use for GPS. Also, for comparison, Wifi only versions of ipad2 do not even have GPS.
After using the Prime on WiFi at different locations, I can confirm that it is no worse than the Acer A500 or my Nexus One phone.
Alsp, please also refer to this test image done at another forum.
http://attach.mobile01.com/attach/201201/mobile01-ca742e0578a2a417e2d4ffd597722681.jpg
Notebooks obviously will have better reception so that is not a fair comparison.
Therefore in my opinion, the whole WiFi issue was just blown out by the GPS issue.
There may also have been an initial small batch of engineering samples with broken WiFi that fueled the negative publicity, which is just bad luck for ASUS.
But I believe Mass Production units should not have this issue.
Also, people should be comparing the Prime with comparable tablets/ipad and not with notebooks.
who cares about tests done in perfect conditions? if the prime can't get a signal while my sgs2 and my girlfriend's galaxy tab have no problems at all, something is definitely wrong with the prime. put a couple of walls between the router and the prime, and the prime has a significant signal loss compared to other devices.
at least that is my experience so far. maybe some transformers get good wifi signals, even trough walls. but the two i had did not.
jemz0r said:
I'm posting this because I'm sure there are many other potential buyers hesitating due to all the negative discussions recently.
Initially, I was reading about WiFi and GPS issues online. The stores I asked were telling me of WiFi and GPS issues... blaming it all on the metal casing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's great that, under your conditions, you're pleased with Wi-Fi. From videos comparing the TF1 side-by-side to the Prime you can see the Prime struggles to maintain the continuity of its signal. It gets worse the further away from the router you are. Three of my friends that travel a lot returned the Prime because, on the road, you can't play with a routers settings just to please your device. Some people are happy with the Prime's Wi-Fi performance, some aren't. It's a big YMMV based on how and where you use it.
Here's what Anand said after he got a replacement for the first defective device he received. To get decent speeds, he had to change the wireless environment to suit the Prime. He didn't on the TF1.
At the same time, I had test data from both ASUS and NVIDIA that show the Prime is capable of reasonable WiFi speeds. Yesterday morning I received a replacement Prime which was tested prior to being sent my way. The good news is the 2Mbps cap and poor range are both gone, the new sample is much faster on WiFi. Clearly there was something wrong with my original unit and it's being sent back to ASUS today for an autopsy. The bad news is I was still getting numbers around half of the original Transformer.
Using Ookla's Speedtest.net web app I get a consistent 34 - 37Mbps on the original Eee Pad Transformer (our actual WiFi performance tests involve downloading a file from a local server, but Speedtest was a quick and easy way to verify the problem). My original Prime review sample averaged around 0.5Mbps, while the replacement Prime got around 10Mbps - all in the same test location. Fiddling around with location I could get the replacement Prime up to 16Mbps. My test area is riddled with challenging interference so I setup a separate test area in another room. Even after buying the same Netgear WNDR4500 wireless AP that ASUS verified 31Mbps+ operation on, I wasn't able to break 16Mbps.
I have four other APs covering my house, I turned all of the radios off as a last ditch effort. Boom - 36Mbps on the Prime.
Good that you are happy with WIFI under your condition. However, judging from my experience and few others:
1.) WIFI performance will vary on where you are, or your environment. For example.. My router is in the basement of my house, but if i take it to 1st floor, I lose about 1 or 2 bars depending on where I am. If I take up to my 2nd floor.... I either have one or none. Now, I did the same experiment at my friends house and at work.. depending on the structure of the building and thinness of the wall, WIFI performance of PRIME really varies (and much more noticeable over other devices I have or tested).
Now, I also travel often for work. Recently returned from a trip.... and I tested the WIFI performance at the Hotel I was staying. More or less, I was stuck in 1 bar with constant disconnect or no WIFI at all.
Considering that the appeal of "tablets" are for ease of portability... based on my experience, I cannot recommend Prime to those who travel often. Btw, mine is more or less a "perfect" prime without any issues.
PRIME's WIFI can certainly be adequate but it does have its issues with "range" (especially when the setting or environment changes often).
2.) Can we please stop comparing Prime to iPad 2? If you are comparing the overall performance (such as graphics, speed.. blah blah blah).. I understand.. but stop comparing Prime's GPS and the non-existent GPS of iPad 2.
I have used my prime in my girlfriend's house where the router is 20+ yards away and has to go through 3 walls, 2 of which are external because the house is U shaped, and have had no issues with wifi signal. Of course I get half bars, but the speed test is still good (sorry don't remember exact numbers) and I use YouTube and browsing consistently and without issue.
I must add that I am getting a good wireless connection from here at work where I normally got poor signals and had to rely on my mifi device.
To top that I'm at lunch watching X-Men over Netflix with my Bluetooth headphones paired, and the streaming haven't stopped. The quality hassn't depleted much either.
I would have to agree with the original poster, for my machine, the WiFi is a non-issue and works just fine. It works well for me in the following varied locations/conditions:
1. My home wifi with the router in the living room. Tablet works in every room of the condo.
2. Vancouver airport - Free Wifi
3. Narita Airport - Free Wifi
4. Haneda Airport - Free Wifi
5. Beijing Airport - Some strange pass-through wifi
6. Every hotel in the 3 countries I have traveled to since getting my prime.
7. WiFi at work whose main router isn't even located on my floor and browser pass through login.
8. Every coffee bean and starbuck's wifi that I've been to
9. The wifi hotspot on my verizon phone.
The list could go on and on as I always take my prime everywhere I go and there is usually free or cheap wifi wherever I go. I have never had a problem with my wifi signal not being great enough for me to surf the web, watch netflix, or log into/use my web dependent apps. It is not always full bars, but my suspicion is that the bars indicator on the prime isn't all that accurate.
At any rate, it works for me, but I understand that the build quality may not be consistent across all primes and that I just maybe one of the lucky ones.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
That's what I've always said OP. good post. my wifi strength,stability, n range has always been great. n I have one of the earliest batches from 12/22. Anandtech said it right. Said wifi on par with OG transformer. its all about people setups. they need to understand the various contributing factors that can cause wireless issues. Some are determined not to budge from 5Ghz N speed although its not supported by prime anyways and that frequency has been proven to be marketing b.s. because 5Ghz doesn't guareentee faster speeds and the range is alot less than 2.4Ghz range. here is an example of the debunked 5Ghz myth and some tips also if your network seeming slow for a particular device.
http://smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-basics/30664-5-ways-to-fix-slow-80211n-speed
For the record, I've had no wifi problems with my Prime, anywhere in my house or yard.
I must be one of the unlucky ones.
House: Large Bungalow (2000 sq ft)
Router: Cisco e4200 using 2.4Ghz
Router Location: up on a rafter in the basement (i.e. right up against the first level floorboard)
Internet Connection: 30Mbps
Test 1: Right below router in the basement - 29Mbps
Test 2: Main floor, standing right above the router - 20Mbps
Test 3: Great Room (approx 15ft from router) - 16Mbps
Test 4: Kitchen (approx 30ft from router) - 2Mbps
Test 5: Dining Room (approx 40ft from router) - 2Mbps
In the latter two tests, my kid's iPad still gets 16Mbps. I may RMA later in the year, hoping ASUS will have had time to decide on a fix.
This tablet is absolutely gorgeous and my wife would never let me return it.
jemz0r said:
Wifi only versions of ipad2 do not even have GPS.
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Lmao this is the worst argument i have ever read on xda really.
Lol
I use my prime at work and home all the time. At home my router is in my living room and obviously there are no issues, but I also have a home gym upstairs and on the opposite corner of the house. I have no issues streaming Netflix during my runs, How I met your mother is a great distraction!
At work my office has the router through many walls and doors, I get 2 bars where my phone gets 3. Speedtest though is identical, and my phone is also on a custom rom that has its wifi tolerances increased. Stream music all day on my tablet with no issues/drops.
Also travel a lot for work around the country, no issues in the Indy Airport with free wifi or my hotel on a recent trip to Nashville. Will want to test it on some more upcoming trips but so far everything is coming up aces.
I've had 2 Primes, both purchased retail (not review units).
Prime 1 from the first batch made had fine WiFi with no signif drop when 20 feet away from Office N routers. It worked well.
Prime 2 (latest batch, C serial number, 64 gig) drops from 25Mbps next to router to 7 Mbps when 20 feet from router (one partial obstruction, interior wall of wood beam and sheetrock). At 30 feet, it gets 2Mbps. This is far worse than Prime 1 and most other devices in our office.
Variability between two Primes leads me to believe this is a hardware issue (antenna connection?). Neither have any problems streaming when also connected to a BT device.
I have a perfect example of the Prime's WiFi fail that I experienced just 20 mins ago at lunch:
-Parked right outside of a McDonalds
-My phone (a subpar LG Optimus T) picks up all of 3 of their public networks, connects to them all and maintains a stable internet connection
-My Prime can only see one and cannot connect to it... just gives me the option to "Save" or "Forget"
Prime wifi = fail.
I respect that the OP may not have WiFi problems with his specific use cases, but the WiFi problem is real. Take a look at my test results from this thread and explain to me how there's no WiFi problem in light of them.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=21413105&postcount=15
So after looking at the tear down images of the Prime, I decided to give mine a little flex (just a little) and press along the top edge where the two antenna contacts live (idiotic pogo pin connectors and copper tape contacts).
Result?
Prime 2, the wirelessly challenged tablet, now sees 15 to 20 db better signal over WiFi and does not drop throughput AT ALL 20 feet from router. Wow.
GPS under ICS was a no-show and now gets 13 sats in view with 8 in use outdoors in 20 seconds. Indoors it sees 4 or 5 sats but doesn't get a fix. Before the love-hug? Nothing nada, zip.
Screenshot please
Send the workaround to ASUS devs, so we can all be blessed.
Regards
+1
I was just about to ask for a screenshot of where you exactly pressed too. This would be awesome.
edit: Maybe this is why ASUS says they can "fix" the weak wifi?
I pressed, both front and back, along the top bezel area (black zone above display). I didn't squeeze the heck out of it, but put just enough pressure to see a little temporary light bleed.
I chose that zone based on the teardown phone that I think came from Annandtech and is posted in an XDA dev thread.
See the two pogo pins (spring-loaded push connectors that stick up a bit). That's the area.
bimbobo said:
Screenshot please
Send the workaround to ASUS devs, so we can all be blessed.
Regards
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Hab1 said:
+1
I was just about to ask for a screenshot of where you exactly pressed too. This would be awesome.
edit: Maybe this is why ASUS says they can "fix" the weak wifi?
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pdagal said:
I pressed, both front and back, along the top bezel area (black zone above display). I didn't squeeze the heck out of it, but put just enough pressure to see a little temporary light bleed.
I chose that zone based on the teardown phone that I think came from Annandtech and is posted in an XDA dev thread.
See the two pogo pins (spring-loaded push connectors that stick up a bit). That's the area.
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Click to collapse
I just sent Gary key a very detailed PM and link to that thread showing teardown n talk about the pogo pins. Said this is info he will want to pass along to Asus engineers asap as it could be a real fix made from this info. these pogo pins not having a good connection will influence wireless performance more than anything else including backplate. if issues are caused from loose connections then fixed, backplate really won't be an issue anymore.
Hello everybody, I am new to this forum but I would like to share my experiences regarding the Transformer Prime
.
I bought my Prime in January in the Netherlands. Out of the box it worked with no problems what so ever. After reading other users remarks about the GPS, I downloaded the GPS test and ran the app in the living room of my apartment in Amsterdam ( this was after the first update) within a minuet I had 7/8 sats in use and my location was as good as pin pointed.
I work off-shore in the North sea, and I went outside with the prime to see if I had and signal ( thinking that the steel structure would interfere ) to my surprise, within seconds I had 8 sats in use and my location pin pointed.
Two weeks later and after update number 15, I was in rural France and I took my prime out to the garden thinking that I would have 10 sats within seconds, but to my amazement I only had a glimpse of 2 sats during 15 minuets. During those 15 minuets my TomTom was finding the sats without any problems.
Back in Amsterdam and again off-shore the Prime had no problem finding sats. So what can I conclude from this. The GPS seems to be working OK, and that as far as I can see there has been no performance gain or loss after the updates. I know it possible to have GPS dead-spots ( buildings, pylons etc ) or Is the problem weather related?
With regard to other users remarks about the wifi performance, I agree that signal “fall-off” is a problem. Next to my modem I have 72mps, but 6 meters away in my bedroom I only have 5mps. The wifi performance has also not improved after the updates.
The only annoying problem I have with the prime is after update number 14, when the stock browser would sometimes give me a blank screen. But I discovered that if I swiped the screen up and down a couple of times the browser came back. Since update 15 that has not improved, and most sessions with the browser I end up swiping a blank screen once or twice to get the web page back.
I have not had any problems with re-boots, flickering screens or hanging. PS my prime is still stock.
The GPS in the Prime is flakey. The best test you can give it is to take it for a drive in a car and see if it maintains a lock on 4+ sats while moving.
twotrout said:
Hello everybody, I am new to this forum but I would like to share my experiences regarding the Transformer Prime
The only annoying problem I have with the prime is after update number 14, when the stock browser would sometimes give me a blank screen. But I discovered that if I swiped the screen up and down a couple of times the browser came back. Since update 15 that has not improved, and most sessions with the browser I end up swiping a blank screen once or twice to get the web page back.
I have not had any problems with re-boots, flickering screens or hanging. PS my prime is still stock.
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I get the same thing with the blank screen and also the wait/close message. It is very annoying...........
I wish my luck was so good.
My GPS doesn't work, and I am one of those who doesn't care about it.
What I do care about is that my Prime has decided to no longer play nice with wifi and BT.
I try to stream my Google Music and listen to it from the BT headset... mostly it doesn't work, the wifi dies, the music stops and I get nada.
I didn't mind about the gps, and the light bleed on the edges was only annoying when using the bookreader in night mode if I had the lights off so the wife could sleep..
So, my Prime is headed back to Gamestop and they have no more in stock online, or at the only store in my area to carry them.
Refund time, and maybe by the time they get them back the issues will be resolved, or I'll own something else and not care.
none of the above
I don't know about other units, but my prime is working perfectly.
Just ran GPS test inside my house and within 20 seconds I had lock on 14 satellites.
Wifi works perfectly in all over my house and also outside in the yard.
Bluetooth streaming on Google music, no issues whatsoever.
No issues with the browser.
It's been the perfect device so far.
It seems to vary from unit to unit. A friend of mine has one, no issues, mine, meh....
I'm sitting on the patio, Southside of the building, full view of the sky, and here's my GPS.
The one on my phone is fine, seeing 11 birds. I don't plan to use my tablet to drive, so it's not really affecting me... The bt/wifi on the other hand is a deal breaker.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
twotrout said:
With regard to other users remarks about the wifi performance, I agree that signal “fall-off” is a problem. Next to my modem I have 72mps, but 6 meters away in my bedroom I only have 5mps. The wifi performance has also not improved after the updates.
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Click to collapse
I've had good luck with my wi-fi on all but one router (had to get pretty close to it). Even got about 10 meters from my mini travel router and maxed out the download speed. Something you might want to try when you have time is to experiment with changing your router's channel at home. Even the orginal Transformer had issues with some channels.
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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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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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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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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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?
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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.
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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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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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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)?
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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.
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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...
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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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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.
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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.
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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