Asus Transformer Prime TF201: Quick Review

Last year, I was one of the first 100 to pre-order the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101. It was indeed a transforming experience, being the first tablet with integrated foldable keyboard. I wrote a comprehensive review on it, covering my thoughts on how such a tablet device can work for me.

One year later, the Transformer Prime TF201 is released. I have since sold my original Transformer and bought myself a proper laptop to meet my needs. While a laptop can't last as long as a tablet, nor has much interactive fun apps to occupy your idle time, a laptop allows me to be productive in what I want to do, for instance, drafting this blog entry in a fast food restaurant.

Attention to curvy details

But that doesn't mean a hybrid tablet computer like the Transformer is not useful. If you find an Android tablet very useful but wished for a more integrated device with keyboard that comes with more battery, USB port and an SD card slot, to boost your productivity by a notch, then you should try the new Transformer Prime and power up your mobile lifestyle.

Transformer Prime in Champagne Gold

Here's the list of improvements on this second generation Eee Pad Transformer: Prime TF201.

• Thinner, lighter and made of brushed aluminium body, giving a much more premium feel. (537g vs. 680g. With dock, the TF201 weighs 1123g. And if it's of any interest, the new iPad 3 weighs 652g)
• More powerful quad-core Tegra 3 processor (vs. dual-core Tegra 2) with an additional low-power core for minor activity to further save your battery utilisation.
• 8 megapixel rear camera (vs. 5mp on the TF101)
• The dock lock mechanism is improved, so it's easier to dock.
• New Transformer comes with vibration for silent notification.
• Trackpad is more sensitive - perhaps too sensitive for some.
• The power button is now moved to the top instead of next to the volume rockers, so that you will not accidentally press the power button when you wanted to control the volume. But the lock key on the keyboard is still at the same position, and I tend to press that accidentally when I wanted to hit "backspace".
• Better screen quality thanks to Super IPS+, but still the same reflectivity, which is rather annoying.
• Plays video files and games smoother

Overall, the new Transformer Prime TF201 offers some improvements compared to the original Transformer TF101. You will not feel drastic benefits if you plan to upgrade, unless you are a gamer, or use the camera to take a lot of important photos, or prefers the weight and design of the new model. 

And when you upgrade the Transformer Prime to ICS (Android 4.0), you will enjoy the ICS benefits plus a handful of Asus custom settings, apps, widgets and enhanced notification window, which I find very useful.

• Task manager widget - easily monitors open apps and kills them
• Dual battery indicator - no need third party apps
• Asus notification panel - comes with additional setting icons, similar to Samsung Touchwiz
• ICS improvements (which I have shared in my Galaxy Nexus review) like Gmail swipe-to-next, Notification swipe-to-remove, nice icons

My experience with the Transformer Prime is dented primarily by the OS, which doesn't seem to run optimally. Issues include frequent lags, unresponsive apps, and slow camera operation like laggy shutter (a far cry compared to the Galaxy Nexus). These problems are not traits I expect out of a quad-core processor. I suppose future firmware updates may smoothen things out.

Transformer Prime on top of the Macbook Air. Just as sexy and stylish.

If you have always wanted an Asus Transformer but never got the chance to own one, the new Transformer Prime might interest you due to its Zenbook-like design. The lack of 3G models might discourage mobile warriors to get one, but casual users can easily rely on their mobile phone's Wi-Fi hotspot to provide data connectivity.

Sony Tablet P: Clamshell Review

Sony should not have called it a tablet.

The unique clamshell device runs on Android OS 3.2 Honeycomb (upgradeable to OS 4.0 ICS in future), has two 5.5-inch TFT display sporting 1024x480 resolution, powered by dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor, lets you play PlayStation certified games, SIM-enabled, built-in 1GB memory, supports external microSD card.

Sony calls it a Tablet P, but it shouldn't be marketed as a tablet.

Not A Good Tablet
Here's why this device does not work well as a tablet.

Dual screen. Technically, 2 screens are better than one. The Table P has a combined resolution of 1024x960. Unfortunately, not all apps support the full-screen view. The result: only one screen can be used, so instead of a larger screen, you end up with a viewable screen size of a mere 5.5-inch.

Dual screen does not quite work well when typing. At the normal "landscape" orientation, the Tablet P is too wide and its side bezels too thick for thumb typing. At the portrait orientation, some keys appear in between 2 screens!

In general, the 2-screen design is not natural to use for most apps that are designed for single screen.

Memory. Tablet P does not come with any built-in user memory to store user data. The 1GB is used by system. Without inserting an external memory card, you cannot say, take picture with the camera. I don't know of any tablet that does not have built-in user memory.

Sound. Sadly, the Tablet P sound quality is rather poor and weak. I was unable to impress my peers with video and music playback.

But A Great Personal Device
OK, imagine this is not a tablet. Here's what this device can do that sets it apart from other conventional tablets.

Dual screen. Sony has customised several apps to showcase the dual screen capability. Here's a list.

Camera: top screen shows the list of previously saved content, the bottom screen shows the camera live preview.

Video: top screen shows the content, the bottom screen shows the controls.

Music: top screen shows the playback controls and artwork, the bottom shows the albums in the form of artwork thumbnails. You can interact with them by moving them around, as if they are physical albums laid on a table.

Gallery: when opening an image to view, the top screen shows the main image, the bottom shows the rest of the images in the album which you can scroll. When you select another image, it will appear in the top screen.

I really like how these apps make use of the dual screen. When you use these apps, they don't look at all like tablet.

Compact Clamshell. The Tablet P is a compact and portable tablet for such a large screen, at only 372g. The beauty of the clamshell design is that I can put the Tablet P on the table and tilt the screen to watch videos, as a bedside clock, or watch for incoming updates. Even when hand-holding the device, I can adjust the top panel for optimised viewing angle while holding the bottom panel in a comfortable position. My favourite feature is to be able to do video recording without the need of a stand. And with the live preview displayed at the bottom screen instead of the top, I could capture still and video images at odd angles, not unlike cameras with articulated screens.

Notification light. No other mainstream tablets have a notification light. The Tablet P has it, so you'll know when you need to turn on the device to read your incoming messages.

Removable Battery. If you are a heavy user, you can easily buy extra battery to last you the whole day.


Final Words, and I'll Say That Again
Sony should not have called it a tablet. The Sony Tablet P is a personal touchscreen device, one that lets you play PlayStation games, enjoy music, video and photos, one that lets you capture photos and videos in various angles, one that connects to your social network via 3Gw. And it's a device that runs on Android OS and that, by the way, supports all Android apps, which you may use but not optimised for the device. Maybe then, more people will find good reasons to buy it. Would you, if it's not called a tablet?

Google Galaxy Nexus: Review

For months after the announcement of Android's latest OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), Galaxy Nexus remains as the only smartphone officially running on ICS. Even new Android phones launched after Galaxy Nexus are still installed with the Gingerbread OS 2.3.6. As for existing handsets, the update rollout is frighteningly slow. This has led to consumer hesitation on whether to purchase these new mobile phones with an old OS. While these new phone manufacturers have promised to release the ICS update, the actual date remains unknown.

So we ask yourselves this question: are the ICS enhancements really great? We look to the Galaxy Nexus for answers.

Being the official ICS smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus contains all the features that Google wanted, but that does not mean it has everything that consumers want. As a Samsung Galaxy S2 owner, I reviewed the Galaxy Nexus with an open mind and, as usual, less of a technical view and more of an experiential perspective. (To learn the new features of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, head on to this official link - http://www.android.com/about/ice-cream-sandwich/ )

Design
The Galaxy Nexus sports similarity with the Samsung Galaxy S2: a bulge bottom and a flexible plastic casing for the battery. The front screen is slightly concaved to offer added ergonomics in phone handling. The earphone jack is at the bottom, something that male users like me might appreciate because I keep the phone head first in my trouser pockets.

The phone is slightly bigger than the Galaxy S2, but after a while, you get used to the size. Even after inserting the Google search bar (permanent) at the top and the favourites icons at the bottom, and not forgetting the 3 on-screen buttons, the home screen icons are comfortably spaced out, thanks to higher resolution. And with that, the status bar can squeeze a lot more notification icons. Sadly, the battery indicator still does not show the remaining battery percentage.

What I Like
Here are a list of features that I find nice about the Nexus (and ICS).


Font. Some people hate it. But I like it. It's clean, clear and contemporary. It might be inspired by Windows phone, which I also liked.

Screen resolution. At 1280x720 in a 4.65" super AMOLED screen, the Nexus packs a lot of pixel density for a "retina display" experience. You see more information in one screen without the need to scroll around too frequently. The colour reproduction is much better than the Galaxy S2, which suffers blue tint. Despite having similar resolution as tablet, the OS does not display apps on the Nexus in the tablet layout, something which the Samsung Galaxy Note does.

Screen capture anytime. Nexus allows the user to capture screen shot by pressing the vol-down and power buttons simultaneously. I can practically capture any screen, allowing me to share review screen shots with great ease.

Recent shares. Some apps like camera displays your most recent share apps so that you can quickly use them without searching them again.

Camera shutter lag. Or lack of! Shot to shot is so instantaneous, I had to double check if I actually took the shot. I would prefer if there is an indicator on-screen to show that I have captured the shot, for instance, a blink on the screen.

Notification light. Samsung Galaxy never has one of these, and so I really appreciate having these. Some apps even let you define the notification colour so that you can easily identify which apps have incoming notifications, even without turning on the phone screen.

Slide to read next/previous messages. With Android 4.0, some apps like Gmail allows you to swipe the email to read the next or previous messages. The best part is that, when you swipe back to the earlier message, it remembers the position, so you do not have to scroll back to where you stopped.

Slide to remove notifications. Previous versions require you to either click the notification to read it and at the same time remove it, or click the "Clear all" button to remove all notifications at once. Now, you may choose to selectively remove each notification by sliding it out of the window. This allows me to keep the notifications I want while removing those that I want to ignore.

Photo gallery and editor. The new gallery is more compact which allows display of more gallery folders in a single page. The editor has a lot more useful functions to create photo effects and face touch-ups.

Camera live effects. Finally, the Android phone camera offers fun live effects that have existed on desktop webcam apps for the longest time. The effect feature serves as an entertaining feature for my young daughter, who is ever so delighted to see her own face transformed "live" on the phone display.

Sync frequency on email. Galaxy Nexus allows me to modify my email sync frequency in just 2 clicks. Previously, I had to navigate into the email options to look for this option. However, unlike other custom email apps like Samsung Galaxy S2, the Nexus does not allow different sync frequency for on-peak and off-peak.


What I Don't Like

No enhanced app features. Galaxy Nexus offers the plain interface and basic apps. Comparing to the Samsung Galaxy S2, for instance, the Nexus lacks a few conveniences, like the ability to assign ringtone on any track I play on the music player, the ability to search for contacts using the phone dial. For that, I'd prefer my Galaxy S2 over the Nexus.

Action bar: hide and seek. The action bar is where you select options available for each app.This action bar can appear on top or at the bottom of the app, which in my opinion is not very consistent.

On-screen keys positioning. The Galaxy Nexus has a huge blank space at the bottom, which would have no purpose since the action keys are now on the screen. As a result, I find it a little stretched to reach for the on-screen keys.

Image quality. The 5mp camera captures normal quality, incomparable to Galaxy S2. Upon closer inspection, the Galaxy S2 camera images are heavily sharpened to give you the illusion of sharp images. Even so, I thought the Nexus lacks sharpness, which means I might have to do post processing before sharing.

No external memory card slot. Need I say more?


Improvements That Don't Matter
The following lists are things that don't make an influence to my decision for using Galaxy Nexus or ICS, either because they are not practical to use, or I can easily find third party apps to give me the same features.

Face Unlock

As useful as it may sound, it would be rather silly to use, because you had to point the phone at your face to unlock. Imagine doing that during office meetings, or while you are driving. No worries, though. If the app is unable to recognise the face, you may proceed to unlock with a pin. But I might as well set to unlock by pin in the first place.

Near Field Communication
There is still no real application as yet. For now, you can use the Galaxy Beam to interact with another Galaxy Nexus device to share information.

Improved Apps
Galaxy Nexus (or ICS for that matter) has improved the usability of several apps, but the features are already available as pre-installed apps by other phone makers or as third party apps available on the Google Market. Here's what ICS offers, and see if these features sound familiar to you.

• Lock screen: you can activate camera.
• Incoming call management: quickly reject the call with pre-defined SMS messages.
• Data management: captures the data usage of apps. 
• Phonebook: offers you a single view of the contact's social feeds.

Final Words

The value of getting an Android phone running on stock OS is to be able to update the phone to the latest version without waiting months for the phone makers to develop their own custom version. The beauty of Android phone is that you can replace any apps with third party equivalents - even the Phone Dialer, the SMS, the Calendar, the Contacts manager, and the Home Screen. But for most consumers, they want a phone that works.

The Galaxy Nexus offers the latest yet the most basic Android experience, and despite a list of things I don't like (or don't matter), I really enjoy using the phone. And since you can easily replace apps with third party ones, the minor quibbles shouldn't really matter much. The camera quality might be a drawback for heavy camera users, as well as the lack of external memory card slots for the video-heavy users.

Jabra Freeway Review

The Jabra Freeway is a speakerphone for your car that connects to your mobile phone via bluetooth and allows you to answer or make calls without wires and hassle.

I had a go with the review unit and here are a list of nice features.

1. Battery Operated. No wires, just switch on and put it anywhere in your car, or even use it at home. A sturdy metal clip holds the Freeway to your car visor or anywhere you like. The package comes with both a car charger and a home USB charger. Battery life is touted to be extremely long, thanks to auto-off feature which detects motion. You can check battery life anytime by pressing the call button.
2. Auto connect. The moment you enter your car, the Freeway will connect with your paired mobile phone and connects.
3. FM transmission. You can choose to transmit all audio signals to your car stereo via an FM frequency channel, which can be changed manually to a channel with minimum interference. Quality isn't great, but it's a nice to have feature in case you needed it.
4. Music player. Besides a speakerphone, you can also transmit music to the Jabra Freeway, making it a wireless music player. The Freeway boasts of a 2.1 virtual surround sound with 3 speakers of 3W each. Audio quality isn't superb, but it's usable and certainly louder than your mobile phone.

The Jabra Freeway is a nice hassle-free car speakerphone. You can leave it in your car for weeks without worrying about battery life even if the device is left on all the time. The buttons are all spread out so you won't mis-press. When battery is low, a voice prompt will remind you to get it charged.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 and 7.0 Plus: Review and Compare

Samsung has the most number of tablet variants in the market. They have the 5-inch Galaxy Note, the 7-inch Tab original, the Tab 8.9, Tab 10.1, and the just-announced Galaxy Tab 2 in 7-inch, 10.1 inch, and Galaxy Note 10.1. Basically, you can find a Samsung tablet between 5 and 10.1 inch that meets your size needs.

On this blog post, I'm going to compare the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and 7.0 Plus, which I received from Samsung for review.

The Difference
Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is essentially an upgrade of the original Galaxy Tab (7.0) with the exact screen resolution of 1024x600, while the Tab 7.7 is a new model and the first tablet to use Super AMOLED Plus screen and follows the more common 1280x800 size.

Here's a breakdown of the differences, Galaxy Tab 7.7 vs. 7.0 Plus (source: Samsung website)

• Processor: 1.4GHz Dual Core vs. 1.2GHz Dual Core
• Weight: 340g vs. 345g
• Thichness: 7.89mm vs. 9.96mm
• Screen: 1280x800 Super AMOLED Plus vs. 1024x600 TFT 
• Battery: 5100mAh vs. 4000mAh
• SAR: 0.079 W/kg vs. 0.977 W/kg
• Retail Price: S$898 vs. S$768

The Tab 7.7 is clearly the winner in every aspect. The higher-resolution AMOLED Plus screen looks sharper in higher contrast and displays more pixel information. Even when running on the same Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS, there are subtle additional features on the 7.7. For instance, the Live Panel on the 7.7 can stack multiple apps but the 7.0 Plus can only pop one app at a time. The settings colour theme on the 7.7 is black (conserves battery on AMOLED screens) while the 7.0 Plus is white.

Check out the rear of both Tabs. The 7.0 Plus replicates the Tab 10.1 glossy plastic finishing while the 7.7 sports a new metallic finish.

What impresses me is that Samsung still retains the ear speaker so that the Tab functions exactly like a mobile phone. I know it does look outrageous holding such a large Tab - I mean, people already felt the 5-inch Galaxy Note is huge - but you know you at at least make use of it to make calls if your bluetooth headset or wired earpiece is nowhere to be found.

The Tab uses the same ear speaker as the Galaxy S2 (left).

Sadly, the camera quality is still not comparable to high-end mobile phones like Galaxy S2, which means it could be a deterrent for people who might consider ditching their pocketable phones for this multi-functional goliath.

Does 7.7 Inch Work?
I have tried several 10-inch tablets. I have reviewed the 5-inch Galaxy Note. I have tested numerous mobile phones of 4-inch screens. Now that I have experienced the 7.7 inch Tab, I think it's a great size. It's not too big and heavy, nor too small which strain your eyes. At 340g, it's a nice weight for prolonged usage. At 7.7 inch, it's a nice size when viewing from about a feet away. Thumb-typing in portrait mode is comfortable. The size is even better for playing Draw Something, a cross-platform game for Android and iOS devices. Samsung made it bigger and yet lighter than the 7.0 Plus.


The Verdict
The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus feels and looks dated. Unless you really can't afford the additional S$100+, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the one to own. Higher processor, larger screen, higher resolution, thinner and lighter, it is a small price to pay for a newer tablet experience.

Outdoor Portrait Photography: Sharing My Shooting Style

Last month, I organised a group outdoor shoot for my photography kakis (friends) who rarely shoots portraits. It was a great learning session for everyone, including myself. While others have opportunities to practice portrait shoots, I have the chance to actually see how my style makes a difference to normal portrait photos.

So in this post, I shall share with you how I capture some of the shots using techniques and tips to create the look that I did for many of my portrait photos.

Backlight
This is one of my commonly-used lighting to create a dramatic effect. Some higher-skilled photographers would be able to control the flare effects but I like my way of shooting against the light.

The above shot cast rather unusual rings of flare, a result of the Nikkor 24-70mm shot at f4.

Here's one below where the flash is completely covered by the model. It might not look different from a shot without backlight, but notice the model's arms have a glow.

Here's an example of a shot without backlight and one with. Notice that the camera auto-adjusts the white balance to give a warmer tone with backlight. Of course, if you shoot in RAW, you could fix the left photo, but you certainly can't fake the glow.

As for the flash output, I always keep it at 1/8 power, and I don't factor it into my shooting exposure. Take a shot, evaluate the flash power, and adjust accordingly. You can trigger the rear flash using whatever methods you know that supports your camera system. For my case, I enabled SU-4 slave flash mode on my SB-600 flash and used my Nikon D300 internal flash set to minimum power (1/128) to trigger the rear flash. You could also purchase radio trigger but I want my shooting pals to also try the backlight shooting by triggering my rear flash using their individual built-in flash units.


Wide-Angle Framing
Surprisingly, most of my kakis were shooting close up on the model. During the shoot, I recommended them to pull back and shoot wide, but one of the commented that "there are too many elements when shooting wide, don't know how to frame".

The technique is simple: find a background that you would shoot with a wide-angle lens. Then place the model in the middle at about 2 feet. To make the subject large in a wide-angle shot, the subject has to be close enough. Finally, add a dramatic pose. In the above shot, I added another light source to the left of the camera - yep, that's not from a real sunlight but from my external flash.

Nikon D300, Tokina 12-24mm at 12mm, f11 1/250s ISO200

Here's another shot to show how wide angle lens can work on portrait shots. I framed the background structure into the photo. For this shot, I underexposed the background by several stops to give a more dramatic effect, then set my external flash to full power (1/1) to light up my model.

Close Panning
When trying to shoot a model with flying hair, you would either need a wind machine or a very windy day. Even so, you might not capture the right poses when the model is stationary.

What I do in this shoot is to ask the model to take a walk, let the wind blow in her face, and ask her to look into the camera at times. As she walks, you walk and pan with her. After dozens of shots, you might get a few good images with sharp focus on the subject's face or eyes.

Nikkor 85mm f1.8 1/1600s ISO200

Here's another shot, with all the random elements perfectly come together.

Nikkor 85mm f1.8 1/1600s ISO200

Conclusion
The above shots may not demonstrate perfect framing or lighting or posing examples because I took the shots really quickly in order not to hold up my kakis shooting enjoyment. Try these in your next portrait shoot and add some variety and emotional impact to your portrait images.

Visit my facebook page for more of my photos at http://facebook.com/chesterphoto . And if you need more information on the above techniques, please leave a comment below.

Logitech Mini Boombox: Review

[Facebook wall post] On Friday, I received the Logitech Mini Boombox for review. When I took out, I was like: huh, so small. After I paired to my phone, I played a track from Adele. It filled the entire office. Heads turned, people gathered and looked at this wonder. One colleague even committed to buy it within a minute of sampling.


This is the strongest testimony one can get for a product trial.

Imagine this: a battery-powered mini speaker shorter than the length of an iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy S2, offers up to 10 hours usage, bluetooth connectivity and direct cable connection, doubles as a speakerphone with built-in mic, touchscreen controls for skipping tracks and adjusting volume.

My colleague actually intended to get this Boombox and be used as a car speakerphone. Asked why not get a dedicated car speakerphone, he replied curtly: "This is portable and multi-functional." He also suggested that this Boombox could also be used for teleconference.

The Logitech Mini Boombox is powerful enough to fill the room, doing what it is meant to do. Not only will the audio make head turns, it will make people wonder how this compact device can achieve so much. The ability for me to place this thing anywhere, anyhow, without worries of wires, is game-changing. Instead of listening audio through my mobile device speaker, I can pipe through the Mini Boombox, which is as portable as my mobile device. Exciting.

As I compared the audio quality between bluetooth connection and direct line-in, I found that the bluetooth audio balancing sounds warmer and better bass production while the direct line-in gives a clearer sound with less bass. I actually prefer the bluetooth audio.

The Mini Boombox can pump out most music genres rather well, but it doesn't seem to handle certain frequency resonance well, like acoustic piano recording. When these tracks are played, the Boombox rattles. Do take note if you intend to get this to play your favourite classical piano tracks. One should also not expect the Mini Boombox to handle demanding loud music.

The Logitech Mini Boombox works really well as a portable wire-free speaker and handsfree speakerphone. Sound quality is surprisingly good for its size and will satisfy most consumer needs. Retails at S$109.