IT Pro Verdict
The best premium Android tablet on the market, the Infinity 700 has a superb display, a powerful processor and tons of storage, which can be expanded. However, you'll have to wait for the Jelly Bean update, the £600 price makes it a significant investment and it still doesn't have all the functionality of a Windows laptop.
Asus has refined its premium Transformer range, offering another hybrid device for users who want a device to create as well as consume content.
The display sets the device apart from competing tablets and even challenges the market leading Retina display on the iPad. The 10.1-inch IPS panel provides a 1,920 x 1,280 resolution, above 1080p HD quality. Blacks are deep, colours are vibrant and the detail is fantastic.
Though the pixel density (ppi) isn't quite that of the new iPad, it isn't far off (224 vs 264ppi). However, the Infinity Pad 700 is noticeably brighter than the iPad especially when you turn on the Super IPS+ mode. The Android device has a brightness of 650cd/m2, compared to 426cd/m2 on Apple device. This makes it useful in low light conditions and in direct sunlight.
The Infinity 700 is unmatched when it comes to brightness
Asus has packed in high-end components to accompany the high resolution display. A supercharged 1.6GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor and 1GB of DDR3 RAM make the Infinity 700 a fast device. There is also 64GB of on-board storage. The device clocked a Geekbench score of 1,777, as expected higher than the 1,550 scored by the 1.3GHz version of the Tegra 3 chip found in the cheaper Nexus 7.
The high score in the processor and memory benchmark is backed up by real-world usage. There is barely any jitter with apps and games loading quickly. Android Ice Cream Sandwich shines with the hardware, and we can only imagine it getting better when the more efficient Jelly Bean update arrives.
Tablet or laptop?
Like the original Transformer Prime and the mid-range Transformer Pad TF300, the latest model is made up of a standalone tablet and a keyboard dock. When combined, you have the equivalent small laptop.
When docked the device resembles a notebook
This increases productivity for any task where words need to be put to digital paper. Initially, the keys take getting used to as they are small and packed together closely. Keyboard-specific tweaks make the Infinity 700 more usable. Typing on the home screen automatically starts a search, and this also happens when using other apps such as Google Play. These are small enhancements, but prove useful and intuitive.
