The Eee Pad Slider is one of the growing mountain of Android tablets seeking (and generally failing) to challenge the iPad. But don't write it off immediately, because it has a secret weapon hidden under its gloss black display: a five-row keyboard.
One of the biggest complaints from potential tablet owners is the lack of easy data input. The answer to that complaint is generally two-fold -- firstly, tablets are designed as consumption, not creation, devices. Plus, if it's a real deal-breaker for you, then it's easy enough to pick up a small Bluetooth keyboard.
But Bluetooth is a hassle, and there are plenty of occasions when you might want to tap out a medium-length email reply without having to resort to a rubbish on-screen keyboard. So Asus has built a compromise device -- one that functions perfectly well as a pure tablet, but which conceals a keyboard for those occasions when you do want to write something more than a couple of lines.
Most compromises don't work out well for either side, but the Eee Pad Slider is a notable exception. Pulling at the top of the screen slides it up at a 40-degree angle, revealing the keyboard underneath. The sliding action is a little tricky at first, but there's a knack to it and before too long it's second nature.
The Slider's keyboard isn't too tricky to use, despite being rather smaller than a regular one. It's definitely possible to touch-type on, with only minor adjustments, and the key travel distance is about right. It has dedicated buttons for Android's Home, Back, Menu and Search functions, and you can also adjust the screen brightness and turn Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off with keyboard shortcuts.
Clear screen
The screen above the keyboard is clear and bright, with excellent viewing angles and good colour reproduction. There's a big ol' bezel around the sides, possibly so that the keyboard could fit beneath, but the only real complaint here is that it's extremely glossy, so it's difficult to read in bright places and picks up fingerprints faster than a police forensics unit.
What's great is using the touchscreen and the keyboard in tandem. Browsing the web with your hands feels natural and intuitive -- far more so than using a mouse -- and then having the option to switch to the keyboard when you want to type something is very liberating. Like all the best technology, it gives you the best tools for the job and then gets out of the way.
Size and power
The trade-off, of course, is in its bulk. The Eee Pad Slider weighs 886g -- rather more than most of its competitors, and uncomfortable to hold in one hand for too long. It's also a little thick -- measuring 17.7mm front-to-back, which is more than twice that of the 8.8mm-thick iPad 2. Still, for many people that increased heft will be more than worth it for the benefits it brings.
Around the sides, there's a power button and a volume rocker, a slightly-odd reset button, an (external) microSD slot, the aforementioned mini-HDMI port, a headphone socket and a fully-functioning USB port. There's also a charger socket, which -- annoyingly -- is proprietary, and despite the other end being tipped with a USB port doesn't seem to charge over USB. With the great progress made in standardising chargers in the past few years, it's a real shame to see Asus return to a proprietary charger on the Eee Pad Slider.
That USB port is worth exploring in a little more detail, too. You can plug in a USB stick or a camera and use the bundled file brower to explore its contents. Alternatively, you can plug in a mouse to use instead of the touchscreen. This simple addition makes the Eee Pad Slider much more effective as a general computing device -- you could plausibly take it on holiday in place of a laptop and use it to sort, edit and upload your photos, rather than using it as just a media consumption device.
Multimedia support
In fact, using it as a media consumption device isn't especially pleasant. The default video player struggles with most formats (though others are available), and while most media companies have an Android app, only a tiny selection have an Android app that supports tablet screen sizes. The apps work fine, but the layout, in many cases, is far from ideal. Spotify is a good example -- a tablet optimised app might have your friends list, album art and your current playlist in different panes, but using it on the Eee Pad Slider just gives you a list of playlists, stretched out across the screen. The Kindle app is a nice exception, which works wonderfully, and the default music app is pretty effective too, if you're content to sideload MP3s onto the device manually.
So what's left to cover? The speakers, which are mounted behind the screen, are weedy when it's open and hopelessly muffled when it's not. Stick to headphones. The battery life is on the generous side of average, though short of what the iPad delivers. There's also a distinct lack of the crapware that often comes pre-installed on Android tablets. A little bit is present, sure, but not to the extent that we've seen on competion tablets. Asus should be appladed for that.
Finally, the design is... interesting. Obviously, personal taste will be a factor here, and we're not big fans of the metallic champagne-coloured trim, but one thing's for sure -- no-one is going to mistake it for an iPad in a hurry.
Conclusion
The Asus Eee Pad Slider is an intriguing alternative to a traditional tablet plus a Bluetooth keyboard. It's (just about) a lightweight alternative to a laptop, and certainly a solid competitor to anything in the rapidly-shrinking netbook market. In essence, it has its fingers in many pies. But the problem with that approach is that it doesn't sit firmly in any camp, so it's difficult to recommend for any particular purpose. If you like the Android platform, don't mind a slight paucity of apps designed for the large display, and plan to do a lot of typing, then it's a great choice.
Eee Pad Slider Color:
The Asus Eee Pad Slider will come in white and brown. The former is available now from DSG, and the latter will be available from most technology retailers from 28 October, 2011.
Eee Pad Slider Technical Specifications :
Software : Android 3.1 Honeycomb
Processor : 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra2
Memory slot : MicroSD
Display : 10.1in 1280x800 pixelsmultitouch
Connectivity : Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1,A-GPS
Ports : USB 2.0, miniHDMI, 3.5mm headphone,microSD, proprietary charger
Camera : 5 megapixel on rear, 1.2 megapixel onfront
Size : 273x180x17.3mm
Weight : 960g
Eee Pad Slider Price in US :
ASUS Eee Pad Slider tablet now available for $479 in the US.
Eee Pad Slider Price in UK :
ASUS Eee Pad Slider tablet now available for £430 in the UK.
Eee Pad Slider Price in India :
ASUS Eee Pad Slider tablet will be available for INR 25000 (Approx) in India.
