However, adding a keyboard and touchpad to the Honeycomb experience adds something that really sets the OS and Transformer apart. Sure, Google built the software for touch input, but navigating the screen with a mouse actually works quite well, and while I found myself reaching out to touch the screen quite a bit with a finger, the touchpad is a nice fallback and really does create for a nice clamshell computing experience.
A large part of that has to do with how well the two parts work together and the fact that the $150 dock is quite well built. Interestingly, it actually feels better than the tablet — it seems to have a metal base, which creates for an extremely sturdy keyboard with zero flex. The hinge, which rotates so you can close the device like a netbook, also feels incredibly rigid and allows the tablet to fold over the keyboard very smoothly. In that closed position, the 2.9-pound / 1.6-thick package looks like a premium netbook and much nicer, I’ll say, than those after market Bluetooth keyboard cases and docks. I should mention that the actual mechanism that locks the tablet into the dock is a bit wonky. It takes bit of practice to know if you’ve got it the two docked together correctly, but an audible click and on-screen "keyboard docked" alert are extremely helpful. I did have some issues with the keyboard and touchpad not responding a few times — simply reattaching the two fixed that, though.
The keyboard makes a world of difference when it comes to doing real workSo how is the typing experience? The chiclet keyboard itself is pretty much a replica of the one that ASUS has been using on its netbooks for a few years now — the keys are well spaced and have a good amount of give. In fact, I wrote the entirety of this review on the panel and it didn’t take long for me to start typing at a decent clip. As always, I do wish the left Shift key was full-sized, but it’s nice to see that ASUS made some other adjustments to correspond with the OS. There are home and search buttons in the bottom corner and you can adjust the brightness and other various functions using the top row of keys. On the other hand, some much needed keyboard shortcuts don’t work — for instance, there’s no way to copy and paste. While that did slow down my workflow, the keyboard really did add another dimension of functionality to a Honeycomb tablet and for someone like me, who absolutely needs a physical keyboard to do write and do real work, it makes a world of difference.
The 3.1 x 1.5-inch touchpad is similarly well-made, and as I previously mentioned, it integrates quite well with Honeycomb. An arrow appears on screen as soon as it’s connected, and well, it works like any other mouse. Even better it actually supports two-finger scrolling, and I’m talking the smooth kind, not the jumpy, stuttering kind I’ve seen on so many Windows laptops. The single mouse button is rather stiff, but I actually didn’t use it much since double tapping on the pad just feels more natural given the touch-centric OS. I’ve found myself using a combination of touchscreen and touchpad navigation when the system is docked. Still, I have to say I am surprised at how well the OS paired with a mouse. If you wanted to attach a real mouse you could do that via one of the dock’s two USB ports. The covers are a bit of a pain to unlatch, however. The dock also houses a SD card slot and a 40-pin proprietary charging port.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtnamlfZn1wfY9oaW1vaW6BcnvArKysZZWasm68wJ1kraqRo8Cnu9GmnKtlpJt%2BcX2Mq5yvoZWs