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By Dave Bailey 12 Dec 2011
Verdict:
An impressive system from Asus, although perhaps not as easy to use as the Transformer, which has a better keyboard. The Windows netbooks and tablets we have reviewed in the past year have felt underpowered in use, the prime example being Fujitsu's Stylistic Q550. We had no such issues with the Slider, and it didn’t seem to lack performance whatever we did. It also came up with a creditable nine hours of battery life when used lightly, although this would drop with more intensive use, such as video streaming.
Pros:
Attached slide-out keyboard offering flexibility as a tablet and netbook; good performance combined with good battery life.
Cons:
Glossy screen does distractingly reflect ambient light sources; USB 2.0 rather than USB 3.0; flimsy tablet to base unit connection.
The Asus Eee Pad Slider SL101 is the second of Asus’ ground-breaking netbook/tablet hybrid to hit the UK, the first being the superb Transformer.
The Slider, above, initially launched with version 3.1 of Android in mid-August, but was updated with a minor point release – v3.2.1 – in September.
The 3.2.1 update has a new application called SuperNote, bug fixes, improved language translation, Wi-Fi improvements, better browser and Adobe Flash performance, as well as Polaris office and Asus WebStorage application updates.
The Slider comes in two versions: the 16GB SSD model costs £429.99, while the 32GB model costs £479.99.
The Slider can be used as a tablet, but the touch screen can be slid up to reveal a keyboard, which although small is eminently usable, except maybe for people with large fingers.
In use
We reviewed the 16GB SSD version, and since this was a review model, the first thing we did was carry out a factory reset to clear away any old user data and settings, and also to check how easy it was to set the Slider up.
The reset takes two minutes after which users are taken through a short set-up procedure, prompting for language, time zone, and determining if users want to attach to Wi-Fi networks now or later. If you skip the Wi-Fi configuration the set-up takes three minutes.
We found that the Slider booted up in 18 seconds and shut down in just eight seconds.
The initial desktop screen will be familiar to devotees of Asus' earlier Android tablet, the Transformer, showing as it does location, weather and the your tally of unread emails.
In the top right-hand corner of the desktop is the icon for showing all the applications currently installed on the Slider [see picture].
The desktop itself is split into five screens that users can flip between by swiping their finger across the screen to reveal another screen.
All five screens can be viewed as thumbnails and accessed using the ‘+’ icon in the top right hand corner next to the 'Apps' icon.
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