ASUS VivoTab RT TF600T-B1-GR 10.1-Inch 32 GB Tablet (Gray) 2012 Model

When I asked my Mom if she wanted a refresh of her iPad for Christmas she said, "refresh yes, another iPad not so much". We looked at all the new tablets and she picked this Asus Vivo Tab. I played with it for about a week before Christmas so I would be able to help her with any problems, (she is 75) and was totally impressed with the build quality and design--I would go as far as saying they are outperforming Apple here which is obviously not easy to do. The design and build quality are that good. The removable tablet/keyboard dock form factor is spot on IMO. The tablet was fairly easy to attach and remove from the base, it feels a little awkward at first as you get used to it. It vibrates and plays a chime tone when you have attached it correctly which helps. It takes both hands to dock/detach which is fine with me as when it is attached it really feels attached--I only mention it because it is not as effortless as the cute little magnetic click covers. Over our Christmas visit, (4 days) I noticed my Mom tended to just keep it attached to the keyboard dock so I mentioned and demonstrated several times that the tablet could be removed--she finally just told me she actually preferred it with the base attached for most uses as it "held itself up perfectly". I think she felt more secure being able to set it on her lap or the table and even preferred holding it by the base as it felt "safer". I was able to type pretty well on the chicklet style keyboard even though I have quite long fingers. I could match the 20-30 wpm I type at on my desktop keyboard without any problem. My wife who has very small hands but can type at 80-100 wpm took to it instantly. Tactile feedback for key presses felt very good to me. Key layout and spacing is well thought out. My only complaint would be the lack of back lighting--something I tend to like. Not a deal breaker by any stretch as the keyboard is obviously pretty close to the screen and it does cast some light on it. Touch typists won't care at all of course. The screen is great with excellent brightness/contrast/viewing angles etc. I did not see any ghosting or artifacts so refresh rates are good. No pixelation in movies during action sequences and explosions and playback was smooth as butter. I forgot to check the NFC "tap to share". Sorry. The gyroscopes and accelerometer seemed to work fine in the few games I tried. The screen oriented pretty rapidly when rotated. The closer it was to "upright" the faster it seemed to register--as with all tablets. Sound was better than any other tablet I have used but still lacks enough volume for all uses IMO. Headphones and my Nu Force UDAC 2 sounded excellent. The wireless NIC was great. I got 4 of 5 bars out on the front porch, about 30 feet from a typical Link-Sys home router, and her house has a brick exterior. Anywhere inside I usually had 5 of 5 bars. I really liked the Windows 8 live tile Touch UI --Metro or w/e they are calling it now. I also found the "desktop" portion of RT to be quite usable, especially with the touch pad and pointer on the dock. It was usable (but just barely) with a finger. I would miss the button I was aiming for about 40% - 50% of the time. My Mom already uses a stylus on her iPad so I was able to try one in the windows/desktop environment and it makes it a LOT more usable. The included office apps were all excellent. Being able to use files and folders was also very useful/comfortable for me, especially with either a stylus or the track pad and cursor. The track pad seemed fine to me but to be candid I detest them and am NOT a laptop person, so it could be awesome or horrible compared to other products and I would not know. My Mom uses a lap top and liked the track pad, as did my wife who also uses a laptop. I tried my Logitech Performance MX mouse with it's tiny little USB RX and it was detected and worked fine. I also tried various USB memory sticks and my Galaxy S2 phone and all were auto detected and worked without issue. Windows joined my Moms home network without any problems and adding a printer was going fine...right up until we got to the HP drivers list and her laser printer model was not listed. To be fair to HP the printer is older than dirt and my Pops has to run Windows XP on all their machines because he can't find printer drivers. The drivers list had a LOT of printers so I doubt most people will have a problem. When I was "testing" the Vivo Tab RT at home the week before Christmas I was able to print to my Canon color printer which is about 5 years old, and the Wife's HP 3 in 1 Photo Smart. The Windows 8 App market is not as filled out as Apple's or Androids--not sure what she will do without 50,000 Baby Shaker and Fart Apps--but she had all her Board Games and Bottle Cap type games loaded in about an hour. Think Yahtzi, (SP?) Bejewled, MahJong etc. She also had her Cook Book program and Kindle App and all her Solitaire games. The news paper and magazine selection seemed pretty good to me. She liked the FaceBook and Skype Apps. Her Yahoo email worked fine and the live tiles are actually kind of useful/cool. The mult-tasking is functional...not so sure about the way they split rhe dual view as a third of the screen...though everything seemed to re-size itself correctly when it was in the "little half" of the screen. To sum it up for Windows 8 RT: I really like the Metro touch UI a lot, (can't wait to get a windows 8 phone in fact) and the more traditional desktop portion of the OS is quite familiar and usable with either a wireless mouse, the track pad, or a stylus. Not so much with a "clunky" finger. My only complaint would not be with either environment, but the clunky way Microsoft dumps you from one to the other. The duplicate programs like IE for example. There is a Touch version and a "windows" version. They may have done that for people who are going to spend a lot of time in one or the other I guess, meaning if I was "plugged into windows" and had a mouse running and was working in office the windows version of IE might be more useful then the times I was on the couch just tooling around the web. I could use this OS as is right now without too much trouble and be very productive (and happy). I think it feels about 80% polished and I feel comfortable that future versions will cover that last 20% pretty quickly. I also think that the App store will fill out pretty rapidly for those needing more specialized apps like medical charting, pilots, engineers etc. I took advantage of the free dock deal Asus was running and I have to say that their customer interaction is not great by any stretch. The online form I had to fill out was pretty clunky and I could not get logged into my "VIP" account. Getting any information from their FAQ and forums was a waste of time and getting a person on the phone took a while. Once I did get a person, (who surprisingly spoke English) they were competent and got me squared away pretty quickly. Asus makes exceptionally good products in my experience, but their PR, and customer support still have a ways to go. I got the Dock 15 calendar days after I filled out the online form which seems reasonable for a rebate type "free" item. The hardware from Asus is just flat out WONDERFUL and I am very satisfied with this purchase. I will be buying their Transformer Book in 14" or 15" the minute it is available. Running pure windows programs (with a wireless mouse or stylus) on a beautiful ultrabook/tablet sounds great to me!

ok... like the other good reviews said. there is nothing wrong with this tablet. It's a thousand times more capable than any ipad or android tablet. Can you hook up any ipad or tablet to 10s of thousands of different periferals and not have to worry about scrounging through dozens and dozens of apps and or unneeded accessories in order for it to work? seriously. I recently was promoted to a store manager and this device was a godsend. I use it to show power points on the job to prospective customers rather than lousy brochures. I use it to print off important documents and pdfs that I can edit and submit via email from hooking up any printer either wirelessly off my phones hotspot or via the usb connection from the keyboard attachment or from the usb dongle adapter included. (... I do wish it came with one more; but hey what the heck. this this is still awesome, id gladly pay for a dozen of them to keep next to other periferals around my work and house from how much space this thing saves!) I'm still getting used to windows RT, but... I switched to windows phone about the same time. I have to say W8 Phone is still a little more polished and has some less bugs, but its been around longer!. I am typing this entire review with the same speeds as I normally type off my normal keyboards. THANK you for the other reviews pointing out the FN key (bottom right) with the F9 key to disable the trackpad. Honestly trackpads ... I hate all of them, they're a horribly designed setup for any ergonomics since your thumbs rest above the spacebar key and if any of your fingers happen to slip or need a rest on the stand... youre going to hit that stupid thing and its going to make your mouse and cursor jump a lot. Why many manufacturer's aren't placing the trackpads in the bottom right corner or where a numspad would be.. I have no clue. I was torn between this and the surface pro and the RT. but the battery life was my main thing I didn't want to worry about. Since some days working I just keep it on standby inside one of my desk drawers and I swear this thing lasts 3 days or more just on standby without the keyboard attachment that has a battery inside it as well to give it a lot more life. Also... the surface keyboards were way to gimmicky for me... I prefer a physical response for typing. not some touch clicky response that would annoy me when im listening to music while i'm filling my office documents. The only thing I would like to see is a backlit version of this keyboard. It's not a big deal but I still miss a beat here or there with adding 's to some of my typing. I always get tons of people asking me what type of device i'm using and it's hilarious to see them being surprised its a windows rt based one and that im also using a windows phone. They all say that im the only person they know that enjoys the "new" windows. I don't know who theyre talking to but to me Im guessing they're just some close minded snobs that are too dug into their precious android or ios investments. To each their own, but you can't deny the better productivity from these devices. (android has it's toys and tweaks, ios has it's simplicity, and windows has it's productivity) Screen is bright, speakers are nice; I'm hoping to find a case that will direct the sound towards you with an inbuilt "cupping" like method, but I've yet to find one yet, so maybe I'll create my own DoItYourself thing. Battery life is astounding. Peripheral list is mind blowing. Apps? ... pfft I have a webbrowser....with Flash. If I absolutely need something I'll just skydrive a note to myself when I get home and than skydrive it back to me to show off on my tablet since in those situations it's not something very important. I can't really say a bad thing about this device..except, I've been having it crash sometimes on me when it's not doing anything. Which isn't really an issue since the boot time is 3-5 seconds typically. Didn't do it at first so im guessing a bug just worked itself into one of the updates or I downloaded an app that has a quirk to it or something. Whatever. Still a Stabler OS than android. (better love story than twilight) 9.5/10. {4.5/5 Amazon}

40 million copies sold of Windows 8 in a month can't be THAT wrong... Okay, I admit that I am a Microsoft "fan", but I have built a great career working with their O/S and hardware platform over the years. I am a Windows developer and I bought this tablet w/the free keyboard (just got it yesterday, so be patient with ASUS) so that I could use it for hardware testing of Windows Store apps in a minimal configuration of Win RT. So far, I am NOT disappointed. In fact, I am thrilled with it. I am not an Apple/Google fan, so I am really glad to see Microsoft entering this segment of the ubiquitous computing ecosystem. Soon I'll be able to go from their phone, to the tablet, to the laptop, to the desktop, to the enterprise fairly seamlessly. I also use Microsoft Office, and I think Microsoft OneNote is one of the best software products ever written! The Student/Home Preview edition of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote 2013 are included. ASUS has done a superb with this third-party vendor offering of the "tablet with keyboard hybrid" (like the Microsoft Surface). In fact, I would have purchased a Microsoft Surface 32GB RT, but since I am buying other upgraded hardware for Windows 8 development (I wanted to keep the cost down), and the fact I am very familiar with ASUS motherboards and graphics adapters -- having built several machines using their hardware over the past several years, I felt this was a comparable device. ASUS quality is truly amazing and their pricing is aimed at the more conservative buyer such as myself. Since they are based in Taiwan, you won't have to worry about reading bad news reports like Apple's about working conditions in their factories. These are the Chinese in the "free market capitalist island nation" who are making these goods and they aren't new at doing it either! I think that if you give this product a chance, you will be able to "show it off" to your competitive frienemies who own competitive products by other manufacturers with some pride! Microsoft has done an incredibly good job with Windows 8 and this little ASUS RT tablet (with FREE KEYBOARD) is a great way to go. I am already thinking of hundreds of useful applications for it (not just "apps", but full blown "applications"). Will Microsoft take over the market? Who really knows? I have been around long enough to see Giants fall and Newbies rise (and fall)! My only complaint specific to my tablet is that the SD card on my unit is slightly mis-aligned, so I have to fumble with it a bit to get the tiny memory card out. It appears to be spring loaded (ASUS correct me if I am wrong on that), so with a slight push and slide routine I can get it out okay. I don't change cards that often anyway so I am still very satisfied. I commute on a train using this little guy, so when I don't want to pull out my more powerful laptop for XBox game playing, web-surfing, Netflix streaming or iHeartRadio listening, and so forth, it takes up very little space and it performs like a bigger laptop for those purposes -- even though I can't load programs like Visual Studio, etc. I have "bigger iron" for that job. I would highly recommend any tablet that runs Windows 8, but I will recommend this one for the following reasons: 1. ASUS is a great company that stands by their products. 2. It is a tad lighter than anything I have found so far (lighter than a comparable Surface). 3. THE FREE KEYBOARD DOCK UNTIL 12/31/2012! 4. The free keyboard contains a second battery. They claim up to 16 hours of use, but I haven't had it long enough to tell. Buy it with confidence! You won't regret it. Merry Christmas!

UPDATE: changed my review to one star. I got another VivoTab RT, same problem. Turns out that if there is any kind of case that has a tiny magnet that activates the wake/sleep feature there are all kinds of problems. A quick Google search backs this up. ASUS customer relations have tried to be very helpful but in the end could only advise not to use a case that does auto wake/sleep. Why have that capability if it makes the tablet unstable? The final straw was a stuck pixel. I have FIVE other tablets from various vendors. I haven't had crashes or stuck pixels on any of them, although my nexus 7 coincidentally by ASUS also has quality issues. Another problem area is auto brightness. While it works well on all of my non ASUS tablets it is jarring on ASUS tablets and has to be disabled. There are just too many issues with this tablet to justify keeping it. I'll be significantly out of pocket with the accessories I have purchased that can't be returned. Having a case cause crashes is completely unacceptable. This device should never have been put on the market. It's not like this is a cheap tablet, such low quality is inexcusable. That said, top marks for effort for the ASUS rep who has tried to help out. Reluctantly, I'll be switching to a Microsoft Surface RT. ORIGINAL REVIEW I'm giving this a 2 star review purely due to device quality, not functionality. I am returning this device, haven't even waited for the refund before purchasing another. I ordered another without much hesitation. So what's wrong with the device and why did I still order another one? Keep reading to the end for why I would give it a five star review if not for the hardware problem. I firmly believe that the problems I encountered are due to faulty hardware and not due to Windows RT. Basically, when I don't have a micro sd inserted the device is rock solid. When I have a micro sd installed and open the case to wake up the device I get frequent device restarts and memory dumps. No micro sd card inserted no problem. I'll admit that after having 2 poor quality nexus 7 tablets I'm very wary of asus QC but the vivo tab RT will be awesome if the replacement doesn't have the sd card issue. Even with random crashes resulting in device reboots I have still not used my android tablet or iPad 3 since getting this. To my surprise I really like Windows RT. I had bought this purely so I could do some app development and test on a tablet, not to replace my iPad but found the device a joy to use. The start screen; The live tiles are awesome. I love the live widgets on android and this is more of the same. It is very easy to navigate, have the information that I need at my fingertips and be productive quickly. Having office including onenote on a device with awesome battery life. As much as I like evernote and can make do with other word processors there's nothing quite like having office and onenote wherever I go. I never thought I would ever say this but having Internet Explorer is great compared to the browsers on android and IOS. PArtly because RT is a more controlled platform and I don't have the security concerns that I would otherwise have using IE on the desktop, which I simply don't do. That said, on Windows RT browsing the web is awesome, things just work. The VivoTab RT itself has a decent screen, just be sure to turn off auto brightness, just as with the Nexus 7 the auto brightness on this device is jarring, much worse than non asus devices I have used. The tablet is light weight and the battery life is good. Add to that a micro sd slot (assuming on the replacement it doesn't crash my device when used) and the micro hdmi this device has decent IO capabilities. Add to that the keyboard dock and you have an awesome machine. The device itself is lighter than the Microsoft Surface and I prefer how it feels in the hand. The dock was really the killer feature when compared to the Surface. Having a real keyboard and 14+ hours battery life means that this device is so much more than a tablet. I did install a couple of games on the tablet, the graphics are amazing, but performance takes a hit due to the relatively low spec of the device compared to a Surface Pro or traditional laptop or desktop running Windows 8. I look forward to writing a five star review should the replacement not have any hardware problems.

Let’s face the ugly truth -- Windows 8 RT and the Surface series of tablets haven’t exactly been a raging success. Beaten back by Android and the more expensive but better liked iOS, Windows took a $900 million bath on unsold inventory and ditched the first version for the Surface 2. Unfortunately, RT’s bad karma also rubbed off on other products, including this Asus VivoTab. Originally $600 with a keyboard, the VivoTab was $100 less than the keyboardless Surface. Today you can find a VivoTab for less than $400 and, in most cases, this includes a keyboard. Does the VivoTab live up to the expectations or is it destined to be a dud like the original Surface? Let’s look at the basics and see if this puppy stacks up. In the Box: For this unit you’ll get the tablet, keyboard, USB power cable with standard plug module, a cleaning cloth and a power connector pulling double duty as a secondary USB device. Read below for more on that double-duty connector. Of course, you get instructions for both the tablet and keyboard. Design: Sensuous curves meet up with shades of black and gray to form an artist’s dream -- as opposed to the Surface’s rather stark suede like black material. True, the VivoTab is still plastic with a little metal but it’s nicely designed and laid out plastic and metal. As for thickness or thinness, that is a toss up. Some say the VivoTab is thinner while others state the Surface is, but in the end run does it really matter? Get any thinner and they’ll be invisible when turned sideways. Look around and you’ll see the ubiquitous webcams front and rear but the one on the back is the biggie -- it’s an 8 MP version which is about 3 or 4 MP higher than the standard (and nearly 4 times greater resolution than the original Surface). You’ll also see the microSD slot, something you’ll probably want since that 32GB SSD is already halfway gone just for the RT OS (oops, the ads curiously forget to mention that bit). Of course you’ve got the power connector/USB port on the bottom along with the necessary power and volume switches on the side. And what’s that about a power connector acting as a USB port? Well, the included keyboard does have a full USB port but the tablet portion doesn’t, unlike the Surface which is reversed and has the port on the screen border. Because of this design (necessary due to the VivoTab’s thinner bezel) an adapter is used to convert the power port into a functional, full size USB receiver. Assembly: I added this area not because you have to build this thing but you do have to put the pieces together, mainly the keyboard and tablet. Unlike the Surface’s magnet catch system, the VivoTab uses a push-to-lock and pull-to-release system. Attaching the two pieces is akin to plugging a lamp into a socket. While it’s obvious the two pieces are mated once locked, it does lack the assurance of the Surface catch design with one of the strongest magnets I’ve ever encountered. Releasing the pieces requires the movement of a slide switch on the left side of the tablet at which point you tug and they should come apart. While they usually do, the process involves the awkward “to the right” still of tugging on the tablet to separate it from the keyboard. Be careful to have your hands tightly on either piece since it isn’t always a smooth experience. Boot: At 30 to 40 seconds for a cold boot from an SSD, one might think this is a slug but have you ever really looked at the boot time on an Android tablet? Don’t know about yours but my Nexus 7 takes 1.5 minutes on average. Therefore, I’ll call this category’s rating as acceptable, especially since the Surface’s I’ve checked have roughly the same boot time. By the way, shut downs are jack quick, almost too much so. If you accidentally push the power button you can count on the screen going out almost immediately. Fortunately, a short push only puts it to sleep but I have hit the stupid thing at least a couple times just because of its odd placement in the upper right corner (just where anybody would naturally put their hand when grabbing it). Sleep, or standby mode, is a little less reliable with the unit either not waking up as it should or coming back on to a frozen screen. From my experience with Windows 8 and RT, this could very well be a fault of the OS but I can’t call it at this point. Post Boot Updating: This is a whopper so make sure you have a very, very good internet connection. Notice the double use of very. Out of the box, this is what I had in the way of updates: * 2.1 GB for Windows 8.1. Notice that’s GB, not MB. That alone took nearly two hours of downloading. * Nearly 900 MB for the Office update that actually takes it from 2013 Preview to a fully functional version. Another hour shot. * Almost another two hours just for assorted app and program updates not included above. Maybe I should add another couple “very” to the internet connection description above. Plan on kissing most of your first day goodbye. Screen Clarity: Bright and clear as either can get and probably a tick more so than the Surface. One of the better screens I’ve seen on a tablet screen. Of note, Amazon warns of light bleeding on the screen but I never noticed any although the shiny screen does little for outside usability. Of note, the screen is Corning’s “Fit” variety. Depending upon what you read or who you talk to, this glass is either inferior to or the equivalent of “Gorilla” glass. Take your pick since my experience has shown that if you abuse either you’ll end up with scratches. Video/Audio: Audio is great with decent speakers although they do lack some bass. Video is iffy, but a lot of that depends upon the internet connection. Even with my DSL connection some videos stuttered at 360p. Maybe it’ll do better with a more stout internet signal but I can’t tell right now. Keyboard: You’ve got your choice of two here -- onboard and external. Internally is the same onscreen snafu you’ve seen with Android or iOS devices. Count on about half of your keystrokes being misinterpreted. Where is verbal input when you need it? Externally, think netbook. Remember those? About 97% of a standard sized keyboard but just cramped enough to be occasionally frustrating. Good key feel, though, but you will find the smaller than average shift and return keys a miscue waiting to happen. There is a little tick with the external version, though. Since it has a physical connection to the tablet (which, literally, clicks and locks into a groove at the back of the keyboard) folding and unfolding is something of a challenge, at least the latter part. Once the two parts are locked in, folding is a snap and is akin to a laptop. Unfolding is something different. The hinge is stiff and a great deal of pressure is necessary to coerce the two into cooperating. Maybe this will change with time but I can’t tell quite yet. Battery: This is an unusual unit in that both the tablet and keyboard have batteries and can be charged independently or together when linked as a single unit. As such, total battery life can approach 14 hours (16 states Asus but that was probably taking the unit to danger levels) with the keyboard attached and somewhere around 8 without. In my test I made 6.75 hours with the tablet alone before getting panicky and plugging it back in, so 8 is not out of the question; however, if you’ve got good eyes or a dark room you can turn the brightness down and get nearly 10 hours (with wi-fi off). Why not a test with the keyboard? Seems there is a quirk here. When connected to the keyboard, power is drawn mainly from the tablet and then the keyboard. Since the tablet uses more power it will discharge first. One time I decided to disconnect the tablet and didn’t realize the battery was dead for the tablet and it did an abrupt shutdown. See the dilemma here? I’ll have to play with that one some. Of note, yes you can use the unit with the plug in and charging, but there is another snafu here. Doing a mouseover of the battery icon in the tray will bring up dual readings with one for the keyboard and the other, naturally, for the tablet; however, neither is labeled. I eventually determined the bottom reading is for the tablet which is sort of odd given that the tablet is up top when connected to the keyboard. On final word on this topic -- heat. There is none. I mean absolutely zero. This is the coolest system I’ve worked on in quite a while. Software: Not the OS, you already know that’s RT; however, I will make one point -- go to the app store and get the 8.1 update so you get a little more flexibility and Outlook to boot. One good thing about RT, so to speak, is that Microsoft apparently saw the early flaws in their logic and decided to up the ante by including MS Office 2013 RT with anything that packs RT, even units from competitors (they recently extended that offer to new 10 inch or smaller tablets running Windows 8 and not just RT). Good idea, but be aware it’s about 90% of the full retail package. No macros, add-ins or third party items allowed, or at least so MS claims; however, you’re still getting a suite that would probably cost you at least $100 elsewhere. Asus added a few programs to sweeten the pot such as SuperNote; however, this unit already comes with MS OneNote making this app something of a questionable addition. Also, be careful of ads that show the Wacom digitizer pen included. This unit does not come with that. As for that software you’ve got sitting around the house, forget it. RT allows for nothing outside of its software selections so you can kiss off anything you bought that must be installed. Like Chrome or Firefox? Too stinkin’ bad. That I can accept since Android and iOS do the same thing, but I do find the Internet Explorer (IE) browser snafu a bit much. Hmmm, it works something like this. If you’re in the Metro side (icon side or whatever you call it now) you get IE 10 in the new format. Go to the Windows 8 side (it’s really Windows 7, folks) you get a modified version of IE 10 that looks like IE 9. What’s the difference? The Metro version has the URL on the bottom while the 8 version looks like what you’re probably using now. No great biggie there, but be aware of a wrinkle -- adding bookmarks on the 8 side doesn’t transfer over to the Metro side or vice versa. But maybe that small SSD has other problems, too. After you discount the space for RT and the other little add-ons from Asus, you’ve got all of 16GB to play with. Final Thoughts: This isn’t a bad unit in any respect but, like almost anything else, it does have a few quirks. The major hurdle for many will probably be the price while others may see the smallish SSD as a too-tall hurdle. And by now you’re wondering how a price of less than $400 in many cases can be a problem. Take a look around and you may have noticed that many laptops packing full Windows 8 have taken a price nosedive (mainly because of the OS) and it’s entirely possible to find a decent laptop for around the same price or a little more. Is this a laptop replacement? Not really since the lack of program compatibility is a great detraction and the MS app store isn’t exactly wowing customers, but it might make a great unit for the student in the family or the person who mainly surfs the web and does an occasional report.

I did a ton of research on several tablets and had narrowed it down to the Google Nexus 7 or a Windows tablet. The main thing that had me leaning towards the Nexus was how connected to the Google "ecosystem" I was since I use Google products like Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Maps, Reader, etc all throughout the day and have an Android smartphone for work. I ended up going against my Google bias and chose the Vivotab RT. I was aware of the limitations of Windows RT but also knew that I did not plan on the tablet replacing my desktop or laptop computers. I predominantly use it for work where the included Office 2013 suite of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and the excellent OneNote works well with Skydrive to access my files. I also use it casually to watch Netflix & Hulu Plus, check social media like Twitter & Facebook, Skype chat with friends, and the excellent Smartglass App if you are a big Xbox 360 user like my son and I are. While I don't really use my tablet to take pictures, the 8MP camera on it takes pretty decent pictures (though I wish I had a Picasa type app to edit and better store the pics). It also works great to read books once I learned a workaround to log me into the Amazon app to read my ebooks. I use Lastpass for all of my passwords and my Amazon password is a gibberish combination of upper/lowercase letters, numbers and symbols and the app had issues with symbols in the password. Once I changed my password I had access to all of my ebooks purchased from Amazon. The Windows 8 system is much easier on the tablet than my early adoption of Windows 8 on my desktop, due to the ability to swipe and tap the screen. The battery life is great and was made even better after I picked up the dock from Amazon (I didn't buy the dock and tablet at the same time). The only minor complaint that I have is that the screen, while very bright and clear, is an absolute fingerprint magnet. I solved this by getting a good stylus from Amazon (which also works great with OneNote). Any other complaints I have like the horrible Windows Store for apps, are not the fault of the Asus Vivotab and hopefully will be addressed by Microsoft soon. It is nothing like the Google Play store or the Itunes App store, and makes finding good applications quite difficult. Also, if you play a lot of games on your tablet the Windows tablet is pretty scarce for good games like you would find on an Ipad or Nexus. I'm not a tablet gamer so it was kind of a non-issue for my personal tastes. I realize that with this being a new platform it will take a bit for the number of apps to match the offerings from competing tablets. The new Twitter app is great, but there is no Facebook app yet. Of course you can just use the included Internet Explorer 10 to go to the Facebook site. Overall, I'm a huge fan of this tablet and my friends and family that I've showed the Vivotab RT to have been very impressed with some even looking to buy one themselves.

For the price, its a great portable laptop/tablet. You cant play Wow or Star Craft or any Steam network games, but you do have Halo and other fun games. The big issue with me was xbox music. This tablet wont let you download ITunes and its really a pain in the butt trying to download everything to the cloud... Also, it glitches like crazy and apps close out of the blue and it can get very frustrating. I would give this to a student. This is not a work tablet or a fun "mess around" tablet. Its good for keeping notes, writing e-mails, typing up papers, and very lite social networking. UPDATED! December 31st 2013! So they updated my tablet and I am in love! No more glitches! I did have to buy an IPod, because Xbox music is still a pain in the bum, but everything else is fixed! So I changed my review from three stars to four stars. ITunes still would have been an amazing addition to this tablet though. (UPDATE!! 2/27/2014) .... so its broken now. It slipped out of my hand and shattered. If it comes with a warranty. get it. I should have. this thing has no armor. Im buying a new laptop. never again with a tablet. U.U ugh.

I am a writer and a blogger, and I use this tablet for both jobs. With the keyboard, the battery life is supposed to last up to 16 hours, but I have no idea if that's true or not since I usually put it on the charger every night and I rarely ever hit the bottom of the battery. I do know that this tablet has freed me from my usual routine. With my previous laptops, I had to write at the coffee shop so that I could plug in because my battery would always run out. However, with this, I never have to worry about plugging in. I also love the touch screen, that I can leave this on all the time, and that it tries to connect to the internet as soon as I walk into a new building, even when it's sleeping - which comes in very handy since I never have to wait to get on. It also has the flash player in desktop mode so that I can watch any show on the internet. Other tablets I've had wouldn't do that... you would have to download an app. So PROS - fantastic battery, great touch screen capabilities, fast, easy to use, a total dream as far as being on the internet goes. Now for CONS... This is more tablet than computer, so I cannot download any programs... I can only download apps. That means I can't use QuickBooks, Camtasia, Photoshop, or even Windows Live Writer on this. I have to wait until they become apps. Also, there is a very special two-piece plug for charging this... a USB cable and the box that goes into the wall. The USB cable will NOT work with anything other than the special box it came with. I tried taking just the cable with me when I went travelling and was frustrated when the battery ran out and it wouldn't recharge. Also, I have been unable to find a replacement plug "just in case" something happens to the one I have, so I am very careful to leave the one plug I have in a safe place at home. Would I buy it again? If I was looking for a top-notch laptop for a super affordable price, this is the best I have ever seen so far. However, the next laptop I buy is going to be the next Asus version up... the one that will let me download programs. I hear the battery is a bit shorter than this battery, but I do need certain programs. In other words, I would TOTALLY buy this again if there wasn't one version better. I love the Asus.