I want it i want it i want it I want it I want it. can't wait til XDA get their hands on this thing.
edit: read through the thread; features that I don't think have been discussed that are crucial to me =
-in addition to the 2 full USB 2 ports, there is a
full-size SD slot which
just works. Seriously. You plug in a card, it shows up in your file structure as removable storage.
-The dock is
not a "keyboard accessory." For basically the same price as this iPad bluetooth keyboard/case:
http://www.zagg.com/accessories/zaggmate-ipad-case (I guess it's 50 dollars more now, so that case and a battery), you get: a keyboard, a multitouch mousepad, an extra battery adding ~7 hours and recharging the tablet battery, two USB ports, an SD card reader, and a "case" (it accomplishes the same task of changing the form factor as that Zagg case, that is, the screen is no longer exposed to the air when it is attached and closed. And all this for something roughly the same price as a keyboard alone that would actually
drain the battery because it uses bluetooth.
-The user experience while using this dock is quite simply
not the same as using a tablet with a keyboard. It's easy to see this in videos where someone sits down and uses it. When you plug it in, you literally have a fully-functional Honeycomb netbook- and the best one available so far, no less. You never have to touch the screen if you don't want to. You get a cursor, you can do mouse gestures in the trackpad, and Honeycomb responds remarkably well to the traditional desktop metaphor.
-The top row of the keyboard is all function keys. Here they are:
Back - (right click also performs this)
Wifi toggle
Bluetooth toggle
Trackpad toggle
Display brightness up
Display brightness down
Auto brightness
Screen shot -- yup- hardware button.
Browser
Settings
Reverse
Play/pause
Forward
Mute
Volume down
Volume up
Lock/screen off
Hit the lock button and you can wake the device by pressing the enter key. They really put some thought into this thing.
-HDMI out is a feature I would absolutely get a lot of use out of. I do most of my HQ media consumption on a projector these days, and while I can stream content through my PS3 just fine, being able to throw stuff on there and just hook it up without the need for a PC at all is very appealing. So is bringing stuff over to a friend's house and watching it on the big screen.
-While there are admittedly problems with Honeycomb and this device's software that need to be fixed, what really appeals to be about it isn't the eventuality of those problems getting fixed and Asus making it run better. It's using the device as an entry into the Honeycomb modding community. When really good custom ROMs start coming out, this is going to be a perfect device to play around with them on- and eventually it will be just as capable as any other Honeycomb tablet on the software front, I have no doubt.
-IPS screen... best screen i've seen on any device besdies the iPad, and it's notably cheaper. Outstanding.
Soon as these are well-stocked, I'm gonna get one. Well, assuming I have the money.
