Launch date and price are both not confirmed yet in Malaysia. Asus Malaysia was quite vague at their fb page, but stated they meant their statement as a teaser. I am in hurry, but if Asus Malaysia decides to launch after January I am definitely waiting out until Q1 2012 has passed to see how the prime compares to the other brands with the tecra3...

Asus Taiwan posted a video demo of the Prime's TransSleeve cover:



source: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=334640609885247

This post has been edited by Fusion[eX]: Dec 6 2011, 11:57 AM

Just received confirmation from one of the asus distributor here that the earliest would be around Chritsmas and the latest around1st of Jan 2012.

according frm fb asus malaysia(source..) seems coming next year but we can still hope..

This post has been edited by vedderis: Dec 6 2011, 08:02 PM

I was aiming for Samsung 7.7 but luckily it was delayed. Cause this Asus Prime is now my top priority. Definitely more sleek than samsung 7.7. Especially the dock feature to turn it into something like at laptop.

I am starting to doubt if I go for this one or if I should wait it out a bit more .

The main reason is that I can't stand the fact that the tablet is for sale in Taiwan for RM1,521 (USD485 - 32gb - no dock) and in the US itself for USD499.

If people over here start guessing prices in the RM2000+ range, which would equal to well over USD630, there would be serious hesitation to spend that amount for the device; especially when soon all brands will launch their tecra3 tablet...

Still have to wait for final price indication over here though....

don't worry should not more than 2k. eg HTC flyer price more than 2k then see what happen to rheumier market share.

tablet market is very competitive now. They won't be dumb enough to sell it at expensive price. It should be around the range of USD499 converted to RM. That is we are not referring to the high prices people are willing to pay for parallel importers for getting the item in early. Those are small niche of rich people who are willing to pay a lot for the exclusivity. Deciding now whether to buy or not based on rumour is not a smart consumer.

I was wondering. Does anyone know if the device is able to play 720p or 1080p files directly from the MicroSD card? Is it even possible to put a - let's say - 8gb 1080p .mkv on the MircroSD and play it immediately from the card?

I mean, the regular 32GB would in that case be enough, as I would just buy a few of those 32GB MicroSD cards (saw them for around RM160 at the forums. Easier too, as I can just insert another card on the go....

Anyone has any experience with this? If I cannot play immediately from the card, there's no point in having the card at all besides to use one to transfer stuff easily (should I not get the dock)....

Btw. Read a pretty fair review at Puggedin.co.uk

This post has been edited by DikkieD: Dec 9 2011, 11:12 PM

The microsd card formatted with fat32 file system, sadly fat32 have file size limit of 4GB per file, that's mean u need to split the 8GB file into 2.

Whether prime can play direct from microsd without lag or other issue, that I'm not sure but with class 10 microsd I think should be no problem.

Thanks for the input. It cannot be formatted into NTFS for bigger file size support? Does it have to be FAT32 to be noticed by the Prime?

I can still live with it. My main reasons for buying this device is that my old Cowon A2 media player is starting to deteriorate (actually it still works like a charm, but I cannot watch .mkv's on it ) and I need a replacement that can play at least 720p content flawless...

U can format it into ntfs with ur Windows PC, but android cannot support/mount ntfs by default.

That's a shame, but understandable. Mainly interesting for smaller files then; like series or something. Any changes in that when ICS is released?

This is what I did upon anticipating a loong flight to Beijing and beyond.

1. Install MX Video player (and the arm7v codec) from Market
2. only get mkv videos done/encoded by groups like FASM and HDLiTE by searching those names on your favourite place to get movies or, if you know what you're looking for, get the ones encoded specially for xbox 360 or ps3 playback, or encoded using baseline profile.
3. reformat your microsd to exFAT (more details here ), tools available for xp and win7 also. no need to worry about 4gb limit anymore. But I personally bought a 500gb external notebook hdd seagate goflex, one that doesn't need external power. put all my fasm & hdlite encoded movies there. and apparently all my ntfs-formatted thumbdrives work
4. in mxplayer, can set mkv files to use hardware playback, with software audio playback. perfect, no lag (except a bit during seeking the movie) at all except for scenes with many light rays, but won't go out of sync.

I could get my transfofoformer to play movies one whole day straight during the flight. the keyboard really helps as a really really stable stand, especially during rough flights. by far, the best experience I've had with an electronic device (before was the discontinued 20gig sony mp3 player which played music for one whole week without charge )

This post has been edited by C-Fu: Dec 10 2011, 12:46 AM

Wow, you went trough much trouble to make this happen. I'm sure it will be different with the prime right; why else would those reviewers say it swallows every type of .mkv container without troubles or hickups...

But that exFAT tip is nice; you mean that Android does accept files above 4gb when it is formatted in exFAT?

Your example is spot on; I fly to the Netherlands at least once a year + numerous other flights....so it would be kinda nice to put some stuff on there to keep me busy.

haha, not exactly that much of a trouble. I know google/android have yet to make audio/video a priority of some sort, so i searched for a player that supports hardware decoding - from rockplayer to bsplayer to mobo to tons of others - before settling on mx. and i know that android's hardware is quite slow than desktop, so no high profile or high quality or large file sized hd files, so i opted for baseline encoded ones. searched around, and finally found fasm and hdlite encoded to be the best (for hollywood lah).

actually the display for transfofofomer is small enough that should you play a good quality 540p movies, it will still look almost as good as a baseline hd files. that's what i've found. can try downloading 540p + 720p + 1080p FASM-encoded files (since they have quite a few versions of the same movie) and see for yourself.

i wouldn't trust the reviewers that much if i were you. they tend to sugarcoat it a bit when it comes to reviewing. for instance, they didn't tell you the trouble that you gotta do to "play mkv without hiccups" right?

Euhm...nope...I am considering this device as they say it will play every .mkv given without support issues....

If not, then I go for the Archos 101 G9, because that device is way cheaper, has 3g (via dongle) and supports every format without support issues or hickups...

That said; I don't mind downloading certain specific file types of which it is certain it will always play proper (like the ones you mentioned). I also do not mind batch converting of existing .mkv files (read something about that for Android); as long as I do not have to go through hours of hassle for each single media file....



This post has been edited by DikkieD: Dec 10 2011, 10:42 AM

well you can try transcoding your mkv into smaller ones, but that alone is a whole new world, and to get the best quality and speed is a matter of hours and hours of testing and re encoding and command lines

but every mkv? hmmm i doubt it. mkv is just a container after all, you can put divx video, or x264, or bluray, or dvd, or all at once. even mp4 alone has many different variants. but hey, if prime can really do that then great man! no need to get baseline encoded anymore

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/6888 > comparing bluray to FASM encoded

Well, I know for 100% that the new Archos 80 & 101 G9 have the right tools/software to support every file. I haven't read from people that ran into support issues yet with that device. The thing is; it is catering towards the lower end of the market (while the hardware of the device itself apparently is stunning). I like the Prima better as it seems more sturdy, and overall it is just plain better than the Archos...except for the .mkv support so it seems

I am wonder if there are any difference in playing 480p, 720p and 1080p contents in tablet devices. With a resolution of 1280x800 (or around that range) for most tablets, is it really important to go even 1080p?