I was browsing Reddit when I came across this video. This person wanted to show how functional Android 4.0 on a phone could be as a full computer and he definitely shows that we are already close to the point where a phone or tablet could be all you need.
Imagine a future where your entire full featured computer could be with you all the time and could adapt to the situation you’re in; on the go it’s a phone or tablet but when you arrive at the office you plug in and everything is up on your monitors and all your peripherals are connected wirelessly, it’s like something out of science fiction!
Isn’t that cool? However my first thought was: “Isn’t that cute, he’s using a phone with a dual core processor?” As functional as that can be consider this: The ASUS Transformer Prime with Android 4.0 has a Quad Core Nvidia Tegra 3 Processor and the implementation of Android on it is optimized to take advantage of a larger screen.
The ASUS Transformer Prime features an optional keyboard docking station
Not only that but with ASUS’s slight UI customizations and bundled apps for use with the Keyboard dock you’ve got everything you need for a solid desktop replacement!
Here are a few ways you can already take advantage of Android on the Transformer Prime (and soon the original Transformer) as a replacement for your desktop or laptop computer!
Google Chrome
Google just released Chrome Beta for Android 4.0+ devices, now how is this any better than your normal Android browser? How will it lend itself better to replacing your desktop?
Chrome is the first full featured desktop-class browser on a mobile platform! It has much more extensive support for newer and more complex web formats and standards such as HTML5, you’ll also see great scrolling and zoom performance. Did I mention that it is also REALLY FAST! It leads the pack in all benchmarks, Chrome is the real deal, it will even help you make the transition by syncing your bookmarks and frequently visited sites over to your tablet.
You can use it in conjunction with your other devices too because it syncs open tabs across other devices. Not only does it have all that power but it take much of the guesswork out of mobile browsing by using a simplified and familiar interface but modified for use with a touchscreen.
Polaris Office
One of the apps that comes preinstalled on your Transformer or Transformer Prime, it is an amazingly powerful, though frequently overlooked, application.
Polaris allows you to view and edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and Powerpoint presentations without skipping a beat. It will do almost anything your desktop programs will, I have yet to run in to something I’ve needed to do on there that I couldn’t. Further it can be a great studying tool, whether your professors post their slides from class or long study guides in preparation for exams you’ll be able to tackle it all.
I’ve even started to use the spreadsheet editing on there with Dropbox to keep my personal finances in check! It has support for your formulas and calculations just like Microsoft Excel.
Google Music
Do you like to listen to music while you’re browsing the web or studying? Even though tablets tend to have less storage space than traditional computers you never have to worry about not having music to listen to.
You can upload all your music to Google Music and listen through the app, it will even be controllable by media buttons on a wireless keyboard! Storage is probably the biggest limitation for using an Android device over a standard computer which brings me to our next app.
ASUS WebStorage
When you get as ASUS EeePad Transformer or Transformer Prime it comes with 1 year of unlimited WebStorage. You’ll be able to store all your important files whether they’re pictures, music, videos, documents or anything in between.
Just another way ASUS is taking a shot at knocking down the limitations of what you can do with your tablet!
Now I think we’ve worked hard enough here, you can be very productive but let’s touch on entertainment.
MX Video Player
I absolutely love this app! It will take just about any video file you can throw at it and play it beautifully with full support for advanced features like subtitles if you have them. If you’re like me and you have a portable hard drive full of videos you can plug it right in and be on your way!
I have yet to find a format that isn’t supported; it even played some .rmvb files I dug up (How many of you out there have even seen those before??). With the MicroHDMI port on the Transformer Prime (MiniHDMI on the original Transformer) you can even move over to HDTV and continue watching on the big screen.
When I was at CES I actually used MX Video Player in my hotel room quite a bit to watch some movies with some friends.
Now I can understand some skepticism on using Android to replace a Windows or Mac machine as your primary computer but I can tell you from my own experience it can be very useful. While I was at CES I was doing a lot of work, I’m sure some of you my articles from out there.
I can tell you that in the whole week I was there I never once powered on my laptop. I used the Transformer Prime for EVERYTHING. I would literally plug it in to my hotel room TV as a monitor and use the keyboard dock for controls while I had a USB drive plugged in with all my work on it.
I would be switching back and forth between documents, web browsing, and photos and at the same time pumping some of my music through the speakers. It took everything I threw at it and then just asked for more!
For many people, a tablet may be able to satisfy 90% of your computing needs
The more I talk about this the more I’m considering powering down my laptop for good and moving over to a tablet for about 90% of my work. This all being said there are some things that still need to be worked on before it can replace a computer for everyone.
For those studying or working with media like myself, it won’t be able to replace your high end machine for graphic design and heavy video editing and rendering. Its amazing to see how far we’ve come already though! In a few years mobile hardware will become even more powerful and ASUS is already leading the pack in blurring the lines between functional of full computers and mobile Devices.
Wait a couple years for the EeePad Transformer 6 with Android 8.0 and you’ll find it hard to believe you were ever tethered to a desk working on a full computer.
All this being said though for the few things it can’t do as well as a full computer right now there are plenty of things it can do a lot better, but I think that’ll be something I leave for another article another day!
Aiman Farooq is a Media & Information Technology student at Michigan State University.
If you have any questions or comments please shoot me a tweet:
Tweet to @aimanfarooq
Check out my Facebook Page: ASUS CampusLife at Michigan State University
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Yes definitely in the <a href=”http://www.123discountshop.com/laptops/index.asp”>tablet PC</a> will replace laptop and desktop computers.. The android operating system is getting better and better , it almost now has all the features that are today available in laptop.
Nice post
Using Android 4.0 & older versions as computer is very interesting. It is very helpful option for people to judge whether they want old computers Or with latest technology with previous tasks on computer. I do believe in using android device as Computer.
I have been giving this some thought for a while.
there are several aspects to this.
First the hardware:
Is the hardware up to it?
Android phones have MHL now for some time (not all of them, but the number is growing). At this moment I believe the MHL output to be 720p, 1280×720 pixels (I can be wrong here).
My desktop monitor has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. So there is quite a difference.
Most Android phones have no USB-Host. USB-Host would mean you can connect storage, mouse and keyboard to the device. Mouse and keyboard can be connected by Blue-tooth (but I read somewhere that this sometimes interferes with WiFi).
No Usb-Host means no external storage such as Usb-Drives. External storage would then mean using network drives (I have no clue if the Android Apps can access Network Drives)
Pheripherals: Android supports Mouse and Keyboard, both through USB-Host and Bluetooth. Printers are not natively supported, Printer apps have to be used. I don’t know how the Printer Apps interact with other Apps (Can printing be done from for example an Office application?). I don’t know if any other hardware that can be used in a workplace (scanners for example) is supported. My guess is: not at this moment.
Second the Software:
Is the software that is available up to the job?
For Office software there is some choice. Polaris Office (Can not be found on Android Play, but comes with several devices such as Asus Transformers and Samsung Galaxy Tablets and Phones), Kingsoft office and my personal favourite Softmaker Office (My favourite because it has a really good spreadsheet program).
There is a lot of choice in email software, and native to android is Gmail.
A little bit less choice for agenda software, but I believe some decent are out there.
A problem for Email and Agenda software might be the integration with the mailservers at the workplace.
Browsers are available, but most are OK, but not as good as the desktop browsers.
Skype is available for chat
There is some website promoting using a phone as desktop replacement using Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android
But they are not giving a real solution, the website seems to be more a promotional advert.
So my conclusion is, yes it would be possible Now. But with some limitations.
I certainly think it is a good possibility for the future, provided that the phone manufacturers make some changes and do some additions.
Processing power isn’t a problem anymore
I can see the picture clearly: You arrive at the office, put your phone in its cradle and start working. The cradle is connected to all the necessary hardware. A NFC tag in the cradle automatically sets all the parameters like WiFi and Bluetooth so the Phone is in Desktop mode. Taking the Phone out of the Cradle makes it switch to Phone mode.
After work at home the same Phone in the cradle, NFC tag makes it switch to Desktop mode, but recognizes that you are back at home and will allow different software or websites to run (so your playboy website doesn’t show at work).
Well i have recently received an i-pad 2 and am more than satisfied with its capabilities. You must be’ connected to wi.fi source and a wi.fi printer is needed for printing. It works like a laptop computer and, of corse, its main feature is its portability and light weight.
hoiyl shit it s very beatifull
WOW this pushed me over the edge! I’m going to get a tabelt. I especially could benefit from the DocuSign app. Once I get it, I can just come see you and your company can network it with my home computer so when I’m traveling I can access the files at home is that right? That would be big for me because I invariably need a file that’s on my home computer when I get up north for the weekend! Thanks for an interesting and timely show about computer tabelts.
Do you know if it can do multiple things at one time. Like, can I record a lecture and have a power point up at the same time?
@Lourie G No. Android doesn’t support multiple window multitasking, and you wouldn’t be able to record the lecture unless you had the recording app open. Sorry… :/ I know because I’m typing this on a tablet right now.
Thanks for the great article!
My laptop died so I bought the Transformer Prime to replace it but I cannot get it to print and what I really would love to do is record and watch TV! I don’t own a home so I don”t have a cable or sattelite TV account, would love to find a way to watch more the few things on Hulu Plus on my TP?
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asdf
First we need a REAL office suite, the current office apps are seriously lacking.
I currently have a ASUS Transformer and a rooted and overclocked Samsung Galaxy S. Both of which I love. However I would like to see better capabilities as far as printing and data transfer via USB (being limited my the FAT 32 format) than what is currently available.
My biggest question for this post is how can print my documents that I created on my tablet and or phone?
Cloudprint, free from the market! I print everything from work documents to emails, even pictures and I don’t have to connect anything or be home! It even connects with Facebook and picassa!
A student in a number of computer science courses wouldn’t be able to run the following from their Tablet.
3D Graphic Design and Animation: 3D Studio Max, Maya
Advanced Video Maniupation: Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere
Web Development: Dreamweaver
Audio Recording and music composition: Cakewalk Sonar, Encore, Fruity Loops, Sound Forge, Acid Pro
Application Development using advanced IDE’s: Visual Studio, XCode, Eclipse
When a tablet can do all of these then it may be considered as a replace for the computer that I built. Until then its simply a convenient tool for basic enjoyment ( ie Office apps, listening to music, taking pictures, basic games, and surfing the web)
The ONLY exception I’ve seen so far in the portable gaming department is Razer’s Project Fiona which has such raw power that it can run Skyrim on Ultra High settings. However the cost for that is around $1000 and for that same amount I can build a much better laptop.
Yes, you are 100% correct. Being a graphic designer i am aware of these limitations but we are so close. In fact i dont see any reason why adobe can’t release dreamweaver, the tablet is more then capable. If you tried photoshop touch, its an amazing app and that is just the start. The power is there, just need to put it to application.
No, the power isn’t there yet but it’s slowly getting there.
Apps like Photoshop Touch are cool but aside from being touch optimized and taking advantage of built in cameras its actually capabilities are pretty basic and thus not in the same league as desktop Photoshop. Especially when it comes to accuracy and the more advance capabilities of desktop Photoshop.
In proper perspective ARM is just getting to the point that they can start rivaling Intel ATOMs for performance. This puts them in about the range of netbook type performance range.
Even a low end ULV Core i3 provides over 3 times more performance and ARM is also still 32bit, among other limitations.
So while these devices are getting more useful, let’s not push it yet as they still got a long way to go.
Lol im retarded? Who wants a bgiegr tv? really? thats your comeback? TV size has nothing to to with my question, its rather moronic bringing up why people want bgiegr television than asking for one decent reason why someone would wanna buy this generic poorly crafter rip off of a tablet pc. Which i bet you bought, anyways im still waiting for one thing that this tablet does that a regular phone running its software cant do .and if you cant come up with one reason than stfu.
i am persuing cse engineering and faced with the same dilemma …….. i have a gud pc at home so m thinking getting a transformer instead of a new laptop ………… i can use online IDE for the programming part ..but still not sure if it ll work out …….
I’m seriously considering the switch myself, but I want to get my hands on one to check it out first. I’d be happy to use it in a store, but I have yet to find a store within 100 miles that has even a display in stock. No place seems to have them in stock, especially the 64 GB. Until then, I guess I’ll wait
I’d love to replace my laptop with a Transformer. I’ve been looking into it for months. My only problem is that I need an IDE (I currently use Komodo, but I’d be willing to switch), and I can’t find anything for Android.
Are you aware of one that will work for Python/Django?
And before someone says it, I’m not coding in a text editor :p