Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Wi-Fi & GPS problems?

Retailer Clove Technology has withdrawn the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime from sale, issuing a statement casting doubt on the Prime's functionality. Part of the statement says: "We are at this time not satisfied that all units we could provide you with are working correctly, and performing to the standard we expect of the unit.

We have therefore taken the decision until further notice stop selling the ASUS Transformer Prime." Clove has cancelled all orders, and has taken no payments from anyone who has made an order.

We understand there are reported issues with both Wi-Fi and GPS. We had no issues at all with Wi-Fi when reviewing the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, but we did have some issues with GPS.

Testing of location-based services as we wrote our review was primarily carried out within a Wi-Fi environment, and we have to admit we were not in a position to test GPS as thoroughly as we might by taking the Transformer Prime to multiple locations and getting frequent new fixes.

However we did notice that it was extremely slow to get a fix. We suspected this to be because of the aluminium chassis and indeed, when we applied a fix we found on the web of squeezing the upper parts of the chassis around the bezel between the fingers to improve internal connections, GPS fixes were achieved a lot faster.

In Asus's defence, while GPS is included in the Transformer Prime, it has been removed from the specification sheet. Asus has responded officially to Clove's withdrawal of the unit from sale with the following:

"ASUS is not aware of any quality issues with the Transformer Prime. We have already issued a statement regarding the GPS module, and provided a number of options to our customers.

We refute any and all claims from third parties regarding the quality of our products. Stock availability to-date has been constrained due to massive demand for the Transformer Prime. Large quantities of stock is arriving on a weekly basis and we expect to see increased availability within the UK shortly."

As for our own review, we stand by our extremely positive evaluation of the unit. We had no problems with Wi-Fi at all, and were able to rectify the GPS issue – albeit in a rather Heath Robinson manner.

Sandra Vogel