Asus Transformer Prime Ice Cream Sandwich Update
Performance Quick-Take
After updating the Asus Transformer Prime to ICS, we took a look at how the device compared to other tablets, as well as our previous set of scores with the Prime running Honeycomb (Android 3.2), by running a few common benchmarks that are currently available in the Android Marketplace. The first two tests are general purpose computing type benchmarks, while the third evaluates browsing performance.
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Somewhat surprisingly, the Transformer Prime's performance dipped slightly in the Linpack benchmark after being updated to ICS. The device was still clearly faster than the other Android-based tables represented in the graph, but versus the original installation of Gingerbread the Prime with ICS trailed by about 7.5%. This benchmark, however, does have some degree of variability so the actual difference may be slightly higher or lower and ever perhaps within the margin of error with this test.
The Sunspider benchmark showed a fairly significant degradation of Javascript performance going from Android 3.2 to 4.0. The Prime offered good performance in this test before the update, but after the ICS update the tablet's performance in this test dropped about 18%. Optimizations in this area are hopefully forthcoming.
Rightware's Browsermark tells a different story, however. In this test, the Transformer Primer's performance increases slightly after the ICS update, but the delta is modest. The Prime was the second fastest tablet we had tested with Browsermark before the update, and it maintains that position after the update, though it was able to somewhat close the gap between it and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus.
Unfortunately we weren't able to run our current suite of GLBenchmark graphics test numbers with the Asus Transformer Prime and ICS. The app is now crashing on this new version of Android. Hopefully the benchmark's author will be able to rectify that so we can give you some comparison numbers here in the days ahead.
And that about wraps-up our quick-take look at Android 4.0 on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. As we get more time with the OS and with future updates, we'll be sure to pass our experiences on to you as well. Stay tuned.
