Asus ZenPad

[Jorge-Vieira]

Asus Releases ZenPad Flagship With USB Type-C And A Few Modifications

At Computex, Asus displayed its upcoming Zenpad tablets, showing off an array of new features. At the time, those devices were still under development, but the specs have now been finalized, pricing has been set, and you can purchase the flagship ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA now.
Many of the aspects of the Zenpad remain unchanged from what we were shown at Computex. The core hardware, including the Intel Atom Z3580 CPU, the Imagination PowerVR G6430, and the 4 GB of RAM remain. Asus brought a few minor changes to the system, though, such as moving to a 15.2 WHr battery as opposed to a 15 WHr battery as previously stated, netting a minor increase in battery life. The software also saw a change, as the final version got the ZenUI.
The cameras on the devices are what see the majority of changes. Previously, Asus stated that it would have a 5MP front camera and 8MP rear camera. The company opted to downgrade these cameras to 2MP front and 5MP rear cameras. Reducing the quality of the cameras doesn't help improve any aspect of the tablet, so these were likely cost cutting measures.
To help compensate for this feature reduction, Asus included its Tru2Life+ technology. This technology analyzes images before they are displayed and attempts to improve them by adjusting the contrast and sharpness. Although your pictures will still be a lower resolution than the other cameras were capable of capturing, this technology should help to compensate for the change.
Probably the most notable feature of the Zenpad S 8.0 Z580CA, though, is the inclusion of a USB Type-C port (although we're not certain if it has the slower 5 Gbps speed or if it has the 10 Gbps provided by USB 3.1 v2.)

The Zenpad S 8.0 Z580CA is available now from various retailers with an MSRP of $299.

Noticia:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asu...ase,29863.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

First Look Hands-On With ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA Intel-Powered Android Tablet

ASUS is on a roll these days, especially in mobile technologies. In the past few months, the company has surprised us all with the affordable and powerful ZenPhone 2 smartphone (which starts at a very frugal $200 off-contract) and the even cheaper ZenFone 2E which takes the prepaid route via AT&T. ASUS is again using its “Zen factor,” this time in the tablet space, with the introduction of its ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA. And we’ve got a hands-on preview of the premium tablet for you today.
Front and center on the new ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA is a crisp, 7.9-inch QXGA (2048x1536) IPS display that is covered in Gorilla Glass 3. ASUS uses its True2Life+ image processing and TruVivid technology (which is just a fancy term to tell us that that tablet uses a two-layer laminated display design that dispenses with the usual air gap). Both technologies combine to improve not only display brightness, but also color clarity.

The feel here is all premium, despite the ZenPad S 8's more budget price point. It's very thin, just a hair thicker than an iPad Mini 3, for reference, measuring .3 inches thick. On back, the ZenPad S 8 has a nice brushed and textured aluminum finish that completely resists fingerprints and a rubberize bottom strip with ZenPad branding on it that offers an anti-skid effect when laid down It also makes the device much less slippery in the hand. All told the Zen Pad S 8 just feels, handles and looks great. The display is vivid and balanced as well with perhaps not quite as much saturation and punch as the AMOLED display found on Dell's Venue 8 7000 but still with very good balance, color accuracy contrast.

Let's take you on a quick guided video tour...




Under the hood, you’ll find a potent quad-core, 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 that is paired with a PowerVR G6430 for graphics duties. The mobile processor is backed by a healthy 4GB of RAM, which ASUS says is a tablet first, along with 64GB of standard internal storage.

Let's take a quick look at a few early performance numbers...

As you can see, the ZenPad S 8 isn't a dragster on the benchmarks, at least from this early look, but it does hold its own pretty well in gaming and graphics tests.
ASUS has also included a microSD slot with the new slate, which can accommodate another 128GB should you want to carry along your entire library of ripped movies and music. ASUS will also make available an optional $30 Z Stylus that supports 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity.

ASUS is the latest to take advantage of the new, reversible USB-C connector, which we have previously seen in Nokia’s N1 tablet, the 12-inch MacBook and the OnePlus 2 smartphone. However, owing to the confusion that is surrounding the USB-C spec, the ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA is only capable of transferring data at USB 2.0 speeds and lacks USB 3.0 compliance. Considering that most people will likely just be using the port for charging rather than transferring data, this likely isn’t too much of a hindrance.
Speaking of charging, the tablet’s 15.2Wh battery is good for 8 hours of work (or play) before you’ll need to plug back into a wall outlet. That’s about average for the tablets in this size class.

Other specs are pretty much run-of-the-mill when it comes to today’s mobile devices. You’ll find 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, DTS Premium Sound and a headphone jack. Other features are simply less impressive (or lackluster depending on how you look at it), like the 5MP rear camera and the 2MP front-facing camera. However, the bargain-basement camera specs can overlooked considering that most people whip out their smartphones to take the bulk of their pictures and will only use their tablet if it’s the only thing they have handy at the time.

The ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 Z580CA is available today for $299 from the usual suspects (hoping SKUs come online shortly) including Tiger Direct, Amazon, and Newegg.

Noticia:
http://hothardware.com/news/we-go-ha...android-tablet

[Jorge-Vieira]

The ASUS ZenPad S (Z580CA) Review

When I think of ASUS and Android, the first thing that comes to mind is their past portfolio of Android tablets. ASUS has been making Android tablets since the first wave of Android Honeycomb tablets hit the market. Back then, ASUS's point of differentiation from all the other Android tablets with essentially the same Tegra 2 hardware platform was their attachable keyboard dock. One could argue that ASUS really pioneered the 2-in-1 tablet form factor with their Transformer tablets.
While ASUS continued to release a number of additional Transformer tablets with updated specifications for some time, it has been a while since we've seen any new high end tablets from the company. Recent offerings have usually been more budget oriented devices like the MeMO Pad series, or the hard to find ASUS PadFone, with the spot for a more standard tablet being left unfilled.
Today's review takes a look at a tablet that doesn't pick up where the Transformer series left off, but instead kicks off a new line of tablets from ASUS under the ZenPad brand. There are a few different ZenPad tablets on the market, with multiple SKUs for each product creating even more versions. The tablet I'm looking at today is the ASUS ZenPad S, and more specifically, the ZenPad S Z580CA, which is ASUS's most high end tablet offering. Since the ZenPad S comes in two different versions I've laid out both of their specifications in the chart below so you can get an idea of how the two devices differ from each other.

	ASUS ZenPad S 8 (Z580C)	ASUS ZenPad S 8 (Z580CA)
SoC	Intel Atom Moorefield Z3530 4x Silvermont @ 1.33GHz	Intel Atom Moorefield Z3580 4x Silvermont @ 2.33GHz
GPU	PowerVR G6430 @ 457MHz	PowerVR G6430 @ 533MHz
RAM	2GB LPDDR3	4GB LPDDR3
NAND	32GB + microSDXC	64GB + microSDXC
Display	7.85" 2048x1536 IPS LCD
Dimensions	203.2 x 134.5 x 6.9mm	203.2 x 134.5 x 6.6mm
Mass	317g	298g
Camera	2MP Front-facing 5MP Rear-facing	5MP Front-facing 8MP Rear-facing
Battery	15.2Wh
OS	Android 5.0 Lollipop with ASUS Zen UI
Other Connectivity	802.11b/g/n + BT 4.1, GNSS, 3.5mm audio	802.11a/b/g/n/ac + BT 4.1, GNSS, 3.5mm audio
USB Connector	Micro USB	USB Type-C
Price	$199 USD	$299 USD

There are two versions of the ZenPad S. The less expensive model is priced at $199 USD, while the more expensive model that I am reviewing is $299 USD. This is not unlike the price split between the two versions of the ZenFone 2. However, while the two versions of the ZenFone were differentiated only by their RAM, NAND, and included charger, the two models of the ZenPad S have more differences than similarities as far as their specifications go.
What's shared between both devices is the 7.85" 2048x1536 display. ASUS advertises it as 8.0" but measurements of the display's diagonal show that there is some rounding going on. In addition to the display, both devices have a 15.2Wh battery. At $100 more, the ZenPad Z580CA doubles your RAM and storage to 4GB and 64GB respectively, increases the resolution of both cameras, bumps the max CPU clock by 1GHz and max GPU clock by 76MHz, adds 802.11ac support, and reduces both the thickness and mass of the tablet.

The one thing that sets the ZenPad S Z580CA apart from most other devices is its use of the new USB Type-C connector, along with support for USB 3.0 speeds of 5Gbps (Superspeed). While we have seen USB 3.0 featured on some past devices such as the Galaxy Note 3, the large size and unsightly appearance of the USB 3.0 Micro-B connector resulted in it receiving almost no market adoption. It's important to note that just because a device uses the USB Type-C connector does not mean that it supports USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Superspeed+) along with all the USB alternate modes for networking or display interfaces. With the ZenPad S Z580CA only supporting USB data, you cannot do video out or use any other USB alternate modes. Such features will have to wait for future SoCs and controllers with USB 3.1 and USB alt mode support.
As for the connector, Type-C is slightly larger than your standard Micro-B port in all dimensions, but it's reversible, more durable, and maintains a much stronger connection to a device. You can insert it in two orientations, and when you push it in there's a click to let you know that it connected. Some users will see the adoption of USB Type-C as a nuisance, as it will prevent them from using existing cables to charge the tablet or transfer files. I personally recognize this as an unavoidable transition period, as there's no chance of every vendor and user in the world deciding to move to Type-C all at once. It's obviously a bit of an annoyance to be unable to use existing Micro-B cables, but I believe the advantages are worth it.
The ZenPad S uses ASUS's ZenUI skin for Android. It's basically the exact same UI as on the ZenFone 2, but with some layout and app design changes to work better on the larger display. For a look at ZenUI I recommend looking at the software section of my ZenFone 2 review, as I won't be discussing it in this review due to it being mostly redundant.

Toda a review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9555/t...-z580ca-review