Not happy with the Asus R1f

[Jurisprudence]

This is a general warning to any prospective customer considering the purchase of an Asus R1f tablet pc.

This unit suffers serious design flaws the most serious of which manifests itself as a degrading battery. Asus have refused to admit publically or to their customers that a problem exists dispite some customers now being on their 5th battery in less than a year. It has become clear from contact with many users that replacing the battery does not resolve the issue which appears to be a design flaw contained within the tablet itself or an ongoing issue with the batteries supplied to Asus.

Although the R1f is covered by a 2 year warranty the battery is covered only for 1 year. The strategy appears to be to continue replacing batteries until the 1 year battery warranty has expired, leaving their customers with tablet pc's unable to move from AC power for the remaining year of warranty.


Other faults which have not been rectified for users include
1) static issues on headphone jack
2) fingerprint readers which fall off
3) pen scratching in the silo
4) overheating

Although all manufacturers suffer issues with their units Asus have refused to admit to the aforementioned and have instead left many customers with faulty tablet pc's dispite following their repair procedures. Furthermore it should be noted that Asus will refuse to replace or refund a laptop after 7 days of ownership. If they fail to repair you will be left with a faulty product.

Please be aware of these issues when considering the purchase of an Asus R1f tablet.

[WNewquay]

Hello Jurisprudence,

Please provide links to references to support your statements. As it stands, your post, while possibly well meaning could be viewed as being in violation of the site Rules/Guidelines. See 4.1 below.

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[Jurisprudence]

Hi WNewquay. Glad to obligue with the references. I have been a member of the tabletpcreview.com forums for a while and have been an owner of an Asus R1f tablet pc since April 07. Unfortunately the links i will be providing will be bringing your readers to the forums of tabletpcreview.com.

All of these links will help other readers in gaining an understanding of the ongoing saga which some R1f owners have been forced to experience due to Asus policy, manufacturing and customer service.

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=7963

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=7817

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=7711

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=4791

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=4792 : the big 25 page thread of battery problems and poor service. The longest we have ever had.

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=7583

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=6861

http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=7054

Do you want more cause there actually is and we are all near the end of our tether. And i would love to debate the issue with anyone who would care to take a look at the issues we have been facing.

Oh and i would like to state in my defence that what was stated regards the 7 days replacement period was stated and re-stated by the head of Asus customer service UK. I wont name him for obvious reasons.

The issues regards the battery have been admitted to be under investigation in talks to milestonepc.com (see tabletpcreview.com forum member list) who are Asus authorised dealers but they will not admit it to the customers.

BTW i work as a tech support/customer complaints agent, sold custom laptops and desktops for years and am a law student and i will not engage in any form of intellectual property infringement or personal bashing but i will endevour to alert any prospective consumers of issues they may face with any company.

As to the other issue you alerted me to

1)Brand Bashing - I have purchased many Asus products before. In fact thats the reason i choose the R1f tablet. But if you read the links you'll see why i am no longer a fan and would not consider purchasing from them again.


I'm dying to engage and expand the debate not just on the bad issues but also the good and i was amazed that nobody had posted any topics to your forums about the R1f tablet, good or bad. So if its ok id like to get the ball rolling.

BTW my tag on www.tabletpcreview.com is also Jurisprudence is anyone wants to do a quick search.

[Jurisprudence]

Oh sorry, i missed one thats kinda very important to the debate

Evidence the Asus battery problem is not restricted to the R1f but may effect further series of laptop

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=106773

[WNewquay]

Hi Jurisprudence,

I think you can understand the concern when a first time poster arrives with dire pronouncements.

Thank you.

[Northern_Rebel]

An interesting read...going to keep an eye on this issue just for reference.

Thanks Jurisprudence

[Jurisprudence]

Hi WNewquay. Totally understand your cautiousness and would have done the same myself. If it looks crazy and sounds crazy it may just be crazy. But please believe me im not crazy.

I actually found out just last night that the issue may not be isolated to the R1f. Turns out the Z71v has generated a 59 page 872 reply page on its battery problem over at notebookforums.com.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread94034.html

Heuston we have a problem. Anyone with a sleepy Asus out there.

To test run NHC from www.pbus-167.com/ for free to see.

Report here if ya wouldn't mind to help us get something done. Thanks.

[ccto_et]

Talking the design of R1F after using it for about two weeks, in general I think it is great machine; however, there are a few concerns when compared to my old HP TC1000. 1) there is no switch to switch on and off the wireless mechanism on the tablet mode; 2) the edge of the writing tablet will be going to store dirt after a while because it leaves out a tiny crack; 3) another thing that TC1000 has and the R1F does not is that there is no page flipping button in the tablet mode, making it not easy when you read pages of eBooks or eMagazines, which I have subscribed a few. I hope ASUS will improve their products in the near future.

[Mr H]

I have had my R1F for around 6 months now. I did not have a choice (education supplier contracts) and was aware of some of the issues before I got it.

I had the UK equivalent of an Electrovaya Scribbler 2010 previously and really liked the battery life and slate form factor.

It took me a little while to adjust to the convertible R1F. The pen scratching was annoying but not really an issue in the end. I am now subconciously careful when putting it in/out.

I have had no problems with degrading batterie as yet, I have a secondary battery almost permanently installed. I do miss the battery life of the Electrovaya but I simply bought an extra power adapter and have one at work and one at home and plug in whenever I am at my desk.

My main issue is the widescreen which is a nuisance when using LCD projectors. Firstly my wireless projection setup only works with 1024x768, so I have to use a couple of utilities to pen flick between resolutions and have to put up with a fuzzy stretch screen to allow a perfect projection. However, after upgrading to Vista I have to use UltraVNC again as previous setup does not work well with Vista. VNC is fine but desktop, TPC and projector all work on different resolutions so finding a happy medium does not produce ideal results.

ccto_et, my R1F came with a utility called Wireless Console 2 which allows me to turn wireless and/or bluetooth on/off with a couple of clicks.

I do like the Net4Switch app which automatically detects which network I am connected to and changes internet connection, default printer and other settings.

Overall I am happy enough with the R1F for now. If I were to change I may consider returning to a TPC with a 4:3 screen aspect ratio due to my projection issues, unless I get a widescreen PC and projector!

[Mr H]

I've just moved to a Motion LE1700 and am loving it! In the end the slate form factor is my much preferred option for teaching, although the convertible was useful for admin tasks at a desk.

I didn't have any real problems with the R1F and was pretty happy with it but when I got the chance of a trial with the Motion I had a go and couldn't give it back!