Asus Transformer Prime: Users Complain About GPS Performance

There is a GPS radio in the Transformer Prime which allows it to triangulate global position using satellite information. However, users of the device so far have faced many issues with the tablet's GPS device.

Responses from ASUS to this issue have been varied. The most important suggestion to remedy GPS is to turn on the Wi-Fi. This allows the device to use geographic IP location information (GeoIP) to tell the device approximately where the user is. This, along with Google Location Services, makes triangulation by GPS far easier. The device will be able to determine where it is, in the first place, in such a system.

Asus representatives, so far, have not yet been able to diagnose the problem correctly. One speculation is that since the ASUS Transformer Prime has a metallic unibody design, the material may affect the performance of the GPS when receiving signals from satellites.

One aspect to be noted here is that the Prime is not a professional GPS device and signal performance can be easily influenced by factors such as weather, buildings and the surrounding environment. ASUS has now removed the mention of GPS from the sensor section of the list of specifications of the Transformer Prime.