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Wireless Connectivity
Featuring a Broadcom 802.11bgn Wireless SDIO Adapter, the Asus VivoTab supports WiFi b, g and n technologies on the 2.4GHz frequency band. The device is not compatible with 5GHz network signals.
Wireless connection performance was a strength for the VivoTab Smart. Using our 802.11n Tenda N60 wireless router, the Asus tablet was able to maintain a stable connection both at close range and over a 40 foot, interference-ridden path.
Unfortunately, the VivoTab Smart's wireless network throughput performance wasn't particularly impressive – we didn't manage to get anything greater than a 65 Mbps connection speed to our 300 Mbps-capable router, even at a distance of less than a metre.
Real world network performance gave us a maximum consistent speed of around 4 MB/s (around 32 Mbps) when copying files across a network, which is a disappointing result for a device that is designed to be capable of carrying out a substantial amount of streaming tasks to and from network attached storage.
Bluetooth worked fine for transferring files to and from the VivoTab Smart. Bluetooth compatible wireless keyboards and mice can also be connected to Asus' tablet, allowing it to function more like a ‘true' laptop.
Testing in combination with our Nexus 4, we can confirm that NFC worked without issues. GPS was also fully functional – it tracked our location accurately.
Web Browsing Experience
Internet Explorer works without performance or compatibility hiccups in both the tablet and desktop mode. Due to the VivoTab Smart's x86 hardware, browsers load desktop web pages by default. This can be a very slight issue when trying to read content because the tablet's High-Definition resolution coupled with the small (by laptop standards) – 10.1″ – screen will make pinch and zoom an infrequent – but sometimes required – process.
We tested KitGuru, BBC, ITV, YouTube, Hotmail and many other web pages; most of them were perfectly readable using the default viewing mode, but they were all sitting near the borderline of a comfortable text size. Setting the zoom to 125% did help, but it also decreased the page's viewable area.
We liked the cut-back style of the ‘mobile' version of Internet Explorer that was launched in tablet mode. It featured the same tile scheme that streamlines it with the rest of the tablet mode's interface. In desktop mode, Internet Explorer was the standard desktop affair.
We quickly stopped using Chrome in tablet mode as we ran into a number of stability issues regarding the keyboard input with web-based text boxes, the ability to manoeuvre through tabs and poor video playback. It seems to be poorly adapted for touch screen Windows 8 devices, at least in our case.
