In the current detailed coverage of Asus’ ever-fab, Editor’s Choice-winning Asus Eee Pad Transformer android tablet pc, we told you that even better things lie ahead as Google rolls out their 3.1 launch of Android Honeycomb. Tiny did we know that roll-out could be coming sooner than later. Today, a buzzy, fuzzy little Bumble Bee floated a new Transformer firmware up-date our way, packing Honeycomb 3.1 in its golden sweetness. Quick about the up-take, we dropped the payload on to a sd card faster than a hornet zipping around your Memorial Day weekend fruit salad bowl. Volume rocker up, while holding the power button down, we toggled into ROM boot mode and selected the update for installation. A mere few min’s later i was pinch/zoom and swiping around Android 3.1 on the Transformer.

Therefore was it all that and a box of Fenway Crack Jack? The reality is that 3.1 doesn’t quite drive the RBIs like Youk and Gonzalez or jack-up home runs like Ortiz, but it is smooth on the base-path like only Jacoby can be and yeah, the ladies could possibly get their Ellsbury on too.

Android Honeycomb 3.1 is about the tiny problems, as they say; some of those situations are more apparent than others. Resizable application widgets are really nice to play with; setting up your preferred desltop just the way you like it, so you can see just as much or as little quick-take data as you want in your favorite applications and feeds.

However, what’s likely better to die-hard HH readers would be the performance enhancements brought on by 3.1, with its significantly more responsive multitasking capabilities and even a slightly more responsive touch interface. Previously, there was a 5 second lag when going from the home screen back to the Books app, so the device could pull data on the eBook out of cache.

That lag is no longer as well as in general, switching between apps is more fluid and responsive. Also web browsing may be goosed up a notch or two, with significantly more responsive pinch, zoom and scroll action.

Android 3.1′s webkit browser has also been buffed out a bit with features coined “Quick Controls.” Notice the vertical scroll button here in this screen shot. Overall, the browsing experience feels much more accessible and desktop-like, in terms of user interface and functionality.
The final major bullet point we’ll toss out there is performance. One of the subtle selling points of Android 3.1 is improved graphics performance. In our testing with An3DBenchXL, we saw modest gains but we’re continuing our performance testing with Android 3.1 and will keep you posted in the days ahead.

Other small updates towards the Eee Pad Transformer, that are available to end users now, are improved typing speeds, mouse tracking and USB compatibility. This is courtesy of a firmware update for the Transformer’s keyboard dock. In short, if you are an early adopter and jumped on the Eee Pad Transformer when it first hit, neglect the just served up a bunch more ROI and your experience just got better. We’re told this update is going to be available to people in the “near future.” Provide it Asus.