New life for my TF201 tablet

Back in 2011 I bought this ASUS TF201 transformer prime tablet. I had no specific need for it. I just wanted to have an experience with this "new" (at that time) gadget. I was also fascinated by the attachable keyboard. Actually I have never used it that much. Recently I had the opportunity to travel abroad, and bringing it with me seemed a good idea. I switched it on but I realized it was far too slow for any use.

Moreover the obsolete Android version (4.1) prevented me from installing any dev utilities, like Termux. Browsing the internet I stumbled upon this page which shows a (not easy) path for upgrade this tablet to a more recent Android version. I am not an expert of flashing roms, but I did understand that there was the risk to permanently damage ("brick" as they say) the tablet. After a brief thinking with myself I decided to take the risk, since I saw no utility in leaving the tablet in its current state.

I started following the instructions but, at a point I was lost. The tablet does not boot anymore. The only access was from the apx mode. I was desperate, I thought I have broken it. After days and days of blog post reading and googling, I realized that I have not read carefully the initial prerequisites of the guide: the bootloader had to be version 10.4.2.18 I overlooked this, (it is written in a very very smal fonts on the screen) and that was the problem!

So I found the official (the last released) Android update from Asus site. It is a zip file. I had to figure out how to give it to TWRP recovery. The first attempt failed. The zip file contains another zip. The last zip has to be extracted. I putted it on a sd micro card and this time TWRP was able to flash it. The tablet rebooted with the original, now updated, Android version. At this point I restarted the guide, and finally I was able to finish and now my tablet is more has Android 7. With all the advices of the guide, it is now very usable, and I am planning to use it in my next trip to Paris.

This took me several days and evenings of work, but now my tablet enjoys a brand new life! Thanks a lot to the poster of the guide! And shame to Asus! This ought to be an official update!