Even though the movies gave me both my favorite character (Sideswipe), and probably the sexiest rendition of the Corvette I've ever laid eyes on, altogether into a mash-up of unseen badassery unforetold by any of my forefathers, my vote goes to Prime.

I love the movie designs, and I appreciate what the movies have done for Transformers overall, but this isn't solely a beauty contest. Prime has a story that blends better than the movie. In Prime, all of the robots are getting some kind of development, especially Starscream. IMO, Starscream really got the shaft in the movies. He usually is a dynamic character who would do anything to get into Megatron's position, sometimes kicking the poor sap while he's down, something I kept waiting to see in DOTM, but instead got to see put down like a dog.

 

I chose both. Movies for style and Prime for writing and character. I really can't hate or absolutely love any series I've watched individually.

If I'm in the mode for cool action scenes, I'd watch DOTM (when it comes out). If I want to enjoy a nice story or some awesome characters, I'd watch Prime or Animated. If I'm feeling nostalgic, I'd watch Armada. If I want to try something new, I'd get into an older series like Beast Wars or G1.

 

I like both of them, though I prefer the movies more right now.

TFPrime has the time to delve deeply into the characters that the movies could only dream of, thanks to the format and the technical limitations. I don't care what you say, the CGI for the Transformers in the movies is insanely detailed, insanely expensive, and actually has to look like it interacts with the real world, unlike TFPrime, which comes with a ready-made world and designs that cheat (the faces and mass-shifting). I'm not knocking the TFPrime designs, it is just that they have more wiggle room being an entirely CG series. Realism in a live-action production is a difficult taskmaster. As a side note, the reason that I bet we never saw the TFs in the rain in the movieverse was because it would probably make ILM's computers enter a suicide pact.

When TFPrime chooses to delve into its characters, it is great; look at Arcee, Airachnid, Starscream, Breakdown, Ratchet, and Jack; all awesome characters (IMO). However, when the movies have an opportunity to get into a character (say, Optimus in DotM), they do a great job as well. I felt far more sympathy for Optimus in DotM than I did for TFPrime Optimus, mainly because the director put him through hell and let him emote, neither of which has happened to TFPrime Optimus.

Where the movies really excel is, as others have mentioned, in style. It's like Michael Bay infused pure awesomeness into the concept of Transformers, especially Optimus; that murder mile of his in Chicago was amazing, as was the Forest Fight before it, and his duel with Sentinel.

 

I have to go with both as well...love the designs from both series & movies as far as Optimus and the Autobots. The storyline stumbled a bit in the 2nd movie, but came back for a nice Trilogy ending. As for TFP, we are just coming to the close of the first season and it's had some misses, but mostly hits as far as the writing and storytelling. I've been pleased for the most part with both versions of the Transformers productions.

 

Bay only because it's not boring. I don't hate Prime I just find the pace rather slow.

 

Transformers Prime wins out easily in terms of both writing and character design IMO. I just like the detailed, yet stylized look of the TFP cast more. It's easier on the eyes and reads better when the fights get fast and frantic.

And I thought I'd toss out a few numbers. The total running time of the movies is 451 minutes. The average time of a TFP episode is 22 minutes.

451/22 = approximately 20 1/2 episodes.
That's a lot of time to develop your characters. Yet I come away from the movies feeling as though only a couple of the robots got any personality. In that same amount of time, TFP has established and developed its cast wonderfully.

I look forward to each new episode of TFP, while I'm more than ready to move on from the movies.

 

TF: Prime.

The 2007 film and the movie toy lines may have brought my interest back to Transformers after the Unicron trilogy scared me off, but post ROTF and DOTM I actually now absolutely hate the movie series, and Bay for what he did to the great potential they could have had.

TF: Prime feels more like that potential realized. Not completely, but it's close. And still more enjoyable then the awful joke that the films ended up becoming.

 

I like both.

 

I'm sorry, but the poll is about which one is better because of design, style, etc. Voting for the movieverse because it introduced you to the TFormer franchise is not, in my opinion, a valid reason to call it better than Prime.

Prime, all the way. The story is good, the characters are amazing, the action is cool and the atmosphere is simply astounding for a kids show.

And Starscream rules.

 

Sadly, I fear you're 100% correct. Except where the amount of time is considered, as I've already point out. I wonder how the general movie-going public would react to a Transformers movie that was primarily about the TFs, with the humans acting merely as supporting cast. Or for that matter, if a whole TF movie was set on Cybertron with no humans at all (if money were no issue). Wall-E did it. Robots did it.
And yeah, the CGI is hella' expensive. But consider also the budget limitations of TFP. It's CGI doesn't have to be as detailed or merge seamlessly with live action, but their budget is much smaller, being a cartoon show. Both the movies and the toon are stretching each penny as far as they can, and it's obvious where the shortcomings are.
For the movies, we get a lot less screen-time for the TFs.
For TFP we get ghost towns instead of lively, human populated locations.

Considering their budgetary restraints though, I feel TFP has handled itself better. The empty locales, while annoying, are never too jarring to me. In exchange, we get lots of screen-time devoted to the robots and getting to know them beyond a few quips.

I really liked Prime in the first movie, but didn't feel very sympathetic towards him in RotF or DotM. I don't know. They lost the magic.
Prime in TFP, likewise, I don't feel terribly sympathetic towards at the moment, but that's more due to his lack of screen-time. His most sympathetic scenes thus far were when he faced a cold death in "Scrap Metal" with Arcee and when he was on his death bed in "Sick Mind". But I'll agree that Prime really, REALLY needs to shift out of "Epic Gear" and be a person. If his character arc focuses on him transitioning from a hardened leader that distances himself from his troops to a hardened leader that learns to relax once in a while and be a person, then I'd applaud them. That's yet to be seen however.