Asus EeePad Transformer Prime Officially Announced

UPDATE: The Asus EeePad Transformer Prime is due to launch in early January in the UK, selling bundled with the keyboard dock from £499.

While the first leaks and rumours about the Asus EeePad Transformer Prime hinted at a pretty impressive product, the official announcement has merely confirmed this, as Asus has taken things much, much further than expected in this updated Transformer.

Asus has now officially presented its latest Android tablet, the EeePad Transformer Prime, which is due to replace the already excellent EeePad Transformer. The basic concept is the same, as this new Transformer still consists of a technology-packed 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet with an optional keyboard dock loaded with connection ports and an extra battery. Note, however, that the Transformer Prime will come with the Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, but an upgrade to Ice Cram Sandwich will be made available as soon as possible.

The new tablet uses one of the latest-generation Nvidia Kal-El Tegra 3 quad-core processors clocked at 1.5 GHz. Plus, a fifth core is on hand specifically to deal with activities that don't require much processing power. Basically, the fifth core steps in to take over running low-power activities like watching videos, browsing in the tablet or listening to music so as to free up the main quad-core processor for more power-hungry programs. RAM has also been boosted to 1 GB.
 

Another key new feature of this upgraded tablet is its screen. Asus was smart enough to equip the original Transformer with a good IPS screen with nice, wide viewing angles (it was basically the same screen as the first iPad, in fact). The Transformer Prime, however, will come with a Super IPS+ screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels which, according to Asus, is 1.5 times brighter than other IPS screens. It also apparently boasts enhanced colours and outdoor visibility of a quality not before seen on a touchscreen tablet. What's more, the Corning Gorilla Glass finish should help keep scratches at bay.
 

Although we're still not entirely convinced that a rear-facing camera on a tablet can really be all that useful, Asus has decided to at least make sure this feature is more than just a gimmick, equipping it with an 8-Megapixel backlit CMOS sensor and f/2.4 lens. The Transformer Prime also has a 1.2-Megapixel camera on the front.

The EeePad Transformer Prime has a pretty impressive set of dimensions too, as at 8.3 mm thick and weighing 586 grammes, it's lighter than the iPad 2 and slimmer than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.


Like its predecessor, the Transformer Prime tablet has a microSD card slot, a micro HDMI output port, a headphones socket and a proprietary connector for hooking up the dock. The keyboard dock features a USB Host 2.0 port, a 40-pin proprietary port, an SD/SDHC card reader, a battery and a multipoint (10-point) trackpad.

More Power!

Asus has upped the product's battery life, announcing no less than 12 hours for the tablet alone and 18 hours with the tablet connected to the keyboard dock. Battery life isn't doubled like in the original Transformer because the battery built into the dock is smaller, helping push down the overall size of the product.


Asus will be equipping its new tablet with a comprehensive set of software. As well as applications like MyCloud, MyNet and MyLibrary seen in the first Transformer, the Prime will come with Asus' SuperNote application—a kind of word processing app that lets you draw freehand with a finger, insert photos, graphs, charts, doodles and more. Polaris Office is included too.

You may be fooled into thinking that all this technology must come at a very high price, but Asus has opted to launch its tablet at the going market rate and, above all, at the same launch price as the original Transformer. That means you'll pay $499 (£320) for the 32 GB tablet (although the original Transformer only had 16 GB of memory) and $599 (£375) for a 64 GB Transformer Prime! Similarly, the keyboard dock will sell for the same price as its predecessor, at $149 (£95).

The new tablets will be available in a choice of two colours: Amethyst Grey and Champagne Gold.

Asus will be keeping the original EeePad Transformer in its tablet range, but with $100 knocked off the RRP of each model. The 16 GB original Transformer will therefore end up with an RRP of $399 (£250) and the 32 GB model with an RRP of $449 (£280). The original keyboard dock, however, won't be subject to any reductions.

As with the first Transformer, we can expect to see Prime tablet plus keyboard dock bundles emerge before too long, with the dock included for around $100 when bought with the tablet.

We've added our own conversions of Asus' prices in sterling for information only, so don't forget that the magical 1 USD = 1 EUR = 1 GBP conversion rate used by many manufacturers could well come into play. Release is slated for December in the US with no date confirmed yet for the UK.

Asus looks ready to hit the tablet market where it hurts with this model, since not only is it likely to switch imminently to Android 4.0, but it's much more powerful than any competitor model out there, despite the fact it's no more expensive.

While many analysts consider that the iPad will continue to dominate the tablet market over the coming years, the arrival of a products like this will, at the very least, keep Apple on its toes!

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