Asus has officially launched the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the sexier, faster successor to the existing Transformer tablet. Like the original, the Prime will still feature a form factor that lets it hook up to a keyboard dock for laptop-like use, but this one’s considerably slimmer with a .33-inch (8.3mm) profile and should be much faster, being the first to run on NVIDIA’s just-unveiled quad-core Tegra 3 processor.
The rest of the spec includes a 10.1-inch Super IPS+ display that’s claimed to perform well in outdoor lighting, an eight-megapixel camera with a flash and back-illuminated CMOS sensor, 32GB/64GB of storage (depending on the model), the usual Wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity options, and a built-in battery that’s listed to last up to 12 hours on a charge.
The keyboard dock is what makes the whole kit unique, though. Listed to cost $149, the accessory adds a very slim, ultrabook-like keyboard to the screen that also comes with its own battery. According to Asus, the extra battery extends the tablet’s runtime to 18 hours.
The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is set to ship in “early December,” starting at $499 for the 32GB model and $599 for the 64GB model. Asus also mentioned that while it won’t ship with Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the Prime will get the OTA update soon after the December release.
Tags: Asus, Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Tablets
