ASUS Transformer Prime has now been officially announced as the first surf board on the market with a quad-core processor. Nvidia Tegra 3, which we debated earlier today in detail is the heart of the new super-slim - 8.3 mm - plate which of course also possible to dock.
ASUS has, unlike most manufacturers of surf boards sold a lot of its first generation. It is nowhere near Apple's sales of iPad, but especially ASUS Eee Pad Transformer with his laptop dock has been a popular model on the market.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer moonlights as a laptop, and in addition to the taking of some software was also some weaknesses in performance if you drew parallels with the "real" laptops. With the quad-core Tegra 3 processor ASUS hopes to change that and apart from one up to five times more powerful processor has taken the opportunity to trim his successor Prime Transformer on more than one place.
Powerful and thinnest on the market?
ASUS Transformer Prime made of pure aluminum and with its 10.1 inch screen, a profile of only 8.3 millimeters. This compares with his predecessor 12.95 millimeters, or for that matter, the former super-slim Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with 8.6 millimeters. Transformer Prime is just really thin and despite its metal body has also managed to keep the weight down to 586 grams.
The 10.1-inch LCD screen is still at a resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels, but ASUS claims it with a new Super IPS + Panel managed to increase the brightness considerably with the competition. This, together with an oil repellent film on the panel to Prime Transformer become nicer to use outdoors.
Other news in the surf board is an 8 megapixel camera with f/2.4 aperture and flash, and an instant camera of 1.2 megapixels. Storage capacity is 32GB or 64GB and supplemented with the ASUS online solution ASUS WebStorage. We'll also support for Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, G-sensor, gyro sensor, light sensor, compass, GPS, and a host of other features.
Properties | ASUS Transformer Prime | ASUS Eee Pad Transformer | Apple iPad 2 | Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 |
Processor | 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 (4 x Cortex A9) | 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 (2 x Cortex A9) | 1GHz Apple A5 (2 x Cortex A9) | 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 (2 x Cortex A9) |
Memory | 1GB | 1GB | 512 | 1GB |
Screen | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 | 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 IPS | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 PLS |
Dimensions | 263 x 180.8 x 8.3 mm | 271 x 175 x 12.95 mm | 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8 mm | 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6 mm |
Weight | 586 grams | 675 grams | 601 grams | 565 grams |
Storage | 32GB/64GB + microSD | 16GB + microSD | 16GB | 16GB |
Prices | $ 499 / $ 599 | $ 399 | $ 499 | $ 499 |
Up to 18 hours of battery life
Self-surf plate is also home to a lot of connections in which micro-HDMI, microSD reader and a combined speaker and microphone-in connection 3.5 mm format.Sist but not least we also have a battery of 25Wh, which should provide a battery life of 12 hours.
The dock, which measures 10.4 mm in profile and has a weight of 537 grams houses an additional battery 22Wh, which increases the maximum battery life to the full 18 hours. Here we also find a full-size keyboard, USB 2.0 connectivity and an SD memory card reader.
ASUS has chosen to ship the Prime Transformer with Android 3.2 Honeycomb in December but also announces that an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is under development. The price tag is a few hundred dollars over the previous model and 32GB model is expected to start at around 5000 crowns, while the dock landing on the corresponding 1500 SEK including VAT. Both Prime Transformer and its Tablet will be available in two different colors, champagne gold and amethyst gray.
When ASUS Transformer Prime lands in Swedish store shelves remains to be seen, but we hope for a debut in next month while we of course will chase after a test copy of this on paper very interesting creation.
