ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Review
The Asus Eee Pad Transformer is what we've been waiting for - a tablet
that can truly replace a netbook or ultra-portable laptop. With the
keyboard disengaged, it's a slim, fairly light tablet with a great
screen and touchscreen. With the dock in-tow, it's a typing demon
whose battery will outlast almost any laptop you can find.
All of which means we dropped just everything when a 32GB Prime showed
up on our doorstep earlier this week, and soon enough, you'll have your
chance to nab one too. ASUS announced today that the WiFi-only models
will be available through online sellers the week of December 19th, and
in retail the week after. (No word yet on 3G versions for the US just
yet.) It'll start at $499 for the 32GB model -- not bad considering
five hundred bucks is the going rate for a high-end tablet with 16GB
of storage. From there you can get a 64GB number for $599, while that
signature keyboard dock will set you back a further $149. Worth it?
Read on to find out.
The Eee Pad Transformer goes beyond what most tablets are capable of
by doubling as a Honeycomb-based netbook. Based on that premise and
an attractive price since launch, it quickly became one of the most
attractive Android tablets around. The 16GB version costs $385, making
it ~$100 cheaper than the iPad 2.
I posed this question to Tony when he asked me about future tablet
technologies. From Tony (and NVIDIA's perspective), the problem is a
non-issue because eventually all computing is done on your smartphone
and you simply dock it from one set of input/output devices to the
next. At your desk you'll dock your smartphone to a large display,
keyboard and mouse. On the go you'll either have your smartphone or
dock it into a notebook like chassis. Presumably you'll have a
mid-sized display you could tether it to for tablet use as well.
So it makes perfect sense that Asus - the company that gave birth to the
netbook - would seek to position its first Android tablet in a niche it
knows well.
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