ASUS Unveils Eee Pad Transformer Prime, First Tegra 3 Tablet Hits December for $499
Nov 9, 2011 01:00 AM EDT by 
After showing it off at All Things D and releasing photos of it to the FCC, ASUS has officially announced the Eee Pad Transformer Prime. A similarly-looking sequel to the popular 10-inch Eee Pad Transformer, the Prime is the first tablet to feature Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 CPU.
In addition to its speedy new chip, the Transformer Prime has a svelte .33-inch thick chassis that’s much thinner than its predecessor’s .5-inch thick frame. Where the first-gen Transformer had a 5-MP rear camera , the Prime has an 8-MP lens with LED flash. ASUS claims that its new tablet will last up to 12 hours on a charge, 18 hours when attached to it optional mobile keyboard dock. Other specs include a 10-inch, 1280 x 800 IPS screen with 178-degree viewing angles and Gorilla Glass ruggedness, a 1.2-MP front-facing camera for chats, and SonicMaster audio technology for better music playback.
Available in either Amethyst Gray or Champagne Gold colors, the Transformer Prime comes standard with a microSD card slot, 3.5mm audio jack, and micro HDMI slot for outputting video. However, if you attach the $149 mobile keyboard dock, you also get full size USB and SD card slots.
With an MSRP of $499 for the 32GB capacity and $599 for the 64GB config, the Transformer Prime tries to outspec rather than undercut Apple’s iPad 2. The device will launch in December with Android 3.2 Honeycomb and then later receive an over-the-air upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Check out some more pics below.
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December 11th, 2011 at 10:20 am
I have had for almost a year the Acer Iconia 10 inch tab. Loved it at first but as time goes on the glitches in software are annoying me. Is the Asus EEE Transformer Prime worth it to switch?
May 14th, 2012 at 8:38 pm
I pre-ordered my Prime and got it through Amazon and have been using it since! I notice one physical weakness though, that I have to be very careful about. That very thin strip of metal right above the charging port is extremely, extremely fragile! Considering that it is right there against the power plug when it’s plugged in, that strip of metal has pressure put on it regularly, however much careful I tried to be! Even with one of those many multi-position, wrap around case, that charging port would be left open and available, thus meaning that metal strip would be pretty much exposed too. I ended up cutting a small rectangular piece of thin mouse pad to protect that port until I got my hands on the Gumdrop case!!! Now, that port is covered and protected. Prime users, be careful or else you would end up with a sharp broken piece of unsightly, annoying and prickly metal at the bottom of your tablets.