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Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399

By | April 21, 2011, 7:03am PDT

Summary: It’s a big week for Honeycomb-based tablets. Not only is the LG G-Slate now available, but the Asus Eee Pad Transformer is on the way too.

It’s a big week for Honeycomb-based tablets. Not only is the LG G-Slate now available, but the Asus Eee Pad Transformer is on the way too.

The 10.1-inch tablet will under cut some other tablet prices with an MSRP of $399 for the 16GB option. 32GB of storage space will ring up to $499, and an optional keyboard will also be made available for $150. All of this will be available for purchase and shipping in the U.S. and Canada starting on Tuesday, April 26.

[Image Gallery: Asus Eee Pad Transformer]

If you’re not familiar with the Eee Pad Transformer, it runs on a a NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, and it sports an IPS panel (1,280 x 800 resolution). Best of all, users can squeeze up to 9.5 hours of battery life when using the tablet by itself, or manage up to 16 hours when the keyboard is attached.

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ASUS, Coverage, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
baru 22nd Apr 2011
Anand tech has a thorough review of the eee pad:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4277/asus-eee-pad-transformer-review/1.
Worth reading.
View in thread
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
jrockefeller1@... 21st Apr 2011
Keyboard for $150...? Uhh...
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Missing some info
Economister 21st Apr 2011
@jrockefeller1@...

It contains a second battery of the same capacity, which will bring the total battery life to around 16 hours. It also has a track pad. The second battery will charge the tablet battery when connected.

I think this is the way of the future: A tablet when you want it and a netbook/notebook when you want that. It is by far the best solution I have seen to this point in time.
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
jeremychappell 21st Apr 2011
@Economister Not sure. I think the ideal solution (that nobody is offering - yet) is a tablet and traditional system that sync via cloud storage. Designs where bits are added, or removed seem rather clunky. Better you grab either Tablet or Laptop depending on what you're doing - you might even want both (looking up information on the Tablet and typing up a report or other document).

With constantly falling hardware costs I see the "does everything" device as a bit pointless. What you really want is a number of devices designed around different use cases.
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Some people may prefer that...
Economister Updated - 21st Apr 2011
@jeremychappell

but the cost will be considerably higher, since you need to duplicate a lot of the hardware. Also, if you go on the road a lot, which one do you bring? The netbook/notebook? The tablet? Both? Or do you just bring the combo/hybrid and be done with it?
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Real battery life will be 2 hours lower than 9.5 hours, basing on Xoom's ..
DeRSSS Updated - 21st Apr 2011
@Economister: ... results.

Also, the screen's layers are not glued together (against parasitic light refraction).

The device is heavy, thick and plasticky.

It has Tegra-2-like SoC with three-five times slower graphics and up to ten times slower multimedia/vector/FPU speed than A5 from iPad 2.

And it only has about 20 tablet apps (comparing to 65 000) for iPad.

But screen's details/resolution is 30% better than that of iPad, and the price is $100 lower.

So for those who really, really can not have iPad 2 for religious considerations or absolutely can not afford $100 price increase, it is fair choice.
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
rengek 21st Apr 2011
@Economister
This is why I haven't jump into tablets for anything other than watching movies on a plane. If I don't know what to bring then my default will be my 11.6" laptop. I know it will give me the connection/software/compatibility that I need to do work which is usually the most important thing. I would rather have peace of mind than mobile and hope for the best. I travel light so I would never bring both. With the ultraportable being mobile enough, it will serve the purpose. When tablets and the industry have better remoting capabilities then I would go for that. Right now just doing remote desktop via the tablet is just too much of a pain. I keep asking myself "why the heck don't I just use the ultraportable instead of jumping through all these hoops".
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
rengek 21st Apr 2011
@denisrs

Please stop making info up as you go....3 times slower, oh my lord you kill me. You're really steve aren't you?
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Stop making up ignorant claims agains posters
DeRSSS 21st Apr 2011
@rengek: I mean, really, check the model of graphic co-processor in PlayBook and comparing to model of graphic co-processor in A5 from Apple.

This is the same story as in Tegra-2: AnandTech measured its graphic perforamance and it was 3-5 times slower than iPad.
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
travelfeet@... 21st Apr 2011
@jrockefeller1@...

The Keyboard also has 2 usb ports (not yet recognizable by the OS in reviews I read however) and a standard SD card slot (micro SD is also available in the tablet). You could consider that the "keyboard" also functions as a cover, and a stand as the hinge is stiff enough to hold the tablet at most angles you would want it it.
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If I can use an existing Bluetooth keyboard
Michael Kelly 21st Apr 2011
then I'm sold.
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
tboonie@... 21st Apr 2011
@ denisrs

Ipad 2 equals no flash, no expandability (no Micro SD), and dealing with itunes! I've had a 3gs phone for almost 2 years and I can't wait until July 21 (end of my contract) comes around... bye bye icrap... hello Samsung G2 and Android. My wife lost 2 movies she had on her ipod touch because itunes automatically deleted them when trying to sync. The imac that she created the movies on had the HDD die and so the movies are gone forever... thanks itunes!
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
oriorda 21st Apr 2011
@tboonie@... well, best of luck with that decision. Especially with Flash. Don't blink though, or the image will be gone.

You sound like real IT hotshots with that no-backup rig of yours.
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
fdaugherty 21st Apr 2011
Thinking this may be my next purchase. Finally, a design that provides everything in one reasonably priced product.

Two important improvements:
1 - Expand the screen to the outer edges of the table. Why have 3/4" boarder? Is the battery around the outer edge?
2 - Upgrade the shell to an aluminum or carbon fiber
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If this solution does catch on.......
Economister 21st Apr 2011
@fdaugherty

you should have lots of vendors/models to choose from. Personally, I really like the concept, but that is not to say it cannot be improved in many ways and for many different needs/tastes.

Exciting times
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
ryanmc 21st Apr 2011
Who is selling it? I still cannot find it on any retail sites. With less than a week to go you would think someone would have a "coming soon" listing.
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Why wouldn't someone buy this over the XOOM ?
Master3 21st Apr 2011
Please enlighten me all tech brothers...
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
ryanmc Updated - 22nd Apr 2011
@Master3 because they want 3G
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
ubangeee 21st Apr 2011
But....but.....but....it doesn't have a i in front of the name!!
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
mnemennth 21st Apr 2011
*YAWN*

20% off isn't enough to make me go for this clunky wannabe; I'll wait a few months and buy a factory refurb iPad2 for less, thank you.

mnem
STILL like comparing blankholes and oranges...
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
ryanmc 22nd Apr 2011
@mnemennth I have an iPad2 and I don't like it. It has an awesome screen, and it's thin and lite, but the slippery metal back makes it easy to drop, the fact that it is tethered to iTunes sucks, no expandable memory is lame, and having to buy an adapter for plugging it into my TV, camera, or anything else bites. I'm going to sell my iPad2 on ebay and buy the Transformer.
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Specs?
craigkra@... 21st Apr 2011
Once again, lots of photos and incomplete specs eg no screen size!!
Also what is the distribution of ports between the tablet and docking station?
How come nobody thinks of these matters!!
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RE: Asus Eee Pad Transformer starts shipping on April 26; $399
baru 22nd Apr 2011
Anand tech has a thorough review of the eee pad:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4277/asus-eee-pad-transformer-review/1.
Worth reading.

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