the line between a laptop and a tablet has been further blurred since ASUS officially announced the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime. no kidding. when i first caught glimpse of it, i...

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime 900x600px
(photos: ASUS) ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime | from US$499.00 | www.asus.com

the line between a laptop and a tablet has been further blurred since ASUS officially announced the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime. no kidding. when i first caught glimpse of it, i thought ‘what a beautiful laptop!’ but as it turns out, it is not a laptop after all. the Transformer Prime is billed as the world’s first tablet to be equipped with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor and it features several enhancements that we have yet to see in a tablet. enhancements like ultra-thin form factor at just 8.3mm (or 0.33-inch) that weighs just 586g (pr 1.29-lbs) light, sleek and stylish metallic swirl chassis, ASUS SonicMaster audio technology, and a HD 8-megapixels autofocus rear camera with LED flash.
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other features include a 10.1-inch wide viewing angle (178DEG, to be exact) display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, a 1.2-megapixels front-facing camera, video recording in full HD 1080p, SD card slot, 3.5mm audio jack, HDMI port, and a battery life that boast up to 12-hours usage and up to 18-hours if used with the optional mobile dock ($149). while Apple has made customer choose between the more minimalist black or white bezel, the Transformer Prime is offer in two colors: Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold. the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime is available in two capacities: 32GB and 64GB with a MSRP of $499 and $599, respectively. check out a small gallery and an official press release after the break.

[toggle title_open=”Hide Press Release” title_closed=”Show Press Release” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]ASUS Announces the Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Featuring the NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 Quad-Core Processor the Transformer Prime is designed to greatly enhance the mobile computing experience

Fremont, CA (November 8, 2011) – ASUS officially announces the world’s first tablet with the NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core processor – the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime. The Eee Pad Transformer Prime is ultra-thin at 8.3mm (0.33”) and lightweight at 586g (1.29lbs) while featuring a stylish metallic swirl design with class leading enhancements including ASUS SonicMaster audio technology, an HD 8MP rear auto-focus camera with LED flash and battery life rated for up to 18 hours* when combined with the optional mobile dock. Pricing will range from $499** (32GB) to $599** (64GB), with the optional mobile dock accessory priced at $149**.

ASUS CEO Jerry Shen says, “The combination between the Eee Pad Transformer Prime and Tegra 3 is the perfect fusion to deliver an uncompromising tablet experience. Together, we bring a whole new mobile computing experience to consumers around the world”. Echoing that sentiment, NVIDIA’s President and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang states, “The Eee Pad Transformer Prime is a category-defining product. Powered by Tegra 3, it brings us into a new era of mobile computing; in which quad-core performance and super energy-efficiency provide capabilities never available before. With Transformer Prime, ASUS has once again led the industry into the next generation.”

Incredibly Slim yet Incredibly Powerful
Featuring an ultra-slim form factor, the Transformer Prime is only 8.3mm (0.33”) thin and weighs in at a mere 586g (1.29lbs without dock). This makes watching movies, surfing the web, playing games, taking photos, finishing up homework or video chatting with friends or family so easy and natural that you’ll wonder if the Transformer Prime was designed specifically with you in mind. Its innovative metallic swirl design is made of aluminum for a secure yet extremely comfortable grip that comes in two gorgeous colors: Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold.

The Transformer Prime is the world’s first tablet to feature NVIDIA’s next-generation quad-core Tegra® 3 processor. With the quad-core CPU, 12-core GeForce® GPU and vSMP technology, the Transformer Prime delivers an optimum user experience featuring smooth multitasking capabilities, lightning fast app loading, a rich and fluid web experience, full 1080P HD video for realistic media playback or recording and of course, incredible gaming performance that allows you to experience games in an entirely new way.

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Fantastic Battery Life
While the Transformer Prime is extremely slim and light, ASUS did not forget about battery life. Thanks to the advanced power management features of the Tegra® 3 processor and ASUS optimizations the Transformer Prime has a battery life of up to 12 hours*, but when combined with the mobile dock, it lasts up to an incredible 18 hours*, the longest battery life of any current tablet. That’s enough battery life for a trans-ocean flight, all-night game session, viewing several movies on a long road trip or even video recording, editing, and then playing back your child’s school play all in 1080P HD clarity.

Unrivaled Visuals
The Eee Pad Transformer Prime boasts a wide 178° viewing angle IPS display, protected by Corning® Gorilla® Glass, which features new ASUS technology to enhance the brightness of the screen for a better outdoor reading experience. The high-resolution 10.1” display offers a remarkably vivid and brilliant viewing experience of photos, books, videos, games, and more in either landscape or portrait mode outdoors, indoors and even in low-light places like an airplane or train. Thanks to Multi-Touch technology, you can use your fingers to do everything from swiping through photos, surfing the web, playing the latest games, typing emails, instant messaging, reading books or magazines, and starting your favorite movie.

A 1.2MP front camera allows for instant photos or high-quality video conferencing with friends, family or coworkers while an 8MP rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash takes stunning photos or video thanks to a large F2.4 aperture, back illuminated CMOS sensor, touch-to-focus depth of field and low-light noise reduction to provide the clearest and sharpest photos or even 1080P HD videos.

Advanced Audio
The Transformer Prime offers impressive audio capabilities in a tablet, powered by ASUS exclusive SonicMaster technology, renowned for crisp and acoustically accurate audio. It produces crystal clear sound with a wide sound stage, increased audio fidelity, and distinct vocal enhancements for an immersive audio experience with your favorite music track, video, or movie.

Unlimited Productivity
The Transformer Prime is offered with either 32GB or 64B flash storage options for quick, efficient and reliable access to your applications. Both models feature a micro SD card slot, 3.5mm combo audio jack and micro HDMI port so sharing both what’s inside and on-screen is quick and easy. However, the function that gives the Transformer Prime its namesake is the mobile dock, which gives new meaning to the term versatility. This innovative and convenient design seamlessly provides the user with a keyboard and touchpad for superior content creation capabilities, longer battery life and incredible expandability options via the USB port and SD card slot.

ASUS will include several innovative applications like SuperNote that is fantastic for its ability to take, draw or record notes and Polaris® Office which is great for staying productive with the ability to read, edit or create Word, Excel and PowerPoint (MS Office 97-2007) compatible files. Thousands of top rated applications and games are also available at Android Market that fully takes advantage of the Transformer Prime’s amazing new features and power.

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*Battery life will vary based on usage patterns and options.
**Pricing will vary by country and SKU. North American MSRP pricing listed.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer will launch with Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and will be upgradable to Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) via a free over the air update (FOTA) at a later date.

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About ASUS
ASUS, the world’s top 3 consumer notebook vendor and the maker of the world’s best selling and most award winning motherboards, is a leading enterprise in the new digital era. ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home, office and person, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, displays, desktop PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia, wireless solutions, networking devices and mobile phones. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS won 3,398 awards in 2010, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC™. With a global staff of more than ten thousand people and a world-class R&D team of 3,000 engineers, the company’s revenue for 2010 was around US$10 billion.[/toggle]

SOURCE: ASUS
via Engadget