When it comes to tablet based devices these days most manufacturers have scrapped the bottle of the barrel in terms of processing power, however Asus hopes to change that fact with their newly announced Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the first Google Android based tablet to feature a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 chip.
Teased to consumers in October the $499 (32GB) and $599 (64GB) models will arrive this December and they promise to pack quite the punch.
Aside from the quad-core processor setup the Transformer Prime also offers an 8-megapixel rear facing camera with LED flash (upgraded from 5-megapixels on the older model) while coming in at a relatively small .33 inches thick and 1.29 pounds. The tablets 10.1″ Super IPS+, 1280×800 display that houses the camera lens also comes equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack for easy compatible headset listening while the system is powered on 1GB of LP DDR2 memory.
According to Time’s Techland section the devices 12-core processor already has developers excited as they have begun to optimize their software for the Tegra 3 processor. Among the most excited developers is Rockstart Games which is porting Grand Theft Auto III to Android and iPad devices.
The tablet currently features Android 3.2 however Asus promises a free Android 4.0 upgrade (Ice Cream Sandwich edition) in late December. With Ice Cream Sandwich Transformer Prime users will receive built-in photo editing, improved speech-to-text and a system wide spell checker.
For power users the system also features a $149 keyboard and trackpad dock is also available which also added six hours of better life to the devices already impressive 12 hour charge cycle while also bringing with it a full-sized USB port and SD card slot capabilities.
For connectivity users will find a built in GPS receiver along with WIFI B/G/N and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.
With various tablets for Android available on the market Asus appears to be the only manufacturer pointing at a quad-core tablet release in time for the holiday shopping season.
Here is quite possibly the most infuriating teaser trailer to date for a tablet based device (pay attention to the very end):
Will you be heading out to pick up the Asus Transformer Prime when it arrives?
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