Asus Pad 300 – Budget Quadcore Tablet
As far as concepts go, Asus wowed the press gallery with the launch of its new Padfone, a 4.3-inch handset which slips into a full QWERTY dock with 10-inch touchscreen. However, nothing can quite match the excitement of their announcement at CES 2012 last month that they were to release a 7-inch Android ICS tablet powered by the same Tegra 3 quad-core processor as the Transformer Prime, released in December to widespread acclaim. Until this.
Asus has now unveiled the Transformer Pad 300, a low-budget, high-spec tablet. It’s a mildly corner-cutting version of the full-blown Transformer Prime, except the Pad 300 has to settle for an IPS panel rather than the Super IPS+ screen on the Prime.
On-board storage comes in at 16GB rather than 32GB or 64GB offered on the premium Prime slate. But the crucial performance specs remain the same – quadcore Tegra 3 processor humming along at 1.3GHz, healthy 1GB RAM, 1280 x 800 pixel display, and dual 8MP and 2MP cameras.
The operating system of Pad 300 is Android 4 ICS, and models will also be released featuring LTE connectivity. Compared to Asus Infinity Series tablet, the 9.9mm-thick feels chunky, and even heavy, but but in the graeat scheme of things it’s really neither.
The ridges on the exterior spun metal surface are a bit rougher than on the original Prime, but no one should mind. The battery boasts ten hours of runtime, as with the other Asus tablets, and the IPS panel is also very difficult to fault. Now the million dollar question – what’s the damage? Well no details yet, … let’s hope it’s under $350.
Related posts:
- Asus Transformer Prime – ICS Rolling Out
- Asus Transformer Prime not with Ice Cream Sandwich
- Lenovo tablet with Kal-El and ICS
- Asus Transformer Prime Pre-order
- TF300T – new Asus Prime?
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