The Asus CES press conference wrapped up a little while ago and there were a few big product announcements. They revolved around netbooks and, surprise, tablets.
First up is the Asus Eee Slate EP121. It’s a powerful Windows 7 tablet that features a Core i5 processor, 2-4 GB RAM, and 64 GB SSD. And it’s large – with a 12.1 inch 1280-800 screen. There’s front-facing camera for video chatting and an HDMI port so you can easily hook it up in the living room or a hotel room for instant entertainment. These features don’t come cheap – this is, as far as I know, the first tablet to hit the $1000 mark.
The Asus Eee PadSlider and Transformer are a pair of 10.1 inch Android “tablets”. I put tablets in quotes because these are tablet that have built-in keyboards. They are powered by the Tegra-2 processor.
The Slider has a 1280×800 screen, mini HDMI port, mini USB port, and Micro SD card slot. It has two cameras – a front facing one and 5 megapixel rear one. The keyboard is part of the unit.
On the Transformer the keyboard is detachable, but otherwise it has most of the same specs as the slider
Both tablets will run the Android Honeycomb (3.0 or 2.4 depending on who you believe) operating system and are expected to be out in April or May and priced in the $400-$800 range.