Asus will release its new 10.1" Transformer tablet running Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich mobile Operating System (OS) on 22nd April 2012 in the United States.
The company on Monday also announced a free external GPS extension kit, or dongle, for Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime owners to improve signal reception for users who have complained about the tablet's GPS functionality.
The Taiwan-based computer maker has ditched the "Eee" brand with the new Asus Transformer Pad 300, which "is being pitched as a laptop replacement with 4G LTE network capabilities," according to an Asus statement.
The Eee prefix is a legacy of Asus' first line of Eee PC netbooks introduced in 2007 but the company has also used it for tablets like the Eee Pad Transformer Prime released in November 2011.
Asus won't officially set a price for the Transformer Pad 300 until it's released, but online retailer BJ's was taking pre-orders for a 32GB version of the tablet priced at US$399 (€304).
That would be US$100 (€76) cheaper than the 32GB Transformer Prime—however, the offer didn't appear to be available on the BJ's site on Monday.
What's more, when Asus unveiled the Transformer Pad 300 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February, the company said only 8GB and 16GB models would be available, so something may have changed in the past few months.
Like its convertible cousin the Transformer Prime, the new tablet comes with an optional mobile dock with a full keyboard and sports a quad-core Tegra 3 chip from Nvidia, the 1.2GHz T30L, as well as Nvidia GeForce graphics.
The Transformer Pad 300 has a 1280-by-800 resolution display, promises ten hours of battery life or 15 hours with the mobile dock, and has 1GB of memory.
The tablet is available in both 3G and 4G LTE models.
Other specs include 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera and an 8-megapixel rear camera, a micro-D HDMI port and a microSD Card Reader, and Bluetooth.
Asus is also expected to release another new tablet in the coming days, the higher-end Transformer Pad Infinity, a full HD 4G LTE/3G/WiFi tablet featuring a 1920-by-1200 full HD Super IPS+ display, and a metallic spun finish.
The 4G Transformer Pad Infinity, expected to be available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB flavors, is powered by Qualcomm's 1.5GHz, dual-core MSM 8960 Snapdragon S4 Krait processor.
Source: PCMag
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