CES 2011: Four New Tablets Coming From Asus


Tablet Specs and Prices



At the annual Asus press conference held a couple of days before CES, Jonney Shih gave us a sneak peek of the company's tablet lineup. If you haven't jumped on the tablet bandwagon yet, 2011 might just be the perfect time to do so. Let's take a look at what Asus has to offer.   



Is it a tablet? Or a notebook? The Eee Pad Slider is a little of both and features a 10.1” IPS touch-screen, but also a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Powered by a dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 SoC, it also sports built-in digital cameras on the front (1.2MP) and rear (5MP) for video chat and digital photography. And mobile users will appreciate the Android 3.0 operating system found on the Slider. 




If the Slider doesn't do it for you, Asus is also working on the Eee Pad Transformer. With a slim lightweight design and 10.1” capacitive touch-screen, it is for people who want to enjoy multimedia on the move, but still wish to have easy access to the web, email and other productivity applications. An optional docking station turns the Transformer into a full-fledged notebook with a QWERTY keyboard for desktop use, while extending battery life up to 16 hours. As with the Slider, front and rear digital cameras make for easy video chat and picture taking.




The Eee Pad MeMO features a smaller form factor than the rest, and as such, it provides a lot of mobile flexibility. Its 7.1” capacitive touch-screen makes it small enough to slip into a jacket pocket, and it's suitable for taking handwritten notes using the supplied stylus pen. The Eee Pad MeMO is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile processor and will ship with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) featuring HD playback capabilities, mobile gaming chops, and a full fledge browser.




It seems like we've been waiting for the EP121 forever, but it's finally here. Powered with an Intel Core i5 dual-core processor, the Eee Slate features a 12.1” LED-backlit display with a 1280 x 800 resolution and a wide 178° viewing angle, making it ideal for both productivity applications and multimedia entertainment. It is available with 32GB or 64GB of SSD storage (expandable via SDXC), and up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM. All models have 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, a 2-megapixel camera, plus two USB 2.0 ports, along with a mini-HDMI port for connecting to external displays. 




The Eee Slate EP121 will finally be available later this month for a cool grand. In April, the Eee Pad Transformer hits the streets, followed by the Slider in May and the MeMO in June.

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