By 
Remember that rumor yesterday that said the Eee Pad Transformer had been delayed until June? Yea, scratch that – turns out it wasn’t at all true. (Which would explain the lack of response from ASUS when I asked about it.) It’s now been confirmed that the tablet/netbook hybrid will indeed be launching this month – April 26th, to be exact.
And we even have pricing (brace yourselves, and I mean that in a good way): $399.99 for a 16GB version and $499.99 for a 32GB model. ASUS clearly “gets it” here when it comes to pricing. (Moto, don’t you think it’s high time that XOOM came down in price already?)
Don’t let the price fool you – this is still one hunk of a Honeycomb tablet. It has a 10-inch 1280×800 IPS display just like most of them, a Tegra 2 processor, a 5 megapixel rear camera, 1GB of RAM, HDMI out – hell, there’s just too much to list here.
As for that companion keyboard dock that’ll turn it into a netbook? $150, meaning the cheapest you could walk away for the whole experience is $550 – not too shabby, eh? It won’t be too hard to find come April 26th as this thing is going to be at nearly every major electronics retailer imaginable, online or otherwise. [Engadget]
mmm, cheap :)
Now where can I pre-order online?
This is the tablet I’ve been waiting for.
+1
Def the best bang for the buck. I’m dusting off the wallet.
god damnit i really would never buy a tablet but that looks like a deal someone wouldn’t be able to resist!
Why would you not buy a tablet? Granted android is in tablet infancy, but having a larger screen to play media, video games, run your favorite apps, read books. Yeah you can do it from your phone, but you will be squinting a lot. Or you can do some of this with your laptop but it is not nearly as portable and most weigh quite a bit more. My laptop is easily 3-4 pounds heavier than my xoom and NC.
you kidding me? why would i pay for a tablet? my laptop does so much more than mobile gaming, all my apps are fine on my phone. I am not old, i don’t need reading glasses to see it
competition is heating up, the OEMs are responding, now they should remove the crapware UI skin, only HTC sense is good, rest are all crap including motoblur
IMO all skins are crap. Stock Android beats them all.
I respect your opinion, but IMO Sense is superior. I have a helluva idea. Google isn’t fond of skinning UIs, manufacturers want to to differentiate the devices. Solution: make the UI 100% toggleable. At first boot during the initial setup, have the custom UI has an option. Make it changeable from within the system menu as well, and problem solved
like the idea, nothing wrong with options. also sense on the flyer looks just… ok. will see about that once i get one in my hands
I’ll admit, the Flyer disappoints somewhat as a general-use tablet. It is good for students though, which is a perfectly legit focus for a tablet. HTC is heavily investing in media streaming services, so we’ll see how that goes too.
So when is it launching: title says 26th but article says 27th
I see you updated the article
Also, I thought the July delay only applied to UK orders:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/13/asus-apologizes-for-eee-pad-transformer-delay-it-wont-detail-u/
There is still some question as to if this has a rear camera and GPS. As long as it has GPS I’m buying one. Anyone know if you can pay a best buy credit card with best buy gift cards? I’m waiting on $100 in gift cards, but don’t want to miss this being sold out.
I do believe you cannot use gift cards to pay off their credit card as the credit card is actually not officially run by BB.
It does have a rear camera and a gps
Here’s an idea: Buy it, then return it after your gift cards come in (assuming that will be within 30 days/before the return period expires). Then, re-purchase it immediately with your gift cards. If you explain it to the store, they’ll probably be happy to help.
@ anonymous user… there is no custom UI on that its just a wallpaper as well as being set up in an orderly manner. Google made it clear to everyone in using honeycomb that they can not but a custom UI skin over this build or they will violate the agreement and not get to use it anymore.
Thats not true.
It is a custom UI. Look at the launcher icons. If you need more proof that google has no such aagreement in place look at the upcoming Samsungs that still have touch wiz.
If you’re referring to the icons in the bottom left corner, those are not custom. If you create a virtual device with the Android SDK, those are the icons of Honeycomb. If you are referring to something else, I am not sure what you are talking about.
Actually no they aren’t stock. Those three icons are totally different on my Xoom. They are a different color and bigger.
Xoom has a custom UI
No it doesn’t
Not any one that I’ve seen.
Go download the Android SDK, and create a virtual Tablet (Honeycomb). You will wee those icons in the bottom left hand corner.
So every other tablet is skinned?
So every other tablet is skinned?
It’s a Google Experience device. The only thing custom about the UI out of the factory is it has 3 OEM widgets – Date, Weather, and Email (which is pretty much just a visual number).
It’s not a custom UI.
Ah, yes please!
I just peed a little.
Best Buy i know for sure is getting!!!
That price is very, very tempting… Damn, I was going to wait for Galaxy tab 10.1, but this would give pretty much the same for $100 less… Galaxy tab just looks so sexy, but can I justify the extra money and wait for that small difference in thickness and smaller bezel?
Exact same thought here! Plus I believe the tab 10.1 has fewer ports… it’s VERY sexy but this Asus is hard to pass up…
Same here… I was so tempted with Galaxy Tab 8.9 or 10.1. But I just don’t trust Samsung anymore, especially their reputation for not supporting their software. Look how long it too for Samsung to update from Android 2.1 to 2.2 on Samsung Galaxy S lines in the U.S.. I do love Samsung’s hardware built quality, but their software support really sucks!! Big time!!!
Now if Android just gets a decent Ipsec VPN client, I can sell my laptop and use this instead.
I really want to wait to find out more about the Amazon tablet since they did so well with the Kindle. But I don’t think I’ll be able to since the Transformer is almost too good to be true.
Might be a good time to pick up ASUS stock. I have a feeling this will show the other manufacturers what consumers expect for a tablet.
Man, this thing is more than meets the eye!
I see what you did there
Imagine snagging thing thing from Best Buy or other vendors who allow coupons or vendors who price-match.
I know Frys for example will price-match Amazon and Buy.com. Ah yea!!!
I want one. bad. the price is unreal…. but I’m not sure Asus is trustworthy with updates? anyone?
I guess you’ve never had an Asus Product? They are awesome for their updates and their top of the line products. Also hours after the Endgaget review, they had an update to fix the stability issues and the camera problems. Also Android 3.1 will be out at GoogleIO. Major update for Honeycomb tablets.
I don’t know how Asus is with updates, but I expect at this price point XDA will be all over it. Maybe even Cyanogen.
Asus is great with updates. I have used them exclusively for motherboards and gpu’s in builds for years. (even bought an eeepc a couple years ago) I have always found chipset support when new cpu’s come out and their customer support has been great to me (which is funny because I have read elsewhere it sucks)
also to the guy a few lines above that thinks the galaxy is sexier because it has less ports…. WTF I find extra ports to be very sexy…. To me its more like the galaxy might have a drop dead sexy face but where are the tits and ass. Id rather have a solid 8 across the board than a 10/2/2
Anyone know if ill be able to tether (doesnt matter between wired and wireless) this with a rooted D1 without rooting the tablet? I’m pretty sure it can be done if I root the tablet since that’s what’s needed to tether with the galaxy tab.
@Son, what source can you confirm this with? I know the UK models do, but there’s debate as to if we are getting the same version for $399.
Why was I so impatient and paid double for the Xoom wifi for my birthday? FML
I think I may just buy this on release day, something I have never done, ever, in, my, life.
It is weird though, I actually prefer reading books on my HTC EVO 4G, I had a chance to play with an iPad2 for 24 hours last week and loaded my Google books on to it and it was just not as comfortable as using my EVO, probably because I do a lot of rreading laying down in my bed sideways at night. I don’t think the transformer will change that either, but the transformer will be great for so many other things!!!
I like that Toshiba’s has a full size USB and SD card slot
As does this if you dock it.
Any word on the Slider?
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Yeahhhhhhh can’t wait!
I actually do not need a tablet, but i do need a replacement for my netbook, so this baby at $550 will do more than fine… it will be a tablet as well for free…. Go ASUS!!!
I’m a proud iPad 2 owner (I love me apps) but I’m an Android dev (Android phones for me!) and I’ll be needing a Honeycomb tablet when I start to dive into Honeycomb app development, and I think this is the one I’ll be getting. I was going to go for the smaller Galaxy Tab when it launched, but the build quality looks much better and it’ll probably feel nowhere near as cheap as the Galaxy Tab will. Besides, when the Honeycomb apps start flowing, It’ll be nice to have a quality Android tablet to replace my iPad.
anyone know how much battery life this thing is supposed to get WITHOUT the keyboard dock? I don’t think I’ll be interested in that.
About 8 hours supposedly.
This is the very first Android tablet that has me twitching a little bit when I look at my Mastercard, and has generated just a little dribble of drool from the corner of my mouth.
What to do….what to do……
Asus has always been really good about releasing quality goods for excellent prices. This came as no surprise to me…and if I ever decide to get a netbook…I won’t, I’ll just get this and carry it around with the dock all the time.
Is it me or is this thing as think as the bottom half of my Asus netbook?!
…as “thick” as…
I normally am not a brand oriented person, but I love ASUS products.
It’s too bad they don’t make an Android Smartphone (besides that old Nuvifone for Garmin).
This thing has a very competitive pricing.
I have had problems with HTC Sense that I haven’t had with any other user interface. On the Thunderbolt even. But I do like it’s clean looks.
Not to mention its incompatibility with the wii remote