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If you haven’t been able to get your hands on the elusive Asus Eee Pad Transformer, you’re not alone. Many a Android fan seeking a reasonably priced Honeycomb tablet have been having quite the time trying to track one down. The problem is Asus is having a hard time keeping up with the demand, but they hope to have supply issues negated in the “coming weeks.”
The company says they have been producing more and more Transformer tablets each week and making daily shipments into North America, with big improvements in available stock to start being felt over the next few weeks. Sounds like everyone will soon be able to get their hands on the tablet. Throw in an Android 3.1 update and we’re cooking with fire.
[via Engadget]
Highly interested in this tablet, but we already know they are working on a quad-core “Kal-El” tablet. Wish we had some idea when those will hit the market, I’d rather wait on that most likely. Wife said she’s getting me a tablet for my bday in July which will be even closer to the supposed quad-core release timeframe.
A quad core to run what exactly? These tegra 2 tablet’s problems aren’t hardware, but the lack of tablet designed apps, though a few came online in the last 2 weeks when using my a500.
Specs for spec’s sake is pointless.
Much as I love the highest end hardware, you have a legitimate point. Short of converting 1080p video between file types, I can’t see the use. That said, it would make a nice ad point to smash the obvious competitor. Apple is still on single core, right?
Nope the ipad2 runs there a5 chip which is dual core
I stand corrected then. Still 4>2, and it makes a good marketing point
They can market it all they want, in the end all it needs to do is whatever a user wants it to do, and look good while doing it. Slapping a Ferrari engine to a Kia does NOT make for an attractive car.
THAT depends on if it has the Ferrari price tag or the Kia price tag.
The Tegra 2 can’t play high profile HD video, which rules out a whole lot of HD video content out there. Tegra 3 (Kal-El) will play full 1080p high profile vids with ease, and will support 2560 x 1600 resolutions. It will be around 5x as powerful as T2, and will make for an all around smoother tablet experience. I’ll be putting my Transformer on Ebay when the T3 tablets go up for pre-order.
That 2560 x 1600 capability will be very necessary on the 1280×800 display your fantasy tablet will be sporting. For that matter the difference between downsampled 1080p and 720p on that lower resolution 10.1″ display will be HUGE.
Should have been more specific. It will support 2560×1600 *output* to other displays (monitors and future TV’s). Obviously, there’s no need for local playback at that rez.
Ah, my fault. I just assumed it would have the same problems (and that the T2’s problems were driver based).
I highly doubt you’ll see any Tegra 3 tablets on the market before the end of 2011. Maybe Motorola will push one out by Xmas time, but I highly doubt you see any others before Spring or Summer 2012.
I guess this bottleneck is a bit of a blessing in disguise. Sure, I have to wait to get one but at least I can see if all of the kinks are out by the time one becomes available. Sounds like Asus has been pretty on the ball keeping people informed which is a good sign at least. And 3.1 should help.
I am taking back my a500 today. Hopefully this means some will be in stock online in the next few days.
I’ll believe it when I see it. I check bestbuy.com everyday and haven’t seen any yet.
http://www.nowinstock.net/computers/tablets/asus/
Comes in. Goes out. You need to be real fast and lucky. Till enough stock is sent.
SHIT CAME TO ISRAEL, ITS AWESOME!!!!
As pleased as I am to hear the news, I’m very skeptical at this point. Secondly given the “inconvenience” that this has caused I would hope that they would make some sort of additional announcement regarding when shipments actually start arriving at brick and mortar locations for purchase. Unfortunately I know that won’t happen either.
woohoo! hurry up asus.
I picked up an iPad 2 after being fairly disappointed with the A500 and having my ASUS order cancelled on me. The moment Honeycomb runs a little smoother (and by a little, I mean a lot), I’m selling it and picking up and Android tablet, but it’s an “ok” placeholder.
Have u played around with a xoom running 3.1 yet? It really has made a huge difference in smoothness and overall performance, I was pleasantly surprised. For me, give me the 10.1 running 3.1 and I’m a very happy camper.
No I haven’t yet, but if it’s really improved performance, I’ll be excited. The iPad is pretty cool honestly but I’m an Android lover at heart.
Why’d they have to make the transformer that weird bronze color? What happened to black or white??
I beg to differ, Samarth. The average consumer is a moron. You slap a Ferrari engine in a Kia and it’ll sell like crazy at the right price. Tell an idiot consumer than a tablet has a processor that is significantly faster than an iPad, and it becomes a very good option. The market has done an excellent job of conditioning consumers that higher numbers mean better products.