Earlier this year a report claimed that ASUS was hard at work on a successor to the Eee Pad Transformer, one of the more well-received Honeycomb tablets we've seen, and that the new slate would pack a quad-core Tegra processor. If the last part of that sentence made your ears perk up, then I've got good news for you: ASUS chairman Jonney Shih took to the AsiaD stage late last night and unveiled just such a device. Said to be dubbed the "Transformer Prime," this new Transformer packs a 10-inch display, quad-core NVIDIA processor, mini-HDMI port, 14.5 hour battery life, and an SD card slot in a body that measures 8.3mm thick (likely without the keyboard). When can you get it? Sadly there's no word yet on when the Transformer Prime will be launching or how much it'll cost when it does, but we should hear more on November 9th when ASUS plans to officially unveil the new slate.
Jonney Shih also took the time at AsiaD to touch a bit on the Padfone. We haven't heard much about the Padfone since it's official introduction in May, but Shih has promised that phone-tablet combo device is currently slated to ship in Q1 2012 and that it'll be doing so with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in tow. No pricing or launch details were given on the Padfone either, but hey, at least we know it's still coming.
Speaking of ASUS and Ice Cream Sandwich, the company just revealed on its official Twitter account that Google's latest dessert is destined for the Eee Pad Transformer. However, keeping up with the whole "no availability details" trend that I'm starting to see pop up here, ASUS failed to divulge any details on when an update might occur.
Obviously there are still a lot of holes to be filled in here, mostly relating to launch and pricing, but it looks like Android tablet fans have a lot to get excited about. More details about the Transformer Prime — and perhaps the OG Transformer's ICS update — will be revealed at the aforementioned November 9th event, so stay tuned!
Via Engadget (1), (2), @ASUS
