ASUS Announces Eee Pad Slider, Transformer

t was predicted that this year would be the year of the tablets and Asus has kicked of 2011 in style with their latest Eee Pad announcement. The two tablets known as Slider and Transformer will be available sometime in April and May and will be powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2 processor running Google Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).  The Transformer will cost somewhere between $400 (Rs. 18,179) and $700 (Rs..31,813) and the Slider will range between $500 (Rs. 22,724) and $800 (Rs. 36,538).

Both feature a screen size of 10.1" and sport an IPS panel like the iPad, but a higher HD resolution of 1280x800. For connectivity, you have mini-HDMI to hook up to your HDTV, a miniUSB and a microSD card slot for expansion. Both tablets pack in dual cameras -a 1.2MP front facing camera and a 5MP rear camera with LED flash. The tablet alone would weigh around 2.2pounds and is about 0.5" thick.

Both tablets will have an option of 512MB and 1GB of internal memory and storage capacities of 16GB/32GB internal flash memory (the Transformer will also get a 64GB flash memory option) along with the option of expanding it further through the microSD card slot. It will also have Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR (no Bluetooth 3.0), WiFi b/g/n, USB 2.0.

Now the major difference between the two is the keyboard. The Eee Pad Slider will come with a sliding chiclet keyboard, so if you are going to be typing a lot and don't want to get the case/keyboard combo, ASUS has already taken care of that for you. The tablet pops open and rests on a hinge giving you a comfortable angle to type on.

The Eee Pad Transformer on the other hand is for people who would like the keyboard as an option and don't want to lug around that extra bulk. Since the keyboard doesn't have to be carried around, it's slightly bigger with a trackpad and also packs in a battery pack for extended battery life. Together the Transformer is said to last 16hrs on a single charge and the tablet by itself should last for 8hrs.