Asus Transformer Pad 300 tablets began shipping in the United States on Sunday as the company pitches the devices as laptop and gaming replacements.
For just $379.99 users are treated to a 10.1-inch display (1280 x 800 pixels) that operates on the Google Android 4.0 OS with a rather fast (at least by many tablet standards) quad-core Tegra 3 processor that’s clocked at 1.2GHz.
Along with the bigger display and faster processor users are also treated to 32GB storage alongside 1GB RAM. Similar in specs to the Eee Pad Transformer Prime the system offers a lower purchase price with an updated OS and built-in GPS.
Fans of the Asus line of tablets and many of the company’s other recent products will notice that this is the first tablet to drop the rather mundan “Eee” moniker from its name, Eee has been used in Asus computer products since 2007s Eee PC 700 netbook.
Asus isn’t the first company to price an Android 4.0 tablet below $400, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 with its 10.1-inch display has already been announced with a $399.99 price point and a May 13 release date. In comparison Apple’s cheapest new iPad device starts at $499 with less memory.
Power users looking for longer use times can extend the Transformer Pad 300’s 10-hour battery life to 15 hours with an additional battery and an optional keyboard dock for $149. The idea behind the keyboard which also features a touch pad is to made the device feel more like a laptop.
For $379 users will also be treated to a rear-facing camera that offers 8-megapixels and video recording at 30 frames per second while a front-facing camera for video chat offers 1.2-megapixel. A micro-HDMI port is also available for connected TV use and the device features memory upgrade capabilities via a microSD card slot.
While you may have seen the Asus Transformer Pad 300 advertised with 4G LTE mobile data capabilities this particular $379 version does not feature that technology.
