ASUS Unveils Eee Pad Sleek Tablet PCs

[btarunr]

ASUS displayed its latest creation, the Eee Pad. This 12 inch tablet has sports uncanny resemblance to the Apple iPad, except that it's x86 powered, and uses Windows 7, with ASUS' own visually-appealing UI. It can run any Windows application that its hardware allows, which includes Intel Core 2 Duo CULV, and Intel graphics. The UI takes advantage of the multi-touch screen and related abilities of the Windows 7 Home Premium OS it comes bundled with. Other known details include a web-camera, and a battery that is rated to last 10 hours on a full charge. ASUS will also introduce a slightly smaller 10 inch tablet which uses Windows 7 Embedded Compact, a new variant of the OS designed for devices such as these. The two will be out in Q1 2011.



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[Fourstaff]

Heh, I have been waiting for these kind of products for a very long time. Hopefully it will be a hit, because I am tired of the "ARM processors on device bigger than a phone" crap.

 

[Frick]

Pleasepleaseplease be a usb host!

 

[AddSub]

Knowing ASUS and their pre-release PR hype tactics at launch time these will be priced at around twice what Apple is asking for their iPad's. As I remember ASUS claimed their EeePC's were going to be priced starting at $199.99 at launch (several articles about it were posted right here on TPU few years back), of course that morphed into $400+ at launch time for the cheapest model. ASUS should get into their heads that they are not BMW of electronics world, never were, no matter how much free crap and perks they throw at reviewers. Heck BMW ain't what they used to be.

 

[BazookaJoe]

Still, with a proper hand held x86 platform I see a hundred times more uses for this over the iPad.

 

[Frick]

Knowing ASUS and their pre-release PR hype tactics at launch time these will be priced at around twice what Apple is asking for their iPad's. As I remember ASUS claimed their EeePC's were going to be priced starting at $199.99 at launch (several articles about it were posted right here on TPU few years back), of course that morphed into $400+ at launch time for the cheapest model. ASUS should get into their heads that they are not BMW of electronics world, never were, no matter how much free crap and perks they throw at reviewers. Heck BMW ain't what they used to be.

What are you talking about? The first Eee PC's retailed for around €200 here, that $400+ price didn't come until the hardware started to develop.

And twice as much as the iPad? That would be suicide, and they know it. Apple's the one you're paying a premium for.

 

[Wile E]

If these have a nice touch screen, and a good price, I might grab one. I like the idea of the iPad, but it's just too locked down for my tastes.

 

[HillBeast]

HA HA iPad! I knew this would happen: Apple made a tablet saying this is the best anyone can make, and then all the Microsoft partners said 'that's rubbish. Heres a full on computer in a tablet.' Honestly what would a precious iPad do that this won't. It will be able to run ANY Windows program EVER (except high end games). Beat that Apple.

What's more I can see someone will Hackintosh this thing up, or make a Linux distro to make it work faster and have a nicer UI.

 

[qwerty_lesh]

And now you will see a flood of UBER Bezel 10" - 12" touch devices hit the market

 

[a_ump]

yea, this thing, just by saying it uses a core 2 duo cpu+(~)10hrs battery life+windows 7 told it was better than the ipad. Plus i'm betting you can multi-task on this unlike the ipad=major plus.

 

[HillBeast]

Plus i'm betting you can multi-task on this unlike the ipad=major plus.

Well with a Core 2 Duo, it will multitask brilliantly. I'd say it will have similar performance to those ultra thin laptops that Acer and such are making and they run pretty sweet considering they last 6+ hours and are running a mechanical hard drive. This will have SSD, and a dual core!

 

[newtekie1]

I'm really surprised they didn't go with an Atom in this. Not unhappy as the Core 2 will rock an Atom in performance, but just surprised.

Pleasepleaseplease be a usb host!

As long as it has a USB port, it is a full computer, so it will be a USB host.

What are you talking about? The first Eee PC's retailed for around €200 here, that $400+ price didn't come until the hardware started to develop.

And twice as much as the iPad? That would be suicide, and they know it. Apple's the one you're paying a premium for.

I think the base model 7" 4G was about $250 here at launch, but they sold out almost instantly. For the first week, they would sell out within a few minutes of newegg listing them in stock. The higher end with better battery life and larger flash drive sold for $350-400 IIRC, and that was what most people saw available.

 

[Black Haru]

I really like this concept. I was very disappointed in apple (though not a bit surprised) when they gimped out on making the ipad a computer (it's a huge ipod touch, and we all know it)

if this is within a good price range, I may have to pick one up. (or maybe even if it's not...)

 

[Delta6326]

AWESOME Thats very cool looking much better than an ipad

 

[Sihastru]

The fact that is an x86 CPU makes this the best tablet ever. The fact that it's NOT an Atom x86 CPU makes this better then the best. The fact that it's a dual core CULV CPU makes this a dream that is about to come true. The fact that it can last 10hrs on one charge is almost orgasmic. Windows 7 is just the cherry on top of the whole cake.

Where can I sign up for preorders?

 

[newtekie1]

Don't get too excited over the 10-Hour battery rating. Remember the iPood is "rated" at 10 hours also. And ASUS isn't exactly accurate with their ratings when it comes to battery life either. My EeePC is rated for 7 hours, but I'll only get close to that(about 6 hours) if I turn the brightness on the LCD down completely so it is impossible to see, and don't actually do anything with the computer, allowing the HDD to spin down. Normal usage is closer to 3-4 hours, closer to 2.5 if I'm watching a movie.

 

[Suijin]

HA HA iPad! I knew this would happen: Apple made a tablet saying this is the best anyone can make, and then all the Microsoft partners said 'that's rubbish. Heres a full on computer in a tablet.' Honestly what would a precious iPad do that this won't. It will be able to run ANY Windows program EVER (except high end games). Beat that Apple.

What's more I can see someone will Hackintosh this thing up, or make a Linux distro to make it work faster and have a nicer UI.

Yeah but this is out about 1 year after the ipad. It's competition won't be the ipad but the ipad 2.0. I realize this may be better in some forms, but it isn't even out yet for another 9 months or so.

I'm all for competition, but other companies should have known the ipad was coming for a good long time now and it is going to take an extra year to release a product? That is no way to compete.

 

[HillBeast]

Yeah but this is out about 1 year after the ipad. It's competition won't be the ipad but the ipad 2.0. I realize this may be better in some forms, but it isn't even out yet for another 9 months or so.

I'm all for competition, but other companies should have known the ipad was coming for a good long time now and it is going to take an extra year to release a product? That is no way to compete.

I may be out one year after the iPad, but it's still using technology that was available to the iPad during it's entire design process. It's not like it's brand new technology that only came available to them after the iPad came out. Apple really skimped on it and they did that on purpose. The fact it has no USB ports is just for starters. I have heard so many people have hated that once something is on the iPad it's nearly impossible to take it off and put it on your computer, PC or Mac.

I don't expect a USB port to be added to the iPad any time soon either because it will ruin the looks of it which Apples incredibly fussy customers ask for.