Eee Pad Transformer Prime

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the first quad-core tablet running the new Tegra 3 chip from Nvidia, is probably arriving Thursday, December 8, just in time for Christmas. Engadget points to a pre-order page over at Newegg which specifically mentions the December 8 date.

Asus chairman Jonney Shih confirmed that the device will be upgradeable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by the end of this year. Nvidia has published a nice video demonstrating Ice Cream Sandwich on a Transformer Prime. If you’re in the market for cool accessories, you may want to consider this origami like iPad-inspired smart cover case for the Transformer Prime.

According to DigiTimes, Asus is looking to ship over 350,000 Transformer Prime units this year. Sources estimate the company could cumulatively ship up to two million units of the Transformer tablet PC family in 2011.

The Tegra 3 chip inside the Prime really makes the difference: Per this benchmark, the forthcoming tablet/notebook hybrid has the power of the previous generation of Transformer and smokes competition, including the Galaxy S II, Motorola Xoom and Galaxy Nexus.

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When Asus chairman Jonney Shih sat opposite the Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg at the AsiaD conference saying his company was taking Android seriously, he wasn’t kidding. The Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the successor to his company’s Eee Pad Transformer tablet, will run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

However, the device will have Android 3.2 pre-installed when it ships shortly and will be upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich via a software update, which will be arriving by the year’s end, DigiTimes reports:

The first batch of Transformer Prime tablets will run on Android 3.2 before migrating to Android 4.0 by the end of 2011, said Shih, who unveiled the new tablet at the All Things Digital (AsiaD) technology forum being held in Hong Kong from October 19-21.

Like its predecessor, the 10-inch Eee Pad Transformer Prime functions as a tablet which can be docked to a keyboard attachment that turns it into a full-fledged notebook replacement. It is powered by Nvidia’s latest quad-core chip dubbed Kal-El and the company recently released a nice-looking teaser announcing its imminent arrival. They used advanced material processing so the device features high-quality chassis crafted from aluminum. The keyboard dock is understood to include a touch panel and expansion slots.

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