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Asus spins more Tegra 3 tablets, starting at just $249

Jan 10, 2012 — by LinuxDevices Staff — from the LinuxDevices Archive — views

Not content with shipping the world first quad-core Android tablet, Asus is now showing two more Nvidia Tegra 3 models at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). They're the seven-inch Eee Pad MeMo ME370T — which will reportedly sell for just $250 — and the Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF700T, with enhanced wireless performance and a 10.1-inch display that packs an impressive 1920 x 1200 pixels.

Asus announced its Eee Pad Transformer Prime back in November. Now shipping, the device affected competitors like a cat among pigeons, because it combined the Android 4.0 operating system with the first-ever use of Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor.

While generally referred to as "quad core," the Tegra 3 not only offers four ARM Cortex-A9 cores each clocked at 1GHz to 1.3GHz — the speed offered in the Transformer Prime — but offers a fifth Cortex-A9 "companion" core to handle background processing. Clocked up to 500MHz, the fifth core can execute background tasks such as e-mail checking, music playback, and even video while the others idle, Nvidia says.


Asus Eee Pad MeMo ME370T
Source: Liliputing

Getting this power in a $500 tablet like the original Transformer Prime seemed impressive, but it will soon be available for half the price, according to numerous reports from CES. (Asus doesn't appear to have made a formal announcement, but reports appeared on the Android Community, CNet, Liliputing, SlashGear, and The Verge websites.)

A couple of the above sources claimed that the ME370T will have a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260 processor, which still wouldn't make it a bad deal for $250. But the others — including Android Police, which reproduced a relevant placard from the Asus stand — agree that the low-priced device will use the Tegra 3. Clock speed on this tablet hasn't been noted, but it will reportedly run Android 4.0 with the aid of 1GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB of RAM, and dual cameras (eight megapixel on the back).


Asus Eee Pad MeMo ME370T
Source: Android Community

The Android Community image above discloses that the seven-inch ME370T sports a micro-USB port, a micro-HDMI slot, and a microSD slot. The tablet will have an in-plane switching (IPS) display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and a 178-degree viewing angle, reports say.

Engadget and The Verge say the ME370T will be just half an inch thick, while width and height are 4.6 and 7.8 inches, respectively. Weight is said to be 14.2 ounces.

A revised Asus Transformer Prime

According to Engadget and The Verge reports yet again, Asus also showed off a new Transformer Prime TF700T model that's an upgrade to the existing TF201 model (pictured below). Specs are mostly the same as before (see our previous coverage for details), but the 10.1-inch display now packs a phenomenal 1920 x 1200 pixels instead of 1280 x 800.


The Asus Transformer Prime and keyboard dock
(Click to enlarge)

Users who really want to find out how well apps will scale to the higher resolution under Android 4.0 will pay an extra $100 for the high-res screen. The TF700T — equipped with a revised back panel for better wireless reception — will reportedly be available in the second quarter for under $600 with 32GB of flash storage, or under $700 with 64GB.

Jonathan Angel can be reached at [email protected] and followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense.


This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.



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