Asus' Eee Pad offers prime quality

Dubai Asus' new Eee Pad Transformer Prime is the first tablet to house Nvidia's new quad-core processor, the Tegra 3, and one of the thinnest tablets in the market. The Prime takes some design cues from the iPad 2, with a sloped back and rounded corners that don't dig into our palms as the previous Transformer did. Like the previous tablet, the Prime connects to an optional keyboard, transforming it into what is essentially an Android laptop. The dock includes a touch pad, a full-size SD slot and USB port. Once connected, the tablet feels a bit top-heavy and could easily slip off if enough care isn't taken. Also, the dock is compatible only with the Prime and vice versa. The device is powered by a 1.3GHz processor and runs on Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The LED-backlit Super IPS+ (In-Plane Switching) sreen measures 10.1-inches and has a resolution of 1,280 by 800 pixels. The Prime also includes 1GB of RAM and comes in either 32GB or 64GB varieties. It weighs 586 grams. The image quality is clear, sharp and vibrant, with excellent viewing angles. Watching video and reading web pages is a particularly pleasant experience. One area where the extra grunt of quad core does show through is video playback. On the YouTube site, the 1080p version of the Big Buck Bunny clip played smoothly, where it stuttered on dual-core tablets. I checked out a series of quad-core supported titles — Shadowgun, Riptide and Glowball — there were no signs of lag and delivered smooth animation. The 8-megapixel rear camera provides the Prime with the most technically advanced camera I've seen on a tablet. It has a 1.2-megapixel front camera. The apps included are Polaris Office, which is a useful tool for creating files that are compatible with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The 32GB tablet with dock is priced at Dh2,499 while 64GB tablet with dock is priced at Dh2,999. From gulfnews