We’ve long been calling Asus the only company capable of troubling Apple in the tablet market. It’s exactly why Google’s rumoured to be chatting with Asus about a Nexus tablet. But that might not be necessary if the new Transformer Pad 300 lives up to its promise: Is this the best iPad rival ever made?

On paper, this newest in the Transformer line has just about everything right. The Asus Transformer Pad 300 boasts Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box, has the NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad-core processor and 12-core GeForce GPU churning away in the engine room, an 8-Megapixel rear camera and 1.2-Meg webcam, framed around a 10.1-inch display with a resolution of 1280 x 800. All that and it’s only 9.9mm thick.

Clever power management in the CPU means that the Pad boasts an iPad-bothering 10 hours of battery, or 15 hours while attached to the keyboard dock. That keyboard, as with previous Asus Transformer models, supports keyboard shortcuts and packs a proper trackpad for serious working. It also throws in a USB and SD card slot.

Asus: The most innovative tech company in the world?

So far, so appealing, right? Add to that the fact that the whole bundle – including keyboard dock – will sell for £399. That’s the same price as the iPad, but with a whole lot more in the way of productivity thrown in.

Is this the finest alternative to the new iPad yet offered? We’d certainly say so from the specs. The Asus Transformer Pad 300 will be out in May at Currys and PC world, and available everywhere else from June.

Be Sociable, Share!
  • Garthb

    Why does any product need to be a killer of another product? The point is that nothing will kill the iPad. It is an aspirational product. I doubt that if Dell had originally come out with the iPad, it would have sold as much. When Apple releases a product, it invariably  does phenomenally well as they have somehow managed to “productise”  coolness and chic. Sony used to have this years ago but until another company comes along that can usurp Apple from the top of the aspirational charts, all that a competitor can do is hope to grab a slice of the pie.

    • Dd

      You don’t know shit.

      • Chuckyd

        I see your entrance into Vocabulary School can’t come quickly enough. I hope your mom doesn’t found out you are using her computer without permission!

    • Dd

      You don’t know shit.

    • Anonymous

      Not really! Apple fans will buy anything Apple. The concept was poorly planned on the iCrap – no USB ports, no card reader! The Asus beats it hands down!

  • Garthb

    Why does any product need to be a killer of another product? The point is that nothing will kill the iPad. It is an aspirational product. I doubt that if Dell had originally come out with the iPad, it would have sold as much. When Apple releases a product, it invariably  does phenomenally well as they have somehow managed to “productise”  coolness and chic. Sony used to have this years ago but until another company comes along that can usurp Apple from the top of the aspirational charts, all that a competitor can do is hope to grab a slice of the pie.

  • Anonymous

    1280 x 800? This can’t even compete with iPad 2.

  • Anonymous

    1280 x 800? This can’t even compete with iPad 2.

  • Sir Marky

    The problem with android tablets is the lack of co-ordinated advertisting and marketing for the eco-system that makes it work.  People generally buy Apple kit not because of the hardware specs but the music/films/books/etc/etc/ that they provide.  The kit is mearly the means to access that material and not the object itself which matters.  Google’s problem is asking the manufactuers to concentrate on hardware selling rather than the products it has access to.

    Apple will remain no. 1 in this area until Google and M$ start focusing less on hardware than the services the hardware serves and gets the message across.

  1. WikiCell: Food packaging you can eat
  2. Saving endangered fish with the SafetyNet
  3. Upcycling: Designing the cardboard chair

Hot chat, right here!


Our most commented stories right now...