The Asus Eee Pad Transformer 2 has leaked and Android Authority is showing off the goods. I must say I’m rather impressed with what I’m seeing from Asus here. It appears as though they’ve made the Transformer 2 to look just like one of their recently unveiled Zenbook Ultrabooks, meaning it’s thin and lean.
Not only does the Transformer 2 looks extremely svelte, while still retaining it’s signature keyboard-connecting feature, but it is packed with Nvidia’s latest and great quad-core CPU, codenamed Kal-El.
Kal-El is the world’s first quad-core mobile CPU, according to Nvidia. Though the processor is still currently codenamed Kal-El, it’s been colloquially dubbed “Tegra 3”, as that’s the name it is likely to launch under.
Then there’s that whole Ice Cream Sandwich thing which is also said to be included with the Transformer 2, according to Android Authority, which also has some additional leaked specs which you can find here. [Google and Samsung just blew the doors off of Android 3.0 Ice Cream Sandwhich last night at a join event, we’ll have more on this soon.]
Here’s Asus’ just released teaser for the Transformer 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp6MZupUq78
The original Asus Eee Pad Transformer was a runaway success for Asus, who struggled initially to keep them in stock against demand. Android Authority says a source is claiming a November launch for the Transformer 2, in time for the holidays.
Our own Damian and James co-reviewed the original Transformer and were rather impressed with the unit. They lauded the full USB port functionality (and compatibility with a wide range of USB peripherals).
You can see both parts of their dual-review here:
- Eee Pad Transformer Review, Part 1 Intro and Comparisons
- Eee Pad Transformer Review, Part 2 — USB Connectivity Tests and HDMI-out
Hopefully we’ll see full USB ports return to the Transformer 2, and maybe we’ll even get full HDMI and a full SD slot — now that would be cool. I’m also hoping that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will provide functionality to make the hybrid nature of the dockable device even more useful when it’s in notebook-mode.
Hrmf, would like to see ICS running on a large screen device. The demo was all phone…
Ben, I’ve played with a T2 sample last week and I have to disappoint you. There’s no SD and no USB on the tablet, it’s identical to T1 in terms of ports, with the docking offering a single USB 2.0 slot.
I’ve added some of my impressions on my blog, if you’re interested: http://www.tabletbite.com/asus-transformer-2-teasing-video-extra-details-top-4355/
Got to be careful making too many conclusions from a dummy product sample. Especially from a company known to make last minute changes.
Besides, the original Transformer has a microSD reader on the side. So you either can’t say they have the same port offerings or that it just doesn’t have a full size SD card reader, which for the original was provided by the keyboard dock.
Though if they are using the same dock port then it should be compatible with the accessories Asus is planning to push for the original providing external card reader and USB port via dock port adapters.
@zeo . I meant of course full-size SD. The microSD is there as before.
ON the other hand, you are perfectly right about drawing conclusions based on samples, but I’m confident many of the things I’ve said there will be valid for the final version.
However, there seems to be a change on ports, and later rumors speak about microUSB on the tablet, and i9t wasn’t there on the sample