ASUS Transformer 2 to Cost $499, Launch in Weeks?

If you contemplated on purchasing a dual-core based Tablet, including ASUS’es innovative Transformer, you might think twice – there is a quint-core powered Transformer 2 is coming soon. However, the launch of Transformer 2 will not change the price of Transformer 1, one of most innovative Android-based tablets out there.

The original ASUS Eee Pad Transformer is already retailing at the very attractive $399 price point, for which you purchase the same amount of storage (16GB) and the screen size as the bulk of $499 tablets. With the keyboard add-on (which features the extra battery), the price of Transformer 1 gets up to $548. The Eee Pad Transformer 2 will be based on NVIDIA chip codenamed Kal-El, a 40nm quint-core which combines the low-power Cortex-A9 core with the full processing power of four A9 cores ticking at significantly higher clock.

According to Jerry Shen, CEO of ASUSTeK Computer, the company will pursue premium experience at competitive pricing and will not respond to the recent price drops from Research In Motion and HTC, who both recently reduced prices of the troubled BlackBerry PlayBook and under-pressure Flyer. ASUSTeK sees themselves as a company in the middle between rock bottom price that Amazon is targeting with its $199.99 Kindle Fire and the premium experience offered by the world’s best selling tablet, Apple’s iPad 2.

Now we need to wait and see what can the Transformer 2 and Padfone can do and just what can Kal-El turn out to be. The destroyer of competition or a troubled product? Knowing ASUS, we’d wager on the first.

In meanwhile, you can take a look at the Padfone concept, who is also rumored to utilize the power of Kal-El. Only thing Padfone is waiting on is Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Google Android operating system, i.e. Android 4.0.

Original Author: Theo Valich