ASUS Announces Mid-Range Transformer Pad 300 Series: Only $399.99

[dgstorm]

Hot on the heels of their previous announcement, Asus shares details on their newest line of Transformer tablets. The Transformer Pad 300 series was just announced, and it aims directly at the mid-range crowd with a $399.99 pricetag. These new tabs pack the same Tegra 3 quad-core as their bigger brothers, the Prime and Infinity line, but they will likely be clocked a bit lower. Asus also figured out another way to cut costs without wrecking the performance of the device. It will still have a 22Whr battery and 1GB of RAM; however, instead of the aluminum casing it will be plastic.

[video=youtube;uCTR_gGm3ws]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=uCTR_gGm3ws[/video]​

Here's a full breakdown of specs:

• Dimensions: 263 x 180.8 x 9.9mm
• Plastic chassis
• 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 IPS display
• Weight: 635g
• NVIDIA Tegra 3 (4 x Cortex A9) processor
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB storage
• 22Whr battery
• Android 4.0

This is pretty good at that price point. There is no word on availability just yet, but when they do come to market, they will retail in the above colors: red, white & blue. Hmmm... am I sensing a marketing pattern here?

Source: TransformerForums via AndroidPolice

 

[Abe21599]

mid range is now $400? what's the higher end only ipads then?

 

[johnomaz]

mid range is now $400? what's the higher end only ipads then?

No, iPads are stupid range. Honestly, to me, the Kindle Fire at $200 is midrange.

Of course they come out with it too just after I get my prime. I would have gone with the hundred bucks cheaper model. Its nearly as good and still 10".

 

[kodiak799]

mid range is now $400? what's the higher end only ipads then?

Funny thing is, even on my Rezound (and definitely with the Nexus) I find a tablet much less interesting than I did with a smaller D1 or Iphone screen. Reading/surfing is very comfortable on these larger screens and it's more comfortable to hold for extended periods than a tablet, not to mention the ease of carrying/packing/unpacking the thing. It doesn't take long with a tablet before you want to set it down and prop-up with something for comfortable use.

 

[SwiftLegend]

So it's $200 cheaper than the Prime because of it's plastic body instead of an aluminium?

 

[gadgetrants]

I'm also guessing -- if it's priced like it's sibs -- that it's $399 for the TABLET and $100+ for the keyboard dock.

-Matt

 

[dug-e-fresh]

No, iPads are stupid range. Honestly, to me, the Kindle Fire at $200 is midrange.

Of course they come out with it too just after I get my prime. I would have gone with the hundred bucks cheaper model. Its nearly as good and still 10".

The kindle fire, while a quality product, is definitely not mid-range. To me it falls in the low end of the spectrum. Bang for the buck is excelllent... but you give up a lot of features as well. No camera's at all... no gps... battery life is just barely ok (I own one btw).

The pricing structure in my mind is like this:

<250 = bargain/low end range (the only exception is the vita)

251-500 = mid range

501-700 = upper mid range

>701 = top of the line

One of the best bangs for the buck currently? The PS Vita! haha If this thing had an Android/Amazon like appstore... it would destroy all. Hardware wise for the price... nothing comes close! I just picked it up last week (after buying the kindle fire for my wife) and its blazing fast and standby time is RIDICULOUS! The games are sick... it just needs more apps like nobodies business... I hope sony does something about that QUICK!