Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet makes UK debut on 6 April with £379 price
The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet goes on sale in the UK next week for less than £380, although you'll pay extra for its keyboard dock.
Asus has confirmed that its Eee Pad Transformer tablet will go on sale in the UK next week, on 6 April, with a £379 price tag if you just want the 16GB tablet, and £429 if you want its keyboard dock thrown in. It will be one of the first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets to be available in the UK, alongside the Motorola Xoom.
The Eee Pad Transformer will be sold through a bunch of retailers, including PC World, Currys, Comet, Carphone Warehouse, Amazon and eBuyer, with the latter two already offering pre-orders for the device.
If you want one on launch day, the real-world stores are your best bet, as Asus says the first units will be available there, with pre-orders being delivered "shortly afterwards".
As we explained when we first got our hands on the device, the Eee Pad Transformer is a netbook split into two sections: the tablet/screen and the keyboard dock. One of the most innovative benefits is the fact that each half has an 8-hour battery life, adding up to 16 hours when you connect them together.
The screen itself is 10.1 inches across, with a 1,280x800-pixel resolution, and the ability to play HD movies. There's a 1.2-megapixel camera on the front for video calls, and a 5-megapixel one on the back for taking photos while the world looks on, wondering why you're using such a big camera.
The Eee Pad Transformer has a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor inside, along with Nvidia GeForce graphics. An SD card slot gives you room for storage expansion, meanwhile. Besides the 16GB model, we're also getting a 32GB version of the device, which will go on sale (without the dock) for £429 next week too.
Asus isn't the only manufacturer investigating this tablet with detachable dock idea: Lenovo's LePad will use a similar form factor, and will also run Android 3.0 when it goes on sale.