So what’s the difference between an Eee Pad and Eee Tablet? About $200. Asus officially unveiled its first set of touchscreen tablets that will ship sans keyboard today, and the company is taking two different approaches. The Asus Eee Pad will run Windows 7 and sport an Intel CULV processor, while the Eee Tablet is designed specifically as a note-taking and drawing device with a grayscale display. The Eee Pad will run about $399 to $499, while the Eee Tablet will sell for between $199 and $299.
Here are some more details:
Asus Eee Pad
The Eee Pad will come in two different configurations. There will be a 12 inch version called the EP121 with a 12.1 inch display, Intel Core 2 Duo CULV processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a promised 10 hour battery life.
The Eee Pad EP121 will be able to handle Micorosft Office and other productivity software and will handle text entry either with a virtual on-screen keyboard or through an external keyboard which you can connect through a docking station.
There will also be an Eee Pad EP101TC which has a 10 inch display and which runs Windows Embedded Compact 7. Asus isn’t spilling the beans on the hardware specs for this model yet. Both models should hit the streets early in 2011.
Earlier this year Asus showed off a tablet prototype at NVIDIA’s booth at the Consumer Electronics show in Vegas. And it looks like the EP101TC is the direct descendant, as Engadget reports that it’s powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset which means it should have 3D graphics and HD video capabilities.
But if you were holding out hope for an Android-powered tablet from Asus, you might have to wait a little longer.
Asus Eee Tablet
The Eee Tablet has an 8 inch, 1024 x 768 pixel display which can handle 64 shades of gray. It will have a 0.1 page refresh, which could make this little guy a pretty decent eBook reader. But Asus is primarily targeting it as a note-taking device, with a highly sensitive touchscreen with 2450 dpi touch sensitivity when using a special stylus — which is the only touch input method.
The tablet has a MicroSD card slot and 2MP camera as well as a USB port for moving your notes to a PC. Asus promises 10 hours of battery life and says the Eee Tablet should be available in September.
Jkkmobile shot a little video with the 10 and 12 inch Eee Pad prototypes, as well as the Eee Tablet. You can check out all three videos below. It’s worth pointing out two things: One, the demo models are barely functional. And Two, the 12 inch model looks absolutely enormous for a handheld tablet.
Well apparently this is the opportunity that everyone who has been looking for the Windows 7 experience in tablet form has been waiting for… With a CULV processor and everything… Should be snappy… I’d suggest bringing your charger with you though… And is the Appstore link going to be on the Eee Tablet too? Because it’d be nice to have a place to get ALL those touch centric Windows Apps in one place… Once they come to market that is.
Been wanting to see a well done Win7 pad/tablet. . . don’t know if any of these will be it. With a 12″ screen I wonder what battery life will be. They’ve go to figure that out–either quick charging capabilities or find a way to extend the battery life up to 8 hours or more.
Nice! Any word on whether the Eee Tablet has handwriting recognition? (i.e.: will it turn my handwriting into a text file I can transfer to the computer for additional editing?)