lodging windrow: ASUS Transformer Prime review

Take one of the more popular -- if not wonderfully eccentric -- Android tablets of 2011, slim it down, clad it in brushed metal, pump it full of new specs and march it off into 2012 with the likelihood of one of the first upgrades to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Oh, and throw in a nearly full-size keyboard dock with trackpad, full USB and SD ports, turning it all into a solid Android laptop.

This, friends, is the ASUS Transformer Prime. And this is our Transformer Prime review.

Welcome to the era of NVIDIA's Tegra 3 platform. The Transformer Prime is but the first of the quad-core devices. Other tablets are no doubt on their way, and smartphones are coming down the pike as well. But the Transformer Prime is the one leading the way, and it's definitely doing so in style.

So let's dive on into our Transformer Prime review and look at what's new, what's continued from the Transfomer line, and what it means for you.

ASUS has refined the design of the original Transformer, making it slimmer and sexier while boosting the internal storage. NVIDIA's quad-core Tegra 3 processor is nothing short of astounding. The optional keyboard dock has gotten an excellent makeover as well, turning the whole thing into an outstanding Android laptop.	Is shipping with Android 3.2, but has already been promised an upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. While you now get more bang for your buck with Tegra 3 and the internal storage upped dto 32/64GB, it's still a pricey package for both the tablet and keyboard dock.

The Transformer Prime ushers in a new breed of Android tablets. Familiar, yet more powerful (and thus with more potential) than anything you've used before. If you can part with a minimum of $650, it makes for a great Android mobile computing/gaming rig.

Inside this review	More info
Video walkthrough Hardware review Software review Keyboard dock Camera tests	Asus Transformer Prime specs How to root Prime forums More on Tegra 3