If you’re after ASUS’s upcoming Transformer Prime, don’t fret just yet. ASUS Australia said via their Twitter that a release date for Australia should come after the December release over in the US, so we’re most likely looking at a launch in the new year. The Quad-Core Transformer Prime is available for preorder in the US starting on December 5th with a price of $499 — add on random Australian taxes and you should get a price of about $550+ when it launches here. If you’re not yet aware of the amazing specs of the Transformer Prime let me fill you in now:

  • 10.1-inch SuperIPS + display with Gorilla Glass
  • 1.3GHz quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 Processor with 12-core GPU
  • 1GB RAM
  • 32GB or 64GB internal storage with microSD card slot
  • microHDMI port
  • 8MP F2.4 rear shooter with continuous flash for video recording, 1.2MP front camera
  • 8.33mm thin
  • 586g (1.29 lbs.)
  • 12 hour battery life playing 720p video, 18 hours with keyboard dock
  • Metallic spun finish
  • Two available colors: Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold
  • Android 3.2 – will be updated to Android 4.0 as soon as possible after release

If we could get it here for $499 I reckon even I would jump on that bandwagon, a boy can dream though. With the Transformer Prime Australian launch to possibly be in the new year, that can’t be too good for Samsung who are still hoping to push their Galaxy Tab 10.1 out the door should their ban on sales be lifted. Would you hold off getting a Galaxy Tab 10.1 to get a bad-ass Transformer Prime instead?

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Anonymous

Any word when we can get our hands on this now they have been recalled for poor WiFi performance?

Shaun Anthony Dickenson

I was hoping to get this for Christmas lol but I’m more than willing to have a late Christmas :p

Abc

The hardware specs are amazing … Only time will tell whether it has any heating issues or the Battery life is as they say.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 is in more trouble now …

Annoying Old Fart

Leading edge hardware ships with superseded OS. Oh dear.

JeniSkunk

It’s actually shipping with the right OS stream. It’s the OS upgrade that will be a waste of resources. Why put the latest Android phone OS on an Android device that cannot be used as a phone?

Jake Oliver

Because ICS is designed to work on both phones and tablets.

Also, I’m not too sure about the 3.2 on launch thing, especially as the demo video is running ICS.

Hikari0307

Because Ice Cream Sandwich was never meant to be a Phone only OS. It’s designed to unify the tablet and phone OS of android to fight fragmentation. Honeycomb was never much good anyway which is why google hasn’t release it’s source code even until now, it was rushed into the market. ICS natively run on a high resolution as well so it’s fine with tablets and why wouldn’t you put the latest software on the latest devices. Not upgrading the software actually will hurt the sales of this tablet as people don’t want a honeycomb tablet anymore, people want an… Read more »

John

Can we preoder from B&H , and get it earlier?
And if we do this, if something happens to the prime, can we just send it to asus australia?

Ozivillan

Yes pre orders are up for B@H 32gb with shipping to aus is around $551, still no real clarification on what warranty is going to be offered by Asus

Craig Muldoon

I really don’t want to wait 6 months for the price to come down. I want this yesterday. Any chance Ausdroid can do an article on the best place for us to buy this, ala what they did with the Galaxy Nexus?? Surely there will be US, UK, etc, retailers that will be doing international orders with minimal mark-up?!

Buzz Moody

We can certainly do that once we have enough info

Paolo Carreon

Hopefully amazon will ship this bad boy to Australia like the previous transformer

Ozivillan

Amazon are not shipping this tablet to Aus

Codarestaurant

Does anyone know how its Super IPS+ display compares to Samsung Super AMOLED display?
As long as it’s better than Acer Icontab’s and similar to Samsung’s I’m in.

jivemaster

We’re guaranteed to pay $699 for this. No way will it be the USA price.

Grunger

A fantastic looking device.

I’m hoping to get this one or the HTC Quattro when it comes out.

montalbert

Unfortunately I think you are dreaming on price..an Asus guy I spoke to today at Doncaster reckons it will be a couple hundred more than the us price…

If the price is anywhere near $500 I recon this could be my first tablet 🙂

Guest

that’s such a shame but kind of what i expected.. If it really is going to be 200+ much more might just have to ship it from the US

Camaradian

Or just play the waiting game until the price drops just like i got a gs2 for $499 from Kogan.

A_brit

If you wait, you wait forever because in 6 months there will be a better tablet.