There’s more to Asus’s MWC presence than the Padfone, and we set our sights (and camera) on the Asus Transformer Pad 300, the company’s budget oriented 10 inch tablet for 2012. The Pad 300 we had a chance to play around with comes in a red coating, but surely you’ll have other color options as well.
A quick spec check tells us that the Pad 300 comes with a 1200 x 800 IPS screen, a Tegra 3 quad core processor and a maximum of 16 GB of storage, as well as a web cam and HDMI slot.
The operating system is of course Android ICS, which is present on Asus’s Padfone as well. The display is IPS, not Super IPS+, the latter being the new rising star on the mobile display market, having better viewing angles and brightness.
Even so, the unit we tested at MWC has decent viewing angles and the problem is not that you won’t be able to enjoy a good screen, but that it’s not as shiny and attractive like the new kid on the block.
The tablet will also benefit from a docking station meets keyboard, in the vein (and design) of those used on the Transformer and Transformer Prime. Overall, the Pad 300 feels like a cheaper version of the Prime, and will probably be Asus’s cheapest 10 inch tablet to be offered in 2012- or at least in the first half or 8-9 months of the year.The Pad 300’s docking station is made out of plastic and generally feels less classy than the one you can get for the Prime.
The Pad 300 comes with Android ICS
Of course, that can be said about the entire slate, as the build quality and overall elegance of the device pales in comparison with Asus’s more classy entries, but you get what you pay for, I guess.
The Pad 300 should arrive to a store near you later this year for $399. Stay tuned for our hands on video with the Pad 300 and hopefully we’ll be able to come with more info as we get closer to the release date.
Enjoy.
