Quad-core Asus Transformer Pad 300 to launch in U.S. on April 22nd

The newest Asus tablet will be launched in the U.S. on April 22nd according to PC World. With Hasbro's law suit still weighing on the use of the Transformer Prime name in the States, Asus has decided to go with the seemingly non-offending moniker of the Asus Transformer Pad 300. The tablet is said to feature a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor under the hood and be equipped with a 10.1 inch screen. The model will also come out of the box with Android 4.0 installed.

Buyers will have the option to purchase an optional Android-specific QWERTY keyboard dock that uses a separate battery to increase the tablet's battery life by 50% to 15 hours when docked. While pricing of the device has not been officially revealed, wholesale club BJ's has the Asus Transformer Pad 300 on its website, open for pre-orders at a price of $399.99 for the 32GB model. Most likely that will be the Wi-Fi only variant. BJ's website now shows that the tablet is out of stock and not available. Earlier reports had the 16GB model for sale at $379  from J&R, and hitting the market next week. $149.99 would buy you the keyboard dock. Overall, the new Asus tablet will be very competitively priced compared with the Apple iPad 2 and the new Apple iPad.

Besides the 10.1 inch screen and Android 4.0, the Asus Transformer Pad 300 will be equipped with 1GB of DDR2 RAM. The resolution on the display is 1280x800 which beats the Apple iPad 2, but not the Retina display on the new iPad. There will be Wi-Fi only, Wi-Fi and 3G and Wi-Fi and 4G LTE variants available. The tablets will each offer a micro HDMI out port, a microSD port, an 8MP rear-facing camera and a 1.2MP shooter in front.

Asus will also be offering a slightly higher spec'd tablet, the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity 700 Series which will have a higher resolution 1080p screen powered by a zippy Qualcomm dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor. The latter will give the tablet better LTE support since the Tegra 3 is known for its incompatibility with LTE technology. No pricing or availability date was revealed for this model.

We were able to get our hands on both the Asus Transformer Pad 300 and the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity during MWC 2012 in Barcelona this past February. With the first tablet launching very soon, now would be a great time for you to refresh your memory about  the devices.

source: PCWorld via Electronista