ASUS Transformer Prime preorders still live at JR.com, B&H, Best Buy
Amazon unceremoniously cancelled its preorders for the ASUS Transformer Prime, but luckily there are at least three etailers in the US that are currently taking preorders for the world’s first Kal-El tablet.
B&H has Grey and Champagne versions of the Prime available for preorder with 32GB of 64GB of storage
Best Buy has the 32GB Gray version of the Prime available for preorder.
All sites list the 32GB version of the Prime for $500 and the 64GB of the device for $600. The Prime does have a microSD card slot, so you can save yourself $100 with the 32GB version and pick up a cheap 16GB microSD card. B&H and J&R don’t charge tax in most States in the US, however Best Buy will hit you up for State tax.
ASUS hasn’t announced a firm release date for the Prime in the United States, and neither JandR, B&H or Best Buy list a ship date for the device. NewEgg, which is currently sold out of Prime preorders, does list December 27th as an ETA date, however.
Amazon cancels ASUS Transformer Prime preorders, cites “lack of availability”
A couple of weeks ago, Amazon started accepting preorders for the ASUS Transformer Prime. We placed our preorder quickly, although at the time Amazon provided no ship date for the device.
Today, we received a bit of bad news via email: Amazon cancelled our Transformer Prime preorder, citing “a lack of availability from our suppliers.” Bummer.
It’s unclear what supply issues Amazon is having with ASUS – the Transformer Prime should be launched in the US in less than a week. Hopefully this is not a sign of more significant supply problems.
Here is a picture of NVIDIA’s Kal-El processor
Thanks to an FCC filing for ASUS’ Transformer Prime, we now have an image of NVIDIA’s quad-core Kal-El processor, above, aka the Tegra 3. Purdy, ain’t it?
Among other things, the Kal-El will give the Transformer Prime over ten hours of battery life, while enabling amazing, fluid graphics as evidenced by the video below.
ASUS’ Transformer Prime gets torn down, Kal-El pictured
In late October, ASUS’ Transformer Prime tablet hit the FCC with the model number TF201. The device won approval for WiFi and Bluetooth functionality, although no mention of 3G was made in FCC filings. Interestingly, ASUS’ FCC filing also included internal photos of the device, giving us a good look at the innards of the company’s new flagship tablet.
Internal photos of the Prime show NVIDIA’s latest processor, the quad-core Kal-El. Named after Superman, Kal-El should give the Prime more than ten hours of battery life, while enabling impressive fluid graphics.
NAND memory from Hynix is also visible in FCC filings, along with SDRAM from Elpida. It appears that the Prime’s wireless capabilities will be powered by an Azurewave chip, while the device’s GPS functionality is provided by Broadcom.
Take a look at the full gallery, below.
