ASUS Announces Eee Pad and Eee Slate Tablets

And lastly, we have the Windows-based Eee Slate EP121 (I really don’t know where they come up with these names). There’s some history here, dating back to 2006 when ASUS first launched the R2h UMPC and R1F convertible tablet. They were ASUS’ first serious entry to the touchscreen PC market, and continued into the Eee PC T91 and T101 convertible netbooks. The Eee Pads and Eee Slate together will replace those.

The EP121 has Windows 7 Home Premium running on top of a Core i5-470UM, 2 or 4GB memory, and 32 or 64GB of flash storage. The 12.1” IPS panel has a 16:10 aspect ratio and WXGA resolution (1280x800), but most importantly features a Wacom active digitizer for pen-based handwriting recognition. The rest of the specs are pretty straightforward—a 2.0MP front facing camera, SDHC/SDXC card reader, one USB port, mini-HDMI, Bluetooth 3.0, and 2.4GHz 802.11n. A Bluetooth keyboard is included with the EP121; it looks to be a branded version of Microsoft’s Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000.

In essence, the EP121 is a slate tablet PC with higher-end ultraportable internals. The combination of very respectable specs and the Wacom-enabled IPS display go a long way towards justifying the somewhat steep $999 cost, though given what HP is charging for its Atom-based 8.9” Slate ($799, to jog your memory), that figure looks almost reasonable. For $200 more, the ASUS has a lot more computing power and more features, though at 2.55lbs it’s a fair bit larger and heavier.

With that said, it’s still pretty thin and light, especially compared to some of the business-class convertible tablets on the market. I’m liking the overall package, since it balances power, portability, and price well along with the IPS display and Wacom digitizer. I think something that has gone mostly under the radar with the advent of tablets is the return of IPS displays in mobile computers—for a long time, IBM was the last one to offer IPS displays on their ThinkPad T series, but even they dumped the option in early 2007. Tablets are bringing IPS back, and that’s a very good thing.

The thing is, great specs or not, $999 is still a pretty hefty sum of money for a tablet, so I don’t forsee the EP121 making a huge sales dent. It’ll make a lot of sense for some users, like our smartphone editor Brian Klug, but it’s not really a tablet that can be recommended unless you want Windows and a Wacom digitizer. For a student looking for an ultraportable system, it looks like a very interesting option, and it’s definitely on the radar for inking fans, but at this point in time, I just don’t think that a Windows-based tablet solution is ideal for the majority of the tablet market. Either way, the Eee Slate should be available this quarter.

Wrap-Up

So that's the first CES salvo in what is sure to be a barrage of slate and tablet devices. ASUS is setting the standard with IPS displays across their lineup, which we'd love to see more of elsewhere. (Hint: we're tired of TN panel laptops!) The pricing looks reasonable, and the feature set is good as well. Perhaps the biggest drawback is that outside of the Slate, these are all targeting Q2/Q3 release dates, which means they're still a ways off from retail availability, but they might be worth the wait.