I just met with ASUS where I got to play with the newly announced Transformer Prime TF700T. If you missed this morning's announcement the major changes are a new RF transparent plastic strip across the back of the tablet as well as a new 1920 x 1200 display. The rest of the specs remain unchanged. 

The demo unit had an early build of Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.3) running although neither the hardware nor the software are final at this point. The display looks great. Unfortunately I didn't have a macro lens on me so I can't provide really good shots but it definitely looks sharper than the stock 1280 x 800 panel. 

 

I couldn't get GLBenchmark working on the device, but Shadowgun seemed to be running at full 1920 x 1200 resolution at a greater than 30 fps frame rate. The entire system seemed to put up with the increased resolution quite well despite using the same Tegra 3 GPU as the 1280 x 800 version. I'll reserve final judgement until we see final hardware hopefully in May.

 

ASUS' suite in the Trump hotel here in Vegas does a great job of blocking all RF so I wasn't able to really test the impact of the plastic strip on the back of the unit.

As I mentioned earlier, the TF700T is going to sit above the standard Prime (TF201) with a starting price of $599. The price increase is almost entirely due to the new high-res panel, although over time I'd expect these high resolution panels to drop in price as economies of scale kick in.

The TF700T will be compatible with the existing TF Prime dock.

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  • bplewis24 - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link

    Anand, was the display panel technology the same, meaning for brightness, contrast, viewing angles, etc?
  • quiksilvr - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link

    It was a hands on. We'll have to be patient and wait until May to see.
  • cmanderson - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link

    Speaking of hands, why does Anand have 'old man hands'?
  • Assimilator87 - Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - link

    Am I to assume it's a 10" display since it's not mentioned anywhere?
  • hbk19 - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link

    The one thing I really want to know is about the new casing improvement over the TF201.

    Anand, when you mention the plastic strip, do you mean that aside from the strip at the tip, the entire back is still the same (albeit un-spun, non-shiny) aluminum as the TF201? Just want confirmation.

    Though I'm glad it'll be compatible with the existing TF201 dock.
  • hbk19 - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link

    *strip at the top

    I'm sure you got what I meant, but I hate typos. :)
  • Jedi2155 - Monday, January 9, 2012 - link

    I wouldn't trust Asus's promise of them saying it'll be compatible with the existing dock. I heard some where they made the same claim about the first Transformer/TF101.
  • Gogol - Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - link

    If the battery capacity is not increased, it will suck with this new high res panel.
  • themossie - Thursday, January 12, 2012 - link

    Why? You're backlighting the same area... shouldn't take that much more power to drive a few more pixels in the same screen area.
  • Zap - Friday, January 13, 2012 - link

    Are we ever going to see these tablet screens used elsewhere? Little monitor? High end netbook?

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