The last time we heard from ASUS, the company was on a tear at Computex, unveiling Windows 8 device after Windows 8 device. Looking back, it seems quaint that its mobile lineup was so recently dominated by Android tablets -- and that the Transformer series was once regarded as unique for having detachable keyboard docks. But this week, at least, it's back to Android for ASUS: the company just announced that the Transformer Pad Infinity announced back at Mobile World Congress is finally going on sale here in the US. It's expected to hit shelves the week of July 16th, starting at $499 for the 32GB model and $599 for the 64GB version. Like other Transformer tabs, the accompanying dock will sell separately for $149.
We've got a rundown of the full specs after the break, and as it turns out, we've also been testing one for the past week. So once you're done browsing those official press shots, head on over to our full review for benchmarks, impressions and many, many more photos.
Need us to jog your memory after all these months? Well, remember that ASUS launched multiple Transformer tablets at MWC, but the Infinity (aka TF700) was the higher-end of the two, with a 10-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS display that's coated in Gorilla Glass and rated at 600 nits of brightness. In an unusual move, ASUS used different chips in the WiFi-only and LTE-enabled versions. The WiFi models announced today have a quad-core Tegra 3 SoC inside, but if the 4G version ever comes to your corner of the world, it'll have a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor instead. Either way, the best silicon NVIDIA and Qualcomm have to offer at the moment.
Some good news for folks thinking of trading in their six-month-old Primes: the older TF201 dock is fully compatible with the TF700, so you won't need to drop a hundred and fifty bucks on a fresh keyboard. Which makes sense, given how similar the dimensions are: the Infinity weighs 1.31 pounds and measures .33 inches thick, compared with 1.28 pounds / .32 inches thick for the Prime.
As for performance, the TF700 has 1GB of DDR3 RAM and 25Wh battery, rated for about eight and a half hours of juice. (The dock has a 19.5Wh battery that promises to add an extra five hours or so of runtime.) All told, that sounds similar to what you'll get from the lower-end Transformer Pad TF300 -- which is to say, the battery life will be long, but not quite as epic as what you'd get from the original Prime. Rounding things out, the TF700 features Bluetooth 3.0 (compared with 2.1 in the Prime), an 8-megapixel, f/2.2 rear camera and a 2-megapixel webcam up front. As with other Transformer tablets, this ships with Ice Cream Sandwich and comes with 8GB of free lifetime cloud storage.
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posted Jun 25th 2012 11:54AM 
