An Asian site apparently had the upcoming Transformer 2 information and pictures, but Nvidia asked them to pull them down. Some of the specs of the device included a quad-core Tegra 3 chip, 1 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. The site was also confirming that the tablet will arrive on November 7th. Chairman of ASUS, Jonney Shih will be speaking at the AsiaD along with Nvidia’s CEO next week, and it’s very possible that Google will be there with Samsung to announce the Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0, too.
I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed in Nvidia for delaying the shipping for Tegra 3 for so long. It’s not as bad as last year when they promised Tegra 2 in September and it arrived in February, but this is almost as bad. They promised Tegra 3 for end of August, and it’s arriving almost 4 months late. That’s pretty crazy if you ask me. I really hope that next time (Kal-el+, Wayne) either they keep the promises they make and release them on time, or make sure they promise a schedule that they’re certain (and not just hopeful) that will work for them.
Considering they are all going to AsiaD conference in Hong-Kong, I do wonder whether the Asus Transformer 2 will have Android 4.0 by default, and won’t have to update to it later. I don’t really see why not. After all, Android 4.0 should work on both phones and tablets, and they could’ve worked with both a phone maker and a tablet maker to launch these 2 devices together with Android 4.0, to showcase it on both types of devices. Come to think of it, that would be a pretty smart move.
On the other hand, it would be rather disappointing that after waiting for Tegra 3 for so long, we would get to see the Transformer 2 with it, but without Android 4.0. I think people would be a whole lot more excited about the Transformer 2 if it appeared with both the Kal-El chip and Android 4.0. People would probably go nuts over it, especially if it was as slim and light (or lighter) than a Galaxy Tab 10.1, for example.
The Transformer 2 devices has been rumored to cost $500, which wouldn’t be too bad of a price considering it packs Tegra 3 and 32 GB, but it’s still $100 more than the original Transformer. I think Asus would be smart to throw the keyboard in there, too, for the same price.
How could they manage that when the keyboard dock cost $150 for the first Transformer? Well, the first keyboard dock also contained a battery to double the life of the tablet. I think it would be fine if they left the battery out, to make it lighter, too, and reduce the cost. And then offer it all for $500 instead of the original $550 ($400+$150).
Wouldn’t that be great? I think people would then start to think like “Should I get the iPad with half the storage and no keyboard, or the Transformer with double the storage and a keyboard dock that makes it look like a very slim netbook”?