Asus finally launches Transformer Prime in India for a whopping Rs. 50,000

After months of waiting, the Transformer Prime has finally landed on our shores. Just like we reported a month back, about the Indian pricing, the Prime (TF201-1B014A) will be priced at Rs.49,999 and there’ll only be one model available at the moment. This will be the Wi-Fi version only and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be making a 3G version, since this will eventually be phased out and replaced with the new Transformer 700 that they announced at MWC 2012.

It’s here, but is it too late?

The Transformer Prime will come with Honeycomb at launch, but will be upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich, soon. The tablet will run Nvidia’s Tegra 3, which is the first quad-core CPU for hand-held devices. On the screen front, it will sport the same 10-inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1280 x 800. Another major change is the new 8MP snapper on the back, along with flash. Even if the Prime does come with a 3G dongle support, having a SIM card slot is just more convenient, instead of having a dongle sticking out the side. Also, with the new range of Asus tablets on the horizon, we don’t know if this was the perfect time to launch an old product, just after you’ve announced its replacement. Also, this month could be when Apple pulls the wraps off the iPad 3, so there’s another reason to hold on to your tablet purchase. 

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Here’s a quick recap of the highlights of the Transformer Prime:

• 10-inch IPS Capacitive Touchscreen with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution
• 1.3GHz quad core Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM
• Android 3.2 Honeycomb, upgradable to ICS
• 64GB internal storage
• EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0
• 8 megapixel camera LED flash, 1080p video recording
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Memory expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• 3.5 mm handsfree socket