News - ASUS and NVIDIA team-up to take on Kindle Fire, Tegra 3 at $249

[crossy]

I will believe Asus when I see the product on the shelve ready to buy, this almost seems like a PR stunt and too good to be true.

If we're talking about Asus' potential PR stunts then I'd point at the PadFone over this one. It's already been reported elsewhere that NVidia wants "aggressive penetration" (oo er missus!) of the tablet/smartphone market by Tegra3, so there's the obvious theory that this new Asus device is more or less being done "at cost" to get market share.

No, I don't doubt that it'll arrive on the market, what I do doubt is that we'll see it at the £160-170 mark that the quoted "US$249" equates to. Being deeply cynical I suspect that we'll get it priced at £200-250. Personally I think they'll do okay at £200, although at £170 I suspect that they'd be VERY popular if they were available for next Christmas.

Bad news for the folks like Disgo, Archos, etc who've been content to ship low-powered, nasty kit running restricted and/or old-OS versions up until this point.

[kingpotnoodle]

Well whilst i really liked 10", it was too big to comfortably type on the screen without it resting on my lap or a table. If you are moving around and holding it with both hand this can be a bit of a pain.

Same for me, I found the mrs' iPad2 a tad heavy, but 7" a little small so I went for the 8" Archos G9, which is ~450g and for me quite handlable without fatigue.

[scaryjim]

... what I do doubt is that we'll see it at the £160-170 mark that the quoted "US$249" equates to. ...

$249 will be pre-tax, don't forget. At current exchange rates $249 = £162, then add 20% VAT (~£32.50); so ~£195 for a straight conversion. If we get it at £200 we'll be doing OK, tbh...