In addition to the 4 new tablets Asus unveiled at Computex in June, 3 additional tablets have been admitted by Asus, though still without any presentation or unveiling yet.
We expect these tablets to make their official first appearance at the IFA trade show in early September, so until then, here’s a peek at what additional tablets Asus have planned for 2013. (UPDATE: These tablets have now been confirmed.)
Asus MeMO Pad 8
(UPDATED, November 13: The Asus MeMO Pad 8 have now been launched and will be released November 17.)
Asus have been lacking an 8-inch Android tablet, so this one should be a welcome alternative for those looking at Samsung’s 8-inch tablets. Or maybe not, since the processor is a 1.6GHz Rockchip and the graphics processor is a Mali-400. Benchmark tests [1] indicate that the Asus MeMO Pad HD 8 with the model name ME180A will only sport a 1280×800 resolution. Sure, it will probably be a good display, but still low on pixels. Other hardware specs are 1GB of DDR3L RAM, a 10 hour battery life, 3G option, a 1.2MP front camera and a 2MP rear camera, with entry model holding 16GB of storage.
It is believed to be launched with Android 4.2.
Asus MeMO Pad HD 10
Is important to get the names right when looking at Asus tablets, since there are so many of them out there now, and missing just one letter could mean looking at a very different tablet. The 10.1-inch Asus MeMO Pad HD 10 with model name ME102A carries the same 1.6GHz Rockchip processor and Mali-400 graphics processor as the 8-inch model. But then again, this is built to be a cheaper version of the Asus MeMO Pad 10 FHD, so it makes sense that way. Actually it seems to carry all the same components as the 8-inch version, with a 1280×800 resolution, although through a 10.1-inch display and a 9 hour battery life.
Asus HD 7 FonePad
And lastly, Asus is adding another FonePad to it’s line. This tablet have some different specs than the other Asus tablets above. Carrying the model name ME372CG, this 7-inch Android 4.2 tablet will be powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor in combination with the 400MHz SGX544MP2 graphics processor.
The resolution is only 1280×800 on this tablet too, but in addition to the 1.2MP front camera, it does have a better 5MP rear camera. Since a Asus FonePad tablet is a phone+tablet, it does have built in 3G capabilitites as standard. The battery life of the HD 7 FonePad is set to 9 hours too.
I guess the conclusion is that these tablets should offer quality tablets at low prices. So even if neither of them will be cutting edge tablets, they will give Samsung some headaches for those choosing trusted quality tablets, and they will give other tablet manufacturers headaches because of their likely low prices. But then Amazon’s new tablets will come in and make life hard for Asus again. So, the tablet wars will definitely heat up in Q3 and Q4 of 2013.
UPDATE: In addition to these tablets, an Asus Eee Pad Taurus tablet was later added to the list of upcoming Asus tablets for 2013.
– Jim Miller
