Nvidia teases 7-inch Asus Transformer Prime

CES 2012: Tegra 3 on a budget

Nvidia teases 7-inch Asus Transformer Prime. Tablets, Nvidia, Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Asus, Tegra 3, CES2012 0

10 January 2012 1:55 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang welcomed his Asus counterpart Jerry Shen to the stage over in Vegas at CES to tease a 7-inch Asus tablet that will take on the likes of the Amazon Kindle Fire when it launches later this year.

No name was given for the mystery device, although we do know that it will be packing a quad-core Tegra 3 chip, will boast a healthy display resolution of of 1280x800 and, most importantly, will come with a budget-friendly price-tag of just $249.

The tablet will come rocking Nvidia Tegra 3's DirectTouch tech, a newly announced feature of the chipset, that converts analogue to digital touch inputs meaning improved touch detection and a smoother tablet experience.

The new tech is powered by the fifth core of the Tegra 3 setup, one that Huang referred to as a "ninja core".

Huang also announced the immediate availability of Android Ice Cream Sandwich on the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime. The 4.0 update was due on 12 January but has arrived as a nice early CES-shaped present.