@CES: Asus kicks off CES showcasing new tablets

LAS VEGAS – Kicking off the International Consumer Electronics Show in style on Tuesday, Asian tiger AsusTek Computer Inc. unveiled a host of tablets and slates under its now famous Eee brand.
Asus Chairman Jonney Shih showed his firm’s tablet offerings, seen recently in video footage on YouTube, emphasizing that his firm was focusing on innovation and choice, as well as “cutting-edge design and superior engineering.”
CES certainly seems to agree with the Taiwanese CEO, whose firm has already managed to scoop up eight CES Innovation Awards.
“We focus on the mastery of technological innovation and design perfection. We hold ourselves to the highest standards when it comes to delivering consumers the very best products. Choice is a key ingredient for success, and we offer consumers the ability to customize their own digital futures with an exciting lineup of products that are unmatched in quality and depth of features,” said Shih.
Not much new was revealed about the Eee Pad and Eee Slate, but that didn’t make the official unveiling any less bombastic. Shih proudly showed off the Eee Pad MeMO with its 7-inch capacitive screen powered by Qualcomm Inc.’s Snapdragon processor and already sporting Google Inc.’s latest Honeycomb (Android 3.0) OS. The tablet also boasts high-definition playback capabilities, mobile gaming and a stylus pen for taking handwritten notes.
Meanwhile, the Eee Pad Transformer and Eee Pad Slider both come with 10.1-inch IPS touchscreens, Nvidia Corp.’s Tegra 2 mobile processor and Android 3.0.
The Transformer boasts a docking option that incorporates a QWERTY keyboard and serves as a battery extension station for up to 16 hours, somewhat solving the productivity issue users have been complaining about when it comes to tablets.
The Slider, as its name suggests, comes with a sliding keyboard for those who want a bit more mobility.
Finally, the Eee Slate EP121 is a bit of a monster tablet, sporting a whopping 12.1-inch multitouch screen and running Intel Corp.’s Core i5 processor, allowing it to run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 Home Premium.
“The Eee Slate EP121 is the most powerful tablet ever introduced,” claims Asus, which also gushed that it would allow users to run a variety of desktop applications on its 64 gigabyte SSD drive while also offering various data input options ranging from a Wacom Digitizer pen to an included Bluetooth wireless keyboard.
Analysts, however, were not convinced. “It’s a bit of a dinosaur in terms of ‘mobile computing’,” one told RCR Wireless News. “Putting Windows on a tablet sporting an Intel processor is hardly cutting edge, it’s more like 1990 all over again,” said another.
Whether users feel the same way remains to be seen.