Asus’ Transformer Faces the Twin Threats of Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs: Which Comes Out on Top?

Asus is all set to begin shipping its latest tablet - the Transformer Pad 300 - on 22 April. The tablet was introduced to the world at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress (MWC) and could be the next big tablet launch, following the release of Apple's new iPad.

The Transformer Pad 300, like its predecessor has an optional mobile keyboard dock, to increase productivity. The tablet is set to provide 10 hours of battery life, expandable to 15. According to CNET, the retailers will show a price tag of approximately £250.

In more good news for gadget enthusiasts, Samsung is also set to ship its next-gen tablet, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 on the same date; the 10.1-inch model is expected to come out on 13 May. The Samsung product could well provide Asus some stiff competition.

Check out how both tablets stack up

Display

The Asus tablet will come up with a 10.1-inch LED backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen and a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. It will offer multi-touch (ten fingers) functionality and have Corning Gorilla Glass protect the screen from daily wear and tear. It will incorporate ASUS Waveshare User Interface (UI).

In comparison, the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 will flaunt the PLS LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels at 170 pixels per inch (ppi). The 10.1-inch tablet will have a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels at 149 ppi.

Processor

The Asus tablet is powered by the Nvidia Tegra 3 T30L 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU and GeForce 12-core GPU. The Nvidia Tegra 3 contains a Super 4-Plus-1 Quad-core with the fifth a battery saver core, where 4-Plus-1 refers to the quad-core CPU cores of the processor. In contrast, the Galaxy Tab 2 is powered by a 1 GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU, TI OMAP 4430 chipset. It includes PowerVR SGX540 GPU which supports powerful graphics.

Both tablets have 1GB of RAM.

Operating System

The new Asus tablet will run on the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The latest ICS offers resizable widgets, new lock screen action, improved text input and spell checking, multitasking and rich notifications.

On the other hand, the Galaxy Tab 2 will run on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich, a slightly updated version of the 4.0 ICS.

Camera

The Asus Transformer Pad 300 boasts of an eight megapixel rear-facing camera with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels featuring AutoFocus and geo-tagging. It provides full HD video recording in 1080p and a front-facing camera of 1.2 megapixels for video calling.

In comparison, the Galaxy Tab 2 will include a rear-camera of 3.15 megapixels with a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. It has features like Geo-Tagging and smile detection. It supports a secondary VGA camera and video recording of 1080p.

Connectivity

The Transformer Pad 300 includes Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Wi-Fi hotspot as well as Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and EDR wireless technology.

The Samsung tablet features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with Wi-Fi-Direct, dual band and Wi-Fi hotspot. It provides Bluetooth 3.0 version with A2DP and HS.

Storage

Asus' tablet offers 16GB of storage space and a microSD card slot with up to 32GB of space available.

The Tab 2 7.0 has 8/16/32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for expansion up to 64GB. The larger Tab offers only 16/32GB of built-in space, with a microSD card with additional memory to the tune of 32GB.

Battery

The Transformer Pad has a Li-Po (22Wh) standard battery which allows for up to 10 hours of use on a single charge. The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 has a Li-Ion 4000mAh standard battery and the 10.1-inch device contains Li-Po 7000mAh battery.