14 DAY TRIAL // After it started selling in Europe at the end of July, Asus's Eee Slate B121 tablet designed around a first generation Intel Core i5 processor and the Windows 7 operating system was now quietly launched by the Taiwanese company in the US where it carries a $1,499 price tag.
Built to cater to the needs of professionals who require a high-performance tablet device, the Eee Slate B121 carries a 12-inch LED-backlit screen with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels and supports multi-touch input either via a stylus or the user's fingers.
The display is run by the graphics core integrated by Intel in the Core i5-470UM processor used to power the Asus tablet.
This first generation Core processor was developed especially for highly portable mobile devices as it has a TDP of only 18W.
Despite its low power consumption, the chip sports some pretty impressive specs since it includes dual processing cores with Hyper-Threading support, 3MB of Level 3 memory and features a 1.33GHz base frequency (up to 1.86GHz in Turbo mode).
In order for the rest of the system to keep up with the fast Intel CPU, Asus has configured the Eee B121 to pack 4GB of DDR3 memory as well as an 64GB solid state drive.
The rest of the specifications list includes 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, a multi-format card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, as well as an HDMI video output.
All these are powered by a 2330mAh battery pack and the slate measures 31.2x1.7x20.7cm, while its weight is listed at 1.16Kg.
As mentioned a bit earlier, Asus has set the price of the Eee Slate B121 tablet to $1,499, which is a bit too high if you ask us considering the higher performing ultrabooks retail at significantly lower prices.