Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime: $499 Tablet Ships 12/12 in U.S.

I keep asking the team at aNewDomain to put forth the tablet they most want for Christmas. Most already have iPad 2 tablets or cheap fire sale HP TouchPads and are waiting for the next gen of tablets this spring. Yet some told me they’d make a potential holiday buying exception for the intriguingly affordable and dark horse Asus $499 Eee Pad Transformer Prime entry, shipping Dec. 12 or days after, officials say.

Really? I’m getting skeptical after being SO disappointed with the Amazon Kindle Fire in day-to-day use as either an Apple iPad or Barnes & Noble new Color Nook replacement at its loss-leader price of $199. Could the Asus be THAT much better?

My two cent take: It is going to have to be damned good. (That said, my Asus laptops are durable, inexpensive and excellent, thanks to the fact that Asus itself makes the world’s lion’s share of motherboards and has a corner on components.)

Top line on specs: Pricing is $499 for the 32GB version and $599 for the 64GB version, with an extra $149 for the keyboard doc. It’s a 10.1-inch, Android 3.2 tablet (translation: not Android 4.0.1 ice cream sandwich yet) with a respectable nVidia3 quad-core processor.

One publication, The Verge, with offshore access apparently or just a great correspondent, has already reviewed the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime in detail. Watch for our review to come.

And readers — especially the 30 percent of you who are coming to us internationally — I’d love to hear from you. Thoughts? Prime or crime. You tell me! We are dying to see it over here stateside.

I’m interested on how well it uses memory and what that screen and UX design experience is. Let me know and I’ll publish some of the most thorough reviews and look and feel first looks from readers. Good morning UK! Good night HK! Holiday greetings from aNewDomain here in Silicon Valley, CA, USA.