 This is Joanna for the Verge and this is Asus' E-Pad Transformer Prime, which is one of the most exciting tablets to hit this holiday season. And that's because it's got a brand new design, but it's also the first tablet to have a quad-core Tegra 3 processor. So the Transformer Prime actually is a lot like the original Transformer in that it has an external keyboard dock, which turns it into a laptop of sorts. Asus has done a really nice job redesigning the entire tablet. They've not only slimmed it down, but they've also created sort of a nicer look and feel here. The back now is made out of aluminum and has a concentric circle pattern, just like Asus' Ultrabook. On top of that, they've actually added an 8 megapixel camera to the back. It actually takes some of the best shots I've seen yet on a tablet, and that's not exactly saying much, but the pictures really do come out quite clear. But my favorite new thing about the design of the tablet itself is actually its 10.1 Super IPS Plus display. Not only is it more readable outdoors, but inside the viewing angles are great and it is really, really bright and crisp. But of course the standout spec of the Transformer Prime is its Tegra 3 quad-core processor. This is the first tablet to have this processor, which promises three times the graphics performance of the Tegra 2 processor. Overall, I've found performance to be pretty snappy. You'll see that menu transitions are really fast. However, other things like browser performance doesn't really seem to be all that much better. It's with gaming, though, that the performance increase can really be seen. There are some new games that have been optimized for Tegra 3, including Shadowgun and Glowball, and with those you can really see new lighting effects and water effects. Also, Tegra 2 games look pretty great on the system, and when you output it to a 1080p TV, things look even better. NVIDIA and Asus have also added USB host support to the tablet, so you can actually add a game controller, which is pretty cool. Still, software is the real issue with the Transformer Prime. While Asus is promising an update to Ice Cream Sandwich or Android 4.0 before the end of the year, it's launching right now with Honeycomb. And the biggest problem with Honeycomb continues to be that it isn't all that polished, and there just aren't that many Android tablet apps. My complaints about Honeycomb aside, the software actually works really well with the keyboard dock. The keyboard dock you can pick up for an extra $150 and actually adds a lot of functionality to the tablet. Not only is there the keyboard, but there's also a touchpad which supports multi-touch gestures, as well as a USB port and an SD card slot. There's actually also an internal battery which adds about 10 hours of battery life when paired to the unit. For $650 for the tablet and the keyboard dock, the Transformer Prime is a pretty great piece of hardware. You get a quad-core processor, really fast gaming performance, a beautiful 10-inch display, and a great keyboard dock that adds a totally new dimension to your tablet. That being said, the software is still the major issue for this platform. For those that want the better app experience and the better software experience, the iPad is the way to go. However, the Transformer Prime definitely provides something totally unique in a new package.