Asus Eee Pad SL101 Gets Pass from FCC

Not to be outdone by HTC, Asus has pushed its own new Android tablet through the FCC. The Asus Eee Pad Slider, first seen during this past CES, will be the second Android Honeycomb tablet on the market from a major manufacturer to feature a hardware keyboard. The other is of course Asus' own Eee Pad Transformer which has seen arguably solid sales through the first half of this year.

Asus originally claimed that the Slider would be available in May. With a schedule slip due to an as yet undisclosed reason, the device is now reported to be due in Europe in August. There should be little to keep the Slider from arriving in the US within the same time-frame. However, the period of disclosure in the FCC filing is for a period of 180 days, so at worst case, US customers may not see the Slider until the holidays.

Still, with the market heating up with Android tablets releasing to retail every month, it is likely that Asus will try to have it in US stores sooner rather than later. The Asus website does not have a listing for the new Eee Pad yet. The Slider's older cousin, the aforementioned Transformer, has suffered supply shortages, and wavering demand, so Asus can use a hit to help it challenge Apple's tablet offerings.

Unlike the Transformer, the Slider's keyboard will be integrated; no secondary accessory to capture the additional utility of a keyboard. Other than that, rumored specs are similar. The Slider will reportedly have a 1280 X 800 10.1 inch display, a 1 Ghz nVidia Tegra 2 processor, GPS, WiFi, and HDMI output. 16GB and a 32GB SKU's are expected.

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