EeePad Transformer Prime Up for Pre-order in the UK

Asus' EeePad Transformer Prime has finally hit pre-order status here in the United Kingdom.

Asus gave us our first peek at the EeePad Transformer Prime in October, a day or so after Google and Samsung announced the Galaxy Nexus (originally thought to be named the Nexus Prime). Since then, we've seen the device go up for pre-order and officially launch in the United States. Today, the Transformer Prime inches a little bit closer to UK availability.

According to the Register, the tablet-laptop is now up for pre-order at 16 retailers, including Amazon, Argos, Asda, Comet, Currys, eBuyer, John Lewis, PC World and Tesco. Expect to pay around £500 for the 32GB WiFi-only version of the tablet and the keyboard dock that we first saw with the original Transformer tablet.

Of course, the keyboard dock isn't the only thing that sets the Transformer Prime apart from other Android tablets in the market. Not only will Ice Cream Sandwich likely be available by the time the tablet does launch here, but the Prime is also the first ever Tegra 3 tablet to hit the market. The quad-core chip from Nvidia is expected to turn up in many more tablets (and a few smartphones) next year, but there's definitely something to be said for being first out the gate, and this time, that's Asus.

As far as other specs are concerned, the EeePad Transformer Prime boasts a 10.1-inch 1280x 800 display, 1GB of DDR2 memory, 32GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera, WiFi, micro HDMI and a microSD. Still no word on an official release date, but hopefully it won't be long now.