Asus’ holiday roadmap was recently leaked to ZDnet, and we got our first insight to Windows 8 tablet pricing. They seem… a bit pricey. Asus is coming out with at least three Windows 8 tablets for the 2012 holidays. They’ve got the Vivo Tab RT, the low-end option with a 10.1” screen, that starts at $599. Adding a keyboard brings the total up to $798. There’s an 11.6” Vivo Tab starting at $800, which is interesting.
There aren’t any 11.6” tablets currently on the market that you can compare the pricing to. It’s an interesting form factor. Like the Vivo Tab RT, there’s an optional $199 keyboard dock. On the high end, the Asus Taichi comes with a nice 11.6” screen running at 1080p resolution.
For all of Steve Ballmer’s bluster about the pricing “sweet spot,” these look a bit expensive. At the low end, the Vivo Tab has the same size screen and form factor as the best-selling iPad, but starts at $100 more.
For that price, you can buy three Nexus 7s. I can see a lot of harried gift-buyers throwing their hands up in confusion and buying an iPad. On the high end, the Asus Taichi looks like a nice piece of kit with some impressive specs, but there aren’t many 11.6” laptops that go for $1300.