I was about to make an ever-so-slightly OT comment but thanks to justin82 it's not so much any more: by accident the other day I picked up the Transformer Prime at Best Buy and played with it for 5 minutes -- I had just assumed it was the first-gen TF101 (which I own).
Now I'm not about to suggest that 5 minutes of play with a demo unit means anything, BUT I WILL offer my impressions nonetheless. What did I think? I was frankly stunned that the Prime (like the TF101 before it) had caused complete insanity and craziness, when at first glance, I could hardly distinguish it from the previous unit. When I realized I was holding the much-loved Prime, I immediately checked the obvious things -- screen quality, scrolling/swiping speed, video playback, games, the cool (but oh-so-naughty) aluminum back. And the overall impression I had was THANK GOODNESS I kept my TF101 and didn't impulsively sell it for a Prime.
Anyway, the take home message is that for people who do email, light browsing, e-reading, and some videos and games, your basic dual-core 10" tablet is way more than sufficient. ICS is very nice, and seems to enhance usability, but even that is not a must-have requirement.
I guess my point is that I agree the new Acer looks pretty good and is reasonablly priced, but an arms-race in tablet development may be a bit silly. At least for the time-being, there are very few mind-blowing apps that demand a quad-core, absolutely top of the line tablet. In other words, they look gorgeous and give you 3 weeks of bragging rights, but not much more.
-Matt
