3G Asus Transformer spotted in the wild (pictures)

Over the months, I’ve received numerous comments from you guys asking about the 3G version of this tablet. As been told by my friends at Asus, I’ve told you myself to wait till late Fall, probably around November, for it. And it seems I was right: the first test units of the 3G Transformer are now in the wild, as the pictures below in this post prove.

I managed to get my hands on the 3G EEE Pad for just a couple of minutes and you can see where they decided to place the SIM Slot (on the left edge, bellow the volume rocker). Also got some teasing pictures from the guys at Asus and you can find the below.

Anyway, the slate will work with regular sized SIM cards and that small pin-hole next to it is used to pop-open the SIM cover with a pointed object. Besides the new SIM card slot, the tablet is pretty much identical to the regular Wi-Fi only Transformer.

Finally, the Asus Transformer 3G is here

Will work with Full-Size 3G slots

Everything else rests the same

The 3G version should be available in stores by late November – early December, hopefully just in time for Black Friday 2011. They will cost around 100 euros over the stadard Wi-Fi tablet in Europe, so expect the 16 GB 3G Transformer to go for around $479 – $499 in the US, without a contract, and it could be offered subsidized by various carriers as well.

But is it too late, with the Transformer 2 just around the corner

On the other hand, I’m pretty confident the Transformer 2 will be available around the same time as well, with a redesigned body and the more powerful Tegra 3 Kal-EM platform inside. And while that one will only come in a Wi-Fi version at start, I’m really curios how many of you will actually go for the 3G 1st generation Transformer later this year. But at least we have another 3G tablet on the market, and that’s always good news.

Stay tuned though, I’ll update the post and the blog with more info in the next days.