Asus rolling out Jelly Bean update for Transformer Prime

Asus has begun rolling out Android v4.1 (Jelly Bean) for the Transformer Prime. The Transformer Infinity will also receive the update later this week. The Jelly Bean update brings Google Now, performance improvements through Project Butter, and better functionality to the two tablets.

To check if the update is available for your device, head to the ‘About’ section in the settings and select the check for firmware updates option. It is recommended that you charge your tablet to at least 80 percent before you download the update and install it.

Will run faster than ever with Jelly Bean on board

The Asus Transformer Prime was launched in India in March this year for Rs 50,000. Only the Wi-Fi model is available in India at present and it doesn’t seem like they’ll be making a 3G version, since this will eventually be phased out and replaced with the new Transformer 700. The Prime came with Android v3.0 (Honeycomb) at launch, but was upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich a few months ago.

The tablet runs on a 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, which is the first quad-core CPU for hand-held devices. It has 1GB of RAM. On the screen front, it sports a 10-inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1280 x 800. It has an 8-megapixel camera on the back, along with a flash that can be useful in low light environments. You can even expand the storage capacity of the tablet through microSD cards up to 32GB in size.

Here is a quick look at the highlighted features of the Asus Transformer Prime:

• 10-inch IPS Capacitive Touchscreen with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution
• EDGE, GPRS, Wi-Fi (3G version available too)
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0
• 8 megapixel camera LED flash, 1080p video recording
• 64GB internal storage, expandable via 32GB microSD card
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• 3.5mm hands free socket

The much-talked-about Google I/O 2012 saw the search giant unveiling the latest flavour of Android, Jelly Bean. Some of the highlighted features of the Jelly Bean OS include Project Butter, which as the name suggests, aims to make the operating system on Android devices significantly smoother than Ice Cream Sandwich; improved text input with a faster and a more accurate keyboard; a new UI and gestures to the camera app, allowing users to swipe sideways, if they want to access a gallery and delete images by swiping them off the screen; and a big upgrade to the notifications bar – you can choose to reply to text messages, or call people directly from the notifications panel itself.