Asus Tablet with Slider Keyboard in the Works

Most of the iPad 2's competitors aren't looking so hot. Unsold stock's piling up in the warehouses, and prices are being slashed, as a glut of seemingly identical Android tablets floods the market. There are a few high points -- the Lenovo ThinkPad tablet looks like it carries the laptop line's signature strengths pretty well -- but for the most part, they're just poor imitations of the iPad.

Asus, however, recently made the first Android tablet to actually sell out: The Asus Transformer, a sub-$400 tablet that comes with an optional keyboard-and-touch pad attachment. And now, according to Asus' UK Facebook page and a European tablet magazine, the new Asus Slider is coming this fall. No US release date has been set, but the UK could see it as early as August, and extensive previews have already been shown online ... revealing that the Asus Slider will be the world's first Android tablet with a slider hardware keyboard.

Is the Asus Slider worth waiting for?

Maybe the better question is, what does it offer that anything else doesn't?

Asus answers that question with the Slider's titular feature: A smartphone-style hardware slider keyboard. But instead of just sliding out to the side, it folds out at an angle, letting you stand your tablet up and use it as a makeshift workstation. There's no touchpad to be found, like there is on the Asus Transformer's keyboard attachment, but a full-sized USB port will allow you to use a mouse with the Slider if needed.

So what's the tradeoff?

Besides the slider keyboard, the Slider's specs are pretty much standard for Android tablets, with the exception of its weight; according to Darcy Alexander's preview on Android Authority, it'll weigh over two pounds, almost twice as much as the iPad 2 and closer in weight to an 11-inch MacBook Air.

As Darcy notes, it's true that an Asus Transformer with its keyboard attachment weighs about 3 pounds. So do some netbooks, for that matter. But netbooks aren't meant to be held in your hands while you use them, and neither's the Transformer when it's in laptop mode.

In many ways, the Slider seems like the worst of both worlds. In exchange for a tablet that'll be heavy and uncomfortable to hold, you'll get a keyboard that's small and likely uncomfortable to type on. That may be a tradeoff some are willing to make, but my guess is that there's a reason Asus hasn't hurried to bring it to market.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.