A leaked picture has come to our notice that has given some authenticity to the rumors related to the forthcoming smaller equivalent of Asus’ 10 inch Transformer Prime. Though it has not yet been made clear that would it be one or two of the 7 inch devices coming up with speculations around the 7 inch Transformer Prime as well as a refreshed version of the last year’s Eee Pad Memo.

However, the rumors around are confidently announcing that either one or may be a blend of the both will be making its presence during the Consumer Electronic Show this year.

The picture of the device published by Notebook Italia, an online media brought the device to the world which is quite similar to the Transformer Prime in terms of its aesthetics and has some resemblance with the Memo which is found to have bulkier edge. The rumor monger site is pretty sure that the mini Transformer will be introduced as a separate device but interestingly no specifications are revealed yet other than the commonly known ones like – a hardware keyboard attachment, Android (probably Ice Cream Sandwich), and a price tag which can easily be afforded (something like $299).

Notebook Italia seems quite sure that the overhauled Eee Pad Memo will be available with a capacitive display of 1280X800, Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor of 1.2Hz, an integrated flash memory of between 16GB to 64GB and Wi-Fi as well as 3G connectivity. And there’s also a possibility of Ice Cream Sandwich to be present at the time of the launch. Though extra details are yet to be made available, on the basis of the name of the device, it is being assumed that the device will be supporting pen input as well as the handwriting software.

These upcoming products from Asus will be competing with numerous other second-gen products in the 7 and 10 inch product range. Sadly, the market hardly looks any changed compared to how it was doing last year. However, it appears there will be a little less cluttering as some of the major playing PC makers would be concentrating on the Ultrabooks in place of tablets. But then, there are sure signs that the first half of 2012 will be ruled by Apple’s iPad & Amazon’s Kindle Fire and some of the Android devices that have made some place in the market.

With the steady coming up of a plethora of tablets, Sony, Acer, and NEC are some of the names that have just come up with fresh announcements. First on the list, Sony is soon to launch its latest consumer slate; it will be a Honeycomb-based Tablet S of 9.4 inches. The boring sounding slate offers those silicon inner parts that are available with most of its Android based competitors, i.e. a dual core Nvidia Tegra 2.

Coming to its hardware parts, you’ll find it offering a “TruBlack” display of 1280X800, front & back mounted cameras, as well as an SD card reader; however, it is notable that some of the reviewers have found that the one can’t play any media from the SD card directly. If anything really makes the Tablet S an interesting and unique device, it is its sloped shape measuring between 0.3 and 0.8 inches, which is believed to be taken from its inspiration from a folded magazine.

While discussing its software, it avails you with a kind of PlayStation emulator that comes along with a custom universal remote app that enables you to control the TVs from Sony, Blu-ray players, and other similar compatible devices. Its battery life is found to be lesser than that of the iPad2 or Galaxy 10.1, by being merely 8.35 hours. The 16GB model will be priced at $499 and the 32GB models will be available for $599 and will be available within a few weeks.

Acer and AT&T will be coming up with a 4G (HSPA+) tablet this year, as they had promised. This Sunday, September the 18^th, the Iconia Tab A501 will be launched in US and will be available in two versions. One will be a 16GB device at a price of $330 when purchased with a contract for two years or at an unsubsidized amount of $500f. The other version will be a 32GB device at $550 sans contract. It is believed that most of its specifications are same as those of the company’s Iconia Tab A500.

On the other hand, NEC has declared that it will be rolling out a 10.1 inch 1280X800 IPS paneled Wintel device offering 1.5GHz Atom and SM35 Express chipset, RAM of 2GB, storage of 64GB, Windows 7 Home Premium, two USB ports, HDMI-out, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.  The LaVie Touch will be available in Japan for 94,500 Yens which is equivalent to $1,225. It will be accompanied with a DVD drive, a keyboard, and mouse.

ViewSonic is all set to release its ViewPad 10pro sometimes in late August and mid September. What attracts people toward this new product is that it is certainly not an iPad clone like the ones common these days and it maintains its own uniqueness. Oak Trail platform from Intel powers the device which includes latest 1.5 GHz Atom Z670 processor and is capable of running multiple operating systems simultaneously.

This functionality of Oak Trail Platform made it possible for ViewSonic to provide access to Windows 7 and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The operating systems aren’t booted on the tablet in the conventional dual-boot system instead here the Google’s operating system is made to run on the top of the Windows in the form of an application.

“Users need to simply tap on the Android icon to make a seamless switch between business productivity and … entertainment,” ViewSonic said about their upcoming product.

This will certainly persuade some shoppers to take home this ViewPad; however, Windows based tablets aren’t found much successful and this only the time will tell how successful it will prove for this new tablet to choose Android 2.3 in place of 3 X Honeycomb which is especially meant for the tablets and has been used by most other devices since the month of February. Other than Honeycomb, by the end of 2011, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is to be released, but it isn’t clear whether 10pro will be getting an update or not.

Other than Oak Trail from Intel and the dual operating system functionality, one gets to see ViewPad as a typical spec sheet. It offers 1024X600 capacitive display of 10-inch, Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, front mounted webcam of 1.3 MP, Mini- HDMI ports, and audio jacks. It also offers support for 32 GB microSD cards and has a battery life of eight long hours. It weighs about 2 pounds and measures 10.7 x 6.7 x 0.58 inches.

It is estimated that no less than two configurations will be made available at the time of the launch in the US sometimes in the end of this month. Out of these configurations, one will be offered with Windows 7 Home Premium along with a 16 GB SSD at a price of $599 and the other will be with Windows 7 Professional along with 32 GB SSD at a cost of $699.

Industry insiders say that the tablets will be available in Europe not before a few weeks from the launch in US and there too, the tablets will be offered in two models, namely a Wi-Fi only unit at a price of about 539.99 pounds and another one a 3G-equipped version at a cost of 599.99 pounds. However, no storage difference is known yet.