ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the first tablet to have the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, is currently the most discussed and also the most pre-ordered device using the Honeycomb Android OS.

The Prime has been quickly sold out at both BestBuy and GameStop and was last seen available at Office Depot with a price tag of $499.99 for a 32GB model. The latest tablet features a 10.1-inch LED backlit screen with Super IPS+ technology and a keyboard dock, which features a track pad, USB 2.0 port and SD card slot.

On the other hand, Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet has been the bestselling, most gifted and most wished-for product on Amazon since its debut 13 weeks ago. The tablet features a vibrant color touch screen, a powerful dual-core processor and a new browser - Amazon Silk - as well as the Amazon Web Services cloud.

Both tablets have been introduced in the market recently and have proven popular in their own way. It is not particularly fair to compare the Kindle Fire, which is primarily designed to be an e-reader with extra features, against a high-end tablet like the Transformer Prime.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to see how they stack up...

Display: The Amazon Kindle Fire display is a 7 touch screen that has 1024 x 600 pixel resolution at 169 ppi and can exhibit 16 million colors, while the Transformer Prime has a 10.1-inch Super IPS LCD capacitive touch screen display with Corning's Gorilla glass offering 1280 x 800 pixels at 149ppi.

Dimensions: The Transformer Prime has a dimension of 263 × 180.8 × 8.3mm, weighs 586 grams (pad only) / 263 × 180.8 × 8-10.4mm, weighs 537 grams (dock only). The Kindle Fire has a dimension of 190 x 120 x 11.4 mm and weighs 413 grams.

Processor: ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime is the first tablet to feature Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, which, technically, has five cores... it is the fifth core - called the companion core - that really makes the difference. The Kindle Fire has TI OMAP 4 dual-core processor.

Camera: The ASUS tablet sports an 8 megapixel 3264x2448 pixels camera with LED flash and autofocus features. In addition, it has a 1.2-megapixel camera on the front for video calling. The Kindle Fire, curiously, lacks any camera... something which must disappoint photo geeks.

Storage: The Kindle Fire's 8GB of internal storage is pretty low compared to the Transformer Prime's 32GB and 64GB models. Amazon hopes customers will forget about memory as it allows them to store Amazon-bought digital content on the Amazon Cloud for free.

Connectivity: Both devices lack 3G support. The Transformer Prime has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1 version with EDR, and USB 2.0 version, while the Kindle has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Wi-Fi hotspot and Micro-USB 2.0.

Operating System: The Transformer Prime runs on Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system and could be upgradable to the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, while the Kindle Fire runs on Amazon's customized version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

Battery: The Transformer Prime pad (with dock) has a 22 Wh Li-polymer Battery that is expected to give 18 hours of battery life on video playback. The Kindle Fire offers battery life of up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off.

Price: The Kindle Fire is selling in substantial numbers because of its attractive price. At $199, the 7-inch Android-based tablet is more than just a storage device for your music and movies. On the other hand, ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer Prime costs $499 for the 32GB version and $599 for the 64GB version.

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