The company is among the first to unveil its new iPad rivals ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The show officially opens on Thursday, with as many as 100 new tablets on display.

The Eee Pad Slider is special for a few reasons. First and foremost is the software, Honeycomb, which was expected to be unveiled officially at a Motorola press conference on Wednesday. Asustek got a jump on the competition. The tablet sports a 10.1-inch touchscreen with a keypad that slides out, similar to mobile phones with sliding keyboards, for laptop-like typing.

The device also boasts an Nvidia Tegra dual-core processor for strong graphics performance and has dual cameras on board.

The Eee Pad Slider will launch in May and will be priced between US$499 and $799 depending on several factors, including content and wireless contracts.

Asustek's Eee Slate E121 has an Intel Core i5 processor and Microsoft's Windows 7 OS, for a full PC experience. It is focused on HD multimedia, with an HDMI port in addition to its USB port.