Asus Padphone

  

If your memory serves you well, you might recall that ASUS originally announced the Padfone tablet/smartphone hybrid device back in May of 2011. It then reminded us in October that it plans to bring the unique concept to market in 2012, and now it has announced the final design and specs of the Padfone. The main idea hasn't changed much - its a smartphone that docks inside of a tablet - but the hardware has been refined a bit and the phone is using some modern silicon.

The phone component of the Padfone features a 4.3-inch, qHD (540 x 960 pixel) Super AMOLED display and a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.5GHz. The tablet portion of the Padfone has a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display and uses the phone's prcoessor when the phone is docked inside. The phone has an 8 megapixel camera and VGA front facing camera, while the tablet has a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera.

The whole rig runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and ASUS is offering a keyboard dock similar to what it has for the Transformer Prime. The dock adds 9 times the battery life of the puny 1,520mAh battery in the phone, while the tablet itself increases it by 5 times. Essentially, ASUS is providing a device that you can use one SIM card with and have a smartphone, tablet, or laptop depending on your needs.

ASUS says that it will begin shipping an HSPA version Padfone in April with an LTE model due later on in the year.

ASUS Padfone

ASUS Padfone

With the launch of iPad, Apple introduced a new category of computing devices that were light and portable like mobile phones but more powerful than most netbook style computers.

Taiwanese computer maker Asus is taking a step further by marrying these two different devices into one. They have introduced Padphone, an hybrid device that looks like any other touch tablet but with a kangaroo pouch for carrying a smartphone. In other words, the tablet body itself acts as a case for the phone.

Why would anyone want an Asus Padphone? Well there are a few innovations listed in the specs that really impress.

One, you can have a single SIM card and share the data connection with both the phone and the tablet. The tablet can be used as a standalone charger for the mobile phone. The Padphone runs on Google Android and you don’t ever have to worry about transferring your files and other from the phone to the tablet or vice-versa.

The ASUS Padfone is a device that explores one possible convergence between two popular mobile devices – the smartphone and tablet. The Padfone solves the problem of data transfer hassles and multiple SIM cards when both a smartphone and 3G tablet are used.

With the Padfone, the smartphone docks inside the tablet to give users an expanded view to suit their tasks. With the phone docked, it can recharge from the tablet’s larger battery and the tablet can also make use of the smartphone’s 3G internet connection. The dual interfaces for both the pad and phone ensure an enhanced user experience as the layout is automatically adjusted for all activities such as video conferencing, web browsing and emailing.

There’s no word on pricing or availability yet but it will interesting to see how it shapes up in the coming months. Watch the following videos to get some more idea of Asus Padphone.

Specs

GENERAL	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA
	Announced	2012, February
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2012, April

BODY	Dimensions	128 x 65.4 x 9.2 mm
	Weight	129 g
		- Optional Padfone Station with 10.1 inches display

DISPLAY	Type	Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	540 x 960 pixels, 4.3 inches (~256 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration, MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 32GB
	Internal	16/32 GB storage, 1 GB RAM

DATA	GPRS	Yes
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	HSDPA, HSUPA
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
	Bluetooth	Yes, with A2DP
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

CAMERA	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Geo-tagging
	Video	Yes
	Secondary	Yes, VGA

FEATURES	OS	Android OS, v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
	Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon
	CPU	Dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion
	GPU	Adreno 225
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML5, Adobe Flash
	Radio	No
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
	Colors	Black
		- SNS integration - MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player - MP4/H.264/H.263 player - Organizer - Document viewer - Photo viewer/editor - Voice memo/dial - Predictive text input (Swype)

BATTERY		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1520 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 373 h (2G) / Up to 440 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 10 h 40 min (2G) / Up to 8 h 30 min (3G)