Asus Unveils Its PadFone 2-the Great Avatar of Phone/Tablet Combo

Asus announced its phone/tablet hybrid during a media launch in Taipei on Tuesday, as expected, with some great upgrades to the original and a new docking mechanism for easy insertion. The PadFone 2 is a powerful smartphone that slides into its companion tablet and actually provides the computing power for the slate when a bigger screen is needed.  Asus' has had a number of interesting Android tablet concepts out there, from the high-end Transformer Infinity line through to the quirky PadFone, a combination Android phone and tablet. All these efforts indicate Asus' motivation to become an electronic giant in the competitive market.

                  

Speaking of the smartphone only

Though the original PadFone is a little half-baked, the Padfone 2 sounds much more like a high-end smartphone than its predecessor. It is an upgrade over its predecessor in more ways than one, frankly speaking, it's thinner, lighter and faster than its old version. It measures 137.9 by 68.9 by 9mm and weighs 135 grams and the screen of the phone is a huge 4.7 ” Super IPS+ display, almost as huge as the one on the Samsung Galaxy S3, but the same 720 x 1280 pixels resolution means better PPI, which makes things look really sharp.

The PadFone 2 runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5GHz quad-core processor and Android 4.0.3 (Ice Cream Sandwich).The camera has 13 megapixels, an f/2.4 aperture and can take 100 shots at six shots per second—while recording 1080p high-definition video at 30 frames per second (fps) or 720p HD video at 60fps. The front facing 1.2MP camera isn't quite as highly specced, but should be good enough for a Skype call. The backside-illuminated sensor is provided by Sony, making it likely the same one as seen on the Xperia T.

Other specs of note include LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with GLONASS support, and a custom new 13-pin dock connector that supports Micro USB 2.0 and MHL connections.

                     

The tablet station is fresh new design

Of course, a PadFone wouldn't be a PadFone without a tailor-made tablet accessory, which in the case of the new handset is a thinner slate with a redesigned docking connection. The door of the original hybrid has been removed and the PadFone 2 now sits vertically in its tablet dock, giving it the appearance of a protruding spine to the significantly slimmer tablet.

The tablet station is stated to feature a 10.1-inch IPS display with a 1280x800 pixel resolution. It’s also thinner, lighter and features a slicker design and docking mechanism than its predecessor. The battery on board has actually been downgraded to 5000mAh from the original's 6600mAh.

                        

The whole thing will come with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, but is upgradeable to Jelly Bean, which Asus promises as soon as possible after launch. Sadly, however, it has a few backwards thanks to the loss of keyboard support and microSD. It’s not 100 per cent certain that there’s no keyboard, but Asus hasn’t said anything and multiple news sites have reached this upsetting conclusion already.

Asus has priced its new smartphone/tablet hybrid at 799 euro for the 32GB version and 899 euro for the 64GB model. The new smartphone / tablet hybrid's release date is set for "before the end of 2012" for Europe and Asia, while other countries will be announced later on.