ASUS Padfone is a hybrid device offering some unique selling points:
Tired of watching movies and browsing websites on your phone’s miniscule screen? Do you wish that that you could plug it into a bigger display and navigate your phone on that same display? Well, apparently somebody is and does, because AsusTeK is marketing a product that does exactly that. Due to release in April, it’s called the Padfone, and it consists of a high-end smartphone that can plug into a tablet dock. This dock boosts the phone’s battery life and provides much more screen real estate. It looks to revolutionize the smartphone market the way their Transformer series did for tablets. But will it gain even a fraction of the acclaim that its tablet brethren did? Actually, I think Asus’s attempt at mad genius might very well pay off.
ASUS Padfone hardware:
First of all, the hardware is there. The phone itself comes packing with an incredibly powerful 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, up to 64 GB of storage, a super AMOLED display, and a front and rear camera duo, the latter of which is 8 Mega-Pixels, has autofocus, and comes with a flash. This phone was not at all scraped together from parts they had lying around on the floor; it looks like a very high-quality build. On top of that, it runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which offers the very latest features. It’s sure to resonate with consumers the same way that the Transformer Prime did.
Increased battery life:
Next, Asus has given consumers a good reason to actually use the tablet dock it comes with: increased battery life. With many complaining of poor battery life on smartphones, including our own Anthony Munns, everyone is clamoring for more juice. The Padfone’s dock provides it’s own internal battery to boost that of the phone. And if that’s not enough, consumers can purchase an additional keyboard dock to enhance the battery even further. Asus claims that the battery life will increase five-fold with the tablet dock, and nine-fold with the keyboard dock in addition to the tablet dock. That’s quite a bit of power to be wielded.
Minor bug bears:
That’s not to say that Asus has done everything absolutely right. Engadget complains of the tablet dock’s girth and weight, and I personally would have liked the tablet to be compatible with the Transformer and/or Transformer Prime docks. There’s also the objection that Motorola has done similar things with its phones, and they haven’t exactly set the world on fire. Ultimately, though, I feel that Asus’s Padfone will carve out a significant chunk of the market simply because of it’s build quality, and Asus’s sensitivity to it’s customer’s needs and wants.
So what is the ASUS Padfone release date? Who knows just yet, but we will keep you posted.
Joseph Whaley