We bought a little souvenir from our trip to Taiwan last week. It was something we were hoping would eventually be released in the Philippines but turns out isn’t really coming at all. Check out our unboxing photos and first impressions of the Asus Padfone after the break.
The Asus Padfone is one of its kind — it’s a powerful 4.3-inch smartphone that transforms into a 10.1-inch tablet.
This little trick is achieved by creating a shell tablet that houses the handset. Information is then projected from the phone to the tablet via micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports. You can think of shell tablet as some sort of secondary display that mirrors the screen of the phone. It’s a pretty neat trick actually.
While the handset itself is pretty thin, the enclosure of the tablet is a bit thick (thicker than the 1st-gen Asus Transformer) and feels heavy on one hand. From the short experience that I had, it’s going to be a challenge using this tablet on prolonged periods of time.
Aside from the tablet itself, there’s also the optional keyboard dock with extended battery. So, there’s actually 3 separate devices here — the Padfone, the shell tablet and the keyboard dock. Each of the devices have their own separate battery and allows for one to charge the other when completely docked (i.e., keyboard will charge the tablet and the tablet charges the Padfone but not the other way around).
The tablet also comes with a Bluetooth stylus pen. You use the stylus for the multi-touch screen and it also doubles as a Bluetooth headset. Though looking somewhat awkward, it’s actually a clever way to use the Padfone’s cellular functions when it’s docked into the tablet.
The configuration of the Padfone is pretty good, especially the performance of the SnapDragon S4. It comes with ICS out of the box as well so the UI adopts when on the tablet-mode or the phone-mode.
Asus Padfone specs:
4.3″ Super AMOLED display @ 540×960 pixels
Qualcomm MSM 8960 Snapdragon S4 Krait 1.5GHz dual-core
Adreno 225 GPU
1GB RAM
16GB, 32GB and 64GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
HSPA+ 42Mbps
8MP autofocus camera
GPS w/ aGPS support
1520mAh Li-Ion battery
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
We were told that the Padfone might not be released in the Philippines so we’re lucky to have bought one in Taiwan (that makes us one of the few handful folks who has it in the country). Based on our estimate currency conversions, the Padfone sells for around Php25k in Taiwan, goes up to Php32k with the tablet and stylus, then right up to about Php40k with the tablet, stylus and keyboard dock.
Check out the gallery below to fully appreciate the Padfone’s multi-function mode.
[fancygallery ID=”padfone”]
Stay tuned as we post the full review in a week or two.
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