Asus previously introduced an amazing concept to Android Tablet world which is Transforming Tablets such as Transformer Prime. They could transform between tablet and Netbook with keyboard docking stations. This is of course a brand new concept which made Asus the best Android tablet manufactures in the market.
They didn’t limit these radical designs only for Tablets. They expanded it to Smartphones as well. In 2012 February they introduced a very different kind of Smartphone called Asus PadFone. They brought the concept of “Transformer” back into play and this Smartphone could transform in to a Tablet and then to a Netbook as well.
Device Configuration
Design
Design is simple Candy bar as any other Android Smartphone. Built quality is great and materials are Aluminum and Poly carbonate. This is great plus point compared to other plastic built Smartphone. It’s coming with on-screen keys same as Google Galaxy Nexus. The best thing is it’s very light, only 129 g and probably having the lowest weight compared other Android Phones.
Processor and Storage
Processor is 1.5 GHz Dual Core Karait running on Qualcomm MSM8260A Snapdragon chipset. GPU is Adreno 225. This is very different configuration compared to other phones in the market.
RAM is 1 GB, usual configuration and internal storage is 16 / 32 / 64 GB. There is microSD card slot for you to expand storage up to another 32 GB.
Operating System
Asus PadFone originally comes with Android 4.0 customized versions. They had several features to support transforming such as dynamic switching. In addition there are controllers which required operating the device in Tablet mode which is pretty similar to Asus Transformer Prime.
Display
This device is having 4.3 inch Super AMOLED display with 540 x 960 pixel resolution which will give you 256 ppi pixel density. It’s a capacitive screen that supports multi-touch inputs and protected with Corning Gorilla Glass.
Connectivity and Interfaces
Device supports all major connectivity technologies such as 2G, 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. There is an in-built GPS device to pin point your location. There is a USB 2.0 interface to connect the device in to computer as well as to Docking station.
Camera
Primary camera is 8 MP with LED flash and capable of recording 1080p video. Front facing camera is VGA designed for video calling. In addition it’s having other standard options such as auto focus, color correction and geo tagging.
Battery Life
Phone comes with 1520 mAh Li-ion battery which can practically power it up for 6 hours. But there is another 6600 mAh battery in docking station. With that device can go for nearly 10 hours. If you have the keyboard dock as well, you can go definitely more than 16 hours even with heavy usage. This kind of battery performance is not there in any other Android device.
What is PadFone Station Dock?
PadFone station is optional device that comes for PadFone and this is the magic here. If you take a look at the hardware, it is a 10.1 inch tablet with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. In addition there is a 6600 mAh Li-ion battery as well. There is a pocket, where you can dock PadFone and then whole device become a tablet. In the pocket there are two holes kept for phones camera and LED flash.
In this setup, PadFone is the brain and dock is only the battery and display. Once you dock the phone within few seconds it transfers the display to dock using dynamic switching. It matches the resolution and other controller during that.
If you want to type things faster in this device you can get a keyboard dock as well. It’s almost same as original prime’s keyboard dock and it will give you more battery power as well.
Wrapping Up
PadFone is a great and path changing concept in Android devices. If you want to get the maximum experience with it make sure you buy the whole package with docking station as well as keyboard dock. Software is carefully optimized to work with all those transforming.
There was an issue with Dynamic display switching in some applications. However Asus released a patch to solve this issue as far as possible. There is a special mechanism to install tablet optimized app on the phone and activate them only when the device is docked to the station.
No matter how amazing this device is, it’s not a good fit for everyone. If you need Smartphone, Tablet and Netbook at the same time, this is your only option. But there will be very few people who are having that kind of requirement. Therefore target market for this device will be very limited.
Tags: #Asus #Qualcomm #Smartphone #Tablet