Taiwanese computer electronics giant, Asus at CES 2014 unveiled two new smartphone-tablet hybrids, the 4-inch Asus PadFone mini that fits into a 7-inch tablet dock, and the 5-inch Asus PadFone X that fits into a 9-inch tablet dock. The company did not reveal any details about pricing and availability of the two hybrid devices, however, it did mention that the PadFone X will be available in US exclusively with AT&T.
The Asus PadFone mini is not to be confused with the Asus PadFone mini 4.3, which was showcased by the company back in December. The PadFone mini runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and is skinned with the Asus’ ZenUI, which is detailed in our previous launch coverage of the Asus ZenFone series. The company has notably once again promised an Android 4.4 KitKat upgrade for the PadFone mini.
Featuring a 4-inch WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) IPS+ LED-backlit display, the dual-SIM (micro SIM) Asus PadFone mini ships with a tablet dock that is built around a 7-inch WXGA (800 x 1280 pixel) IPS+ LED-backlit display. The PadFone mini is powered by a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor with four threads, and is coupled with 1GB of LPDDR2 RAM.
Other specifications of the Asus PadFone mini include 8GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD card up to 64GB), an 8-megapixel ‘PixelMaster’ rear f/2.0 BSI camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 4.5Wh 1170mAh non-removable polymer battery. The tablet dock features an 8.3Wh 2100mAh non-removable polymer battery to supplement this.
Connectivity options on the Asus Padfone mini (GSM-WCDMA) include GPRS/EDGE, HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n; Wi-Fi-Direct, Bluetooth v4.0 (EDR + A2DP ), a 3.5mm headphone jack, Micro-USB, and a 24-pin connector. Dimensions of the phone are 124.42 (L) x 61.44 (W) x 6.3-11.2 (H) mm, whilst the tablet has the following: 199.85 (L) x 119.43 (W) x 13.91 (H) mm. The phone weighs in at 116 grams, while the tablet dock weighs 260 grams. The PadFone mini will be available in Black, Blue, Red, White and Yellow colours.
Asus on Monday also announced the PadFone X smartphone-tablet hybrid, without too many details about specifications. Pricing and availability were also not mentioned. It features a tablet dock with a 9-inch full-HD display, but details about the Android 4.4 KitKat-based smartphone’s own 5-inch display are lacking. Other specifications gleaned were support for LTE-Advanced technology, including Carrier Aggregation, Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and HD Voice. NFC connectivity is also available.
Source-NDTV
