ASUS PadFone 2

Available now
16th October 2012

The original ASUS PadFone announced earlier this year was an odd device that caused quite a stir. A smartphone that could actually dock inside a tablet, the idea was interesting, but when docked it was massively heavy compared to rivals.

ASUS have gone away and come up with a significant redesign - the ASUS PadFone 2. One obvious improvement is the weight of the phone/tablet combo which is down from 844 grams to a more manageable 649 grams, a 25% reduction in weight that makes it almost exactly the same as the current iPad.

The PadFone slides straight into the back of the PadFone station, rather than being hidden under a panel, and it docks into a 13 pin connector. This is a quicker and easier approach than the old PadFone, but unfortunately it means that it is also completely incompatible with the previous model.

The PadFone 2 itself is a smart but somewhat generic looking device with a large 4.7" 720 x 1280 pixel panel on the front. ASUS's own technical specifications say that this is a resistive panel rather than a capacitive one. Perhaps this is something to do with handwriting recognition, perhaps it is an error. At this point it's very hard to tell, but normally resistive touchscreens are used in cheaper devices, but the PadFone 2 is a pretty high end handset.

There is a whopping 13 megapixel camera on the back with 1080p HD video recording at 30fps, or 720p video recording at an impressive 60fps. There's a 1.2 megapixel unit on the front for video calling. Inside is a 1.5GHz quad-core processor with a generous 2GB of RAM. Internal flash storage is a non-expandable 16, 32 or 64GB plus 50GB of ASUS cloud storage thrown in, free for two years. There's a large 2140 mAh battery inside that ASUS says is capable of giving up to 16 hours talktime. The PadFone 2 runs Android 4.0 with an update to 4.1 promised.

The new PadFone 2 Station has a 10.1" 1280 x 800 pixel panel and a large 5000 mAh battery of its own, although that has been slimmed down from the 6600 mAh cell in the previous version. Since the back of the PadFone 2 smartphone is visible from the back, then we assume that you can still use the 13 megapixel primary camera when using the tablet. The Station has a 1 megapixel camera on the front of it's own.

Because the PadFone 2 has a microSIM card, then the tablet can also use the handset's HSPA+ or LTE connectivity (depending on model). All the usual Android features are here such as WiFi, Bluetooth plus GPS and GLONASS positioning systems.

ASUS indicate that the middle model, the 32GB PadFone 2 and PadFone 2 Station will retail for €799 (we don't know if that includes sales tax) and it should start shipping in many European and Asian markets during December in black, with the white version to follow later.

The ASUS PadFone 2 looks quite interesting, and the quoted price looks like good value when you consider that you are getting a high-end smartphone and a decent tablet. However, this symbiosis has drawbacks - for example, if you lose your PadFone 2 then you have to replace it with an identical one to keep using the tablet. However, the main drawback of sheer bulkiness has been fixed, and this elegant and innovative solution might well find some fans out there.