Asus was at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona showing off its new Fonepad, a €219 ($249), seven-inch Android tablet with 3G voice for calling, and the Padfone, a 5-inch, high-end Android 4.2 smartphone that, like its predecessor last year, can be docked to a 10-inch tablet. Asus will launch the Fonepad and the Padfone in the UK in April, but the company said it does not plan to make them available in the US.
Padfone Infinity phone + tablet
The Padfone Infinity boasts a 5-inch, very-high resolution 441-ppi “Super IPS” LCD screen, and is powered by a very speedy 1.7-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 chip. At just 0.25 inches (6.4 mm) thick, it’s very thin, sheathed in aluminum, and comes in gray, gold, or pink. The screen wraps a little around the front edges. On the back there’s a 13-megapixel camera, and a 2-megapixel camera up front.
The Padfone Infinity runs Android 4.2 (Key Lime Pie), and Asus has included its own voice dialer, audio enhancer, and to-do and notes apps. You can choose from 32GB or 64GB of internal memory. Wireless connectivity comes via HSPA+ 42 and LTE, and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac.
The Padfone is meant to be used with Asus’ 10-inch, 1080p tablet for sharing connectivity or transferring files or media. The back of this particular tablet has a slot to slide the phone in, and once it’s there, the tablet comes alive. When you’re in tablet mode, you’ll see an extra tab in the app drawer for tablet-only apps.
Now for the bad news: the Padfone Infinity and its tablet will cost around £799 ($1,209) in the UK, so we don’t expect it to be a hot-seller. Asus has not announced a release date.
Fonepad tablet
If you’re on a budget, Asus’ Fonepad might be more for you. The 7-inch tablet is powered by a new Intel Atom Z2420 processor running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), has a metallic body and a multi-touch, HD display. The tablet’s 1280 x 800 resolution, IPS-technology display delivers images that are relatively crisp and bright, even outdoors, and 178-degree wide viewing angles. The tablet offers 1080p Full HD video decoding, and up to nine hours of battery life.
With its full HSPA+ 3G telephony support, the Fonepad can also be used for voice calls using the built-in noise-cancelling digital microphone or a Bluetooth headset. And if you don’t mind using a 7-inch tablet as your primary phone (if allowed by your carrier), you could save money over using a separate smartphone and 3G tablet with separate data plans.
The Fonepad only includes 16GB of storage, but you can add up to 32GB more with a microSD card. Don’t expect to use this for photos: there’s only a 1.2-megapixel camera.
Asus has bundled several productivity apps on the Fonepad. There’s the “Floating App” to manage running apps and multi-task, SuperNote Lite to take handwritten notes and drawings, and WebStorage Office Online to create and edit Microsoft Office-compatible documents. Asus is giving all Fonepad users 5GB of lifetime WebStorage for syncing and sharing data with other devices… not a lot, but perhaps enough for a small tablet’s needs.
Two new optional case-stand combos are also available for Fonepad. Asus’ VersaSleeve 7 is a wraparound cover with a folding design that props up the screen in two different positions, and comes in four different colors. Asus’ Turn Case for Fonepad is a lightweight hard-shell case that has a soft interior, plus a built-in stand.
The Fonepad and the cases will be available in the UK late Q2 2013. The 16GB Fonepad will retail for £179 (€219) including VAT ($249), the VersaSleeve will sell for £19.99, and Turn Case £39.99. We’ll be sure to let you know if the Fonepad or Padfone ever make it Stateside.
