Asus India has announced the launch of PadFone, a unique three-in-one device that can be a smartphone, tablet, as well as a netbook.
In standalone mode, the PadFone is a regular smartphone with a 4.3-inch 960x540 display that runs Android 4.0. Combine it with a PadFone Station and it transforms into a 10.1-inch 1280x800 Android tablet with up to 63 hours of talk time. Throw in the Padfone Station Dock, and it becomes a netbook with extended battery life up to 104 hours and access to USB ports and card reader.
Asus says the device is intelligent enough to reorient the display by itself when moving from the phone to tablet mode and vice versa.
"Today's introduction of PadFone will be an utmost expansion of our users' world where they will enjoy, achieve and save categorically. It is an alluring proof to substantiate our prime focus on the mastery of technological innovation and design perfection. We are assertive that PadFone will touch customers' heart in terms of incredible product, incredible design, incredible quality and incredible service," Mr. Alex Huang, Managing Director, System Business Group, Asus India said.
The Asus PadFone is powered by dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor and comes with 1GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage and a 8-megapixel digital camera with Fuji image processor, F2.2 aperture and 5-element lens. An optional Bluetooth stylus headset doubles up as a headset and a stylus - users can use it to draw and write, and when a call comes in while the PadFone is docked, users can pick up the call with ease using the stylus.
While the Asus PadFone sounds like an interesting concept, at a price tag of Rs. 64,999, it may struggle to find many takers. We liked the
Asus Transformer Prime tablet-cum-netbook, but that was let down by its pricing. We fear a similar thing might happen with the PadFone, but we'll reserve our judgement until we've had the chance to review the unit.