Asus PadFone S and ZenFone 5 LTE Launched; Pricing Revealed

The PadFone S smartphone-tablet hybrid has been priced at NTD 9,999 (roughly Rs. 20,000), while the ZenFone 5 LTE comes at NTD 6,990 (roughly Rs. 14,000). The Padstation for the PadFone S will be available separately at NTD 5,000 (roughly Rs. 10,000). Both the devices will go on sale starting Thursday in Taiwan.

Notably, both the PadFone S smartphone-tablet hybrid and refreshed version of the ZenFone 5 were introduced at Computex this year.

The PadFone S smartphone features a 5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display and is powered by a 2.3GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AB) processor alongside 2GB of RAM. There is a 13-megapixel rear camera onboard, while the smartphone also features a 2-megapixel front camera. It runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box with the company's new ZenUI on top. The smartphone is backed by a 2300mAh battery. There is no word on inbuilt storage. The smartphone features Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, NFC, 3G, and LTE connectivity options.

Much like other PadFone devices, the PadFone S comes with a tablet docking station, which in this case features a 9-inch full-HD (1920x1200 pixels) display. Like previous iterations, the smartphone fits into the tablet dock, powering the tablet with its hardware. The tablet dock packs a huge 4990mAh battery.

The Asus ZenFone 5 LTE features almost identical specifications to the ZenFone 5 launched in India on Wednesday, except that the former supports LTE connectivity, is powered by 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, runs Android 4.4 KitKat, available in single SIM variant, and comes in a 16GB inbuilt storage model only.

Other specifications of the ZenFone 5 LTE includes a 5-inch 720x1280 pixel IPS display; 2GB of RAM; 8-megapixel rear camera; 2-megapixel front camera; expandable storage support up to 64GB via microSD card, and a 2110mAh battery.