Asus has officially announced PadFone Infinity, an LTE smartphone with a metallic design and a 5-inch Full HD display, that becomes a 10.1-inch tablet when docked to its companion PadFone Infinity Station, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013. This is the third edition of the PadFone. The PadFone 2 was
launched in October 2012. The latest iteration of the smartphone-tablet hybrid consists of improved specifications especially in terms of design and hardware in comparison to the PadFone 2.
"PadFone Infinity is the latest evolution of our PadFone line," said Jonney Shih, Asus Chairman. "It combines incredible design with an uncompromised user experience derived from our Design Thinking philosophy."
The PadFone Infinity runs Android 4.2, the latest version of the OS, and is powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, and an Adreno 320 Graphics processor. It has 2GB RAM and offers 32GB/64GB of internal storage. The PadFone also supports LTE connectivity and NFC.
The PadFone's 5-inch screen features a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels with a pixel density of 441 pixels-per-inch, while the tablet's 10.1-inch screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels.
The Asus PadFone Infinity sports a 13-megapixel camera with an f/2.0, 5-element lens, which, as per the company, captures incredibly detailed images with no shutter lag. It also has a dedicated image signal-processor to enhance low-light image quality and to enable PadFone Infinity to capture up to 100 sequential photos at 8 frames-per-second, while simultaneously recording 1080p full-HD video.The PadFone Infinity can also record 1080p full-HD video via its micro-USB-compatible MyDP interface. It also comes with a 2-megapixel front shooter.
The device has a 2,400mAh battery which promises up to 19 hours of 3G talk time, and up to 40 hours of talk time when docked with the PadFone Infinity docking station.
Asus has also announced a tentative price of 799 Pounds for the PadFone Infinity and Infinity station but has not revealed the exact launch date. As far as pricing and availability for India is concerned, there is no official word yet.
MWC 2013 in pictures