The long wait is over, the PadFone is finally in Malaysia. Let’s cut to the chase.
First thing everyone asks – price!! RM 2,399 for the PadFone and PadFone Station. No price for the dock yet (the dock refers to the part with the keyboard). Stylus headset is RM 179.
Second thing everyone asks – availability!! 3rd July 2012, which is TODAY!!!!
Third thing everyone asks – What are the specs? Visit http://my.asus.com/Mobile/PadFone/ for the specs. 😛 (you could just use Google you know)
And for those with some common sense to question but no common sense to use Google – What’s so good about it?
Let’s see, it’s a tablet with phone. Practicality wise is entirely up to individual view of how things should be. Definitely at RM 2,399 – it’s pretty good considering you get both a phone and tablet, albeit a rather thick tablet by today’s standard.
The device runs on Android – Ice Cream Sandwich. Bear in mind you’re not exactly getting 2 devices for the price of one, the tablet WILL NOT work without the phone.
Seen those anime where the little robot combines with an accessory to be a bigger robot? Well, this is the case. What you get is essentially a lovely full fledged ICS powered phone with Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1.5ghz processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB flash storage, and so on so forth. And with the add-on, it converts the phone into a tablet.
The OS and processing capability is still on the phone itself. The tablet portion is just the display panel and the additional ports.
Quick Comparison
Many thanks to my friend Yogaretnam for the idea, and of course myself being there with the camera. 🙂 We spent our time comparing his Transformer Prime TF201 against the PadFone.
The PadFone is on the left, the TF201 is on the right.
First up – Tablet, thinnest area vs the thinnest area (of course, the TF201 is flat surfaced all the way).
Second – Tablet, thickest area vs the thickest area (as you can see, the TF201 is flat surfaced all the way).
Third – Tablet and Station – thickest area vs the thickest area (yet again, the TF201 is flat surfaced all the way).
Fourth – Tablet and Station – thickest area vs the thickest area (without a doubt, the TF201 is flat surfaced all the way).
My Take
I’ve always loved Android devices more than iOS devices, let’s not go into that part – I’ll write an article on it some other time.
I fell in love with the TF101G last year, and I was hoping to get tablet with 3G ever since……….. I haven’t got myself to do so as I was waiting and waiting for more of Asus’ releases.
The PadFone is one that looks promising but I have mixed feelings – only because of the thickness and weight. I mean, seriously – look at the comparison above, if you’re a PRIME user then you might not like it. It feels a little bit thicker than the TF101G as it has to accommodate the phone part. What I like about it is that the total combined battery is at 1520mAh + 6600mAh = a little over 8,000!!! 😀 (over 9000 would be nice. hehe).
From what I understand at the event, if you ran out of juice for the phone. You can just connect it to the station and the phone will be charged by the station.
I think the real value is that it’s a tablet with keyboard accessory and comes with a phone. Or a phone that comes with a bigger screen and keyboard. However you wish to see it, it’s something no others did.
I liked the phone, it felt solid. At first glance it resembles an iPhone’s black surface and glossy silver finish at the side. Upon closer inspection you’ll see it’s very different. The phone itself comes with MicroSD slot, which is something a lot of us Android users treasure. 😀 On the downside, USB OTG cable doesn’t seem to work for now.
This device is great if you’re spending more time on the phone, and need the occasional tablet function. It’s great for people who love not to carry around 2 devices. Hopefully a more detailed write-up for this device will appear here really soon.
The Event
The venue.
Ms Fei Yen, Territory Product Manager of Asus.
Group photo. 🙂
Nice coverage. Love the comparison done by you and Yoga.