Remember the half-phone half-tablet from Asus unveiled during the Taiwan Computex 2011 show? Well, the Padfone is expected to hit the market at the end of the year or even early next year.
This tablet integrating smartphone is similar to the Motorola Atrix in terms of use. By this I mean that the actual tablet of the Padfone is only a shell where an Asus 4.3-inch smartphone can be inserted. Once docked to the tablet, the PadFone will use the smartphone functionality and display them on the tablet. The tablet can only work with a smartphone inserted in the dock.
The tablet features a 10.1-inch display and will increase the phone battery life when connected. The PadFone will be running Google’s Android latest OS, that is Ice Cream Sandwich. It will be interesting to see how Asus will integrate Ice Cream Sandwich on the smartphone and the tablet. Currently, Android smartphones mostly run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and tablets run Android 3.x Honeycomb. The Ice Cream Sandwich OS is supposed to unify both platforms, we’ll see how Asus handles it with the PadFone.
How much will the PadFone costs? According to Asus Vice-President Sun, the Padfone and smartphone will cost around the same price as an iPhone. Not so bad considering the fact that you kind of get two devices.
Anyone interested in the PadFone? Looks pretty cool to me, especially if the price is right, as surfing on a cellphone is still a tedious task.
[Via Focus Taiwan News Channel]
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– Is it a phone? Is it a tablet? Wait, its the Asus PadFone
