Asus has been drumming up some mighty interesting Tablet PC offerings at Computex this year and nothing sets this point more than the new Asus Padfone. This is a tablet that comes with a Smartphone that docks right into the unit and then your tablet rides the internet connection. It certainly is one of the most innovative products we have seen so far. What makes it so different?
The Padfone is basically a smartphone that is bundled with a 10.1 inch tablet computer, it will be sold as a bundled package. What makes the device so innovative is that everything on your phone will be displayed on your tablet. The phone itself actually physically docks into the unit and then you close the flap on the tablet which totally protects your phone.
If you look at the hardware right now the Tablet is 10.1 inches and has a USB 2.0 port and a built in microphone. The tablet also had rear facing stereo speakers in order to play all of the sounds and also a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Many people were saying the Tablet had a rear facing camera but in fact it was the rear facing camera of the phone. The chassis of the tablet when it closes and envelops the phone has a small hole that accommodates the rear facing camera on the phone.
The Phone aspect of the device docks into the Tablet via Micro USB and Micro HDMI so you can play back full 1080 P video from your phone to your tablet. The phone is very slick and has a 4.3 inch screen and has both a front facing and rear facing 5 MP camera.
The Tablet on display at Computex was a stock Honeycomb unit, but it seemed that everything derived from the phone connecting to it. By stock we mean the tablet physically had a piece of paper glued to the screen that showed the Android operating system.The Asus representative told us that the phone will be likely shipped with Google Ice Cream Sandwich OS, but the design specs of the Padfone were NOT finalized by any means and they were quite evasive about a street date. The design specs of the phone as well were subject to revision.
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Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
