Monday 25 February 2013

Asus announce their 'Metallic miracles': The FonePad and the PadFone Infinity!


   So are you wondering what Asus' metallic miracle would be? It seems that we've been treated to two devices here and we saved the best until last! Head on past the break for all the juicy details!


Asus FonePad!

   So what happens when you get a 7" tablet shell and shove in all of the capabilities you get inside you phone? Well Asus' FonePad is what you get!

   This is a 7" 'phablet' which has a IPS 1280 x 800p resolution display, a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2420 processor, along with 1GB of RAM, a PowerVR SGX540 GPU, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and that all important HSPA+ radio! Unfortunately the camera options on the device aren't great and you'll be restricted to a 1.2MP front-camera, but there will be a version of the device made with a 3MP 720p capable rear-camera too! The whole package will be powered for up to nine or ten hours by the 4,270mAh battery, which is not too shabby!

   All of these internals will be concealed inside a smooth metal casing which can be coloured either grey or gold depending on your preferences. Access to your micro-SIM and MicroSD card slots will be via a removable panel on the back Round back you'll find a panel where all the usual antennae are, and hidden underneath are both the micro-SIM slot and the microSD reader. That microSD slot, by the way, supports 32GB cards, which should come in handy considering this has 16GB of built-in storage. Asus will also throw in 5GB of their web storage!

   When the device arrives in Europe this March it will cost you £179, €219 and if or when this lands in America it would be priced at $249, but that hasn't been confirmed yet! For more details check out the press release here and a video teaser is embedded just below!



Asus PadFone Infinity.

   We already know that when Asus tags on the word 'Infinity' to one of their product that things are about to get interesting. This time it's no different and the PadFone series really just came of age!

   This time your PadFone will land on your doorstep with Android 4.2 right from the off, your display will be a fantastic 5" Full 1080p display, giving you a ppi of 441, so this is right up there with the latest batch of phones. But, it's not just the phone which has been given an upgrade here, the tablet dock will now ship with a 1920 x 1080p display too, which won't be quite as bright as the last gen screen, it'll be 400 nits instead of 500, but we can forgive that because of the massive bump in resolution!

   So you know what the screens will look like, but what about the internal bits which will drive your screen? Well on board there will a be a quad-core Snapdragon 600 chipset clocked at 1.7GHz, this is twinned with an Adreno 320 GPU, so this phone should handle pretty much everything you throw at it!

   Other than that everything else is looking up to scratch too; there's 2GB of RAM, either 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage and a list of connectivity options which is as long as your arm. There's EDGE, GPRS, GSM, WCDMA, LTE and DC-HSPA+, along with (take a breath) WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, A-GPS and GLONASS. The device supposedly uses a nano-SIM card, which is a little bit of a pain, but that is offset by the 13-megapixel rear facing autofocus camera which is a five-element, f/2.0 lens which can shoot at 8fps. This comes with an LED flash too. On the front there's a 2MP for those video chats. All of this is powered by a 2,400mAh battery, but naturally this can be recharged and pushed upwards when the phone is docked into the tablet component.

   So what will one of the most powerful smartphones on the market and a full HD tablet dock set you back? Well, if you're in the US you simply won't be offered one for sale, but for those of you in Europe both the phone and dock together will cost £799 or €999 depending on your currency, we do also know that the phone will arrive in Asia, but we don't know when or how much it'll cost. So if you want one of these bad boys you can pick one up in April in your choice of grey, gold or hot pink, depending on your preferences of course!

   For more information check out the press release here and the promo video below!



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