We weren’t going to bother mentioning today’s announcement of the new Asus PadFone 2 tablet, because it sounds quite silly and we’re not sure anyone in the entire world actually cared about the first PadFone model. Or if it even went on sale.
BUT THEN! We saw this video of the PadFone 2 in action over on the Asus YouTube channel, which goes into a whole heap of detail about how the two separate phone and tablet elements dock together and operate. And it looks… good!
It looks like the sort of thing we might even momentarily consider buying, before seeing sense and deciding to stick with our old Samsung laptop. But still. Looks good. Might appeal to someone.
It’s smooth to use, the 1080p display is sharp, clear and bright, the device is extremely light and thin and therefore very pocketable and portable — much more so than other 5-inch phones we’ve used. And yet… we’re a bit unimpressed by the overall package…
A relatively high-spec smartphone, with a 4.5″ display running at 480 x 854 resolution and powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, plus the Ascend G510 arrives running Android 4.1.1 — albeit potentially hindered by Huawei only sticking 512MB of RAM inside it..
The Panasonic Eluga marks the company’s return to the European mobile phone scene years after several years of absence, and it’s come back to us with a moderately high-spec Android model that features a rather stylish, slim case.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
richard
/ October 16, 2012I for one was very interested in the original padphone – it solved the very real (albeit first world) problem of having to dick around between phone and tablet. And if they’d released it within six months of announcing it I’d have bought one.
Fact is, it was probably one of the last top/current spec 4″ phones on the market, and that is noteworthy in itself. Well, it would have been, if it had actually reached the market.
In the end gave up waiting and bought a nexus 7. And kept my HTC desire. I can’t be the only one?
Bryan
/ October 17, 2012I’ve long thought that the Padphone concept was very clever.
To make them stand out from the crowd, this is what Google should have done with the Galaxy Nexus / Nexus 7