Asus had a big day today as well. First of all, it announced that it’s changing the name of their tablets from Transformer Prime to Transformer Pads. This is probably due to the lawsuit over trademark they got, and to be honest I think they had it coming this time. They were really pushing the limits with the branding.
Other than that, they also had some very interesting product launches, especially with the Padfone which is Asus’ first real entrance in the Android Market, and it’s a pretty good one, too. For a company that has barely dealt with smartphones, it can certainly beat some of their more known competitors in the market with their new flagship smartphone. Besides the more than reasonable specs, the Padfone also bring some innovative ideas to the market, because it can be fully docked into a tablet shell, and then the tablet runs on the phone itself.
Here’s the full list of specs for the phone half of ASUS’ Padfone:
- WCDMA 900/2100MHz
- EDGE/GPS 850/900/1800/1900MHz
- HSPA+ 21/5.76Mbps (42Mbps Optional)
- Android 4.0 (ICS)
- Snapdragon S4 (dual-core Krait) with Adreno 225 GPU
- 1GB LPDDR2 RAM + 16 – 64GB eMMC NAND
- 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB 2.0
- 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD (960 x 540)
- Rear Camera: 8MP F2.2, AF with LED Flash
- Front Camera: VGA
- Motion sensor, proximity light sensor, gyro sensor, e-compass
- 1520mAh Li-ion
- microSD expansion slot (SDHC/SDXC up to 32GB)
- Dimensions: 128mm x 65.4mm x 9.2mm
- Weight: 129g
When docked in the tablet, the Padfone gains the following new specs:
- Micro USB + Micro HDMI
- 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 display with Capacative Touch
- Rear Camera: 8MP (via Padfone rear camera)
- Front Camera: 1.3MP (1280 x 800)
- Vibration sensor, 2 color LED indicators for battery status
- 24.4Whr Battery
- 2-in-1 audio jack, 40-pin connector
- Phone/GPS
- Dimensions: 273mm x 176.9mm x 13.65mm (h-average)
- Weight: 724g
Here’s the specs for the Transformer Pad Infinity:
- Dimensions: 263 x 180.8 x 8.5mm
- Display: 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200 Super IPS+
- Weight: 586g
- Processor: 3G/4G LTE – 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 (2 x Krait) / WiFi – 1.6GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 T33 (4 x Cortex A9)
- Memory: 1GB
- Storage: 16GB – 64GB
- Battery: 25Whr
Asus will change the Tegra 3 for the dual core Krait processor when it comes to the LTE versions of the devices. That’s because Qualcomm has LTE integrated with its SoC, and it’s also made at 28nm, which should make it more energy efficient, something that’s always been a problem with LTE so far. There’s also the fact that Tegra 3 wasn’t compatible with LTE until more recently, but not early enough to make Asus go all-Tegra.
Now if only Asus would go for Samsung’s Exynos 5250 chip, and make a 11.6″ Transformer.