The ASUS Padfone has been a long time coming, such a long time in fact, that some wondered if ASUS were ever going to release it but, in true ASUS fashion it’s finally here. Reviews of the Padfone have been generally favorable with a few niggles here and there but, ASUS have a good track record of releasing timely big fixes so these should all be fixed, soon.
The phone part of the bundle is a relatively high-end affair – if you don’t mind the qHD screen – featuring a 4.3″ display, a Snapdragon S4 dual-core at 1.5Ghz and the usual 5MP camera round back. This then becomes the tablet once placed into the cassette looking dock around the back of the tablet. It’s a fantastic idea, as many of us carry a smartphone and a tablet so, being able to put one and one together seamlessly certainly seems attractive.
If you’ve been looking to pick up one of these for a while now then hopefully you’ve been saving up as pricing for the US has been revealed. The bundle for the phone and the tablet dock starts at $859.50 for 16GB of storage then runs up to $959 and $1059 for 32Gb and 64GB, respectively. If you’re looking to pick up one of these then, right now, the only place you’ll be in luck is Negri Electronics which has the 16GB i stock and the 32 and 64 varieties as pre-order only. There’s no word yet on the keyboard dock or the desktop dock that we covered last week.
The pricing doesn’t seem all that bad to me but, this is for sure, an investment and far from another phone or tablet purchase. It’s a shame that retailers such as this might be the only way to get the Padfone in the states as I imagine this to be a real tough sell to the carriers, whether or not ASUS decide to sell the Padfone on it’s own online store is as yet, unknown. This is the kind of device that you’ll be looking to keep running for at least a year and a half to two. With ASUS’ relatively good history of updating their device in a manner speedier than most it might well be worth the investment. The Padfone is definitely something that you’re going to have to see and use before you could make a judgment on throwing down all that cash, for sure.
[Source: The Verge]