Even though Asus just announced their new Padfone Infinity at Mobile World Congress, they aren’t giving up on their last installment of the smartphone and tablet combo, the Padfone 2. The company has announced today that the hybrid device which first became available last November in Taiwan, will be making it’s way to British shores on March 1st for £599.
The Original Padfone had a tough time gaining market traction because of it’s odd design and high price tag. Add into that the fact that the specs at release were similar to some of the mid range devices being sold at the time and it was a recipe for disaster.
In the Padfone 2 however, Asus stepped up to the plate by streamlining the design and giving the device a much needed spec bump, allowing it to compete in the same market with which it is priced. As a refresher here are the specs for the handset portion of the Padfone 2:
- 4.7″ HD 1280—720 IPS+ Display at 550 nits bright thanks to Sharp’s IGZO tech
- 1.5 Ghz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro – up from dual-core in the first model
- 2GB of RAM
- 16, 32 or 64GB of Storage with 50GB of ASUS Web Storage
- NFC onboard
- 13 MP rear-facing camera with f/2.4 lens – capable of 1080p video at 30fps and 720p at 60fps, capable of taking 100 shots at full resolution continuously
- 1.2MP front facing camera
And here are some of the more interesting specs of the tablet dock:
- 10.1″ IPS Display at 1280—800
- The battery is down from 6600 mAh to 5000 mAh to shave weight
- The tablet now weighs just 514g down from 724g previously. Add the phone – at 135g – and the overall weight is just 649g which is lighter than any version of the new iPad.
All things considered you could do a lot worse for your money since you are essentially getting a pair of devices out of the Padfone 2. Additionally with that £599 price tag it comes in at £200 less than the newer infinity version, so you’ll be saving quite a bit of coin if this is the type of device you have your heart set on.
The Padfone 2 comes in black or white and will be available from the following outlets on March 1st: Carphone Warehouse, John Lewis, Selfridges, Amazon.co.uk, Ebuyer.com, Scan.co.uk, Box.co.uk and laptopoutlet.co.uk. Also it will be available in stores later in the month at the following places: Carphone Warehouse (selected stores), John Lewis (Oxford Street), Selfridges (London, Manchester and Bentalls Kingston), Scan Computers (Bolton) and Box.co.uk (Birmingham).