We’ve just clocked off from the Asus livestream coming direct from Milan. In true Asus style, Jonney Shih spoke about the company’s newly announced mobile product: the Asus Padfone 2 with the exuberance and excitement that’s come to define big Asus announcements.
As the Padfone 2 already debuted in Taiwan earlier today, we didn’t learn of anything significantly new, however the presentation went into greater depth surrounding the Padfone 2 and what it offers consumers.
The Padfone 2 has had an impressive specifications boost since the original Asus Padfone. The screen has been upgraded from 4.3 to 4.7-inches, it’s now powered by a Cortex A15 quad-core Snapdragon processor instead of a dual-core chip and connectivity has been upped to include up to 100Mbps LTE support. The camera resolution has been boosted from 8-megapixels to a huge 13-megapixels which will offer budding cinematographers the ability to capture full HD 1080p videos at 30fps or 720p HD videos at 60fps, to get creative with super-smooth motion or even slow motion.
What specifications does the Asus Padfone 2 have?
Padfone 2
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core APQ8064
RAM: 2GB
Graphics: Adreno 320GPU
Screen: 4.7-inch 720p Super IPS+. Capable of 550nits of brightness for better outdoor viewing. 65ms response time.
Camera: 13-megapixel with 720p HD video recording at 60fps. 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera
Audio: 3rd-gen SonicMaster audio technology co-developed with Bang and Olufsen
Battery: 2140mAh
Storage: 16GB/32GB/64GB and 50GB Asus Cloud storage
Connectivity: 3G, 4G, NFC
Weight: 135g
Colours: Black, white
Padfone Station
Screen: 10.1-inch 1280×800 IPS
Battery: 6600mAh
Weight: 514g, (649g with Padfone 2 docked)
What operating system does it run?
Although Mr Shih didn’t actually make mention of the version of Android the Asus Padfone 2 is set to launch with, the Engadget team who got ahold of a device in Taiwan say that it’ll launch running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with an upgrade to 4.1 Jelly Bean soon after.
What are the alternatives?
The unique adaptive nature of the Asus Padfone 2 mean that the majority of the competition fall to a user buying both a phone and a tablet separately. Devices like the Nexus 7, Transformer series and original Padfone would also be worth a look, but of course they’re apples that haven’t fallen far from the tree with regards to also being Asus products. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 or 7.7 could offer a potential alternative as could the Galaxy Note 2 with its ‘phablet’ form factor.
It’s clear that Asus were gunning for Apple’s latest iPad when they developed the Padfone, which is priced lower than the equivalent tablet for both Padfone 2 handset and Padfone Station.
When does the Asus Padfone 2 launch?
The Asus Padfone 2 will be available in Taiwan the week commencing October 22nd. There’s no news yet on a European launch but we’ll update this piece accordingly when we know more.
How much will the Asus Padfone 2 cost?
The target costs quoted at the Milan announcement were designed to undercut Apple’s latest iPad with both Padfone 2 and Padfone station costing a €899 (£727) for the 64GB model and €799 (£645) for the 32GB model, which don’t make it cheap, but at least competitive.
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