Asus peddles three-in-one smartphone, tablet, netbook Reg Hardware Mobile Week Asus has officially launched its anticipated Padfone at MWC 2012, the all-in-one smartphone, tablet and netbook it announced almost a year ago. Asus Padfone The phone itself features a 4.3in display with the choice of either 16GB or 32GB of storage. There's also an 8Mp camera and 1GB of memory, …
Also.... if my phone is docked inside the tablet, how do I make/receive calls?
The concept is certainly interesting, but what it really seems to be doing is giving the ability to use one computing device + add-ons to have 3 different computing form factors. So, apps, internet connection through 3g or 4g + wi-fi, but potentially no audio phone calls?
El Reg hjas singularly failed to mention it, but there is a stylus that comes (presumably) with the tablet accessory that doubles as a bluetooth-type headset for making calls while in tablet mode.
Seems like a clever idea.
Endgadget has info:
<url>http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/27/asus-padfone-formally-launched-4-3-inch-super-amoled-display-s/</url>
Have Asus no idea about branding at all? The name "Asus" is a week brand (I keep mixing them up with Acer, and I've got an Asus laptop and an Acer Ee.... oh look, I've done it again). They've just dropped the Eee brand for Transformer, and just when the ultimate "Transformer" form factor appears, they go and change it again. What's wrong with "Transformer Phone" or "Transformer Padphone"?
The next step could have been a "Transformer home" -- a lap-mounted keyboard with phone dock and wireless HDMI.
One computer, all form-factors. Transformer, indeed.
if I get a phone call from the office, while on a crowded commuter train using it as a laptop, asking for details about the spreadsheet I'm working on, do I have to choose between shouting loudly at the laptop's microphone, or ejecting the phone and being unable to see the data I was working on?
There are some devices where convergence isn't a benefit, and a laptop and a phone is one of those cases. It's like merging a bed and an oven. I'd like to have the functionality of both in my home, and I use both regularly, but I don't want them combined into a single piece of furniture in my kitchen because I use both for entirely separate purposes, often at the same time.
As has been said already by Mondo [magnificence unknown to me] it would be a huge disaster if you were sat somewhere using the thing as a netbook and someone snatched it and ran off... leaving you with no phone to call anyone and start doing anything about said theft.
But apart from that one thing, i think this is brilliant. Its a decent spec phone, a decent spec tablet and has an optional keyboard if you're that way inclined. I could use this a lot.
I dont want to carry a computer around all the time, but sometimes do want a screen bigger than my phone. So a tablet option in a bag for those times is ok. Or, leave the tablet bit in the car for lunch breaks. The keyboard can stay at home. My other half has to type up stuff for work quite a lot and wouldnt like a tablet on-screen keyboard for that - so when at home it can work as a netbook.
Flexibility. I like flexibility.
Now, if they'd make a monitor of a decent size with a dock for it too for movie playback ... and let a bluetooth keyboard work with it so it could be like a desktop instead of a netbook ... that'd pretty much do it for me.
If this phone is a sensible price and the tablet dock isnt ridiculously expensive i will seriously consider this.
£350 phone + £400 tablet + £250 netbook = £1,000 for three devices.
vs
£400 phone + £100 tablet dock + £100 keyboard dock = £600 for one device to do three jobs.
For that saving of £400 you could, if you wanted, still buy a decent laptop or tablet for the kids or other half to use while the pad is in use..
My main issue is this means I have to replace my phone and tablet at the same time. I can't sell - or pass on - my phone or tablet separately and buy e.g. a newer model, I must replace both at the same time.
The only way this would work for me was if there was a standard way of connecting so I could buy another smartphone - even from other brands - and it would still work with the tablet side of things.
The price is never going to be that great anyway, most of the cost of tablets is precisely on the display and battery. The electronics they manage to reuse from the phone only account for about 30% of the cost.
The real reason you see people holding their phones whilst driving is because they are arseholes.
(With little regard for the law or other road users that they may collide with.)
Or perhaps they frittered their company car allowance on other more vital options like an AMG, S-Line or M-Sport styling pack.
Stop: Because they may even miss seeing that if they're texting too.
Act of talking on the phone is as distracting as having a passenger - as long as your eyes are on the road and mitts on the wheel it's all right.
I don't use BT on my phone - I like the wired headset better. But, unless the traffic is jammed I don't answer my phone while driving too.
A great idea in my opinion, and really interesting to see all of the different opinions coming out about what makes sensible technologies for convergence.
For my requirements, this is a great plan, and something I've been looking for for around 18 months. However I'm looking for an MS platform, so it can run family safety and protect my delightful little monsters from the nasties out there.
It is a shame that it's not using the newer multicore tegra chipset, but I'm in the market for a new phone, I don't have a tablet yet so it could still be game on.
I would be interested to see how storage and expansion is referenced, on the tablet, and on the netbook accessories, as well as power use and configuration. (netbook charges the tablet, which charges the phone up, so even if you don't use the additional tablet or netbook for much else, you know that you can always have a full battery when you are away from ordinary power sources for an extended period of time.
Once again, the big brands catch up with the real innovators...
Always Innovating has been touting much the same thing since... well, at least a year.
Althogh their phone is not really a phone (not their drill, and a lack in the patent department perhaps).
http://alwaysinnovating.com/products/smartbook.htm
ASUS had a real sweet deal on Eee PC Netbooks and in my experience I have never seen computers take so much abuse,and come out smiling.
I have one on my motorcycle, actually under the seat, company vehicles have hem in glove compartments. etc.
The one I gave my wife lives in the kitchen, in the main, and that one has been dropped on the floor at least 19 times now and the only damage sustained was that the clips holding the bottom cover on popped - simply a matter of squeezing together.
If for nothing else, I shall be looking at one of these combo units for my daughter - ASUS builds things tough.
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