Asus Padfone - The Android smartphone that docks into a tablet

In the Computex exhibition in Taiwan, Asus showed off the concept of their new ‘Asus Padfone’. It’s still only in prototype form at the moment, so there is no solid spec to reveal, but here at e2save, we can certainly unlock some of the secrets and let you in on what we do know.

The Asus Padfone is a new Android OS smartphone with a 4 inch screen, teamed with a 10 inch tablet for viewing entertainment on the big screen. These devices when connected together create the Padfone, but the driving power behind it is solely the smartphone. This means that the tablet is only used for enhancing images on the big screen, it has no processing power of its own, so when you dock the phone into the back, everything you can do with the phone is now done through the tablet.

It works by slotting the phone into the back of the tablet and although we’re used to ultra slim tablets, allowances can be made as this is a totally different concept. The massive bonus to this is that you don’t need two data plans; the only connection it uses is through the phone. It might seem that answering calls on the tablet would be a little difficult and inconvenient, but with the use of a blue tooth headset, that worry is eliminated.

It’s a different twist from the Asus Transformer, which transforms the tablet into a notebook by docking it into the partnering keyboard, but you can’t really view the two in the same way. The Asus Padfone is more convenient in that you don’t have to carry the tablet around with you everywhere; when you don’t need it, you can just take the phone.It’s an interesting idea that we’re sure will be popular in no time, but what we need now is some solid facts and specifications to keep us excited. We’re sure we won’t be kept in the dark for too long!