MWC 2013: Padfone Infinity, Fonepad hands-on

Introduction

Other companies want to sell you multiple devices – at least a phone and a tablet. Asus wants to sell you just one device to do both jobs. This is the idea behind both the Padfone Infinity and the Fonepad.

The Asus Padfone Infinity builds on the Padfone 2's specs and addresses the biggest issue of its predecessor – the resolution of the tablet dock screen is now 1920 x 1200, for notably sharper imagery. 1280x800 stretched across 10.1” just doesn’t cut it anymore.

The Padfone Infinity is going after HTC phones with an aircraft-grade aluminum unibody and double-anodized finish (which will hopefully mean no more chipped surfaces like the iPhone and HTC One S experienced).

Asus also beefed up the computing power and battery capacity – there’s a Snapdragon 600 chipset inside the Padfone and the battery inside the tablet dock triples the battery life (the Padfone 2 tablet dock “only” doubled it).

The Asus Fonepad does things slightly differently – it combines the aspects of a phone and a tablet, but there are no detachable parts, it’s just a 7” tablet. It’s made of aluminum too and hovers around the same price point as the Nexus 7 tablet - €220 in Europe and $250 in APAC. The Fonepad, however, uses an Intel Atom Z2420 CPU, rather than ARM design.

Asus Padfone Infinity hands-on

The Asus Padfone Infinity comes with an improved screen, body, processor and tablet. It sheds the 720p screen in favor of a 1080p one, which boasts a much more impressive 441ppi. More importantly the slate that comes with the Padfone Infinity has also seen a bump in resolution and it's now WUXGA (1920 x 1200).

The Asus Padfone Infinity generally feels great. The phone itself has a unibody design and is made of aero-space grade aluminum alloy, with a brushed aluminum finish. The aluminum edge has been anodized twice. We have to say it feels top notch and very quality-conscious. We like the cold metallic feel of the smartphone when in hand. It feels premium and very precisely built.

   

The Asus Padfone Infinity

The 1080p screen on the Padfone Infinity is superb. We didn't have that many gripes with the Padfone 2 but this one is just galaxies away from it in terms of quality. Viewing angles are great on the Padfone Infinity, brightness levels look like a match for HTC's Super LCD 3 on the Butterfly and DROID DNA.

In terms of saturation the Padfone Infinity's screen is great but things aren't as overdone as on the latest HTC flagships, which could be better for some. The screen is a definite step up from Sony's 5" 1080p Reality display found on the Xperia Z.

  
A look at the back and sides

The back has a brushed texture. It facilitates a good grip and feels really high quality in the hands.

The dock-slash-tablet has been one upped too. The materials look and feel unchanged - unlike the Padfone Infinity itself the slate is made out of plastic. We suppose Asus had to consider weight into the equation too.

The biggest improvement is the screen. It's a huge step forward from 1280 x 800 to 1920 x 1200. Pixel density doesn't come all that close to retina territory but is top notch in tablet terms.

  
The Padfone Infinity tablet

Viewing angles are superb on the slate too, which is a rarity on tablets and a welcome bonus too.

When docked the Padfone Infinity stays perfectly in place into the tablet. The Padfone 2 felt perhaps slightly more firm into place - but it's not a deal breaker.

Asus Fonepad hands-on

Asus has a totally different take on the phoneblet/phablet concept. The Fonepad is their take on the idea but instead of a rival to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note II it sets its sights on the likes of the Google Nexus 7 (incidentally also made by Asus).

It’s powered by an Intel Atom Z2420 chipset with a single-core CPU at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX540 GPU. It will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at launch.

It feels much like the Nexus 7 apart from the metallic back. It literally sits in your hand the same way as a Nexus 7 tablet.Although similar in size and weight it feels slimmer than the Nexus 7.

The screen of the Fonepad is a 7" 1280 x 800 IPS unit. We're pleased with its contrast and viewing angles - it easily bests what Asus achieved with the 7" Nexus tablet.

  
The Asus Fonepad

The Asus Fonepad feels like a 7" tablet. To be completely honest it doesn't feel anything like a phone and we can't imagine someone (aside from humans with abnormally-large hands and/or ears) to enjoy this device as a phone.

 
The Asus Fonepad

It's a killer option for people who like to have a well connected slate that's not a hassle to lug around on the go with them.

by via GSMArena.com - Latest articles