Asus PadFone

Not to be confused with Asus Fonepad.

Asus PadFone is a smartphone manufactured by Asus and released in April 2012. The phone is marketed with companion tablet dock and keyboard dock accessories intended to improve functionality and battery life. It fits into a 10-inch tablet dock. It is not the same as the Asus PadFone mini 4.3, revealed by Asus in December 2013 since that operates on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and is skinned with the Asus' ZenUI.

ASUS PadFone

ASUS PadFone showing system information screen
Manufacturer	Asus
Type	Smartphone
Series	PadFone
First released	Taiwan: April 2012
Availability by region	US: June 2012[1] Australia: August 2012[2]
Successor	Asus PadFone 2
Compatible networks	GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850 900 1800 1900 MHz UMTS/HSPA 900 2100 MHz
Dimensions	128 mm (5.0 in) H 65.4 mm (2.57 in) W 9.2 mm (0.36 in) D
Weight	129 g (4.6 oz) (with battery)
Operating system	Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with ASUS Waveshare UI
System-on-chip	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8260A
CPU	1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Krait
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 225
Memory	1 GiB RAM
Storage	16/32/64 GiB eMMc flash memory
Removable storage	microSD (up to 64 GiB)
Battery	1520 mAh internal rechargeable li-ion 6600 mAh rechargeable li-ion (Padfone Station)
Rear camera	8-megapixel (3264×2448) with autofocus, LED flash, 1080p HD video recording
Front camera	0.3-megapixel VGA
Display	4.3 in (110 mm) capacitive Super AMOLED touch screen with qHD (540×960) resolution
Media	Audio AAC, AMR, OGG, M4A, MIDI, MP3, WAV, WMA Video 1920×1080 (1080p HD) @ 30 frame/s – 3GP, .3G2, MP4, WMV, AVI
Data inputs	ambient light sensor, digital compass, G-sensor, gyroscope, multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, proximity sensor
References	Official specifications[3]

Industry reception

The Asus PadFone represented an innovative hybrid design that bridged smartphone and tablet functionality. According to a review in CNET (2012), the device featured a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor when used as a smartphone, which expanded to a 10.1-inch display with 1280×800 resolution when docked.^[4] TechRadar noted that while the concept was ambitious, battery life limitations and the high price point of approximately $1,300 for the complete system impacted its market adoption. The device ran Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, with Asus implementing custom software to manage the transition between phone and tablet modes.^[5]

Specifications

Hardware

The Asus PadFone has a 4-inch WVGA (480 x 800 pixel) IPS+ LED-backlit display. The Asus PadFone mini has 8GB of built-in storage, an 8-megapixel 'PixelMaster' rear f/2.0 BSI camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 4.5Wh 1170mAh non-removable polymer battery. The tablet dock features an 8.3Wh 2100mAh non-removable polymer battery to supplement this.^[6]

Software

Asus PadFone ships with Android 4.3 Jellybean.

Successors

The successor to this phone is the PadFone 2, which was released in October 2012. It features a 4.7 inch Super IPS+ screen with HD (1280×720) resolution. Its camera is able to record video with 1080p (Full HD) at 30 frames per second and 720p (HD) at 60 frames per second.^[7]

The successor to the PadFone 2 is the PadFone Infinity, which was released in April 2013. It features a 5-inch Super IPS+ screen with Super HD display, (1920 x 1200) resolution with 441 ppi.

The successor to the PadFone Infinity is the PadFone X for the US market, which was released in June 2014, and PadFone S for the rest of the world.

The PadFone S (PF500KL) was released in July 2014. Its camera has the ability to record video with 2160p (4K) at 12 to 15 frames per second, 1080p at 30 frames per second and 720p at 60 frames per second.^[8]