Asus appears to be getting ready to launch a new member of the Padfone family. The company’s been selling Padfone products for a few years, offering a smartphone that can fit into a tablet docking station when you want to use your smartphone apps with a larger screen and a bigger battery.
The new model is reportedly called the Asus Padfone S Plus and it features a faster processor, more RAM, and more storage than the model it will replace.
As the name suggests, the Asus Padfone S Plus is basically a more powerful version of the Padfone S. That’s a model that launched in Asia last year. In the US it was sold under the Padfone X name.
It’s not clear of the Padfone S Plus will be available in the US, but it’s expected to launch in Malaysia this week, with the phone selling for about $300 and the Padfone Station tablet dock selling as an optional accessory.
So what does $300 get you? Quite a bit:
- 5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor
- 3GB RAM
- 64GB built-in storage
- microSD card slot
- 13MP rear camera (with 4K video recording support)
- 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC
- Qi wireless charging
- 2300 mAH battery
- IPX 2 water resistant
The tablet dock is said to cost the equivalent of $165 and it will feature an 8.9 inch display and 4990 mAh battery. A Bluetooth keyboard accessory is also available if you want to turn your phone into a sort of portable notebook.
via Juggly and Phone Arena
how come they forgot to mention if its 3G or LTE…?
Either way, Asus is getting REALLY serious about phones and tablets…
I’m currently traveling in Asia, where my Sony Z3 died a miserable death without the slightest outside reason. With Sony refusing warranty (no international warranty) and even repair for cash, because most of their service centers aren’t equippped / allowed to work on the waterproof phones, I needed to look for another phone… pretty much every brand is available here – everything you can get in the U.S. and Euroope, plus everything from China and also various models normally destined for India and other markets that get reshuffled versions of certain phones.
Asus is currently the best value for the money over here, hands down, and they got special stands in all the malls…
As you u must guess it is LTE. 😉 I just broke my padfone infinity 64G (had it for 2years) and now i can’t buy another smartphone anymore! I always laugh on iphone addicts but it seems i become a padfone addict! Arf i need this sh*t! :-d
Damn. That’s top notch specs for $300.
3K video or 4K?
Whoops.
The battery on the phone is too small. Should be at least 3,000 mAH. HD screens that size burn through batterys pretty fast.
they probably want you to buy the tablet dock 🙂
Isn’t it sell with the phone ?
save that the battery in the tablet dock isn’t big enough too
4900 for a tablet is already very light, but remember that one of the interest of he dock to that it can charge you phone thus adding battery life
to be confortable the tablet should have a at least 7300 mah battery in it (4900 for itself and 2300 more to be able to fully charge at least one time your phone without ampering it’s own juice)
the concept is awesome. the first padfone was perfect cause the keyboard was selling with it and was not just a bluetooth toy. it had also a big battery able to charge your phone or the tablet dock.
with less than 10 000 mah as a whole (phone+dock) the concept sadly is very lackluster
I need to see a product video.