ASUS Padfone Station Reviews

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ASUS Padfone Station
This is a long journey for these PadFone. Last Smartphone Android 2.1-powered ASUS A10 is from two years ago, then five months later the company ended a partnership with Garmin smartphone (although they are still friends). The next thing we knew, clothing openly considering Windows Phone, but certainly nothing that produce results even though his unit E600 in the wild floating technique. Meanwhile, a group of Android Eee Pads begin to enter the market to get a piece of cake hot tablet.

Finally, PadFone which surprised the industry last year Computex (remember our brilliant mockup based on the teaser pics?), But ASUS continues to miss the Christmas release of the target, allowing extra time to rejig the phone software and design. CES and MWC then passed, with the latter hosting the official launch event to unveil the final design PadFone and date availability. This time, the new April missed the target by only three weeks, and before long we can hold our retail unit of Taiwan, which is still the only place where you can get the product.

But enough with the story. What we want to know is whether the project is bold and unique ASUS features all the right ingredients to squeeze itself into a market now dominated by the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC. Most importantly, the company will set a new trend with two-or three-in-one form factor - in the same way that occurs to the netbook - so take the Android ecosystem to the next level?




Hardware

ASUS has provided a pleasant surprise with heavy PadFone it.
If you've been following this product near, you should know by now that the full package PadFone - assembled at the factory Shanghai Pegatron is - comes in three main parts: the phone, PadFone station dock station PadFone pad and keyboard. Let us focus first on the phone: in Taiwan, you can buy a HSPA + (WCDMA 900/2100) handset itself - to NT $ 17,990 (about U.S. $ 610, or U.S. $ 580 before tax) without a contract. You get a 4.3-inch, 960 x 540 AMOLED screen Samsung Super (with Gorilla Glass plus hard coat, low-reflection films), dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC S4 (MSM8260A at 1.5GHz), 1GB of RAM LPDDR2, an 8 - megapixel AF camera with LED flash, VGA front-facing camera and 3.7V 1520 mAh removable battery. Taiwan version also comes with a generous 32GB of internal flash plus 32GB of free storage EMMC ASUS Webstorage for three years. You can add more through microSDXC - which may be an additional 64GB if you're lucky enough to track down one of the unicorn card.



In terms of dimensions and weight, PadFone entering at 128 x 65.4 x 9.2mm (5.0 x 2.6 x 0.4 inches) and 129g (4.6 ounces), making it one of the lighter smartphone in grades 4 0.3-inch. For comparison, similarly sized S Galaxy II (international) official weigh only one gram more, while the Sony Xperia S and Lenovo LePhone K2 took a big leap for the 144g and 145g, respectively. Then we went to the other end of the scale with 121g LG, Optimus L7 HTC 119.5g One S (also with a 4.3-inch super screen AMOLED PenTile and MSM8260A chip) and 103g Panasonic Eluga - although Eluga indeed have a much smaller non- -removable battery. For devices featuring an aluminum frame and glass plates, ASUS has delivered a pleasant surprise with heavy PadFone it - after all, the designers need to keep the whole package as light as possible, but more on that later.


In an era full of flagships with a screen size 4.3 inches on top, return to the holding of this handset is smaller truly gave us a sensation quite friendly, but obviously it's not just size that play a role here. To achieve this, ASUS uses matte aluminum frame to provide a fairly rigid structure. After that both taper length-wise and depth-wise to make the phone appear not only more slender (the actual thickness is more consistent throughout the phone than it looks), but also allow our oil wrap around the rounded side of the back cover in more subtle ways.

By the way, the back of the ID PadFone it sports the same design as seen in the Zen Prime Transformer and Zenbook series. However, no metallic cover, so the finish is achieved by rotating the circular etches slightly flexible plastic, the camera acts as a "source" of the ripple pattern - it will look odd already have ASUS stuck with the original off-center position of the camera. We dig the look and feel here, plus the texture gives the added benefit of fingerprints rejected. The back cover can be peeled off from the bottom edge, thereby exposing the spring microSD slot, mini-SIM slots and a removable battery.

Just like a lot of phones Ice Cream Sandwich (including the new trio of Motorola RAZRs in China), PadFone virtual keypad system uses a soft, rather than the physical. The only facial features in the earpiece of the phone is shiny and a VGA camera at the top, and the ASUS logo on the bottom. Beneath it is the lips, shiny black plastic that traces back to the edge around the glass, and all covers and accented by a lower frame. If you look closely, though, you'll see a segmented panel about lip gloss, and that part is actually an extension of the silver-painted in black plastic frame (right under the battery cover) - is clearly intended for the antenna and the mic. Call us picky, but now and then we cringe at the layer between the metal panel and his little dull plastic.

ASUS Tablet

Leaving a small niggle aside, we are quite pleased with all the external features - a good slot cut for micro-HDMI port and a micro USB port on the left. Completion of the three buttons (power, volume up and volume down along the right) is quite consistent with the panel. You will also find a 3.5mm headphone jack on the side bang in the middle of the phone, which is a rare sight in today's mobile phone market (short list also includes Huawei Ascend Y200; Nokia Lumia Lumia 610 and 710, and Sony Xperia neo V, Xperia X10 and Live with the Walkman).

Given that the tablet features an LCD panel, we are still puzzled by the decision to feature the ASUS Super AMOLED screen on the phone, as opposed to using the LCD for the sake of consistency. PenTile subpixel arrangement is an old issue that we will not bother to grumble again (LG have done a lot of talking, of course), although the Plus version of the Super AMOLED panel will be very welcome. ASUS say go with AMOLED because it believes that it is "the best solution for the phone [a] with high contrast and light." It also allows the company to produce a thin device. On the bright side, it offers a mode PadFone "outdoor" switch that increases the brightness of the screen, and with it, Super AMOLED display can reasonably be used under strong sunlight. By the life of your battery, do not forget to disable this feature when you go back inside.

Accessories


Let's get to the meat, shall we? While Motorola is the first to provide phone, laptop docking, the implementation of ASUS 'more organic and flexible. Instead of letting you access the device via an Ubuntu-based webtop application on a larger screen, PadFone take advantage of Android 4.0 that interchangability between the phone and tablet UI, meaning you do not need to install different applications just to separate OS. Also, the Android system and supported applications can switch to the appropriate interface depending on the active screen, then in theory, should be a seamless transition from one mode to another, regardless of whether you work or enjoy multimedia content. As to why we say "in theory," we'll explain later.

ASUS PadFone internal stations


As mentioned previously, full PadFone package consists of three main parts: the upper PadFone 32GB in Taiwan, an additional NT $ 6.990 (U.S. $ 236) makes your Bluetooth headset plus PadFone Station stylus with a soft tip, and another NT $ 3,000 ( U.S. $ 101) to make your Dock Station PadFone. (ASUS also recently outed docking screen monitor, although we have received no word on pricing or availability.) In the U.S., you can get PadFone and PadFone stations along from our friends at Negri Electronics for U.S. $ 860.


PadFone station is basically just an external 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 IPS display (also with Gorilla Glass and HCLR movie, but more prone to attract fingerprints) and batteries for PadFone, but also packs in the rear speakers and a camera, 3 megapixel camera on the front (VGA better than their phone). The inside of the circuit is quite a sight: as you can see below, we opened our curiosity for the benefit and, wow, there are quite a lot of ribbon cable and squeezed into less space. Transformer is similar to its cousin, tablet and keyboard dock PadFone both 24.4Wh 7.4V battery packs (each consisting of two 3300 mAh cells in series). However, because the system is rated at only 3.7V, the battery capacity to be effective in every part of the Station PadFone actually 6600 mAh, then the difference in numbers on the spec sheet and on the battery label.



There are also two important discoveries in the station PadFone that we want to share. First, under the chassis back, we saw the implementation of dual-antenna GPS which according to our friends at AnandTech, is a rare sight on mobile devices. ASUS explained to us that one of these antennas to receive signals Foxconn is both GPS and GLONASS for, and the other is for transmitting signals over the air, the coupling to improve the performance of GPS in a tablet mode. This external link structure of the GPS back to Qualcomm RTR8600 transceiver multi-band / RF mode on the phone, so no separate GPS chip on the pad - a low noise amplifier is only there for the structure. While in many cases we PadFone a good GPS lock-on in about 10 seconds in fine mode, it's still a tad faster and more accurate when the phone outside the pad. Hey, at least it works!

And while we're talking about the antenna, PadFone Station also has an external 3G antenna (sourced from Inpaq) are traced back to three metal pin contacts in the phone room, where they touch the metal contacts on the bottom left of the phone. We do not see any significant decrease in signal when putting the phone into a tablet, so it looks like this feature serves its purpose well.

Another interesting feature in the PadFone Station is an impressive monospeaker hard - much harder than the original and the Prime Transformer Transformer. This is all thanks to the ingenuity of the Golden Ears team ASUS managed to pack a 36mm driver and has a small voice in the room as the meeting room. We reached out to the team's senior director Henry Huang (pictured left), a man who spent 27 years in the audio industry, to give a little background on this feature:

"This is a transmission line speaker box design. We set up a long way to wave back to the internal structure and PCB transmission line box is unique and expensive designs that rarely happens. Just like high-end loudspeaker Tannoy Westminster to implement this design .."

ASUS Tablet Smartphone

In fact, from what we have learned during our last tour in Taipei headquarters ASUS, this is basically what the team is implemented in all SonicMaster Huang-certified products (including the Prime Transformer). The team is creating as much space as possible for the audio space (even on the phone loudspeaker PadFone have one), and at the same time they use the largest speaker drivers may be that they can be stored in the audio reproduction for the better. Huang reminds us that the class of professional audio equipment such as loudspeakers, amplifiers, and turntables are purposely large and heavy for stability, which was why he took the liberty to criticize Zylux driver speakers are so small that virtually all competitors use ASUS (although curiously, the site held a list of ASUS Zylux general customers -! awkward).

With a company that puts audio quality before other aspects of their multiple product lines, the Golden Ears team did not hold back on the size of the speaker. They will often argue with the engineers on how much space the audio that should get in the future. The engineers will then finally come up with solutions that do not offer sacrifices Huang claims. What's left to do is to strategically place the speakers to avoid mechanical and electromagnetic interference, because obviously the last thing you want is to lose data or annoying noises. The end result is surprisingly loud and punchy sound with very little distortion. Unfortunately, that's a shame that the speaker PadFone stations are facing away from the user by design, so you will want to face the wall to get the most out of it from the reflection.

Wired headset


Or, you can only use the wired headset PadFone. For a free pair of earphones we were blown away by their sound quality. Huang, who is a fan of high-end Sony headphones, told us that this is only moving-coil earphone but with a super thin diaphragm that offer good bass on this measure. As good as they say, we regret to report there is one major design flaw here. This mic is located at the point where two separate channels, so we always have to hold it closer to your mouth to people at the other end to listen to us. Also, the plastic sleeve from the main wire has come from the mic module after just a few weeks of usage. Hopefully ASUS can resolve this issue with a new design.

Stylus headset

Although we make phone calls on the topic, apart from extracting the phone from the tablet you can also just use a headset stylus. Packaged in an aluminum shaft smooth, Bluetooth devices claiming to defend the seven hours of talk time and can go on standby for 10 days - we'll take the word ASUS on it. Pairing up is done in the same way as the Bluetooth audio device, but ASUS also thrown in an application appropriately named "Headset Stylus" to guide you through the process. With the headset off, hold down the power button on the circular volume rocker until the red and blue LED light (for about three seconds), and then you'll see stylus PadFone appear on the list scan it. When you get an incoming call vibrating stylus, then you have to figure out how best to put the earpiece in your ear - something that brings us a few seconds for our first few attempts. While this feature is cool and comfortable, we found that our hands are fast enough to be uncomfortable, so we would not recommend this method for super-long conversation, or try using a rubber band on the contrary, if you must.

Weight

Enough with the audio for now - it's time to return to the grand scheme of things. According to our scale, our stupid tablet according to the official weight of 724g and 635g we have the keyboard dock - just a few grams shy of the dock looks similar to OG Transformer. This makes a total of about 1.49kg (about £ 3.28) when we put all three parts together PadFone. Combo phone-in-tablet comes in 854g or 1.88 kilogram, making the setup a bit heavy laptop at the top. Although the hinge angle is limited to about 100 degrees (at which point the end of the dock keyboard was elevated by about 8mm hinge leg), we still have to be careful to make sure your laptop is not the end of the lap PadFone us or the edge of our bed. Unfortunately, though, we've failed once in the second. It really does not take much to tip it over, so be very careful.



The numbers are rather hefty weight for each of the 10.1-inch form factor, especially when you compare it with the Prime 1.1kg / 2.42 pounds ZenBook UX21A (a Ultrabook 11-inch) and 1.123kg / 2, 47 pounds (docked) or 586g / 1.29 pounds (undocked) Prime Transformer. Considering that the additional components required for the housing and connect the phone, this additional burden is not surprising for the first-of-its-kind, but beg the question of whether people will accept it. Needless to say, you will probably want to use a backpack than a messenger bag for laptop combo. You can only leave the dock keyboard at home or at work if you do not consider yourself a road warrior - hold that thought until we got to the software at a later date.

Arm

As for the tablet, we enjoyed a soft-touch finish on the back to grip the landscape and the thickness of the tablet (which is formed by a hinged, circular patterned polycarbonate cover for phone-docking space) to handle portrait. You will either have to lean your arm (s) or device on something, or use the slide-in multi-purpose official "VersaSleeve" (NT $ 1,190 or about U.S. $ 40; free with PadFone Station in Hong Kong when it launches there) to sustain it at two different angles on the table - one for watching video, and one for typing. To our surprise sleeve works well enough as a stand, but only time will tell how hard his brown polyester 1680D exterior and black velvet lining.

Keyboard dock

Apart from the soft-touch finish to match the pad, keyboard dock is essentially identical to that for the first Transformer tablet. You get the same chiclet keyboard is 254mm (92 per cent of full-size keyboard) and a touchpad with two click buttons, and 40-pin dock connector and power-only USB 2.0 ports (with a magnetic latch) on the left. Another USB port and SD card reader (now supports up to SDXC) can be found on the right. We even went so far as to say that the keyboard feels as good as before, although we would like ASUS will someday move the lock key just above the backspace key - once in a blue moon we will lock the device by accident while typing, and that tends to occur more often when we let a novice try our tool.


Aluminum hinges and latches Dock Station PadFone release tablets seem identical to those in the dock TF101. However, we have to really force us PadFone stations be the last for just about getting a connection (as described above), so it's safe to say that they are not officially compatible. In other words: do not try this at home, kids. Though it is disappointing that we were not allowed to re-use the old dock here (be it to save money, reduce waste or pure mixing and matching patterns), ASUS showed that the tablet does not require a heavier PadFone strong hinges.

Insert the phone into PadFone stations is as simple as using a hinged cover the station releases the latch at the top. Then slide the phone into the bay (which has a slippery plastic strip on the second "wall" to the smooth action) until you feel a click with a plug-like soft micro-USB cable. In just over one second after the insertion (regardless of whether the cover is still open), the tablet comes to life with Ice Cream Sandwich interface sweet tablet. When finished, remove the cover and push it down to about 90 degrees to trigger the release mechanism of the phone, the only two that stand out a little plastic probe to push the phone. In fact, you can even just force-pull the phone by holding your thumb on the screen and then grabbed the phone with your fingertips - this is, ahem, handy if you want to extract the phone while keeping the tablet in your bag.

Obviously, the official way is easier, and actually not as scary as it sounds like a hinge cover that is strong enough. Soon we have mastered a technique of hand: unlatch the cover with one hand (usually only with the index finger), then slide the hand down to push the lid with the middle finger, then take out the phone undocked. Pro Tip: do this slowly so that people around you can watch in awe. Second pro tip: one hand our techniques do not work well when the station is tilted at an angle close PadFone maximum, such as slippery feet below the hinge keyboard just asking for trouble when you try this trick.

ASUS Phone


Like the HTC One XL (or only one X on the AT & T) and A S, PadFone slick take advantage of Qualcomm Snapdragon Krait S4, which is technically more capable architecture of the Cortex-A9 Tegra 3. That said, after really compare the two SOCs, AnandTech concluded that each has its own advantages, and it really depends on how much is threaded application - something that legendary doubt the site will pick the phone with quad-core Tegra 3 in the near future . But also PadFone tablet (effectively making the first commercially available tablet Snapdragon S4) and netbooks. Both form factors are begging for a wider range of applications to slowly take over the role of a conventional PC. At one point we even sure that ASUS will launch with the Tegra PadFone 3, which would have given a little more oomph than 225 graphics engine is MSM8260A Adreno we (the beefier Adreno 320 will have to wait for the MSM8960 Pro). What happened to the plans that official remains a mystery, but if we had to guess, it's probably because ASUS want a smooth upgrade path to LTE PadFone also announced at the MWC, while the Tegra with Icera integrated LTE will not be realized until next year. With that considered, and the views of this value plus the refined experience, we think this is a very good decision, especially for the very adventurous products that have not been done by others before.

Battery

* Battery life of laptop mode and tablet mode, including phone-only time after the battery runs out in PadFone Station. PadFone station does not operate after the batteries run out.
As you may have seen in our review Transformer, it takes quite a lot of patience when grilling multi-battery devices to test their durability. So you can imagine the pain - or joy, depending on how you look - we went through with the whole package PadFone. As mentioned earlier, the phone itself holds a 3.7V 1520 mAh removable battery, and it makes us through about six hours and 15 minutes on our rundown test standard (with looping video, 3G data connection, WiFi enabled but not connected, the brightness remains at 50 percent and some specific background sync settings). Gosh, it's almost three hours short of what we got from the same specced HTC One S - display the same panel, same SoC, only 130mAh battery with more juice. We think this may be more related to how to manage power ASUS profile management. To test this, we use the balanced mode, which still keeps the CPU clock max 1.5GHz, but with the core system processes less often than it does in performance mode. The power saving mode, ASUS told us is limited to a 1.2GHz CPU is very high and the screen brightness set to 90 percent by default - just as balanced mode (but we changed it back to 50 percent and make sure it is non-outdoor mode for the test, it is clear ).

Back to their real life official figures we obtained some time ago, very interesting to see how ASUS 'laboratory only gets about 2.6 hours and 2.1 hours on the phone just for web browsing continuously through WiFi and 3G, respectively. For comparison, we get about 6.25 hours with our video loop test plus 3G data connection. That's nearly three times more than what ASUS stamina out of its 3G browsing test! Our money is on Super AMOLED panel the power to suck up all the white background on web pages' (again, a shortage that has been shown by LG flirtatious). It's a good thing, then, that the greater PadFone Station - naturally eye-friendly option for web browsing - it uses an LCD panel instead. Well, not that ASUS have a choice until someone makes a 10-inch OLED panels affordable.



Although our test results and rundown from ASUS, the battery PadFone performed very well under normal use and easy to us a full day. We also remember one night when we forgot to plug the phone into the charger before bed, but when we woke up about eight hours later they had drained only about 10 percent of the battery, probably largely due to a WiFi connection. We also tested constantly listening to music from the phone while using laptop personal hotspot for us (especially for Twitter, Facebook, typing and the occasional random YouTube clip for giggles), and which lasted for three hours and 50 minutes. Needless to say, you will get more time if you use the hotspot pad and keyboard dock as well.

By the way, with the same battery rundown test, we got just under 10 hours from the combo tablet, while the laptop combo pumped out 17.5 hours. Incidentally, not far from the official claims for the continuous web browsing via WiFi (and they are each about an hour and three hours more than the number of 3G ASUS). However, there is a caveat with these numbers: pad PadFone stations fail to operate after the exhaustion of the battery itself, so that the rate may include the duration of the running phone itself using the remaining battery juice. This is also why, by default, you are given a smart charging mode, so that when the keyboard dock battery still has juice, it makes PadFone that no battery level is less than 90 percent, the battery level pad that stayed pretty much untouched if full. However, if the battery is significantly lower pad of the keyboard, then the latter will share the love with the former also. When the battery runs out keyboard, the system will lower the minimum threshold level so that the phone battery can operate longer pad. In contrast, the mode is only charging packet prioritizing all of the power battery to the phone, but once again starts with the battery dock keyboard.


For those interested, here are brief details of what we get from smart charging mode corresponding to the numbers above. On our tablet combo PadFone stations gave up on about eight hours and 45 minutes into the 10-hour rundown test, leave the phone with a 28 percent battery left. On our laptop combo PadFone Station died at about 14 hours to 17.5 hours in the test, but somehow the phone had 55 percent battery life remaining. In the chart rundown on the tablet mode, although the lack of samples in the early morning, you can still see how the intelligent mode bias to keep the phone alive for a wee bit longer after the surrender PadFone Station.


Camera

8-megapixel camera PadFone doing solid work around.
The PadFone's 8-megapixel (3264 x 2448, 4:3) f/2.2 camera doing a solid job all around, offering good color reproduction in many cases and can easily handle macro shots, while shooting night depending on the environment. For example, the streets lit by a few signs look great in our photos, although we still needed a few tries to get rid of blurriness or finding the right focus. Most of the time we just end up manually increase the ISO for speed and stability, or night scene mode is used to extend the exposure time (as long as we have a place to lean against our phone). It's also safe to say that the layout is less dense PenTile subpixel make boys more difficult to check the sharpness of the image ', so be sure to check your important shots in the gallery. Another hitch is that when taking a picture with the sky, white clouds in the background, we often have to manually increase the level of exposure rather than pressing the appropriate focus areas for which we want to lock exposure and focus point - 'tis a widespread problem among Android device. We've tried to fashion the type backlight as well, but only add color to white light at the top of the picture is not correct. We collect good images in our extensive gallery below, so enjoy.





The biggest problem with the camera shutter speed PadFone is: in a well lit environment we measured about 1.4 seconds from pressing the shutter button to view the virtual viewfinder fresh. It's not bad, but certainly not suitable for 'zero shutter lag "in the series A and HTC Galaxy S III, so brace yourself if you switch from tools to PadFone it. Similarly, the camera application is very much PadFone skinned version of the original application Ice Cream Sandwich, so you will lose out on additional items such as HDR, image stabilizer, slow motion capture, trigger a smile, burst shot mode or simultaneous photo and video capture. This is obviously a huge disadvantage compared to some competitors, so hopefully ASUS will fix this in a future update.

Furthermore, the native camera application "silly faces" and "Background" effect in camcorder mode is absent for any reason, but ASUS has added three filter effects (gray, negative and sepia) in both camera mode and camcorder mode for such compensation . As always, you can use Android Photo Studio is the filter for other options after that, but it's definitely not as exciting as looking at the effects applied to direct the camera viewfinder. What is left in the camera app is regular ICS panorama mode, capturing 1080p video cameras and three scene modes (night, backlighting and crisp). You can find all these settings in the pull-out tray on the left (next to the slider for the digital zoom). On the right you have the power off mode for still cameras, camcorders and panorama mode, followed by buttons for shutter, the camera switch, flash toggling and gallery openings. Finally, there are useful counter in the upper right that shows how many photos or how many videos you can catch.



While the features are lacking in the camera application, PadFone make a pretty good quality video camcorder. 1080p recording, 30fps MPEG-4 AVC clips are the basic profile 4.0, and they are encoded up to 20Mbps - 10Mbps higher than one X (baseline profile at level 4.2, 23fps) and 17Mbps Galaxy S III (a high profile at level 4.0 , 30fps) - which is the maximum video bit rate specified for this profile. Accompanying audio bitrate of 156kbps coming in (nominal 96kbps) - again beat the competition - and sampled at 48kHz. Even without these comparisons technically you can still appreciate the fine details in the clip, but when filming in the dark, the frame rate is reduced to no less than 15fps (which is acceptable to achieve that quality), and the camera finds it harder to focus. Lack of focus touch the camcorder mode does not help, either. As for audio, we were impressed with how well the mic pick up our voices, except the second one always gets cut off - no doubt an easy bug to fix. At least there is no problem of synchronization of audio and video.

Although there is no difference between using a camera phone optics inside and outside the tablet, we see that the audio in the clip we recorded a little muffed sound when recorded from within. You would think, because of the nature of the mic is selected bad position, that is probably because we deliberately covered it with our right hand, but we've checked it three times with a gripping edge tablet with just your thumb and index finger during our testing. Having examined the sample clips that we send it, ASUS says this phenomenon is more to do with an external mic audio track via HDMI when in tablet mode. Thus, by design, audio quality will be slightly different, and nobody seems to ASUS can do here.

Software


Considering ASUS has released three iterations of Transformer Pads are now running Ice Cream Sandwich, we certainly have high expectations when it comes to PadFone software features and performance. Fortunately, the company that preserved a lot of stuff here: the look and feel of skin that is in line with vanilla Google. You will only see the customization ASUS directly in the notification panel (both tablet mode and phone mode), widgets and "Pad only" extra tab in the tray app - shameless plug, but this is where you will also see our magazine Distro application once installed.

As Transformer Pads, you can go back to the original notification panel under "Settings ASUS Adjusted" in the settings, but we are actually much prefer the enhanced version. Here, you have a row of quick access buttons for auto-rotate screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, vibrate, auto sync, GPS, airplane mode and WiFi hotspots, followed by the screen brightness slider with a button for toggling the outdoor mode (née à la super IPS mode Prime Transformer) and brightness automatically. Gone are the buttons for mode switching system performance (performance mode, balanced mode and power saving mode), but they can still be accessed in the Settings. Other enhancements, great, but fine by ASUS is located on the screen: once again, the essence of vanilla leather is here to stay, just to decorate the popular calling features intelligent T9 which somehow never made it to the Nexus Galaxy. Oh, and in phone mode, ASUS has managed to sneak in under the last call log soft dialpad too thick, so the easy part of this list is displayed on the dialpad withdrawn.



Of course, the main selling point PadFone it when it comes to software is a feature of Dynamic Switching, in which the application is supposed to switch between their phone interfaces to the docking and undocking tablet interface or phone. Unfortunately, we regret to say that this is not quite ready as expected. By building Android (IML74K.CHT_PadFone-9.18.8.2_CHT_9.0.33-0) are sent to our retail unit, only a handful of pre-loaded applications have working Dynamic Switching: People, Messages, Dialer, Camera, Browser, Calendar, Supernote, Clock, Email, File Manager, Gallery and Video Player.

This list may seem to have the basics covered and are very easy to impress your friends with a smooth video playback on a standard video player, but trust us, this is far from enough if you consider how all the other applications to slap your face with a painful message: "Application not supported dynamic display and the switch is closed. " Black list includes almost all Google services (eg, Maps, Gmail, Play Service, Film Studio and YouTube), some pre-loaded applications such as Garmin and WebStorage; download popular as Facebook, Twitter and Angry Birds, and our own Engadget app as well. Just to rub salt in the wound, removed the last application list cleaning each time Dynamic Switching is attempted, regardless of the outcome. So what do you do, you should always make sure you save your work before playing with the Dynamic Switching - we've managed to lose the concept behind Gmail in the early days. Luckily it was not an essay.

Given the expected close relationship between ASUS and Google, we were very surprised with severe incompatibility with Google services.
Given the expected close relationship between ASUS and Google, we were struck with severe incompatibility with Google services, so our assumption is that ASUS had to rush this product out before Computex. On the bright side, ASUS told us this is something that continues to hone, so here's hoping the OTA update coming this month to add new applications to the list. We also asked ASUS whom to contact for support should a developer want to ensure compatibility of Dynamic Switching, but the response we got was a bit strange: it seems the local sales agent, not the dev support team, will handle this.

While exploring Dynamic Switching, we initially puzzled that the tablet interface and telephone interface can not share the same wallpaper. You must set it manually if you are picky (although we are pretty sure many people would rather have two choices, instead of one). ASUS says this is because two different resolutions and have to take a portrait and landscape mode into consideration. It is difficult to offer automated solutions and maintain good image quality is controlled at the same time, plus the company wants to emphasize the fact that you can run two completely different UIs in a system here. We think that's a fair point, and at the end of the day, you can not share the same icon layout between homescreens of the two interfaces as well.

Transformer Pads fans should be familiar with most of the widgets on PadFone, namely MyZine, battery, task manager, weather and WebStorage. With the exception MyZine, are all available in the phone mode. There are also several new widgets here, with the Utility Station PadFone-pad just to let you switch settings for charging (or charging mode intelligent mode of packing), the frequency check your inbox, the action of incoming calls (take to answer or pick and choose the action) and answer selection mode (Bluetooth headset or speaker). Again, this can also be accessed under the "Adjusted ASUS Settings" in the Settings menu.

ASUS PadFone screenshot





You will also find a healthy set of applications loaded on the PadFone. With the exception of the utility of Emome.net Hami (Taiwan portal operated by a local operator Chunghwa Telecom partners), most have come in handy for those who live outside of Taiwan. Starting from the oldies of the Eee Pads, we have the App Locker, WebStorage, SplashTop Remote (bottom MyCloud), asus @ Vibe, MyNet (for DLNA), File Manager, SuperNote, Polaris and Garmin StreetPilot Office. It has the productivity, navigation and entertainment were closed, so not a bad package at all. Then there is the only phone FM Radio and Calendar Watch the new, the latter offering hour-style layout cool and surprisingly tidy for your daily agenda.



While the asus @ Vibe hub offers a choice of channels for streaming and purchase multimedia content, multimedia applications lack PadFone strong to support more formats or to offer a more intelligent service. For music, the device only supports MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC + out of the box. You also have the original Android Music Play button that does a good job (although discrepancies with Dynamic Switching), but you have to look elsewhere if you want smart features such as automatic music playlist Square tool in the Galaxy S III.

Support video over worry: the spec sheet lists only MPEG4, H.264, H.263 and WMV HD 1080p as a format compatible, so we have to rely on third-party applications to AVI and MKV support that do not always work properly. And even so, this application does not have support for Dynamic Switching. We do not mind if the phone is equipped with a relatively basic music player, but for devices that are proven to perform seamless video playback while switching the screen, we are seriously hoping for a strong video player that will handle all the formats you can think of. A DivX certification and some tweaking to be all that needs to cultivate ASUS PadFone be the best multimedia center that will make your neighbors jealous.

Wrap-up


More info
Shocker! ASUS launches PadFone at Mobile World Congress, we will be there! (Update: hands-on video)
ASUS officially launches PadFone: 4.3-inch Super AMOLED, S4 Snapdragon CPU, ICS, HSPA +, which comes in April
ASUS PadFone hands-on (video)
While it may seem like we complain a lot about PadFone in its current state, we do so only out of love. In short, we are all over the ASUS vision to create a smartphone literal center of our lives, but the company can do much more: what we see here is only the core of the idea, basic to get things started, while the rest of it seems semi-finished products and not realize its full potential. On the other hand, you have to start somewhere, and a product like this will surely inspire many people to take advantage of the hybrid form factor, be it consumer, developer, or even the manufacturer.

Focusing on PadFone already on the market, we can not help feeling ASUS is really just want to get out of the way before Computex, and then rely on to strengthen the OTA update. It's okay for ASUS to keep pace, and see the track record of updating the Transformer series, we are confident that improvements will be delivered in good time. Let the software bugs aside, at present it is difficult to say whether PadFone will appeal to the masses who are spoiled by the multi-device options, or those who think the glass is half empty - as in the tablet is useless without a phone. But then again, off-price contract for a complete package which is already very competitive, let alone offer subsidies from operators. In the end, not only Android needs to become more productive, but PadFone also need to shave off weight. We thought it would follow the same path as the first Transformer and developed into a model more streamlined, and you have to remember how quickly Jonney Shih returned with the Prime Transformer after the launch of the TF101 in the same year.

What we want to do now is embrace ASUS up to Google and Dynamic Switching to sort out all the people, and come up with even more applications and ideas that will really drive the transformation of the Android for a more significant role in our daily lives .

Smartphone
Design


Asus itself has bodiyang PadFone sleek and sturdy, especially when I saw the back of the textured handgrip provide good enough not to slip from his grasp. There are volume buttons on the right, while right in the middle of the phone jack is a 3.5-inch side by side with the power button. On the left there is a micro HDMI and micro USB port, this port is used to connect the handset to PadFone Station. When the lid is opened, we will see 1.520 mAh battery underneath.

The front of the entire surface is covered by Gorilla Glass shatterproof glass, thus providing a more modern look and very good, similar to Apple products. As a sweetener, is given below with a touch screen ASUS logo. Asus PadFone weighs 129g light enough probably because the body is made of plastic material.

Asus PadFone has a screen size of 4.3960 x 540 pixel AMOLED super manifold, so the colors look even brighter under the sun. As a navigation tool, there are three buttons below the screen is capacitive, back, home and menu. While PadFone Station has a screen size of 10.1 inches with a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels.

ASUS PadFone Station looks very similar to ASUS Transformer tablet but has a slot for the rear Padfone smartphone. The problem probably is not enough berapada slim design and weight, we need to know just when Asus PadFone station, measuring 13.55 mm with a weight of 724 grams. When the conditions are combined with the smartphone weighs 853 g, this will certainly create problems when we use it for browsing and playing games because it makes us tired arm.


The heavier it again when we have to take him along with Dock Station PadFone weighing 646g, the total burden that we carry around 1.5 kg! Just like a netbook that has a screen size of 10 inches.

Features


Obviously if the security features of this device is the incorporation of the tablets, netbooks, and smartphones. When used alone, PadFone serves as a smartphone, but when put into PadFone Station serves as a tablet. PadFone can charge the camera on the camera to double as PadFone Station has 8MP resolution. Then if all Asus smartphone will be combined with PadFone Station? ASUS has not given such information.

In addition to the rear camera, Asus PadFone also have a VGA front camera, when combined with the Asus PadFone Station then automatically turns itself will be replaced with a 1.3 MP camera on the front of the station PadFone.

Maybe we're a little disappointed, the article when incorporated functions such as message WhatsApp not working, we can not automatically receive a message from the application. Whether this was deliberate or a bug that occurs in Padfone station? Additionally, when there is incoming SMS we can not hear his voice. Easy - I hope Asus immediately provide answers to these problems.

But for the function of the phone no problem, just that we have to use a bluetooth headset or disconnect from the Station when padfone not want to look silly.

Both PadFone has a built-in batteries each - each. This is the excess, if we're kehabisa battery away from the middle of the road or an outlet, we can plug into PadFone Station has a capacity of 6600 mAh battery will automatically fill in our PadFone. Although the energy transfer process is slow that is within 4 hours filled only 30% but this is quite helpful for us.

Which is more often we take it between the smartphone and tablet? may we all give answers Smartphone. I personally carry a smartphone more freely than the tablet for more compact and lightweight. Bring the tablet just really - really need it.

Performance


Asus PadFone equipped with a 1.5 Ghz dual core processor, so it is not wrong to feel very comfortable when using it to open various applications. Even when we use in tablet mode, there is no significant constraint on the performance of the Asus PadFone.

Classified as long-lasting battery, when normal use the battery can last for one day without recharging. Test is done by activating the Gmail account, Facebook, and Twitter.

Asus prices PadFone


Perhaps many of us who were thinking that Asus PadFone and PadFone Station can turn on and own their own work. Apparently not, Tablet PadFone can only light up when we enter into the station PadFone. The device is priced at 8 million in the United States. In Indonesia there is still no news of course, when to enter Indonesia and at what price.

Naturally, when prices reached 8 million because we know that the 1.5 Ghz dual-core smartphone currently has a price range of 4-5 million dollars. By adding 3 million you already have two devices, namely smartphones and tablets as well

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