14 DAY TRIAL // Asus unveiled its smartphone/tablet combo last year in May, but decided to delay the device until 2012. Last week, Asus Padfone was showcased for the first time at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Aside from its tablet and phone pieces, the combo now contains a keyboard docking station and a stylus headset, which will be available for purchase separately.
Earlier this week, an Asus official confirmed that the device would be introduced on the market sometime in April, but the company has yet to announce its price tag: “PadFone will be available from April so you'll get the pricing details within a few weeks!”
Well, it appears that UK-based retailer Flagshipfones has just started to take pre-orders for Asus Padfone. The smartphone/tablet combo is available for purchase for a whopping suggested retail price of £700 (1100 USD or 835 EUR).
However, the retailer mentions that the official release date and pricing have yet to be confirmed. If legit, customers who pre-order the Asus Padfone through Flagshifones will probably get their devices next month.
Obviously, the sales package includes only the Asus Padfone smartphone and the Padfone station (tablet), as the keyboard station is not yet available for purchase.
For those unfamiliar with the device, the Padfone smartphone docks inside the station which can then be used as a 10.1-inch tablet. It is also worth mentioning it only requires one SIM card, as both devices share the same network.
The device comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on board and packs a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor manufactured by Qualcomm. There’s also 16GB of internal memory, 1GB of RAM and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
The smartphone sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display that supports 540 x 960 pixels resolution. On the back, it boasts an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, while in the front there’s a secondary VGA camera for video calls.