14 DAY TRIAL // Asus has just introduced the lite version of PadFone Infinity in Taiwan. The hybrid is one of the cheapest in the PadFone series of smartphone/tablet combos and will go on sale sometime in March.
According to Phonearena, the PadFone Infinity Lite should be available for purchase in Taiwan for around 13,990 TWD, which is about $465 or €340.
However, the amount mentioned earlier is only available for the smartphone. Customers who wish to add the 10.1-inch tablet dock into the mix must pay another $7,000 TWD ($230 / €165) extra.
For the time being, Taiwan is the only country where PadFone Infinity Lite will be available for purchase, but we suspect that more details on the hybrid will be offered next week at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014.
This is the third PadFone device that Asus announces this year, after the PadFone Mini and PadFone E, which should be released on the market soon.
Back to the PadFone Infinity Lite, the hybrid comprises a 5-inch smartphone and a 10.1-inch tablet dock, which, as mentioned earlier, can be purchased separately.
As the name suggests, the PadFone Lite device is a lighter version of the PadFone Infinity 2, so expect slightly lower hardware specs from the former.
For example, Asus PadFone Lite comes equipped with a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, while the Infinity 2 features a much better 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU.
Furthermore, the PadFone Lite sports a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports full HD (1080p) resolution. It also packs 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal memory and an impressive 13-megapixel rear-facing camera.
The smartphone is powered by a 2400 mAh battery, whereas the 10.1-inch tablet dock packs a much better 5000 mAh battery.
Asus PadFone Infinity Lite will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box, which is a bit disappointing. Hopefully, it will receive an upgrade to KitKat in the coming months.