14 DAY TRIAL // Even though every year it looks like smartphones are getting bigger and bigger, that’s not necessary a bad thing. Look at Samsung and its Galaxy Note series that features huge displays and still sells like crazy.
This is probably one of the reasons Asus announced a new smartphone, the Fonepad Note 6. The name is heavily inspired by Samsung’s well-known phablet series, but we’re pretty sure that’s the only resemblance with the South Korean company’s smartphones.
The Fonepad Note 6, as the name suggests, boasts a large 6-inch Super IPS+ capacitive touchscreen display that supports full HD (1920 x 1080p) resolution.
According to Asus, “Fonepad Note 6 is designed for people who prefer the larger screen of a tablet for apps and entertainment, but who don’t want a separate smartphone just for telephone calls and internet access on the move.”
Hardware-wise, Asus Fonepad Note 6 comes equipped with a dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 processor with Hyper-Threading technology, which is clocked at 2GHz.
In addition, the smartphone packs 2GB of RAM and 16/32GB of internal memory, which can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD memory card.
On the back, the Fonepad 6 sports an 8-megapixel photo snapper with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, while on the front there’s a secondary 1.2-megapixel camera for video calls.
The phablet offers HSPA+ support that allows for up to 42Mbps download speeds. Asus Fonepad 6 is powered by a 3200 mAh Li-Ion battery which is rated for up to 23 hours of 3G talk-time and 6.5 hours of video playback.
It is also worth mentioning that the Fonepad 6 comes with several Asus-exclusive features, including a new camera application and tight integration of social network support, along with an improved native email app.
Asus Fonepad Note 6 will ship with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box later this year for a price that will be unveiled within the next few days.
Note: Fellow editors Sebastian Pop and Ionut Arghire are on the floor at IFA 2013 and are bringing you pictures and live reports on the latest products and previews.