Review: Asus PadFone Mini - a Hybrid World

Introduction

The world of hybrid it here, Be it your convertible car, your smart watch you are always caught in between the perfect union. More recently we have seen Hybrid laptops which can be converted to tablets. Asus has taken a challenge forward by introducing a phone which can be converted to a tablet by snapping it behind it. Its you who needs a dare to buy it.

First Looks - Asus PadFone Mini

Getting to know about Asus PadFone Mini

Asus PadFone Mini appears to ahead its time with its unconventional design. The phone magically gets docked to the screen of the tablet and BAM!! you have tablet come to life with your phone re-sized. The hybrid is available in India at a price tag of Rs. 15999. Quite Aggressive !!!

Various shades of PadFone

Also Read - Nokia N1 Tablet

Overall Design

The Rear of PadFone

The Asus PadFone consists of two pieces — a tablet dock and the smartphone. The smartphone appears to be a normal Asus phone with its looks matching close to ZenFone 4 in terms of features and design.The phone however has a docking point to the bottom thought the tablet dock receives all the input

The tablet dock, officially called the PadFone Station, is a 7-inch screen which has a battery, power and volume keys and a microUSB port. For speakers, camera and audio jack the tablet continues to rely on the smartphone

Build and Quality

To be honest the hybrid looks a bulky in the first look with the extra lump on the back. The phone has a all plastic build and no hint of metal can be found. It may also be difficult to hold the tablet in one hand for the use. The smartphone fits quite well into your palms.

The Black - PadFone

The dimensions of the phone are 124.42x61.44x11.2 mm, whereas the tablet measures 199.85x119.43x13.91 mm.
The combined weight is 376 grams (116g + 260g).

Display

The smart phone has a 4 inch (800 x 480 pixels) IPS panel which when docked into the tablet gives you 7 inch (1280 x 800 pixels).

Asus claims its PixelMaster's Low-Light Mode has the ability to measure the available light and adjust the pixel size to increase light sensitivity by up to 400 per cent. It can also capture 1080p videos.

Camera

The front and rear camera are available only on the smartphone and not the docking tablet. The rear camera is a 8 megapixel 'PixelMaster' rear f/2.0 BSI camera whereas the front camera can shoot up to 2 megapixels density.

The camera quality is a let down with the images lacking details and appearing noisy. We strongly feel this could have been much better.

The Charging Console

Processor and OS

The PadFone mini is powered by a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor and runs on Android 4.3 JellyBean featuring Asus'ZenUI. We think from OS perspective it is out dated when people would expect a Lollipop and not Jellies.

Storage and Battery

PadFone Mini comes with a total battery capacity of 3270mAh. The phone gets when it is docked into the tablet. This sounds interesting. 

The hybrid has 1GB RAM and has 8GB internal memory. You can expand it upto 64GB though the microSD card.

General Observation and Verdict

View - different angle - PadFone

Dare it to believe it !! You now have an option to have a tablet/phone combined that fits quite well into your budget. If you are a conventional person who doesn't try many things, this probably isn't for you. This device will sure make you look like a true techie who is not afraid to try new design.

The hybrid performs reasonably well with the only downside being the poor camera.

I don't see any reason why you shouldn't try it.

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