When we saw that ASUS had announced the unveiling event of the Padfone 2, our first thoughts were, when exactly did the original Padfone launch?

My thoughts too - I was dead set on getting one, but in the end I got p*ssed off with the continual delays and plumped for an S3 instead. From what's been said in the US sites, that was probably a good decision seeing as the consensus is that Asus screwed up the pricing badly - with over $1000 being needed to get everything. :eek:

What I'd like in the Padfone2 is:

• Quad core - no particular reason other than it'd make the tablet version a good/better gaming platform;
  
• Removable/replacable battery - nice to have;
  
• MicroSD(XC) slot - so I can buy a (cheap?) model and then put a load of storage so I don't have to think too hard about what I want on the device;
  
• LTE/4G would be good too - future proofing (especially since we're heading towards PF2 being a “2013” model).
  

crossy
Quad core - no particular reason other than it'd make the tablet version a good/better gaming platform;

PC Games don't even take advantage of 4 threads very well, I seriously doubt mobile gaming does. The Krait S4 dual cores are faster on each core than any quad out there at the moment and have a fast GPU in the Adreno 3xx series. I'd rather have an S4 than any other SoC out there right now.

kingpotnoodle
PC Games don't even take advantage of 4 threads very well, I seriously doubt mobile gaming does. The Krait S4 dual cores are faster on each core than any quad out there at the moment and have a fast GPU in the Adreno 3xx series. I'd rather have an S4 than any other SoC out there right now.

Yes, but surely if a dual core S4 is good, then a quad would be sublime - as the cliché goes “more power than you'll ever need”. Plus the bragging rights potential cannot be underestimated (which is basically the only reason to have a quad core at the moment - as you point out).

And according to http://tablet-news.com/2012/09/17/asus-padfone-2-with-quad-core-cpu-pops-up-in-antutu-database/ it is going to be quad-core.

That article says:

So, the leak shows us the name PadFone 2, Android version 4.0.4 and a 1512 MHz processor, a quad core one. We also get leaks saying that we should expect the PadFone 2 to be a quad core Snapdragon S4 Pro affair with 2 GB of RAM, something plausible for 2013 standards.

Quad S4 and 2GB RAM makes that PF2 a “super phone” in my book - and remember this is Asus we're talking about, so that also means a stock Android “experience” without the drag of Sense, TouchWiz, UXP, etc. Plus Asus has a pretty good reputation for shipping OS updates (even if some of them were less than entirely successful).

If they can deliver on that spec, and the design doesn't look like crap, then I'll be very tempted.

kingpotnoodle

crossy
Quad core - no particular reason other than it'd make the tablet version a good/better gaming platform;

PC Games don't even take advantage of 4 threads very well, I seriously doubt mobile gaming does. The Krait S4 dual cores are faster on each core than any quad out there at the moment and have a fast GPU in the Adreno 3xx series. I'd rather have an S4 than any other SoC out there right now.

Yes they do, I have battlefield 3 running across 8 threads (not at max but at 50% each)

And if you monitor Tegra HD games, they take advantage of all 4 cores as well to about 60-80% depending on the clock speed of your tegra 3