facebook rss twitter

ASUS PadFone priced and dated

by Alistair Lowe on 5 April 2012, 10:35

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabesv

Add to My Vault: x

Please log in to view Printer Friendly Layout

Over the past few months, we've spoken of ASUS's new PadFone, the device that's both a phone and a tablet, with a keyboard dock and stylus, however, until now the cost and availability of the device has yet to be known.

ASUS PadFone

Alas, we still can't provide our readers with the UK release-date, however, as a strong indication, ASUS Taiwan has begun to take pre-orders, for a release on April 20th. The phone itself, featuring a powerful, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 SoC, will launch for NT$17,990 (£385), with the tablet and stylus bundle priced at NT$24,980 (£534) and with the whole caboodal, including the detachable keyboard, setting punters back NT$28,901 (£618).

For those who place pre-orders, ASUS is also throwing in an extra-battery. Hopefully solid UK release dates will be announced shortly, either way, release of the new phone/tablet can not be too far away. With any luck, UK pricing won't translate perfectly, else we'll be seeing keyboards priced at over £80. Owners of the original Transformer tablet, however, should be able to use their existing keyboards in-order to keep costs down.



HEXUS Forums :: 12 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Pfft, bit pricey!
£385 for the phone, fine; £149 for the touchscreen & stylus (possibly with battery) - acceptable, I guess, they're not cheap.. £84 for a keyboard? Wait, what?
miniyazz
Pfft, bit pricey!
£385 for the phone, fine; £149 for the touchscreen & stylus (possibly with battery) - acceptable, I guess, they're not cheap.. £84 for a keyboard? Wait, what?
It's not just a keyboard - it's a keyboard and a tertiary battery - that's how they get the other “4x” battery life that's quoted on the image. Oh, and the Logitech K800 keyboard I'm using this moment has an RRP of £89, so perhaps the Asus dock isn't such bad value if you consider that.

Got to say that if Asus UK can do the SIM free phone+tablet combo for £499 then here's one guy that'll buy it. Especially as the reviews of S4-powered phones have been pretty positive, (excellent performance and good battery life).

Anyone know if the keyboard dock is the same one as shipped with the TF101 (as has been reported in some places)? If so, then padFone just jumped over Galaxy S3 to my #1 purchase choice.
EDIT: Just spotted that bit at the end of the article that says the padFone should be able to use the TF101's dock - great news!!!!

Damn, I'm turning into a right Asus fanboi… :help:
The only thing thats stopping me getting one of these is the fact its Android, my Xoom does everything I want from a tablet personally, however one of these with Win8 on it would be a whole new level of awesome for work use as long as you can lock the tablet and handset down then I'd get one…
'[GSV
Trig;2390261']The only thing thats stopping me getting one of these is the fact its Android, my Xoom does everything I want from a tablet personally, however one of these with Win8 on it would be a whole new level of awesome for work use as long as you can lock the tablet and handset down then I'd get one…
Problem with that idea is that a Windows-powered padFone would be running Windows Phone 8, not full blown Windows 8. In which case, surely it'd be less usable than the Android one, (because of lot smaller app choice for WP7/8 than Android currently)?

Now, if someone was to come up with a way to dual-boot into Windows8-for-ARM when in “tablet” mode wouldn't that be a “better” solution?
Anything about the interoperability between versions of Windows8 is just speculation at this point though is it not?