Showing posts with label asus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label asus. Show all posts
Monday, April 6, 2015
Asus Zenfone trio of phones unveiled
Asus Zenfone is a range of Android mobile phones, with names that relate to their screen sizes – meet the Zenfone 4, Zenfone 5 and Zenfone 6.
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Asus is better known for its laptops and tablets than its phones. However, it has just dramatically increased its range of phones with the Zenfone line-up.
There are three models, the Asus Zenfone 4, the Zenfone 5 and Zenfone 6. Both the price and features ramp-up as you work your way up the range.
Zenfone 4
The Asus Zenfone 4 has a 4-inch IPS screen and a basic 5-megapixel camera. As the phone thats likely to appeal to younger buyers due to its lower price, the Zenfone 4 comes in five colours – white, black, yellow, green, red.
It has a 480 x 800 pixel screen, 4GB of internal memory and a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 processor.
Zenfone 5
Up a step is the Asus Zenfone 5. This phone has a 5-inch 720p IPS screen and 8-megapixel camera with an f/2.0 lens.
The processor is also a lot faster than the four-inch model, using the 2GHz Intel Atom Z2580. This phone comes in white, black, red, blue and gold colours. 4GB, 8GB and 16GB models will be produced, but it seems unlikely that all three will be widely available in the UK.
Zenfone 6
The top model Zenfone 6 is a further upgrade, but not in all respects. Despite having a 6-inch screen, the Zenfone 6 continues to use a 720p screen. And it has the same 2GHz Atom processor as the Zenfone 5.
Its camera is a step up, though, using a 13-megapixel sensor with LED flash.
Asus Marketing Manager John Swatton confirmed that the company is in talks to bring the phones to UK networks and major retailers like as Carphone Warehouse. However, at this point he could not confirm any definite UK stores that will stock the phones.
UK prices too are yet to be confirmed.
Friday, April 3, 2015
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 review
Key Features: Quad-core 1.2GHz Mediatek MT1825 CPU; 1GB RAM; 16GB internal memory, microSD slot; Android 4.2; 7-inch 1,280 x 800 pixel IPS screen Manufacturer: Asus
The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 is a 7-inch Android tablet whose aims are very similar to the Nexus 7’s – it’s a versatile, portable and affordable tablet. But at £129 it’s a good deal cheaper than the new Nexus 7. And while there are clear compromises involved, its one of the very few sub-£150 tablets we recommend.
What is the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7?
The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 is a 7-inch Android tablet whose aims are very similar to the Nexus 7’s – it’s a versatile, portable and affordable tablet. But at £129 it’s a good deal cheaper than the new Nexus 7. And while there are clear compromises involved, its one of the very few sub-£150 tablets we recommend.
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 – Design
The most obvious element that has been kept simple in the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 is its hardware design. You’re not going to be bowled-over by its look or feel.
To give it a more high street-friendly look, the tablet comes in a bunch of colours – none black – including dark blue, green, pink and white, but otherwise the tablet keeps things basic. The back is curvy plastic, where the first Nexus 7 had an almost leather-like textured rear and the £50 more expensive Asus Fonepad uses metal.
The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 is also not super skinny. At 10.8mm thick, there’s a reassuring amount to grab onto here, although with a weight of just over 300g, it’s easily light enough to hold one-handed comfortably for a while.
This will become a theme of the review – the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 isn’t flash, but using it is mostly a joy.
Looks-wise, it’s similar to the first-generation Nexus 7, with a pretty generous expanse of screen bezel to each side of the display and the tablet-standard innocuous black front. In a couple of ways, the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 is quite different from the Nexus 7, though. The most significant exterior one is that it has a microSD memory slot on the left edge.
You get a reasonable 16GB of storage, 11GB of which is accessible. That’s pretty generous for a tablet this cheap. And if you want to carry around a chunky movie or music collection, you can always slap in a microSD memory card of up to 64GB extra memory - theres an exposed microSD slot on the tablets side.
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 – Screen
The name alone tells you a fair bit about the MeMO Pad HD 7’s screen. It’s seven inches across and has more pixels than the first 7-inch MeMO Pad.
However, calling it ‘HD’ might be considered a tad misleading. The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 has a 1,280 x 800 pixel screen, on-par with the first-generation Nexus 7. Google’s second 7-inch Nexus tablet has a 1080p display, giving it much more credibility as an ‘HD’ gadget. This is one of the main reasons this new Asus tablet has managed to sell for £70 less than the new Nexus 7.
It’s a compromise, but this is undoubtedly one of the best tablet screens you get at the price – Asus shows us how things should be done here. It uses an IPS panel, which supplies much better viewing angles and better colour than many ultra-budget tablets.
Black level and colour reproduction have been significantly improved over the first-generation Nexus 7. According to Asus, the panel comes from a different supplier this time around, and there’s no contrast-limiting (but battery-improving) Nvidia Prism imaging engine to stymie the vividness of images. The screen image is altogether much more satisfying.
The 215ppi screen isn’t pixel-rich enough to create ultra-smooth Retina-style effect of something like the New Nexus 7 or iPad with Retina display, but text and images are nevertheless fairly sharp. At the price, we’re impressed.
What the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 doesn’t have, though, is a decent anti-reflective screen coating. Consequently, it doesn’t fare too well outside. You’ll need to set the brightness to maximum for the screen to be anything approaching comfortable to view. Top brightness is good for a tablet this cheap, though.
One very neat Asus-specific feature of the MeMO Pad HD 7’s screen is provided by a little app called Asus Splendid. The name may be silly, but its functionality is great. It lets you change either colour temperature or the screen’s hue and saturation. You can even turn it into a black and white tablet.
Generally, a manufacturer’s apps can generally be replaced easily with choices from the Google Play app store, but you’d need to root your tablet to get the sort of control Asus Splendid gives you.
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 - Software, Apps and Internal Speaker
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 – Software
Most of Asus’s tablets don’t ooze ego – there’s generally little attempt to make their interfaces vary much from vanilla Android, which is how manufacturers usually put their stamp on a tablet. The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 is no different.
It looks just like vanilla Android 4.2 (the version the tablet runs), apart from a few little tweaks. The most obvious gets its own spot on the main nav bar – where you’ll also find the usual back, Home and multi-tasking shortcuts
The extra one opens-up a tray of widget apps that sit on top of your home screen, rather than ‘in’ it like most widgets. These include a stopwatch, video player, calculator and a half-dozen other little utilities. We didn’t find them desperately useful, and this toolbar is one of the few parts of the interface that’s sluggish to operate, but it’s an inoffensive addition.
There are also optional power switches you can put into the standard drop-down notifications bar, for things like Wi-Fi, autorotate, and an easy screenshot function (hold down the multitasking button).
Many people may not even notice these alterations, but that’s no bad thing when Android 4.2 by itself makes the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7’s UI seem pretty intuitive and clean-looking.
Asus’s other additions are more traditional apps, and there’s nothing we haven’t seen before.
App Locker lets you password protect some or all of your apps, App Backup lets you install your apps to a memory card and Audio Wizard offers some digital signal processing modes to get the internal speaker sounding a little better depending on what you’re listening to. These are all basic utilities.
The other extra apps are the fluffier sort, which most tablet fans will likely want to replace with alternatives from Google Play. You get a photo editor, a basic painting app, a to-do list and Asus Story, which lets you create a ‘story’ flipbook using your own photos.
None of Asus’s apps impressed particularly – there are better options out there – but none are invasive enough to really affect how the tablet it to use. And, for a tablet of this price, it runs like a dream.
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 – Apps, Games and Performance
The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 has a quad-core Mediatek MT1825 CPU clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM. This is a way below the top Android devices, which now have 2GB of RAM and much faster processors. If the quad-core revolution has taught us anything, it’s that just because a processor is ‘quad-core’ doesn’t mean it’ll trample a dual-core one.
Despite being quad-core and having an up-to-date 28nm, it seems to be geared-up for efficiency rather than raw power.
However, general navigation is mostly lag-free – far better than we’re used to for a tablet of this price. There are occasional loading stutters shortly after the tablet is awakened, but otherwise it’s a nippy little thing.
Testing the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 a little more rigorously, with high-end 3D games and performance benchmarks, the tablet competes reasonably well with mid-range Android phones and tablets.
It scored 12,800 in the AnTuTu benchmark, which is roughly on-par with the first Nexus 7 (but around half the score of a high-end quad-core chip like the Galaxy S4s), and it can handle fairly impressive games, if not without frame drops in some titles. And our usual gaming benchmark Real Racing 3 continually crashed before we got to the tarmac. For pure gaming, the first-gen Nexus 7 is superior.
It scored 12,800 in the AnTuTu benchmark, which is roughly on-par with the first Nexus 7 (but around half the score of a high-end quad-core chip like the Galaxy S4s), and it can handle fairly impressive games, if not without frame drops in some titles. And our usual gaming benchmark Real Racing 3 continually crashed before we got to the tarmac. For pure gaming, the first-gen Nexus 7 is superior.
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 – Video, Internal Speaker and Audio
As with most tablets, you’ll need a third-party app to get the most out of the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 as a video player. Its video file support is much better than Android devices running an earlier version of the software – with integrated support for MKV – but it still failed on rare occasions to play either the audio or video track when certain codecs are used.
With MX Player, an app that fills-in support gaps using software rendering, the MeMO Pad HD 7 can play virtually any video file. The quad-core Mediatek CPU may not be a true powerhouse, but it can handle HD video at full speed.
We find the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 a pretty great little video buddy. It’s portable, but has a large enough screen to make watching a movie an enjoyable experience. Having a microSD card slot to hand is also a massive bonus – letting you carry a pretty sizeable movie/TV collection around with you.
The biggest issue is the reflective screen, which does become an annoyance when the tablet is taken outside.
The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7’s internal speaker is, much like the Asus-made Nexus 7, isn’t too great either. Volume output and the power of the sound have been improved significantly – it’s no longer weedy-sounding – and uses a stereo driver rather than a smaller mono one.
The biggest issue is the reflective screen, which does become an annoyance when the tablet is taken outside.
The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7’s internal speaker is, much like the Asus-made Nexus 7, isn’t too great either. Volume output and the power of the sound have been improved significantly – it’s no longer weedy-sounding – and uses a stereo driver rather than a smaller mono one.
However, in another respect it might as well be mono. Both speakers sit along a thin grille on the bottom of the tablet’s rear (when the tablet is held upright). This is a fairly poor setup for movie-watching, as it has no hope of creating anything approaching a stereo effect. Its highly positional output gives a definite impression of the sound coming from one edge of the tablet when it’s held on its side.
For upright casual games, though, this is a pretty good speaker for a budget tablet.
Asus has also appeared to have addressed another complaint made about the Nexus 7. Output from the headphone jack is no longer depressingly low. It’s not hugely loud either, but only truly hard-to-drive headphones should have problem with the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7’s output.
For upright casual games, though, this is a pretty good speaker for a budget tablet.
Asus has also appeared to have addressed another complaint made about the Nexus 7. Output from the headphone jack is no longer depressingly low. It’s not hugely loud either, but only truly hard-to-drive headphones should have problem with the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7’s output.
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 - Battery Life, Camera and Verdict
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 – Battery Life
Looking at the specs alone, you’d assume the MeMO Pad HD 7 wouldn’t last as long as the Nexus 7. It has a 3,900mAh 15Wh battery where the Nexus 7 has a 4,325mAh 16Wh unit.
However, in testing we found the MeMO outperformed its older brother. It lasts just over 10 hours when playing video, which is great performance for a low-cost, small tablet like this.
This solid performance is likely to be down to the 28nm construction of the Mediatek CPU, which makes it more efficient than the Tegra 3 of the Nexus 7. It also seemed to pay off in the heat the tablet gives off – the MeMO Pad HD 7 barely gets warm even after prolonged use.
Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 – Camera
There are two cameras on the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7, a 5-megapixel rear sensor and a 1.2-megapixel video chat camera.
These are weaker parts of the tablet, but we have seen worse. There’s no flash to aid the main sensor, and images are noisy in most lighting conditions, but there is at least autofocus. Some bottom-rung Android tablets use a fixed-focus camera, which gives you no control over the subject of your shots. You get touchscreen focusing here.
With a bit of patience, you can get some half-decent shots out of the MeMO Pad HD 7, however its white balance automation is seriously shaky and exposure can vary significantly between shots. Focusing isn’t the most reliable, either. Getting out-of-focus images and those with a weird colour cast is pretty common.
The camera app is a cut above most tablets in this budget sector, offering HDR and Panorama modes as well as some arty filters. Yes, the camera array is one of the weaker features of the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7, but if cuts are to be made we’re glad they’re made here – and if anything performance is good for a sub £130, ‘non-subsidised’ (unlike the Kindle Fire range) Android tablet.
The camera app is a cut above most tablets in this budget sector, offering HDR and Panorama modes as well as some arty filters. Yes, the camera array is one of the weaker features of the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7, but if cuts are to be made we’re glad they’re made here – and if anything performance is good for a sub £130, ‘non-subsidised’ (unlike the Kindle Fire range) Android tablet.
Should I buy the Asus MeMO Pad HD 7?
The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 is unlikely to sell in the numbers the Nexus 7 managed, and is not as technologically impressive as the New Nexus 7. However, it is one of the few budget tablets we feel happy to recommend. It’s a lot more flexible than other budget Android tablets like the Kindle Fire HD and Nook HD, thanks to its lack of a restrictive custom user interface. Heck, it’s even more flexible than a New Nexus 7, as it has a memory card slot.
There are compromises, several of them – performance is not perfect, the design is pretty bland and you’ll get better speakers elsewhere – but as a package it’s a great deal. Its main problem is the original Nexus 7, which is likely to be available for even less money as stocks of the older tablet are cleared. That tablet’s screen is worse and it doesn’t have expandable memory, but its construction is a bit better and offers superior gaming performance.
Verdict
The Asus MeMO Pad HD 7 is a top budget tablet. If you don’t like the restrictiveness of something like the Kindle Fire HD, and don’t want to splash out on a £200 New Nexus 7, this is a top choice.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Asus Padfone 2 vs Asus FonePad Which should you buy
With the Padfone 2 and the FonePad, Taiwanese manufacturer Asus has established itself as the master of the Android hybrid.
While Android smartphones continue to thrive and Android tablets - but for a few exceptions - continue to flounder, Asus has come up with a novel way to capitalise on the former and circumvent the latter.
Mash them both together.
However, Asus doesnt quite seem to have decided on a definitive format. Both the Asus Padfone 2 and the Asus FonePad combine key elements of the smartphone and tablet form factors, but they go about it in very different ways.
The Asus Padfone 2 takes the mash-up idea quite literally, presenting you with a decent upper-mid-range smartphone that slots into a 10-inch tablet dock when you want to go large. The FonePad, meanwhile, is an altogether subtler blend, offering a sleek 7-inch tablet that happens to accept a smartphone SIM for 3G calling.
Join us as we take a look at how these two Android phone-tablet hybrids compare, and ultimately try to establish which you should buy.
Both the Asus Padfone 2 and the Asus FonePad use Googles stock People app for managing your contacts, so navigating through to make calls is a pretty similar experience across the two devices.
However, when it comes to the experience of placing calls, the difference is pronounced.
The Padfone 2, when in its default phone state, is a thoroughly pleasant device to make and receive calls on.
Its 4.7-inch display and relatively slim 10.4mm body make navigating its interface easy even while out and about, and lifting it up to your ear looks and feels normal. The odd circular groove pattern on the back even makes it quite comfortable to grip.
The FonePad, by contrast, is unavoidably a 7-inch tablet rather than a phone, so holding it up to your face feels faintly ridiculous. In fact, scratch that - its hugely ridiculous.
Bear in mind that many people scoff at the idea of holding the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 2 up to their noggins, and hopefully youll see where were coming from here.
Of course, theres always that Bluetooth headset or those mic-equipped earbuds youve been holding onto, but still...
As a pure phone for making and taking calls, the Padfone 2s flexibility and fit-for-purpose design makes it the clear winner.
Again, the messaging experience is nigh-on identical from a software perspective between these two devices. Both feature the same default Android messaging app, and the same native email application too.
Weve got mixed feelings about Asuss custom keyboard, but regardless of your preference there are plenty of fine alternatives on the Google Play Store. Its also another thing the Padfone 2 and the FonePad share, so its hardly a deciding factor between the two.
Were left, then, with the differences between the actual physical process of messaging on each phablet device. Its undoubtedly the toughest area to call.
On the one hand, the Asus Padfone 2 offers the two extremes of messaging on the go - the potential for one-handed typing with the phone element and the potential for a full-sized two-handed typing option with the tablet peripheral engaged.
However, the Asus FonePads 7-inch display appears to strike a fine balance between the two. Held in portrait view in one hand and typing with the other, we found messaging on the FonePad to be an error-free process. Its just got that extra bit of breathing space that makes texting and emailing a solid experience.
After a slow start, gaming has become an increasingly prominent part of Android devices, and with Googles planned social and achievement integration its only going to get bigger.
Beyond that, comparing the gaming performance of the Padfone 2 and the Asus FonePad acts as a fine barometer for their relative hardware merits. After all, nothing puts a phones innards to the test like a modern 3D game.
A performance comparison is especially interesting because the Asus Padfone 2 and the Asus FonePad, despite being produced by the same company at around the same time, could scarcely be more different internally.
While the Padfone 2 is built on a fairly typical - though also very capable - quad-core Qualcomm CPU and Adreno 320 GPU combo with 2GB of RAM, the FonePad takes a very different approach.
Its built on an Intel Atom Z2420 processor, which uses PC-like Hyper-Threading rather than multiple cores. Its backed by the slightly creaky PowerVR SGX540 GPU and a relatively meagre 1GB of RAM.
Comparing the two using the Antutu benchmarking tool, which provides a number of graphics-intensive (both 2D and 3D) tasks for Android devices to run through, theres a clear winner. With an average score of 21,607, the Padfone 2 more than doubled the 9,208 average score of the FonePad.
This apparent doubling in performance is understandable. While the Qualcomm chip is a premium component, the Intel processor is intended for relatively low-cost devices. Sure enough the FonePad can be had for about a third of the price of the Padfone 2.
If youre after something that will be able to run high-end games both now and into the future, the Padfone 2 is a better bet - if you can spare the £600/US$720/AU$750 it will take to obtain it.
Otherwise, the FonePad will run pretty much anything currently available reasonably well - even advanced 3D games such as Real Racing 3 - and youll pay just £180/AU$315 (around US$275) for the privilege.
The first thing to note is that both devices name the Google Play Store as the main source for their media. Through this increasingly impressive online media library you can get access to thousands of cheap video rentals and the comprehensive Google Books.
Wed prefer to watch a video and read a book on the Asus FonePad than on the Padfone 2, though. Its down to the difference in screen dimensions.
The FonePads 7-inch 1280 x 800 display simply makes for a clearer and more engaging experience than Padfone 2s 4.7-inch equivalent.
The latter may be a little brighter and sharper, but the extra two inches of screen real estate more than makes up for that when watching a widescreen blockbuster or settling down to read a sprawling novel.
Obviously the Padfone 2 also has that 10.1-inch tablet adaptor, but with no increase in resolution and an inferior picture, both video and text can look a little grainy and washed out when blown up to such a size. It really offers little advantage.
Storage is another issue here. While the FonePad is only available with 8 or 16GB of internal storage compared to the Padfone 2s 16, 32, or 64GB, the former has the massive advantage of a microSD card slot. Not only does this open up the possibility for an extra 64GB of cheap memory expansion, it also offers another way to get media onto your tablet from other devices.
Once again, Google provides the default arrangements for internet software here in the shape of Chrome. Its a brilliant mobile browser, with its minimalistic interface, intuitive use of multiple tabs and ability to sync bookmarks with the desktop equivalent.
The respective screens play a big part in deciding which internet experience is preferable here. Once again, the Padfone 2s sub-par tablet component lets it down somewhat, compromising the full-size internet experience with its fuzzy, dim picture.
However, the phones vibrant 4.7-inch display really shows off the increasingly mobile-optimised web nicely, and the phones speedy CPU and GPU loads content up just as fast as its internet connection will allow it.
Theres the sense with 7-inch tablets such as the FonePad that youre getting an internet browsing experience thats caught somewhere betwixt and between - neither small enough to make the stripped-back mobile-optimised versions of websites feel natural, nor big enough to display full web pages comfortably like, say, an iPad can. Not without some vigorous zooming and panning, at least.
Theres not much in it, but browsing the web feels a little less forced on the Padfone 2 - and there is something to be said for a full-sized tablet web browser, no matter how low-res.
Listening to music is pretty much identical on both devices. Both have access to the marvellous Google Music service, which enables you to upload 20,000 tracks to the cloud for free, as well as to listen to your music through a stylish UI and to shop from Googles reasonably priced music store.
Its also about to go full-on Spotify on us, so watch out for an extra subscription-based incentive to opt for an Android smartphone or tablet (or both) in the near future.
Its considerably more wieldy listening to music on the go with the Padfone 2 thanks to its more pocket-friendly size, but then the FonePad has the benefit of that microSD slot for loading up even more music locally.
Back in the Padfone 2s favour, however, is the fact that it comes with a half-decent set of earbuds (the proper in-ear variety) packed in, while the FonePad has none.
Yes, any music fan should really be investing in a decent set of third-party earphones, but the fact remains that only one of these devices enables you to listen to music out of the box - at least without relying on a tinny speaker.
Both of these Asus phone-tablet hybrids impress when it comes to battery life. The Padfone 2 has a slightly larger than average 2,140mAh battery, which is technically removable if you dont mind performing minor surgery on your phone (thats what it feels like, at least).
Combined with the famously power-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU, we were easily getting through a full day of moderate to heavy usage without running out of juice.
But thats not the biggest plus point in its battery life box. That comes from the unique tablet dock, which doubles as a back-up charger.
If you carry this around with you, the tablet portions 5,000mAh battery can be used to completely recharge the phone section three times over. When youre away from a power point for a prolonged period, this could be a massive plus.
The FonePad, for its part, has no such gimmicks to rely on, but thats not to say its 4,270mAh battery doesnt sport impressive stamina.
We clocked around eight and a half hours of continuous usage - which involved whacking the screen brightness up to full and repeatedly looping an HD video - before the battery died. Impressive stuff.
Whichever Asus device you opt for, you wont have a problem with battery life.
As weve hopefully made clear, the Asus Padfone 2 and Asus FonePad are far more different than their shared heritage and similar names would suggest.
This means that when it comes to deciding which is the right Android phone/tablet hybrid for you, your mileage may vary.
If youre after a capable smartphone first and foremost, with a competent tablet experience considerably lower down on your list of priorities, then the Asus Padfone 2 is the device for you. Its nicely proportioned and very powerful, while its 4.7-inch display is very impressive.
Sure, its tablet dock provides a sub-par full-sized tablet experience, but it does the job. This component also acts as a portable recharger for the phone, which could prove very useful for the frequent traveller.
If the tablet side of things is more - or even equally - important to you, then the Asus FonePad is probably the better buy. Its a superbly well balanced device with a sharp display, exemplary build quality and an irresistibly low price tag.
Indeed, its the Asus FonePads sheer value for money that nudges it over the line for us when weighing the two against each other. At a third of the price of the Asus Padfone 2, this competent all-rounder is firmly in impulse-buy territory - and few will be disappointed with such a snap decision.
Read more »
While Android smartphones continue to thrive and Android tablets - but for a few exceptions - continue to flounder, Asus has come up with a novel way to capitalise on the former and circumvent the latter.
Mash them both together.
However, Asus doesnt quite seem to have decided on a definitive format. Both the Asus Padfone 2 and the Asus FonePad combine key elements of the smartphone and tablet form factors, but they go about it in very different ways.
The Asus Padfone 2 takes the mash-up idea quite literally, presenting you with a decent upper-mid-range smartphone that slots into a 10-inch tablet dock when you want to go large. The FonePad, meanwhile, is an altogether subtler blend, offering a sleek 7-inch tablet that happens to accept a smartphone SIM for 3G calling.
Join us as we take a look at how these two Android phone-tablet hybrids compare, and ultimately try to establish which you should buy.
Padfone 2 vs FonePad: Contacts
Both the Asus Padfone 2 and the Asus FonePad use Googles stock People app for managing your contacts, so navigating through to make calls is a pretty similar experience across the two devices.
However, when it comes to the experience of placing calls, the difference is pronounced.
The Padfone 2, when in its default phone state, is a thoroughly pleasant device to make and receive calls on.
Its 4.7-inch display and relatively slim 10.4mm body make navigating its interface easy even while out and about, and lifting it up to your ear looks and feels normal. The odd circular groove pattern on the back even makes it quite comfortable to grip.
The FonePad, by contrast, is unavoidably a 7-inch tablet rather than a phone, so holding it up to your face feels faintly ridiculous. In fact, scratch that - its hugely ridiculous.
Bear in mind that many people scoff at the idea of holding the 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 2 up to their noggins, and hopefully youll see where were coming from here.
Of course, theres always that Bluetooth headset or those mic-equipped earbuds youve been holding onto, but still...
As a pure phone for making and taking calls, the Padfone 2s flexibility and fit-for-purpose design makes it the clear winner.
Padfone 2 vs FonePad: Messaging
Again, the messaging experience is nigh-on identical from a software perspective between these two devices. Both feature the same default Android messaging app, and the same native email application too.
Weve got mixed feelings about Asuss custom keyboard, but regardless of your preference there are plenty of fine alternatives on the Google Play Store. Its also another thing the Padfone 2 and the FonePad share, so its hardly a deciding factor between the two.
Were left, then, with the differences between the actual physical process of messaging on each phablet device. Its undoubtedly the toughest area to call.
On the one hand, the Asus Padfone 2 offers the two extremes of messaging on the go - the potential for one-handed typing with the phone element and the potential for a full-sized two-handed typing option with the tablet peripheral engaged.
However, the Asus FonePads 7-inch display appears to strike a fine balance between the two. Held in portrait view in one hand and typing with the other, we found messaging on the FonePad to be an error-free process. Its just got that extra bit of breathing space that makes texting and emailing a solid experience.
Padfone 2 vs FonePad: Gaming
After a slow start, gaming has become an increasingly prominent part of Android devices, and with Googles planned social and achievement integration its only going to get bigger.
Beyond that, comparing the gaming performance of the Padfone 2 and the Asus FonePad acts as a fine barometer for their relative hardware merits. After all, nothing puts a phones innards to the test like a modern 3D game.
A performance comparison is especially interesting because the Asus Padfone 2 and the Asus FonePad, despite being produced by the same company at around the same time, could scarcely be more different internally.
While the Padfone 2 is built on a fairly typical - though also very capable - quad-core Qualcomm CPU and Adreno 320 GPU combo with 2GB of RAM, the FonePad takes a very different approach.
Its built on an Intel Atom Z2420 processor, which uses PC-like Hyper-Threading rather than multiple cores. Its backed by the slightly creaky PowerVR SGX540 GPU and a relatively meagre 1GB of RAM.
Comparing the two using the Antutu benchmarking tool, which provides a number of graphics-intensive (both 2D and 3D) tasks for Android devices to run through, theres a clear winner. With an average score of 21,607, the Padfone 2 more than doubled the 9,208 average score of the FonePad.
This apparent doubling in performance is understandable. While the Qualcomm chip is a premium component, the Intel processor is intended for relatively low-cost devices. Sure enough the FonePad can be had for about a third of the price of the Padfone 2.
If youre after something that will be able to run high-end games both now and into the future, the Padfone 2 is a better bet - if you can spare the £600/US$720/AU$750 it will take to obtain it.
Otherwise, the FonePad will run pretty much anything currently available reasonably well - even advanced 3D games such as Real Racing 3 - and youll pay just £180/AU$315 (around US$275) for the privilege.
Padfone 2 vs FonePad: Multimedia
The first thing to note is that both devices name the Google Play Store as the main source for their media. Through this increasingly impressive online media library you can get access to thousands of cheap video rentals and the comprehensive Google Books.
Wed prefer to watch a video and read a book on the Asus FonePad than on the Padfone 2, though. Its down to the difference in screen dimensions.
The FonePads 7-inch 1280 x 800 display simply makes for a clearer and more engaging experience than Padfone 2s 4.7-inch equivalent.
The latter may be a little brighter and sharper, but the extra two inches of screen real estate more than makes up for that when watching a widescreen blockbuster or settling down to read a sprawling novel.
Obviously the Padfone 2 also has that 10.1-inch tablet adaptor, but with no increase in resolution and an inferior picture, both video and text can look a little grainy and washed out when blown up to such a size. It really offers little advantage.
Storage is another issue here. While the FonePad is only available with 8 or 16GB of internal storage compared to the Padfone 2s 16, 32, or 64GB, the former has the massive advantage of a microSD card slot. Not only does this open up the possibility for an extra 64GB of cheap memory expansion, it also offers another way to get media onto your tablet from other devices.
Padfone 2 vs FonePad: Internet
Once again, Google provides the default arrangements for internet software here in the shape of Chrome. Its a brilliant mobile browser, with its minimalistic interface, intuitive use of multiple tabs and ability to sync bookmarks with the desktop equivalent.
The respective screens play a big part in deciding which internet experience is preferable here. Once again, the Padfone 2s sub-par tablet component lets it down somewhat, compromising the full-size internet experience with its fuzzy, dim picture.
However, the phones vibrant 4.7-inch display really shows off the increasingly mobile-optimised web nicely, and the phones speedy CPU and GPU loads content up just as fast as its internet connection will allow it.
Theres the sense with 7-inch tablets such as the FonePad that youre getting an internet browsing experience thats caught somewhere betwixt and between - neither small enough to make the stripped-back mobile-optimised versions of websites feel natural, nor big enough to display full web pages comfortably like, say, an iPad can. Not without some vigorous zooming and panning, at least.
Theres not much in it, but browsing the web feels a little less forced on the Padfone 2 - and there is something to be said for a full-sized tablet web browser, no matter how low-res.
Padfone 2 vs FonePad: Music
Listening to music is pretty much identical on both devices. Both have access to the marvellous Google Music service, which enables you to upload 20,000 tracks to the cloud for free, as well as to listen to your music through a stylish UI and to shop from Googles reasonably priced music store.
Its also about to go full-on Spotify on us, so watch out for an extra subscription-based incentive to opt for an Android smartphone or tablet (or both) in the near future.
Its considerably more wieldy listening to music on the go with the Padfone 2 thanks to its more pocket-friendly size, but then the FonePad has the benefit of that microSD slot for loading up even more music locally.
Back in the Padfone 2s favour, however, is the fact that it comes with a half-decent set of earbuds (the proper in-ear variety) packed in, while the FonePad has none.
Yes, any music fan should really be investing in a decent set of third-party earphones, but the fact remains that only one of these devices enables you to listen to music out of the box - at least without relying on a tinny speaker.
Padfone 2 vs FonePad: Battery
Both of these Asus phone-tablet hybrids impress when it comes to battery life. The Padfone 2 has a slightly larger than average 2,140mAh battery, which is technically removable if you dont mind performing minor surgery on your phone (thats what it feels like, at least).
Combined with the famously power-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU, we were easily getting through a full day of moderate to heavy usage without running out of juice.
But thats not the biggest plus point in its battery life box. That comes from the unique tablet dock, which doubles as a back-up charger.
If you carry this around with you, the tablet portions 5,000mAh battery can be used to completely recharge the phone section three times over. When youre away from a power point for a prolonged period, this could be a massive plus.
The FonePad, for its part, has no such gimmicks to rely on, but thats not to say its 4,270mAh battery doesnt sport impressive stamina.
We clocked around eight and a half hours of continuous usage - which involved whacking the screen brightness up to full and repeatedly looping an HD video - before the battery died. Impressive stuff.
Whichever Asus device you opt for, you wont have a problem with battery life.
Padfone 2 vs FonePad: Verdict
As weve hopefully made clear, the Asus Padfone 2 and Asus FonePad are far more different than their shared heritage and similar names would suggest.
This means that when it comes to deciding which is the right Android phone/tablet hybrid for you, your mileage may vary.
If youre after a capable smartphone first and foremost, with a competent tablet experience considerably lower down on your list of priorities, then the Asus Padfone 2 is the device for you. Its nicely proportioned and very powerful, while its 4.7-inch display is very impressive.
Sure, its tablet dock provides a sub-par full-sized tablet experience, but it does the job. This component also acts as a portable recharger for the phone, which could prove very useful for the frequent traveller.
If the tablet side of things is more - or even equally - important to you, then the Asus FonePad is probably the better buy. Its a superbly well balanced device with a sharp display, exemplary build quality and an irresistibly low price tag.
Indeed, its the Asus FonePads sheer value for money that nudges it over the line for us when weighing the two against each other. At a third of the price of the Asus Padfone 2, this competent all-rounder is firmly in impulse-buy territory - and few will be disappointed with such a snap decision.
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