Asus did not unveil just the Asus Transformer Book Duet, the three ZenPhones and the PadFone X at its CES 2014 event, as the company also announced the PadFone Mini, a smaller smartphone-tablet combination that we’ve seen in the past.
We’re looking at a 4-inch Android handset that docks into a 7-inch enclosure to become a 7-inch tablet, a setup that mobile device buyers looking for smaller devices may certainly appreciate.
Specs and features
Unfortunately, don’t expect high-end features from the Asus PadFone Mini, as this isn’t a flagship device, especially by 2013/2014 standards. Here’s what you can expect from it in terms of specs and features:
- Size: 124.42 x 61.44 x 6.3-11.2 mm (smartphone mode) / 199.85 x 119.43 x 13.91 mm (tablet mode)
- Weight: 116g / 260 g
- 4-inch display with 800 x 480 resolution (smartphone mode)
- 7-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution (tablet mode)
- 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor
- 1GB of RAM
- 8GB of storage
- microSD support up to 64GB
- 8-megapixel Sony camera with BSI, wide-aperture f/2.0 and five-element lense
- 2-megapixel front-facing camera
- dual SIM support
- 802.11 b/g/n support
- Bluetooth 4.0
- 1170mAh / 3270mAh battery depending of mode
- Android 4.3 Jelly Bean (upgradeable to KitKat) with Asus Zen UI on top
- Asus Dynamic Display technology that automatically resizes apps to fit the appropriate screen size
Pricing and release date
Pricing details for the Asus PadFone Mini aren’t available at this time – we’ll be back with more details for you as soon as we have them - although we expect the device to be fairly affordable, no matter what market it would be launched in.
In early December 2013, an Asus PadFone Mini version that packs a 4.3-inch phone into a 7-inch tablet was launched in Taiwan, where it sells for around $400, unlocked.