It's been a long ride for the PadFone. ASUS' last smartphone was the Android 2.1-powered A10 from two years ago, then five months later the company ended its smartphone partnership with Garmin (though they're still friends). The next thing we knew, the outfit was openly considering Windows Phone, but obviously nothing came to fruition despite its E600 engineering units floating about in the wild. Meanwhile, a bunch of Android Eee Pads started entering the market to get a slice of that hot tablet pie.

Eventually, the PadFone shocked the industry at last year's Computex (remember our brilliant mockup based on the teaser pics?), but ASUS went on to miss its Christmas launch target, allowing it extra time to rejig the phone's software and design. Then CES and MWC went by, with the latter hosting the official launch event to unveil the PadFone's final design and availability date. This time, the new April target was missed by only three weeks, and shortly afterwards we got hold of our retail unit from Taiwan, which is still the only place where you can get hold of the product.

But enough with the story. What we want to know is whether ASUS' courageous and unique project has all the right ingredients to squeeze itself into a market now dominated by the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC. Most importantly, will the company set a new trend with this two- or three-in-one form factor -- in the same way it did with netbooks -- thus taking the Android ecosystem to the next level? Let's see.

Gallery: ASUS PadFone review

Gallery: ASUS PadFone review (accessories)

Filed under: Cellphones, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile

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Since the official launch at MWC, ASUS has been mum on how many hours its upcoming PadFone can stay on the treadmill for, but earlier today, we spotted an official promotional video -- which has since been removed from ASUS's YouTube channel -- that mentioned 16 hours of battery for the phone itself, 63 for tablet mode and 102 for laptop mode. Something smells funny here so we pinged ASUS, and guess what? Those turned out to be just continuous talk time over 2G, so perhaps said video clip was pulled to be re-edited.

Conveniently, ASUS was also kind enough to share some very realistic battery life figures from the lab. With the corresponding screen set to 137 nits (about half the brightness), you get the following for phone mode, tablet mode and laptop mode, respectively: 2.6 hours, 10.7 hours and 17 hours of continuous WiFi browsing; and 2.1 hours, 8.9 hours and 14.1 hours of continuous 3G browsing. Just as promised before, the PadFone Station (the tablet) and the PadFone Station Dock (the keyboard) do seem to pump up the battery by about five-fold and nine-fold max, respectively.

Now sure, these may make the 1,520mAh battery inside the phone look feeble and silly, but do bear in mind that these aren't the "up to" numbers. As always, stay tuned for our own tests whenever the PadFone finally lands on our doorstep.

Update: A new version of said walkthrough video is online, now with a clarification at the top left corner in the battery life segment. Check it out after the break. [Thanks, Ex14]

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