padfone x
Latest
ASUS Padfone X review: A phone to replace your tablet? Not quite.
I doubt ASUS knew it was carving out a place in Android history when it revealed the first Padfone back in 2011. That's not just because it starred in an amazing product unveiling, either -- the resulting Padfone line might be the last surviving example of the "phone-as-brain" movement that fell out of vogue a few years back. In all that time, though, there's one thing US fans could never do: walk into a store and actually buy one. That changes now. After three years and three Padfones, ASUS has finally brought its curious phone/tablet hybrid to the US in the form of the $200 (with contract, anyway) Padfone X. You'd think years of iterating and refining would result in the finest, kookiest model yet, and on paper that certainly seems to be the case. But what is it like to actually use? Has ASUS managed to put its best foot forward for the Padfone's American debut?
ASUS brings PadFone X to AT&T with LTE-Advanced support and Voice over LTE
You can count the number of ASUS devices that have been carried by AT&T on two fingers, but the GSM network is ready to show off the duo's third collaboration. Dubbed the PadFone X, this is the first in the series to be sold in the US, which ASUS CEO Jerry Shen teased to us last month. The concept is exactly the same as previous PadFones sold in other parts of the world; the hybrid setup consists of a 5-inch smartphone that docks with a 9-inch tablet shell (or "station"), and your smartphone info carries over to the tablet when it's docked. In addition to its unique place as the first of its kind in the US, the X also boasts support for a couple of network features that haven't yet been activated on AT&T's network: Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and LTE-Advanced with Carrier Aggregation. Since pricing and availability for both the device and its unique features are still unknowns at this point, we have a strong suspicion that it'll launch as soon as AT&T is ready to activate its LTE-A network. Specs are relatively scarce at this point (AT&T tells us that we can expect more details at ASUS' press conference shortly), but we know that the device will feature Android 4.4 KitKat, full HD displays and a "large battery" of unknown size. We'll update the post as we hear more, and we expect to get some hands-on time with it soon. Update: Head over past the break to gander at some photos of the device(s) behind glass, ones that we took at the ASUS In Search of Incredible event.
