News - ASUS Fonepad phablet available in UK on 26th April for £179

[HEXUS]

You can pre-order from Carphone Warehouse, Amazon or Sainsbury’s from this Friday.

Read more.

[circuitmonkey]

I nearly wet myself when guy in the promo video held it up to his head to make a phone call!
That said, £179 for a tablet with 3G is interesting, if I end up getting one and make a phone call without a bluetooth headset feel free to slap me

[brianzion]

yeah this looks ok 3G is a nice touch be interesting how it fairs over the nexus 7(which is rumoured to be having a new updated release in autumn apparently)

[Brewster0101]

yeah this looks ok 3G is a nice touch be interesting how it fairs over the nexus 7(which is rumoured to be having a new updated release in autumn apparently)

Can't compare this to the Nexus 7 as they are completely different devices. Nexus 7 is not designed for 3G or being used as a phone, ergo avoids some higher manufacturing costs.

I think the most interesting thing is the Intel CPU in this. Why Intel?

[brianzion]

yeah i guess, my nexus 7 is a godsend for me as i use skype on it for portability i dont use mobile phones connections for calls very often now.

[scaryjim]

I think the most interesting thing is the Intel CPU in this. Why Intel?

They could use the same base design for a 7" Windows 8 tablet...? The Intel CPU is cheaper than a similarly powered Arm one (although that seems unlikely)? Intel is subsidising the cost of the tablet to give its Atom SoCs more traction? *shrug*

Of course, if this doesn't have a locked bootloader and someone can find a way to hack Windows 8 onto it, it'd be a pretty cheap way to get a wintab....

[Spud1]

Can't compare this to the Nexus 7 as they are completely different devices. Nexus 7 is not designed for 3G or being used as a phone, ergo avoids some higher manufacturing costs.

Actually I would compare this directly to the Nexus 7 - most people will because it's a "big brand" 7" android tablet for £179. Similar price point, similar effective specifications (the detail is different but they should perform similarly), same size, same manufacturer..only they have squeezed in 3G.

Interesting proposition - and if someone did manage to magic Windows 8 on to one of these i'd pick one up in a heartbeat

[Animus404]

So what's the performance like on these Intel CPU's?

[TheAnimus]

Anyone got any good benchmarks on this Intel SoC?

Best I found was http://blog.gsmarena.com/xolo-x500-g...tom-z2420-cpu/

[kingpotnoodle]

I think you can probably forget about Windows 8, it might be x86 but if it's a phone SoC its probably lacking in the the interfaces and drivers that Windows 8 expects.

Edit: It's this lower end phone SoC - http://www.anandtech.com/show/6696/i...phone-platform

Not to be confused with the Atom Z chips used in Windows 8 tablets.

Why the Intel SoC? Probably Asus testing the market to see how well it sells and performs in the wild.

[Arthran]

Seeing how rarely I actually use my phone for voice and how its always used for browsing and texting, I'm actually tempted to pick up one of these as a replacement to my S2. Although performance is the ultimate question

[llololloy]

I nearly wet myself when guy in the promo video held it up to his head to make a phone call!

Need Dom Jolly to do a new sketch show.
"HELLO? I'LL BE THERE IN 20 MINUTES!"

[kingpotnoodle]

Seeing how rarely I actually use my phone for voice and how its always used for browsing and texting, I'm actually tempted to pick up one of these as a replacement to my S2. Although performance is the ultimate question

Since its the low end single core Atom SoC that I think Intel really intended for "emerging markets" my bet is not great performance but probably usable.

[rabbid]

Can't compare this to the Nexus 7 as they are completely different devices. Nexus 7 is not designed for 3G or being used as a phone, ergo avoids some higher manufacturing costs.

I think the most interesting thing is the Intel CPU in this. Why Intel?

There is a mobile data version though
https://play.google.com/store/device...us_7_32gb_hspa


On another note didn't orange release the san diego with an atom cpu that caused some apps to lack compatibility?
http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phon...go-from-orange

[tickedon]

Rather than Windows 8, I wonder if Ubuntu (and their new focus on touch) could be a nice option for this device... the price is pretty amazing, assuming performance is any good!

[Neostar]

hey at least it's better than the amazon kindle fire