News - ASUS PadFone priced and dated

[HEXUS]

At least for Taiwan, expect UK dates shortly.

Read more.

[miniyazz]

Pfft, bit pricey!
£385 for the phone, fine; £149 for the touchscreen & stylus (possibly with battery) - acceptable, I guess, they're not cheap.. £84 for a keyboard? Wait, what?

[crossy]

Pfft, bit pricey!
£385 for the phone, fine; £149 for the touchscreen & stylus (possibly with battery) - acceptable, I guess, they're not cheap.. £84 for a keyboard? Wait, what?

It's not just a keyboard - it's a keyboard and a tertiary battery - that's how they get the other "4x" battery life that's quoted on the image. Oh, and the Logitech K800 keyboard I'm using this moment has an RRP of £89, so perhaps the Asus dock isn't such bad value if you consider that.

Got to say that if Asus UK can do the SIM free phone+tablet combo for £499 then here's one guy that'll buy it. Especially as the reviews of S4-powered phones have been pretty positive, (excellent performance and good battery life).

Anyone know if the keyboard dock is the same one as shipped with the TF101 (as has been reported in some places)? If so, then padFone just jumped over Galaxy S3 to my #1 purchase choice.
EDIT: Just spotted that bit at the end of the article that says the padFone should be able to use the TF101's dock - great news!!!!

Damn, I'm turning into a right Asus fanboi...

[[GSV]Trig]

The only thing thats stopping me getting one of these is the fact its Android, my Xoom does everything I want from a tablet personally, however one of these with Win8 on it would be a whole new level of awesome for work use as long as you can lock the tablet and handset down then I'd get one...

[crossy]

The only thing thats stopping me getting one of these is the fact its Android, my Xoom does everything I want from a tablet personally, however one of these with Win8 on it would be a whole new level of awesome for work use as long as you can lock the tablet and handset down then I'd get one...

Problem with that idea is that a Windows-powered padFone would be running Windows Phone 8, not full blown Windows 8. In which case, surely it'd be less usable than the Android one, (because of lot smaller app choice for WP7/8 than Android currently)?

Now, if someone was to come up with a way to dual-boot into Windows8-for-ARM when in "tablet" mode wouldn't that be a "better" solution?

[[GSV]Trig]

Anything about the interoperability between versions of Windows8 is just speculation at this point though is it not?

[crossy]

Anything about the interoperability between versions of Windows8 is just speculation at this point though is it not?

Most assuredly - although I'm willing to bet a good amount that if any mobile device can (a) link "seamlessly" with Exchange, and (b) do something useful with Office2007+ files, then it'll be WP8. Judging by the integration in Win8CP, I think it's also a given that Win8-WP8 will be able to datashare with not much user effort needed. Not a selling point for me, but I'm sure there's plenty of others who'd like it.

I think kind of missed the point you were possibly trying to make - assuming that what you were looking for was a way to use padFone as an Ultrabook replacement. So x86 compatible, etc, etc. Apologies if this is case.

[Smudger]

Can I just check here - you get the phone and the tablet? That's quite good pricing, considering a standalone new release of either would cost you £400 each...

[crossy]

Can I just check here - you get the phone and the tablet? That's quite good pricing, considering a standalone new release of either would cost you £400 each...

That's what the article says:

The phone itself, featuring a powerful, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 SoC, will launch for NT$17,990 (£385), with the tablet and stylus bundle priced at NT$24,980 (£534) and with the whole caboodal, including the detachable keyboard, setting punters back NT$28,901 (£618).

Checking on Amazon shows that an unlocked Galaxy Note plus bluetooth headset can be had for about £450, so (assuming these prices are correct) Asus are asking for £80 in exchange for the (almost) double sized screen (10" v's 5.3"). So yes, I would have thought that this was a reasonable deal on the face of it.

Okay, cynics will argue that the resulting "tablet" is ugly (big bulge out the back), unbalanced (because of the weight of the phone docked in the top), and uncompetitive (only dual-core when the current crop of top-end tablets are quad-core).

Personally speaking though, if you hadn't already got a tablet and were on the hunt for a new phone then - as you say - this looks like a relatively cheap way to get both.

[KeyboardDemon]

Got to say that if Asus UK can do the SIM free phone+tablet combo for £499 then here's one guy that'll buy it. Especially as the reviews of S4-powered phones have been pretty positive, (excellent performance and good battery life).

That would make it the same RRP as the Transformer Prime, so I think that's an unlikely price point.

[crossy]

That would make it the same RRP as the Transformer Prime, so I think that's an unlikely price point.

Can't see why that should necessarily be the case - after all, according to the article, the launch RRP in Taiwan is £534 equivalent. So unless we're going to be screwed over badly by Asus then £500-ish is "do-able" for the phone plus tablet dock only (no keyboard).

Also remember that you're not comparing like-and-like with the "Prime" - it's supposedly higher dot-pitch screen than the padFone, plus the padFone is merely dual core, whereas the TP is quad/penta core. So - unless you're going to argue that the padFone is the premium product - I'd suggest PF is going to be cheaper than TP. Also remember that the Prime's replacement got announced this year.

Most obvious competitor for the padFone (combo) has to be the Galaxy Note, so I'd also suggest it's safe to assume that Asus would want to price similarly. So roughly £550 for RRP, in which case while <£500 isn't going to happen, it's certainly not going to be the £700+ that cNet and others were forecasting. Wet-finger-in-the-air says perhaps £400 for the phone and £150 for the tablet dock?

If I'm way off the beam, then I'd be curious to hear your price estimation, (and justification thereof).

[KeyboardDemon]

Oh, I see. I thought you meant that you expected phone, dock and keyboard to come in at that £499. Just the phone and dock at that price plus a keyboard would be closer to £600 or £650 based on that then so it wouldn't stop sales of the Prime and would seem to fit well. I'd be tempted to go for something like that. My current contract ends in June by which time prices etc... should have been worked out and some networks will hopefully be offering some sort of bundle, though I suspect if I go for it I might buy it offline and get myself a cheaper tariff on a sim only contract.

[crossy]

Oh, I see. I thought you meant that you expected phone, dock and keyboard to come in at that £499. Just the phone and dock at that price plus a keyboard would be closer to £600 or £650 based on that then so it wouldn't stop sales of the Prime and would seem to fit well. I'd be tempted to go for something like that. My current contract ends in June by which time prices etc... should have been worked out and some networks will hopefully be offering some sort of bundle, though I suspect if I go for it I might buy it offline and get myself a cheaper tariff on a sim only contract.

Yes, sorry about that, (I realised afterwards that I'd not explained myself properly) - although if Asus did want to do the whole triple-play combo for £499 in the UK then I'm sure no-one will object!

I suspect that few people may buy the padFone without the tablet bit (seems a bit daft to do that), although it's less certain whether a lot of folks will "go the whole hog" and get the keyboard dock. I certainly won't - but that's more to do with already having a compatible one from my TF101 tablet.

If I do get this (and at the moment it's only really the Galaxy S3 that could change my mind) then I'll definitely be doing the phone on SIM free - but that's mainly because I suspect that folks like T-Mobile won't exactly be falling over themselves to stock it.