ASUS unveils Padfone 2 which is a quick follow-up to the original PadFone. It comes armed with the Qualcomm’s remarkable quad-core APQ8064 SoC instead of its dual-core sibling, NFC and LTE connectivity. The padphone 2 launch confirms the previous rumors of a 4.7 inch 720p Super IPS+ panel (with up to 550nits brightness thanks to Sharp’s IGZO technology), a 13 MP rear camera (with a sensor from Sony and a f/2.4 lens) and a 1.2 megapixel frontal camera which should be sufficient for a skype call. Also thrown into the package is a 2140mAh fixed battery, 2GB of RAM and free 50Gb of ASUS WebStorage for two years which can be assumed to be a way of explaining why the device lacks a microSD expansion.
Below is a demo video for the Asus Padfone launch
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjpACIJkpQo?rel=0]
This phablet comes with the Android Ice Cream Sandwich but ASUS has promised an upgrade to Jelly Bean shall be coming soon. This phablet is presented in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions which shall be black in color while the white version shall be released soon after. Like its predecessor, PadFone 2 can be purchased either on its own or together with the PadFone station.
And now to the tablet part. It comes with a 10.1 inch 1280×800 IPS display. The battery on its predecessor shall be trimmed down from 6600mAh to 5,000mAh.In total the gadget weighs 649g which is lighter than the old 845g combo.
The PadFone 2 shall be available in Taiwan next week and there are rumors that HongKong might benefit from this first wave of launch but there is no precise date yet.It shall be retailing in the range of $620 to $750 in Taiwan.