Asus Padfone

Ha! Now that I've invested in a two-year contract with O2 for my HTC One X, I see that more details are forthcoming about the Asus Padfone.
For those not in the know, the Asus Padfone was announced in about March 2011, and is a large-screen mobile phone that slots into a tablet. Because of the way the Android development has progressed, they needed to wait for Ice Cream Sandwich (the current version of the Androind operating system) to be ready. Then they had to make their tweaks and changes. And then there was the disk drive shortage due to flooding in Thailand.

Plus, I've been on XDA Developers' Forum, and the devs there are finding it hard going to create workable ICS custom ROMs. So I think Asus probably had a few problems creating a usable software package - but that is just my inference and is not based on any known fact apart from time to market.

Well, I think the Asus Padfone is a damned sexy very exciting bit of kit. Imagine it; you have a phone for mobile use, which then slots into the back of a tablet, so you can play Angry Birds HD or catch up on that latest book you bought on Kindle while you're couch-surfing. Then you need to email a couple of people, so you slot the tablet into its keyboard dock and you can use it as a netbook. That's all the tech you need, right there, in a 10.1 inch foldaway package.

The one area where this package falls down is that the tablet is not a stand-alone device. The tablet is powered by the phone's operating system - so once you take out the phone, the tablet is useless, except as a display screen for another bit of kit, maybe?

But of course, cutting-edge tech like that doesn't come cheap. For the phone and the tablet which is available for pre-order in Taiwan, will cost about $850, and with the keyboard dock, that's $980. I converted that to GBP and added VAT at 20% and arrived at a figure of £740, so I can see this costing £750.

Thinking about it, I'm not sure it's worth it. If a smartphone costs between £400 - £500, that would mean paying £250 for a display and a keyboard. Hmm, I still want one though!