Asus PadFone Tablet Hides Smartphone Inside [PICS]


Heres a novel idea: Hide a smartphone inside the back of a tablet, and you can have the best of both worlds. Thats what Asus has done with its PadFone, nestling its new Android smartphone into a docking bay in the back of its larger-screened tablet companion, complete with a small door that closes behind it, storing the handset out of sight.

Youre looking at the first pictures to surface of this unusual configuration, which reminds us of the Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone. Even thats not quite the sa! me, thou gh, because the Atrix plugs into a laptop-like companion, consisting of a keyboard and screen.

Details of the configuration are still murky at this point. On its Facebook page, Asus has been plugging its tagline of Break the Rules: Pad or Phone, and the company is doing that by bringing the Motorola Atrixs kind of versatility to a tablet form factor. Look at the gallery below, and youll notice theres even a small hole for the Garmin-Asus-like smartphones camera to peek out. The pictures also show what could be a folding tablet with a keyboard inside.

Our take: Both Asus and Motorola are on the right track, because for those of us who must carry around a bag full of gadgets every day, wed like to avoid duplication of effort. This Asus system uses whats probably a dual-core processor inside that smartphone to run a tablet as well. Then theres just one unit that handles both tablet and smartphone processing, and theres just one cellphone bill to pay.

These pics were somehow leaked to Pocketnow.com, but the big reveal happens at Computex in Taiwan tomorrow, when well find out more details about this intriguing new configuration. Meanwhile, peruse Pocketnows pics in our gallery below and please let us know what you think of this coolness in the comments.


Asus Padfone Back




Notice the camera port.


Asus Padfone Flat





Asus Padfone Hero





Asus Padfone Tablet




Graphics courtesy Pocketnow.com

More About: Asus, Computex, PadFone, reveal, smartphone, spy pics, Tablet

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