ASUS PADFONE X : REVIEW
Asus has been trying to be in the competition of the phone business and trying to introduce the phone line of it. I doubt ASUS knew it was carving out a place in Android history when it revealed the first Padfone . Asus revealed a great amazing product and was looking quite serious in the business But in fact, the people's review was quite opposite. In all that time, though, there's one thing for the US fans could
never do: walk into a store and actually buy one. That changes now.
ASUS has finally brought its curious phone/tablet hybrid in
the form of the Padfone X. You'd think
years of iterating and refining would result in the finest, kookiest
model yet, and on paper that certainly seems to be the case. But what is
it like to actually use? Has ASUS managed to put its best foot forward
for the Padfone ?But will it unite the two worlds of tablet and smartphone?
Let's check the tablet
ohh sorry the Smartphone the Asus Padfone X:
The Design :
The truth of the Padfone is not the dock but the the phone itself ,
literally the brains of the operation is the most attractive thing
about it. Why's that sad? Because its design is dull to the point of
inducing ennui. That's a shame too, especially considering this newer,
faster version of the Padfone doesn't look nearly as handsome as last year's model .
So yes, the Padfone X isn't what you'd call a kickass-looker .Lets take a outer tour: the phone comes with a 5-inch HD display. As you'd expect, the speaker
and front-facing, 2-megapixel camera sit just above that satisfying
screen, while a shiny ASUS logo greets you from below. Taking a little
tour around the rest of the phone yields precious few surprises: You've
got the sleep/wake button and volume rocker nestled on the phone's right
edge. In fact, the only real hints that the Padfone aspires to
something bigger (literally) are two holes on the phone's bottom, on
either side of the micro-USB port. They're meant to anchor the phone
firmly into the Padfone Station, the beefy exoskeleton that converts
'fone to pad.
That's not to say the Padfone X is completely bland, though. Peer a
little closer and you'll see its removable backplate is flecked with
tiny silver specks. It's perhaps the most minute concession to style
I've ever seen on a phone, if only because the effect is so subtle
you'll outright miss it most of the time. The rest of the X's rear isn't
nearly as subdued -- a 13-megapixel rear camera lives just left of
center, with the LED flash and speaker grille sitting to the east and
south of it, respectively. Once those are out of the picture, all that's
left to capture your eye are AT&T and Padfone logos emblazoned
prominently on the back. Assuming you manage to pry off that rear plate,
you'll find the microSD reader (which was notably absent in last year's
model) and microSIM card slot parked next to a 2,300mAh battery.
Thankfully, that old cliché holds true here: It's what's inside that
counts. In this case, "what's inside" is one of Qualcomm's 2.3GHz
quad-core Snapdragon 800 chips along with 2GB of RAM -- a combination
that runs the show admirably. Alas, things get considerably less
charming when you dock the device into the Padfone Station. The frame
the phone slides into is an unwieldy, chunky thing that creaks and
groans even when you apply light pressure to it. And those bezels? Oh
my. There's close to a full inch of black nothingness bounding that
9-inch display on all sides, which only serves to make the tablet look
like a cheap digital picture frame from holidays long past. In fairness,
the bezels aren't all bad -- they provide plenty of room for meaty thumbs to rest, and they house a pair of (sadly lacking) front-facing speakers.
The back of the tablet dock is swathed in the same silver-flecked
plastic as the phone, but there's no way you'll notice that before you
spot that gaping maw where the Padfone is meant to slot in. It's
impossible to screw up the process: The Padfone slides in with its
screen facing inward, and once in place, it'll start sipping on a larger
4,990mAh reserve battery. You're also left with a tablet that has a
very conspicuous hump on its rear, but at least the edges of that hump
provide a place for your fingers to sit when you're grasping the tablet
with both hands. This does make holding the Padfone vertically just a
little awkward, though it's hardly a dealbreaker.
Oh, and if you're really into the idea of the Padfone as a true
all-in-one machine, you can pick up a specially designed Bluetooth
keyboard to go with it. It makes the combined device much heavier thanks
to a sizable built-in battery (which can't be used to charge the
tablet, unfortunately), and the dearth of space ASUS had to work with
made for some frustrating design decisions. Consider the layout: It's
about as cramped as you'd expect a keyboard this size to be, and certain
critical keys like the apostrophe are only accessible by way of the
Function key. That's not to say it's all bad, though. The trackpad? An
absolute joy to click. You'll also get days of use out of the thing,
though whether or not you'll want to is another story entirely. Trust
us: Pass on this unless you're absolutely desperate.
Display and sound
The Padfone X comes with a stunning 5-inch 1080p panel screen which is more crisper than the last model,
since it packs nearly twice as many pixels per inch as the tablet's
screen does (449 ppi versus 214, if you're curious). Colors on both the
big and small displays are vibrant and have just the right amount of pop
-- no seared retinas here, thanks very much. A preloaded app called
"Splendid" lets you muck around with color hue, saturation and balance
in case you've got some especially persnickety eyes. Viewing angles are
more than respectable, too, with hardly any color distortion even when
you peer in from the most awkward angles.
Padfone X is to have
a hot-swappable duo of displays, ASUS gets kudos for not skimping on
those Super IPS+ LCD panels. That said, it's earned itself a few
demerits for some depressing speaker quality. The phone itself has just
the one largely wimpy speaker on its back, and the lackluster sound it
puts out is right in line with my low expectations. You'd think that
with a pair of front-facing speakers, the Padfone X's tablet form would
be able to pump out jams with at least a little more panache.
Camera
We've already established that the Padfone X doesn't stand out much
-- did you really think the camera would help matters? Surprise: It's
much better than you'd think, if not quite on par with other flagships.
Images captured at full resolution during the day with that 13-megapixel
camera were sufficiently vivid (if a tad noisy), and were detailed
enough to reassure me that I wasn't missing anything crucial.
But crafting a camera that works well in the day is a relative
cakewalk. What about when the sun goes down and things really start to
get interesting? As it turns out, the Padfone X is a surprisingly
capable shooter in dim conditions, too. ASUS likes to talk up its
PixelMaster imaging mode, which lets that rear camera capture up to 400
percent more light than a less sophisticated sensor. The results are
cut-and-dry: In spite of more noise to contend with, you'll wind up with
an image that's much brighter than you'd see otherwise.
Footage recorded at 1080p was perfectly adequate, though colors
didn't pop as much as I would've hoped for, and there was still a bit of
noise creeping in where it shouldn't have. Oh, the Padfone X records
video in 4K too, though it's not like the screen will actually show you
your footage in all its glory.
Performance and battery life
The X has power ,
thanks to the 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 ticking away in that
woefully unimaginative shell. It's not Qualcomm's newest bit of silicon
magic, but make no mistake: The Padfone X runs like a champ. Part of
that has to do with ASUS' mercifully light touch with software, letting
KitKat's natural snappiness shine through as you flick past home screens
and dive into menus. All that horsepower really makes itself known when
you're taking corners in
Need For Speed: Most Wanted -- there's nary a visual stutter or dropped frame to be seen.
|
ASUS Padfone X |
HTC One (M8) |
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 |
| Quadrant 2.0 |
22,032 |
25,548 |
23,278 |
| Vellamo 2.0 |
2,308 |
1,804 |
2,501 |
| 3DMark IS Unlimited |
19,523 |
20,612 |
18,828 |
| SunSpider 1.2 (ms) |
906 |
782 |
537 |
| GFXBench 3.0 Manhattan Offscreen (fps) |
12 |
11.2 |
9.3 |
| CF-Bench |
32,937 |
40,223 |
33,785 |
| SunSpider: Lower scores are better, compiled on Chrome. |
The tale of the tape only confirmed what I already knew: the Padfone
will easily tackle whatever you throw at it during your day-to-day
grind. If only things were as peachy after you plop the phone into that
tablet dock. What once was snappy and responsive becomes very slightly
less so -- it's a little jarring to feel that shift when it happens, but
I seriously doubt most people would pay it much mind.
Since there are two different screens and two different batteries to
work with, I've had to rejigger our standard video rundown test a bit.
Normally we'd fire up a 720p video file, set it to loop indefinitely at
50 percent screen brightness and let 'er rip. Under those circumstances,
the Padfone hung in for eight hours and 24 minutes before finally
giving up the ghost. From there, I popped the thing into the fully
charged Padfone Station and cued up the video on that bigger screen, a
gauntlet that lasted another six hours.
The competition
No other device tries to bridge the smartphone/tablet divide the way
the Padfone does. Its closest evolutionary cousin would probably be the
phablet, and there's no shortage of those taking up space on store
shelves. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3
sports a 5.7-inch screen, so it doesn't always feel like a tablet, but
its slew of S Pen features makes sure it feels fresh compared to less
ambitious competitors. The silicon inside is awfully similar to what's
ticking away in the Padfone X, too -- there's a quad-core Snapdragon 800
running the show.
Sony's Xperia Z Ultra
might fit the bill too, since it doesn't try to hide its tablet
ambitions. It's got a hefty 6.4-inch display, making it one of the
biggest phablets you could try and squeeze into your skinny jeans. It
too packs a Snapdragon 800, but the biggest thing to remember is that
the only way you're going to get one in the States is unlocked from the
Google Play Store. That means you'll be shelling out $449 since there
are no contracts involved. On the off-chance that something slightly
smaller might fit your bill, the HTC One M8 could work well with its
top-tier spec sheet and impeccable design.
Wrap-up
If I've seemed unduly harsh on the Padfone X, it's because I still
think there's a place in the world for a hybrid like this. Sadly,
despite years of tinkering with the same formula, ASUS couldn't
completely stick the landing this time around. For all the gripes I've
leveled at this thing.
But are you one of them? If you've got the means, you'll almost
definitely be better served by buying separate phones and tablets. The
promise of seamless syncing is a tempting one, and one worth getting
right. ASUS hasn't done that here. To be honest, I hope it gets another
chance at cracking the brutal US market -- the right sort of design and
software tweaks could turn the next-generation Padfone into a gadget
worthy of our collective drool. For now, though, ponder the arithmetic
and see if you can do better.
Pros
- Good display quality on both the phone and tablet
- Ample horsepower
- On-contract price is just right
Cons
- Switching between phone and tablet modes can be awkward
- Uninspired, clunky design
- Speaker quality leaves much to be desired
Full specs
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