Wazzup Pilipinas!
From the same brand that gave us the Transformer Pad and the Taichi, now comes the Fonepad, one of the few seven-inch tablets with 3G phone and internet access ever introduced here in the Philippines.
You must admit that a seven-inch tablet pressed to your ear will surely turn a few heads. You should be prepared for some rather odd stares from strangers should you decide to put the FonePad to your ear and make a phone call in public. A device or gadget that can be used as a standard smartphone aside from being a tablet, will surely looked great as promised.
The strikingly cool looking Asus FonePad is one of those combination or merging of a Smartphone and a tablet - more widely accepted to be called a "Phablet".
At first glimpse, you'll notice immediately the bright and colourful display. It has a Gorilla Glass screen which is a 1280 x 800 IPS LCD affair with a 216dpi pixel density. That's a bit higher than the iPad Mini but similarly the same density as the Nexus 7. It’s actually rather better than the Nexus 7’s screen.
It is powered by a single-core and hyper-threading Intel Atom Z2420 chip clocked at 1.2GHz, a PowerVR SGX540 GPU, 1GB of RAM and a 4270mAh battery.
At 196x120x10mm it's too big to fit into a pocket, even without a cover, which you'll almost certainly want to get to protect your investment.
The phablet only supports 3G but data speeds of 21Mbps down and 5.76Mbps up are accepted.
It also has 16GB of storage, USB On-The-Go and a Micro SD slot, which definitely shouts out that storage will never be a problem, for now. It also has 16GB of storage, USB On-The-Go and a Micro SD slot, which definitely shouts out that storage will never be a problem, for now.
It has a heavy glossy black plastic bezel surrounding the seven-inch screen. The back is brushed aluminum and looks almost as classy as an iPad mini.
The Asus Fonepad comes in two colors, metallic silver and gold.
Extraneous buttons are kept to a minimum with a power/sleep button and volume rocker on the side, and microUSB port and 3.5mm headphone jack at one end.
At 196x120x10mm it's too big to fit into a pocket, even without a cover, which you'll almost certainly want to get to protect your investment.
The phablet only supports 3G but data speeds of 21Mbps down and 5.76Mbps up are accepted.
The 4,270mAh battery keeps things running for longer than you might expect -- we managed to get close to two full days of fairly heavy use out of it. And if you need more, there's a power management feature in the settings that turns off wireless networks when it's in standby or reduces the screen brightness depending on which app you're using.
The OS is an Android 4.1.2 or 4.2, depending on when you bought the phablet.
Asus apps include App Locker, which lets you secure individual apps with a password, adding an extra level of protection to your emails, for instance; and Asus Story, which constructs a scrapbook from your photos and allows you to export them as either individual pages or as a whole scrapbook
The Asus FonePad could very well be your next choice for a tablet or phablet upgrade with dimensions similar to the once popular Nexus 7, its stated moderate price for a branded unit, and a well-known manufacturer. There are some pretty significant caveats present here but likewise, also a few major enhancements that are positive too.
Asus Fonepad Specifications:
Software Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Processor Single-core 1.2GHz Intel AtomZ2420
Memory slot Yes
Display 7in 1280x800 pixels
Connectivity Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0Ports microUSB, 3.5mm headphone jackCamera 1.3 megapixel front-facingVideo playback MP4, H.264, H.263, WMVAudio playback MP3, eAAC+, WMARadio NoBattery 4270mAhSize 196x120x10mmWeight
