Oh! My Goodness: Asus PadFone Tablet Hides Smartphone Inside [PICS]

2011년 5월 29일 일요일

Asus PadFone Tablet Hides Smartphone Inside [PICS]

Here's a novel idea: Hide a smartphone inside the back of a tablet, and you can have the best of both worlds. That's 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.

You're looking at the first pictures to surface of this unusual configuration, which reminds us of the Motorola Atrix 4G smartphone. Even that's not quite the same, though, 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 Atrix's kind of versatility to a tablet form factor. Look at the gallery below, and you'll notice there's even a small hole for the Garmin-Asus-like smartphone's 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, we'd like to avoid duplication of effort. This Asus system uses what's probably a dual-core processor inside that smartphone to run a tablet as well. Then there's just one unit that handles both tablet and smartphone processing, and there's 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 we'll find out more details about this intriguing new configuration. Meanwhile, peruse Pocketnow's pics in our gallery below and please let us know what you think of this coolness in the comments.