I’ve always been a fan of convergent devices that got it right and there have been very few that have been as convergent of multiple devices as ASUS’ PadFone series. However, PadFones have typically been way too expensive because of the high end hardware they’ve tended to sport, so a smaller ASUS PadFone Mini 4.3 might change that.
The ASUS PadFone Mini 4.3 is similar to other PadFones that we’ve seen in the past in that it consists of an Android smartphone that can dock into a display dock or PadFone Station as ASUS likes to call it, effectively transforming it into a tablet. The main smartphone will feature a 4.3 inch screen while the tablet dock will have a 7 inch screen. That would make the PadFone 4.3 the smallest one ever, both on the smartphone and tablet side of things.
Also, the tablet dock of the PadFone 4.3 requires that it be in portrait mode before docking the smartphone, whereas past PadFone Stations had to be in landscape mode. This creates a completely different look versus past PadFones.
A few months ago, some information had been leaked about the ASUS PadFone Mini 4.3 processor thanks to GFXBench. According to the leak, the PadFone Mini will be powered by a Qualcomm MSM8226 processor, which is a quad core Cortex-A7 chip that can be clocked all the way up to 1.6GHz and features an Adreno 305 GPU. It’s not top of the line, but it’s no slouch either.
It won’t be long until we find out what the rest of the specs are since the official launch event is scheduled for December 11. Hopefully, it won’t be too expensive. If they include a keyboard dock with it, this will officially be my new dream gadget:)
Source: @evleaks
