Posted Wed Dec 11, 2013 at 11:00 AM PST by Steven Cohen
The smartphone that can convert into a tablet will make its way to the US next year.
In an interview with Engadget, ASUS has announced plans to release a premium version of its unique PadFone mobile device in the United States. The transformable smartphones are capable of being docked into larger display shells, allowing them to convert into tablets.
Up until now, the company has concentrated its PadFone products in Asian markets, but the recently released PadFone Infinity is currently available in several European countries as well. Thanks to their growing success, ASUS is poised to bring an updated model to the United States next year. The US variant is expected to be a high-end version of the PadFone Infinity. The current model features a 5-inch 1080p screen when in smartphone mode and can then be docked into the included PadFone Infinity Station to become a 10.1-inch tablet. Under the hood, the device is powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor and an Adreno 320 GPU all running Android 4.2.
Exact specs, pricing, and availability for the US PadFone model have not been detailed yet, but ASUS did reveal that it is partnering with a "big operator" for the device and that it is expected to launch in Q2 2014.
Source: Engadget
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