Thursday, Oct 17, 2013

Dubai

Asus’ PadFone Infinity is a combination of a five-inch phone and 10.1-inch tablet and it is the only vendor to launch this combo device.

Talking about the phone, the five-inch brushed-aluminum Full HD device is powered by Qualcomm 2.2GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. The device is blisteringly fast and with IPS display the colours are vibrant on the screen. It runs on latest Android Jelly Bean.

This is the first phone other than Apple to use the nano-SIM card. Asus has placed the speaker just above the volume rocker and the on/off power button on the right side of the device. The placing of the speaker is good and it is very unlikely to get blocked.

The device comes with either 16GB or 32GB storage capacity and can be expanded up to 64GB using microSD slot on the left side of the device, plus Asus offers 50GB of cloud storage free for two years.

The tablet is a dead device and the phone needs to be inserted into the tablet to make it alive. The phone weighs 145 grams and the tablet weighs 532 grams. Combined together, it weighs 677 grams which is slightly heavier than 4G iPad which weighs 662 grams.

Asus has tweaked the home button which may be good for some. What I liked is that when you press the home button for a few seconds, the Infinity gives two rows of shortcuts.

The outer row can host up to eight customizable app shortcuts and the inner circle hosts the Google voice search, Google Now, app tray and settings. The notification drawer has been enhanced with quick toggles as well as a brightness slider and quick access for changing the audio profile.

Asus had added many apps as usual to the Infinity. The AudioWizard app for boosting the loudspeakers or headphones; a note-taking app - MyBitCast - that supports audio recording; SuperNote; Watch Calendar; Instant Dictionary and MyLibrary for e-books apart from the usual Google playstore apps.

The 13MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash comes with a brighter f/2.0 lens. The new ASUS PixelMaster camera adjusts the size of each image sensor pixel to ensure the best possible picture quality in any given scenario.

When held in the landscape mode, the left side is filled by various settings - resolution, effects, exposure and modes. In the burst mode users can 100 continuous shots at 12 frames per second. The camera offers 10 filter effects and eight scene modes like auto, HDR, beautification, panorama, night, hi-light (3M), smart removal, all smiles and GIF animation. An advanced Turbo Burst mode enables users to capture fast moving subjects at up to 30fps so that important moments are never missed.

The camera can also record 1080p Full HD video at 30fps and high-speed 720p HD video at 60fps.

The snaps taken are bright in colours and rich in details even in bright sunlight. Snaps taken in very low light conditions lose colour and details but with hi-light function on, the snaps give quality images which are decent. Users can take a picture or start a video without switching interfaces.

The 2MP front camera is good only for video chatting.

Graphic-rich games played with ease with no lag due to the Adreno 320 graphics chip.

Regarding connectivity, the device supports WiFi, 3G, LTE, NFC and Bluetooth 4.0. There are some issues with the GSM and WiFi signals.

The 2400mAh non-removable battery gave more than eight-and-a-half hours of video playback. The device gives almost a day of use with WiFi on, surfing emails and internet and making and receiving calls.

To help further extend battery life, there are different options in power management. Users can tweak the individual settings as well as customized mode.

The tablet portion of the Infinity sports 1920 x 1200 resolution, better than the phone but the images don’t pop up as they do on the phone. The tablet is easy to hold due to its rounded edges and the plastics on the back are of higher quality. It does not slip from the hands.

The phone slides into the back of the tablet smoothly with the help of rubber grips on the sides. The phone is held firmly and does not wobble or loses from the dock. The dock contains a microUSB which can also be used to charge the device. The tablet sports a 1MP camera which can only be used for video chatting.

The 5000mAh battery in the dock gives just over seven hours of video playback and eight hours of surfing with WiFi on. The phone can be charged with the docking station. Users can get two days of phone use with both devices on single charge. It is priced at Dh2999.

By Naushad K Cherrayil Staff Reporter

Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.