The reception was slightly less-than-stellar earlier this year when Asus unveiled its tablet and smartphone combination aptly dubbed the PadFone.
Essentially, the device was marketed with a companion tablet dock and keyboard dock accessories targeted at Android users interested in improving smarphone functionality and battery life.
As potentially interesting as the concept was, the original PadFone appeared to fall rather flat, as least in terms of sales and reception. However, rather than give up, Asus has been teasing a new version in the form of the PadFone 2, which might turn out more popular than its ill-fated predecessor. Or so the company hopes.
At the very least, the PadFone 2 certainly boasts some interesting specs, sporting a 4.7-inch HD resolution display. The device is also equipped with a quad-core CPU that could possibly be the Snapdragon S4 Pro.
Other goodies? A 13-megapixel rear camera, and oh, yes, Android 4.1 (Ice Cream Sandwich). As expected, the PadFone 2 (smartphone aspect) will be slimmer and lighter than its predecessor.
Unfortunately, we still lack specifications about the upgraded tablet sleeve at this point, but a new version of the phone would almost certainly mandate a revised iteration of the Pad.
There was a video floating around of Asus CEO Jerry Chen using the device on Bloomberg TV – which has now been pulled.
The only part of the video we can see is the single screenshot above, with the device certainly looking a lot like the new iPhone 5. Hopefully, Apple won’t appreciate the similarities and kick off some sort of legal action against Asus when the device finally launches.
