Asus is planning to launch its Padfone hybrid computer -- which can combine a mobile phone, a tablet and a notebook -- at the Mobile World Congress on 27 February. Asus co-founder Jonney Shih first showed the innovative device at the Computex trade show in Taiwan last year.
The Asus Padfone is an Android smartphone that slots into the back of a tablet, providing users with a larger 10.1-inch screen. The tablet part will also fit into the keyboard dock that is already available for the successful Asus Transformer TF101, which includes a keyboard and an extra battery. The Padfone therefore works across three form factors without the need to sync data across different devices. The tablet shares the phone's 3G SIM and also recharges the phone.
The Padfone won a Best of Innovations award in the Wireless Handsets category at CES2012 earlier this month. Whether it will appeal to consumers, of course, remains to be seen.
One drawback is that it will not work with existing Android phones, but there's no reason why Asus can't come up with a smartphone that is competitive with popular models from Samsung and HTC.
According to the Android blog MoDaCo, the Padfone is "Expected to feature Ice Cream Sandwich and Tegra3 in line with the Transformer tablets".
