TeknologikL

I recently looked over my calendar entries for the next week and saw something which excited me: Asus is expected to officially unveil the Padfone2. I have to admit that I am a fan of Asus products and have periodically purchased their products since one of their Socket 7 motherboards quite a few years ago. To anyone who is unaware, the original Padfone is a cell phone which can dock into a tablet frame, which can then dock into a keyboard to become a netbook. Does it sound somewhat gimmicky? Yes. Did Motorola recently discontinue a similar idea? Yes. But in my case I think I am more excited at the prospect of, "Hey, maybe this will be an Asus phone that I will actually have a shot at purchasing and which will have the right mix of specifications to justify actually getting."

I am currently using a Motorola Atrix and I am quite fond of the phone itself. However, when I started using the Atrix I was using it on AT&T's network and I have since moved over to T-Mobile with it (meanwhile the phone was specifically released for AT&T.) While AT&T and T-Mobile have both been GSM carriers, they make use of different signal frequencies for different parts of their network. Since moving to T-Mobile, my phone has been stuck on 2G/Edge connections since the frequency used by T-Mobile for 3G is not supported by this phone. Given enough time, and as a part of T-Mobile's re-farming of spectrum, this issue will likely resolve itself, but I still may not be able to make use of the full capabilities of the phone since it is branded as a 4G/LTE phone. Additionally, I have to admit that I am disappointed in Motorola in how long it is taking to release Android 4.0 for the Atrix. In contrast, Asus has not had any specific ties to any United States carriers since none of their phones have been released here, and appears to be very prompt in upgrading their tablets to newer versions of Android.

I remember when the original Padfone was announced and it did not immediately occur to me that the phone was not going to see a release in North America. In the end I may not have actually purchased a Padfone due to a few specifications that seemed to be a step behind common phone specifications at the time. However, it appears that the Padfone2 is not making the same mistake and I don't have the same reservations regarding the hardware or capabilities which have been "leaked" thus far. The only questions which remain are: 1) how much will it cost, and 2) how much effort will acquiring one actually involve. Hopefully the official unveiling will help shed some light on these remaining questions. I'm not completely sold on the product, and I'm not convinced that I will ever be able to get my hands on one, but I'm curious enough to look forward to the official launch event.