Flashback: the phone that was a tablet that was a laptop that failed
- R
- RandomReine
- 3Lm
- 13 Jul 2020
I actually had the first padfone with the tablet dock. Bought the transformer keyboard, which was a bit different, but still kinda fit. The phone was a really good phone at the time, and I early liked the combo.
I never had the same craving after the later padfones, since the phones went bigger and tablet dock went smaller. 🙄
I guess, in a way, Samsung is picking this idea up with their DEX.
- ?
- Anonymous
- 3Rs
- 13 Jul 2020
It didn't fail, it was a concept and never left that stage.
The writer isnt aware of facts.
- A
- Android.Master
- 8uk
- 13 Jul 2020
Anonymous, 12 Jul 2020Galaxy Fold :
Failed to be phone. Failed to be tablet. ... moreWho told you it failed as a tablet or phone?
Every YouTuber that got their hands on it loved it despite the high price.
The fold sold more units than the entire catalogue of Sony in Q1 2020.
Fold 2 is going to be eveb better.
- ?
- Anonymous
- q$K
- 13 Jul 2020
I had an Asus padphone back in the day. The phone was excellent, I replaced an iPhone with it & had my first Android experience on the Padphone. I used it until I switched carriers & that Asus phone has been as good as any other modern smartphone I have used. That being said I used the tablet dock maybe less than a dozen times. It never really did anything the phone itself couldn't do & whenever I simply wanted to watch a video with a larger screen I would pull out my MacBook rather than the tablet dock. It was a good lesson at the time, it honestly taught me that I don't need to have a tablet in my life, even if other people can find good uses for them
- joe nodden
- jpa
- 12 Jul 2020
Huh, I heard of the Motorola Atrix, but never this. Wonder how I missed it.
- P
- PadfoneX2020
- u1E
- 12 Jul 2020
It was far ahead of it's time in terms of both hardware and software. Imagine if they do so today. People will actually pay $1000+ for it and still get much value for their money.
Your usual flagship specification snapdragon 865+ powered smartphone that plugs into a tablet with samsung's upcoming 12.4" 120hz QHD Amoled screen (Personally, I'll even be content with the old 10.5" S4/s5/s6 display too), extended 8000mAh battery and maybe an extra usb-c port, sdcard slot and headphone jack. And that in turn plugs into a modern microsoft surface like keyboard with an m.2 nvme slot, more battery and a few more ports. No need for Windows and emulation, something like dex on android will do. That would in my opinion destroy not just other flagship smartphones, but the premium tablet market, 'premium chromebook' market (bye bye Google Pixelbook go), and even give a whole new meaning to 'gaming on android' market.
What's more, Asus with their experience in laptop and tablet manufacturing can actually pull this off incredible well today with how mature electronic components are these days.
And as Blvcklvght has mentioned, they could make all that an accessory for their main smartphone line (like the dual screen case of LG) of Zenfone with the rotating camera making an incredible webcam rather than a stand alone device.
Some of these incredible concepts of the past need to be revived. Smartphones these days are all the same.
- ?
- Anonymous
- 6wN
- 12 Jul 2020
No thanks. I will buy a great laptop and a decent android phone.
- E
- Ehem
- vx3
- 12 Jul 2020
Anonymous, 12 Jul 2020It didn't fail, it was a concept and never left that s... moreEhem... Samsung DeX
- B
- Blvcklvght
- CGH
- 12 Jul 2020
The Asus ZenFone 6 would have been perfect for such a setup. Put in vertically, it's pop-up camera would have served as a webcam and rear camera for the tablet allowing for slimmer bezels.
- ?
- Anonymous
- GRN
- 12 Jul 2020
That's why it's important to have a displayport enabled USB 3.1 and to a lesser extent proper heatpipe based cooling.
Desktop mode and sustained performance under load will justify spending more money on a phone because with just a cable and a wireless keyboard it can transform into a laptop.
I can do desktop mode on my LG V20 with lineageOS but the CPU is old and overheats whereas my friend has a shiny new iQOO 3 with laptop level single thread performance but can't do display out/dekstop mode because of USB 2 :P
- ?
- Anonymous
- JF2
- 12 Jul 2020
It didn't fail, it was a concept and never left that stage.
A proper implementation of such calliber would have worked. But that would require proper desktop apps to work on your hybrid.
Microsoft was in a position to do that but then windows phones went the way of the dodo. Now apple is converting mac into mobile derived platform. I doubt that they will do it any time soon, but if it happens it will be by them.
Of course they prefer to sell 3 distinct products (iPhones, iPads, macbooks) which is why I do not expect them to do it anytime soon. But yeah in a gen kr two an iphone would have both the horsepower and the codebase to run everything mac, so such a concept will be trully doable by them...
- j
- justing6
- rgU
- 12 Jul 2020
I loved my PadPhone X, it was an extremely ambitious idea that was hampered by bad software. I even had to go through 3 units until I realized that rooting it somehow fried the LTE capabilities (I don't think that should be possible, but I couldn't explain how else LTE stopped functioning altogether after rooting, even after a full reset to stock). This was also back on an old enough build of Android that rooting was necessary for power users.
I still love the idea of convertibles, but with current technology it makes much more sense to have a phone that becomes a tablet organically (like the Surface Duo/Galaxy Fold) or a tablet that doubles as a laptop (Surface Pro/iPad Pro) than having a device that does all 3 jobs.
The Transformer Book V's ambition even lives on in that regard in software, assuming you have a DeX compatible phone and a Surface Pro to run the DeX software. in my opinion that's how it should be though, it's great that there are software solutions available for this for niche users like me to take advantage of, but there's just not enough people who want this in it's current form to justify a dedicated product release for it.
- D
- AnonD-731363
- SH3
- 12 Jul 2020
INteresting but wonder why this didnt make it.
Its same like foldable phones of past and nowdays.
Foldable phones of past was well working awesome devices nowdays the durability of a folding phone is a disaster.
- ?
- Anonymous
- 4Hk
- 12 Jul 2020
I bought the original when it first came out - at the time it was a great compact laptop replacememt while traveling for work once you installed a better launcher. With the extra battery in the keyboard, it lasted all day no problem. The USB ports and SD card reader allowed me to back audio files for my work while the android apps allowed me to watch movies, write invoices or light productivity on a plane. Later I installed KatKiss which kept this device useful through 2017!
- N
- Namelesss
- Nuq
- 12 Jul 2020
In the case of the ASUS EEE Pad Transformer TF101, the idea was very good, but it is the implementation which was rather lackluster
- ?
- Anonymous
- 7Xc
- 12 Jul 2020
Kangal, 12 Jul 2020Uhm, Peter you forgot about the Razer Phone 2. They also m... moreProject Linda was never released. It was shown off as a concept/prototype. Nobody got to buy it.
- N
- NiJon
- nQe
- 12 Jul 2020
I miss the PadFone. Such a great concept, too bad it failed, not because of the design or ambitions but because of lazy developers that only looked towards Apple.
- Kangal
- u44
- 12 Jul 2020
Uhm, Peter you forgot about the Razer Phone 2.
They also made an Ultrabook, called Project Linda, where you would put the phone at the front of the laptop. This made it super convenient to place in, and remove quickly. The phone's high quality touchscreen acted as the laptop's trackpad. And the very loud, front-firing stereo-loudspeakers of the Razer Phone 2... well, they were now positioned close to the user and aiming towards their ears.
And with the great ergonomics designed by likes of the Razer Blade, this really was the best option out of all previous attempts. Sure it wasn't the most versatile, but often having less versatility and options is the right thing. It means less compromises, and affords the focus on quality instead of quantity.
In fact, I've been itching to buy the Razer JungleCat, Razer Phone 2, and Razer Linda, but I just want the company to actually sell them... and release an updated model (less sharp corners, more efficient display, newer internals, etc etc). Having such would make it possible for me to carry a phone and a portable controller in my jean's pockets, and the laptop means unifying all my data and processing power to a single point without needing to use the cloud or clunky external drives.
- a
- abubasim
- Let
- 12 Jul 2020
I own an ASUS PadFone S, bought as brand new on eBay 4 years ago, which I still use today occasionally, mainly in tablet mode for watching movies and reading ebooks. But apps slowly become unavailable in the Play store as the last OS version released by ASUS, Android 6.0, is being left behind by app developers. And battery life is slowly fading.