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In pictures: Asus PadFone, the laptop with its own phone

We've taken delivery of one of the most unusual laptops you'll see - the Asus PadFone is a laptop with a removable phone.

By Chris Jager on Jul 31 2012, 1:27PM

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Today, Asus officially launched its widely-anticipated PadFone: an all-in-one mobile device that combines a 4.3in Android smartphone with a 10.1in tablet.

The PadFone smartphone and tablet station are bundled together for $999. An Asus Transformer keyboard attachment is also available for the device.

The sales package for the PadFone station includes a carry case, cleaning cloth and a stylus that doubles as a Bluetooth headset (more on this later). The PadFone phone sticks to the basics: namely, cables and an instruction leaflet.

The PadFone smartphone has a 4.3in Super AMOLED screen with a native resolution of 540x960 pixels. It comes with 32GB of internal memory and has a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 CPU running on the latest version of Android; 4.1 Ice Cream Sandwich. Other highlights include Corning Gorilla Glass, a microSD card slot and an 8 megapixel camera.

Boasting a back-illuminated CMOS sensor, F2.2 aperture and 5-element lens, the PadFone's 8MP camera is capable of taking some decent looking photos.

Unlike the majority of recent smartphone releases, the Asus PadFone comes with a mini-HDMI port in addition to USB.

With dimensions of 128x65x9mm, the PadFone is slightly more compact than the current crop of flagship Android phones, albeit a bit thicker. It comes with an array of pre-loaded apps including a proprietary cloud storage application, the full suite of Google Apps and an eBook library manager.

The main selling point of the Asus PadFone is the Padfone Station accessory. This is a 10.1in tablet dock that the phone slots into via a closed slot in the back. Once connected, the phone powers the device's 10.1in WXGA touchscreen. The Padfone Station automatically adjusts apps for the larger sized screen, allowing for transition from phone to tablet. In addition, the PadFone station automatically charges the phone's battery. Check out our review to see how we rated it.

When attached to the station, the PadFone remains protected behind a hinged lid.

The PadFone Station's 10.1in display boasts a resolution of 1280x800 pixels.

The PadFone Station is thicker than the average tablet. It measures 273x176.9x13.55mm and weighs in at a solid 850g (with PadFone inserted).

The back of the tablet sports the same 'concentric circles' design as the PadFone itself.

The station's default mode seems to favour battery conservation at the expense of visibility. This can be rectified by tweaking the settings.

The PadFone's camera remains fully accessible while the phone is inside the tablet.

The carry case includes room for the tablet, cleaning cloth and stylus.

The PadFone station comes with stylus that doubles as Bluetooth headset. It's a solution to the problem of how to answer calls while the phone is inside the tablet.

The PadFone stylus app gives a detailed rundown on how the technology works.

The PadFone Station stylus in action.

Today, Asus officially launched its widely-anticipated PadFone: an all-in-one mobile device that combines a 4.3in Android smartphone with a 10.1in tablet.

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In pictures: Asus PadFone, the laptop with its own phone

We've taken delivery of one of the most unusual laptops you'll see - the Asus PadFone is a laptop with a removable phone.

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