When the first PadFone came over to our test bench a couple of years ago, we thought it was a great idea.

However, this hybrid formula has seemed to attract only a niche category of buyer, but that has not deterred the Taiwanese manufacturer from continuing the PadFone line of devices. In fact, one of the latest products in this hybrid line, the PadFone Mini, is a much more affordable and compact device than most of its predecessors. And, it’s just a smartphone that can be docked into a tablet’s body, offering you a bigger screen. But, the question does need to be answered, about whether or not you should be buying it. We at Technophile try to answer it for you.

What is it?

The core part of this hybrid device is a 4.3-inch smartphone unit, which does all the computing with its dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor with 1GB RAM and packs in 8GB of internal storage (with additional microSD support). The smartphone unit has a 1170mAh capacity battery and for imaging it features an 8MP rear camera and a 1.9MP front camera. The package also includes dual-SIM support.

The tablet unit, on the other hand, is just a 7-inch IPS LCD display bundled with an additional 2,100mAh battery. Oddly though, the tablet unit does not have its own cameras, not even a front camera.

To convert the smartphone into a tablet, you just need to slide the smartphone into a docking bay behind the tablet. Once docked in, the full unit is actually a bit heavy. Thankfully, the construction quality is quite good for its price, so you don’t have to worry much about it being too delicate.

How does it work?

The Intel chip in the smartphone unit is good enough to handle your everyday smartphone needs, and though it scored a modest 9,400 points on Quadrant Standard benchmark test, it actually handled multitasking quite well. However, being a budget device, it can only do so much. With a tablet unit, you would expect to play a lot of games, but the PadFone Mini didn’t fare well there. While playing games like Boom Beach and Call of Duty Heroes, the device slowed down massively and had a few heating issues.

The display is a letdown too, with a resolution of just 960x540 pixels (we’re now quite used to seeing at least 720p displays in this price range these days). The tablet’s display is 720p though, and produces better colours than the smartphone’s.

The PadFone Mini comes with Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) operating system, but with Asus's own Zen interface. The UI offers a very easy operational experience, and we’ve loved this interface on the ZenFone series as well.

The cameras are good on the smartphone, but the lack of even a front camera in the tablet unit means you will have to sacrifice Skype and other such applications while using the device in the tab mode. However, with the tablet dock, you do get more than 100 per cent extra juice, so you can have this device running for over a full work-day.

Verdict

As a concept, the PadFone Mini is brilliant. But a lot of things have gone wrong in the execution of this concept. We understand that being a budget device, the processing power is just at entry-level. But with a tablet dock on offer, one expects more. The other is the lack of a front camera on the tablet unit. We’d recommend this hybrid to you only if you’re on a very tight budget and need both a tablet and a smartphone. And also because there isn’t really any competitor for the PadFone Mini.

₹15,999

Love - Convenient; Good battery backup

Hate – Display; No camera on tablet

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