Asus’ latest and greatest has been subject to a number of leaks already, but nothing beats getting the official word from the company itself. The device was finally launched at a simultaneous event in Europe and Taiwan, and it seems that the new device is a significant improvement over the old product. For one, the screen is a 4.7-inch Super IPS+ panel made by Sharp, which should deliver better images than the original. A Qualcomm Snapdragon Pro quad-core processor lies under the hood, which is paired with 2GB of RAM. One of the major changes of the new model over the previous one is imaging – the PadFone 2 now sports a 13-megapixel f/2.4 BSI sensor equipped camera that has the capabilityof shooting 1080p video at 30fps, 720p at 60fps and has the ability of shooting up to 100 shots at full resolution. As expected, the PadFone 2 will sport Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box. There will be multiple versions of this particular device when it comes to radio frequencies, with LTE versions appearing later on depending on the location of the market. There’s also NFC on tap as well.
The tablet base station has also been upgraded. It’s still a 10.1-inch deal with 1280 x 800 display, but this time around it’s slimmer and lighter (514g without the phone inside). The battery has been cut down a bit (5,000mAh compared to old one’s 6,600mAh), but that’s not really much of an issue because of the more efficient processor and the upgraded battery one the main smartphone unit (2,140mAh).
So, how much will it cost? Well, Asus has prices start at NT$17,990, which is about 25,516 without taxes. The phone and slate bundle goes for NT$23990, or about Php 34036 without taxes, which is pretty reasonable, if you ask us. Unfortunately, no local pricing or availability has yet been set for this product – we’ll let you guys know as soon as we get word.