The Fonepad (not to be confused with the Padfone, also from Asus) has more modest ambitions
Design
At first glance it's a solid looking piece of kit, with a heavy glossy black plastic bezel surrounding the seven-inch screen. The back is brushed aluminium so it looks almost as classy as an iPad mini, though the metal doesn't do much to keep the weight down, tipping the scales at 340g.
Features and performance
The touchscreen offers a resolution of 1,280x800 pixels which equates to 216 pixels-per-inch, and puts it in front of the iPad mini in terms of pixel count. It certainly looks sharp enough, with wide viewing angles, and it works very well as an e-reader, but the brightness settings don't allow it to get particularly vivid – which might help with the battery. The supplied Asus Splendid app allows you to tweak the vividness and temperature of the colours though this seemed like more of a gimmick than a practical tool.
The single-core processor is clocked at 1.2GHz and backed by a full 1GB RAM. It's not in the same league as the Nexus 7's quad-core powerhouse but while it may not be super-fast, it's powerful enough for most tasks, even HD gaming, at a pinch, though it got a little bit jerky on occasion with Real Racing 3.
There is a 1.3-megapixel camera mounted on the front for video calls, which is arguably a much better investment than a five-megapixel camera on the back that hardly anyone will bother to use.
The good-sized 4,270mAh battery keeps things running for longer than you might expect. And if you need more, there's a power management feature in the settings that turns off wireless networks when it's in standby or reduces the screen brightness depending on which app you're using.
Wow
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