Design:
In its design and looks, Asus Fonepad bears resemblance to the Asus made Google Nexus 7. But the company has replaced Nexus 7's grippy leather rear side with silver aluminum back in Fonepad. The metal body gives it a premium look and durability. The power and volume buttons are located at the left edge of the tablet. On the bottom edge, there is the Micro-USB port, headphone jack, and a microphone pinhole. The front-facing camera is situated on the top of the bezel toward the right, which is directly left of the phone speaker. On the rear side of the tablet, there's a rear-facing 3-mega pixel camera. The microSD card slot and SIM card slot are well placed under the removable panel, above the rear camera.
Display:
The Fonepad features a 7 inches IPS display screen with a 1,280x800 pixel resolution. The display gives good viewing angles, sharp text and a better scope for customisation. We can see here that the display resolution also has similarities with the Nexus 7. But under direct sunlight, the screen suffers.
OS:
The device is run by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Operating System. As always, the Jelly Bean works impressively in navigating through the interface. There are no major lags in the performance of the tablet.
CPU and performance:
The tablet is powered by a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2420 processor. It has 1 GB RAM. It has a PowerVR SGX540 GPU. The Fonepad works smoothly on everyday tasks. It features an internal storage memory of 8GB, which is expandable using a microSD card, up to 32GB. Though there is 8GB internal memory, only 4.39 GB out of it will be available for the users. That will be really insufficient. The company could have included more space or could have made the expandable memory supporting at least 64GB.
The tablet worked decently as a phone delivering good call quality and was able to hang on to the available signal in weak signal areas. But one thing is sure that keeping such a a huge device near to your ear will not be a very good experience. We think that Bluetooth devices will be highly demanding for making calls with Fonepad. And also, holding such a huge device near your ear for longer calls can be painful.
Camera:
The Asus Fonepad comes with a set of dual camera. The rear camera is of 3MP and the front camera is of 1.2 MP. The camera app offers a lot of options including Panorama mode, settings for exposure, white balance etc.
Though there is rear camera, we can guess what could be expected from a 3MP camera. Pictures are just average. Even a decent feature phone of nowadays will be having a camera with higher resolution than this. Video captured through the camera is saved in .3GP format, which is really of the last generation quality.
Internet and connectivity:
The built-in 3G HSPA+ of the Fonepad lets you keep on browsing, even if you could not find a Wi- Fi signal. means that even when you can't find a Wi-Fi signal you can still keep browsing. The speeds which the device could achieve in our review are 21Mbps for download and 5.76Mbps upload, that means streaming audio and video is easily handled.
The Fonepad features 802.11b/g/n for wireless activities. To supplimet this, there is Bluetooth connectivity too. But, to be frank, the Bluetooth version did really disappoint us. The Asus has brought in Bluetooth 3.0. even the very cheapest cell phones now has Bluetooth Version 4.0.
Battery:
The Fonepad features a 4,270 mAh battery. The tablet offers a Power Saver mode, which helps in optimising and extending the battery life. There are provisions for configuring it differently for different tasks such as reading books, watching videos, browsing the Internet etc.
With this power saver mode, the Fonepad delivers a good battery backup of up to 11 hours on the Wi - Fi usage, and 9.5 hours on cellular data usage. For a phablet, it is really impressive.
Price and verdict:
The Asus Fonepad is currently available at a price tag of rupees 16,000/-. taking in to consideration that this is a tablet with calling facility, it is not a bad choice. For those who keep both the smart phone and the tablet, just because of the unavailability of such a phablet, there is no room for doubt that Asus Fonepad is just made for them. It is budget friendly too. If you are a budget conscious consumer, this will be your cup of coffee.
Pros:
Decent Build.
Premium look.
Affordable Price.
Voice calling feature.
Great battery backup.
Good for everyday tasks.
Cons:
Below average camera.
Not good for long calls.
Not easy to hold for making calls.
Read here the full specification of ASUS Fonepad
Ceck out here the picture gallery of ASUS Fonepad
