MOBILE

Asus PadFone Infinity - An Convertible Phone Goes Full HD And Beyond (Part 5)

8/23/2013 4:27:58 AM

Performance and Battery Life

With Qualcomm's Snapdragon 600 SoC and 2GB RAM turning up on almost every flagship Android device these days, we do not need lengthy intro about how powerful this chip in terms of calculations and graphics rendering. Besides those incompatibility issues we have encountered with the specific application via Dynamic Display, we almost do not have any delay in daily activities. In addition, heavy games like Need for Speed: Most Wanted and The Dark Knight Rises is impressive and enjoyable thanks to the beefed-up Adreno 320 graphics chip. Surprisingly, our Infinity was never overheated after completing a few races in NFS.

PadFone Infinity

·         Quadrant 2: 12,250

·         Vellamo 2 HTML 5: 2,383

·         AnTuTu 3: 24,697

·         SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms): 868.3

·         GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD C24Z16 Offscreen (fps): 33

·         CF-Bench: 25,057

PadFone Infinity

PadFone Infinity

PadFone 2

·         Quadrant 2: 7,703

·         Vellamo 2 HTML 5: 2,018

·         AnTuTu 3: 15,489

·         SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms): 1,291.9

·         GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD C24Z16 Offscreen (fps): 31

·         CF-Bench: 18,237

PadFone 2

PadFone 2

HTC One

·         Quadrant 2: 12,495

·         Vellamo 2 HTML 5: 2,429

·         AnTuTu 3: 25,140

·         SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms): 853.5

·         GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD C24Z16 Offscreen (fps): 34

·         CF-Bench: 25,140

HTC One

HTC One

Galaxy S4 (Exynos 5 Octa)

·         Quadrant 2: 13,046

·         Vellamo 2 HTML 5: 1,883

·         AnTuTu 3: 27,805

·         SunSpider 0.9.1 (ms): 779.8

·         GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt HD C24Z16 Offscreen (fps): 41

·         CF-Bench: 20,745

Galaxy S4

Galaxy S4

Given that the HTC One and the Padfone Infinity share an almost identical set of specs, not surprising that the two devices also have very similar benchmark scores. But that is not the case with1.6GHz Exynos 5-powered Galaxy S 4 (SHV-E300S), which seems to head in terms of 3D graphics and memory performance. That is, while we have yet to determine this particular S 4's battery life, it's safe to say that the Padfone Infinit would easily beat it thanks to additional energy from Padfone Station.

As mentioned before, Asus offers different charging policies to let you decide how to split the battery power between the phone and the tablet module. Here are the options: Intelligent mode for balancing the two devices' battery levels, Phone Preferred mode for maintaining a power supply to the phone and Power Pack mode for using the PadFone Station solely as a power pack (but you can keep power button for 2 seconds to wake the tablet mode). They can be set up in the Padfone Assistant utility or in the system settings.

To help further extend battery life, you can toggle Smart Saving (either in Quick Settings or system settings) and choose one of several modes. Ultra-saving mode disconnects the device from the network when it's suspended, whereas optimized mode toggles the appropriate screen brightness, network sleep time, CPU speed and number of active CPU cores in certain scenarios (e.g. read email, read e-books, browsing web or watching video). If you're feeling adventurous, you can also change each individual setting under customized mode.

In our two rounds of battery tests, we set the phone / tablet combo to optimized battery mode, leave it on the 4G LTE connection and the screen brightness set to medium level, before letting it play a 720p video on a loop. Including the final hour when the phone was running on its own battery, we have achieved 6.5 hours of continuous video playback. Interestingly, when we repeated the same test with the phone, we have approximately 5.75 hours playback. But do not be discouraged by these numbers, because our test model trapped in a place with a weak LTE signal (and we'll check again when we get hold of a different carrier's nano-SIM). Keep in mind that the battery lasts longer in daily use, we can easily survive 2 days with both devices on one charge. Phone takes about 2.5 hours to be fully charged using the original power adapter while the tablet module takes about 4 hours, so be sure to have the device plugged in before going out.

Conclusion

The Padfone Infinity is definitely the best phone Asus has ever made, and it is a worthwhile upgrade from the PadFone 2 even for the specs alone. Thanks to new industrial design on the phone, we are confident that it will be more noticeable than its two predecessors. Pretty much everyone we've shown the device to praised the new look. While we are less worried about the new application problems because they can be updated, we hope to find out how Asus would dampen the rattle of the docked phone.

But the question remains: Can this new package convince many customers that owning this thing would be better than carrying two separate devices? As nice as the PadFone is, this three-generation-old formula risks becoming stale if it doesn't break the mold. If Asus wants to convince those non-believers, it'd have to come up with a solution that can let people use both the phone and the tablet module at the same time. That's right, dual-screen multitasking. The closest thing we have right now is NEC's Medias W, but it's just an experimental product and will not be produced in large quantities. Perhaps wireless display from the phone to the tablet module is the way forward? Surprise us, Asus.

Info

·         Price: $850

Pros

·         Attractive aluminum design

·         Ingenious tablet conversion

·         Smooth and clean OS

Cons

·         A number of failed bundled applications

·         Thick screen bezel

·         Dynamic Display does not have full compatibility

Verdict

·         The Padfone Infinity has almost everything that we expect from the previous model, but meets an obstacle with a number of new corrupted applications.

Specifications

·         Product name: Asus PadFone Infinity

·         Price: $850

·         2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

·         3G Network: HSDPA 900 / 2100

·         4G Network: LTE 800 / 1800 / 2600 / 2100

·         SIM: Nano-SIM

·         Dimensions: 143.5 x 72.8 x 8.9 mm (5.65 x 2.87 x 0.35 inches)

·         Weight: 141 g (4.97 oz)

·         Padfone Station: 10.1 inches IPS display, 1920 x 1200 pixels, 5000 mAh battery, 1 MP front camera. 264.6 x 181.6 x 10.7mm, 530g.

·         Display Type: Super IPS+ LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors, multitouch (up to 10 fingers), Corning Gorilla Glass

·         Display Size: 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density)

·         Alert types: Vibration, MP3 ringtones

·         Loudspeaker: Yes

·         3.5mm jack: Yes

·         Card slot: No

·         Internal storage: 32/64 GB, 2 GB RAM

·         GPRS: Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps

·         EDGE: Class 10, 236.8 kbps

·         Speed: DC-HSPA+, 42 Mbps; HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps; LTE, Cat3, 50 Mbps UL, 100 Mbps DL

·         Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, dual-band, Wi-Fi hotspot

·         Bluetooth: Yes, v4.0 with A2DP

·         NFC: Yes

·         USB: Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB Host

·         Primary camera: 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection

·         Video: Yes, 1080p@30fps

·         Secondary camera: Yes, 2 MP, 1080p@30fps

·         OS: Android OS, v4.2 (Jelly Bean)

·         Chipset: Qualcomm APQ8064T Snapdragon 600

·         CPU: Quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait

·         GPU: Adreno 320

·         Sensors: Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

·         Messaging: SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM

·         Browser: HTML5

·         Radio: FM radio

·         GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support and GLONASS

·         Java: Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

·         Colors: Titanium Gray, Champagne Gold, Hot Pink

·         Other features: SNS integration, Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic, TV-out (via MHL A/V link), ASUS WebStorage (50 GB storage), MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player, MP4/H.264/H.263 player, Organizer, Document viewer, Photo viewer/editor, Voice memo/dial, Predictive text input (Swype).

·         Battery: Li-Po 2400 mAh battery, non-removable

·         Stand-by time: Up to 410 hTalk time: Up to 19 h

Other  
 
Top 10
Extending LINQ to Objects : Writing a Single Element Operator (part 2) - Building the RandomElement Operator
Extending LINQ to Objects : Writing a Single Element Operator (part 1) - Building Our Own Last Operator
3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 2) - Discharge Smart, Use Smart
3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 1) - Charge Smart
OPEL MERIVA : Making a grand entrance
FORD MONDEO 2.0 ECOBOOST : Modern Mondeo
BMW 650i COUPE : Sexy retooling of BMW's 6-series
BMW 120d; M135i - Finely tuned
PHP Tutorials : Storing Images in MySQL with PHP (part 2) - Creating the HTML, Inserting the Image into MySQL
PHP Tutorials : Storing Images in MySQL with PHP (part 1) - Why store binary files in MySQL using PHP?
REVIEW
- First look: Apple Watch

- 3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 1)

- 3 Tips for Maintaining Your Cell Phone Battery (part 2)
VIDEO TUTORIAL
- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 1)

- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 2)

- How to create your first Swimlane Diagram or Cross-Functional Flowchart Diagram by using Microsoft Visio 2010 (Part 3)
Popular Tags
Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel Microsoft OneNote Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Project Microsoft Visio Microsoft Word Active Directory Biztalk Exchange Server Microsoft LynC Server Microsoft Dynamic Sharepoint Sql Server Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2012 Windows 7 Windows 8 Adobe Indesign Adobe Flash Professional Dreamweaver Adobe Illustrator Adobe After Effects Adobe Photoshop Adobe Fireworks Adobe Flash Catalyst Corel Painter X CorelDRAW X5 CorelDraw 10 QuarkXPress 8 windows Phone 7 windows Phone 8 BlackBerry Android Ipad Iphone iOS