ASUS PadFone Infinity/2/Lite

The PadFone Infinity is a beautiful device, well finished and largely in phase with the hybrid concept from whence it was born. Even just as a smartphone, it holds its own against its high-end competitors. A few minor issues keep it from a five-star rating, but overall the Infinity is a great continuation of the PadFone line.

The Padfone station has a 10.1inches full HD display at a resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels. It is Super IPS+ multi-touch panel. The viewing angles are great, but the display is glossy which is prone to fingerprints. The Padfone station just has a display and a battery. It powers up once you place the Padfone Infinity in the Padfone station.

The Padfone Station dock converts the phone into a 10.1-inch tablet with 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. It can also be used as a battery pack, which gives you three times the battery life and it also has its own 1MP front-mounted camera and a micro USB port. The phone/tablet combo has the same-style aluminium unibody design housing as the Padfone 2. In terms of the other key specs there is 2GB of RAM, plus NFC and 64GB of flash memory.

At £799 - it's pricey and our initial reaction is that it's a bit too much especially as you can’t use the tablet without connecting the phone to it. For comparisons sake, you could buy the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Nexus 7 tablet for a total of £537 - a saving of £262. Even buying an iPad Mini and iPhone 5 works out to be cheaper (£798).

With the tablet part alone, the PadFone Infinity will last for 9.5 hours of video playback according to Asus. However, plug it into the tablet part and you’re looking at a claimed 27 hours. That’s at least enough to watch one of the extended Lord of the Rings films.