ASUS FonePad 7

Armed with an already strong line in electronics and tablet technology (see the Transformer line for a particularly bar-setting example), the folks at Asus apparently decided to breed tablet and smartphone to make little hybrid babies. One result was the FonePad, a decent enough device saddled with a price just a wee bit too high to be truly competitive with the Google Nexus 7 and its ilk.

The FonePad’s large screen and built-in 3G phone (usable internationally with most telecommunications services) make the Asus FonePad completely suitable for the purposes of the “phablet.”

However, one need not necessarily be interested in a hybrid to be impressed by the processors employed in this tablet: The basic variety sports a 1.2 GHz Intel Atom Z2420, while in some markets, the FonePad boasts a nice 1.6 GHz version – clearly one of the fastest CPUs at this size.

Internal memory specs aren’t anything spectacular, with the basic FonePad providing just 8 GB, though other (and unfortunately concomitantly more expensive) models in the line may supply up to 64 GB.

In comparison, the Asus FonePad is a pretty spiffy little 7” competitor to even the top names in this area – but that too-high price will certainly exclude too many users before considering this alternative. And that’s really too bad, because this one’s worth a second look.