Out of fairness to our American viewers I will state upfront that information for North America is not currently available and will surface at a later date. ASUS currently only has availability information for the Eastern Hemisphere.

Today, ASUS released their official announcement for their upcoming PadFone 2.

The original PadFone launched just about six months ago starting with Taiwan in April of this year and reaching Australia by August. The refresh adds a half of an inch to the screen but changes the display technology from Super AMOLED to Super IPS+ LCD/LED. (Edit: The original PadFone screen was 4.2" and the new one is 4.7". The PadFone 2 dock screen is 10.1")

While common convention suggests that a Super AMOLED screen has a higher true contrast than a SuperIPS+ LCD/LED TV we will not know for sure until launch how the latter’s specific SuperIPS+ will stack up the former’s specific Super AMOLED in that metric. On the other hand, we are certain – because ASUS said so – that the SuperIPS+ screen will be 720 HD resolution unlike the 960x540p screen of the original Super AMOLED.

The internals are getting the largest refresh. The functional RAM of the unit is doubling to 2GB of RAM and the number of cores doubles from dual to quad while maintaining their 1.5 GHz clockrate. The camera also got a resolution bump from 8 megapixels all the way to 13 megapixels. This camera will also be able to take 1080p video at 30fps or 720p video at 60fps.

Again we will need to reserve full judgement until the phone launches whether we will notice a bump in quality with the finer resolution sensor. One trick that a lot of digital camera manufacturers play is putting a ridiculous sensor in a camera behind a lens that cannot focus down that far because it makes for a large number on your box.

My photographer side was drawn to the f/2.4 aperture and burst mode capabilities: the phone will be capable of taking 6 shots per second for over 16 solid seconds. That is a 100-shot consecutive, solid burst of pictures for those times when you want to capture a specific moment. I guess that is as good of a reason as any to justify sticking twice the RAM of a typical netbook in a phone. The wide aperture should also help with low light performance if you can get in a situation that is not too sensitive to depth of field blur and if the minimum focal distance is small enough let you soften the background of your macro shots.

The 2140mAh battery is rated for 13 hours of Wi-Fi usage. When connected to the tablet dock the phone will have access to its 5000mAh battery. Sure it will also have a 10.1” screen to power but that is still almost two and a half times the capacity of the phone itself.

The PadFone 2 will launch in 19 countries across Europe and Asia by the end of the year with other countries to be announced later. Official press blast after the break.

Live Life Intuitively with ASUS PadFone™ 2

The latest Smartphone technology features incredible battery life and a thinner, lighter
PadFone™ 2 Station to deliver the ultimate mobile flexibility.

Milan, Italy (October 16, 2012) ASUS, a global leader in the new digital era, today announces the PadFone™ 2. Building upon the successful PadFone combination of an Android smartphone and dockable tablet for incredible mobile flexibility, PadFone 2 features the latest quad-core smartphone technology and a completely redesigned tablet.

ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih unveiled the PadFone 2 at a world-wide press conference in Milan, Italy. “Our relentless drive to innovate through Design Thinking has empowered us to create PadFone 2. It’s beautiful, it’s fast, it’s seamless and, best of all, it’s intuitive,” said Mr. Shih.

PadFone 2 is a fully featured 4.7” Android™ smartphone with industry-leading specifications that docks with the unique PadFone 2 Station to become a lightweight, but fully featured, 10.1” tablet. Apps are seamlessly optimized on-the-fly to support both tablet and phone modes, with an instant transition between smartphone and tablet screen sizes.

Portability with Power to Spare

ASUS’ world-renowned Design Thinking philosophy has significantly reduced PadFone 2 Station’s thickness and weight. At just 649g, the combined weight of both PadFone 2 and PadFone 2 Station is now lighter than most tablets on the market, and the dock mechanism has been redesigned to require just one easy dock or undock action. PadFone 2 has also been subtly refined to increase its screen size to 4.7”, while reducing its maximum thickness to 9mm and weight to just 135g.

Battery life is astounding, too. The higher-capacity PadFone 2 2140mAh battery provides up to 16 hours 3G talk-time and 13 hours Wi-Fi web browsing, while PadFone 2 Station’s 5000mAh battery provides up to 36 hours of 3G talk-time. PadFone 2 Station’s internal battery also has enough capacity to fully recharge the docked PadFone 2 up to three times.

Smartphone, Smarter Performance

A 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM ensures incredible PadFone 2 performance in both smartphone and tablet modes. The new 4.7” 1280 x 720 HD Super IPS+ display uses scratch-resistant Corning® Fit Glass and delivers sharp, detailed images with accurate colors, ultra-wide viewing angles and 550 nits brightness for stunning outdoor visibility.

A new 13-megapixel high-performance camera captures incredibly detailed images with no shutter lag. Burst mode can capture up to 100 shots at a blisteringly quick six shots per second, while simultaneously recording 1080p HD video at 30fps, or 720p HD video at 60fps. Low-light performance is also enhanced by the wide f/2.4 aperture and a dedicated image signal processor. Both PadFone 2 and PadFone 2 Station feature superlative sound quality too, thanks to ASUS SonicMaster technology and audio tuning by Waves, recipient of a Technical GRAMMY Award® for audio design.

Easy to Share, Easy to Save

With capacities up to 64GB and 50GB of ASUS WebStorage provided free for two years, PadFone 2 offers endless possibilities for storing data. Data syncing between devices is also a thing of the past, since PadFone 2 storage is used by PadFone 2 Station when the two are connected. Shared mobile data connectivity between smartphone and tablet also means just one data plan is needed for both devices, while support for up to 42Mbit/s DC-HSPA+ and 100Mbit/s LTE delivers super-fast web browsing and downloads.

User-friendly enhancements

PadFone 2 also features a new version of the SuperNote app that instantly converts handwritten notes made in multiple languages into editable text. Its Instant Translation tool also translates any word, phrase or sentence in an email, web page or app at a touch, without the need for a third-party translation tool.

Availability

PadFone 2 will be launched before the end of 2012 in Europe (Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden) and Asia (Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, U.A.E). Availability in other countries will be announced at a later date.

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PADFONE 2 SPECIFICATIONS

Networks

WCDMA 900/2100MHz

EDGE/GPRS/GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz

LTE 800/1800/2600MHz

HSPA+ (DL: 21Mbit/s, 42Mbit/s (optional) / UL: 5.76Mbit/s)

LTE (DL: 100Mbit/s / UL: 50Mbit/s)

Operating system

Android 4.04 ICS (upgradeable to Jelly Bean shortly)

Processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (8064 + 9215m) quad-core Cortex A15 class (1.5GHz) with Adreno 320 graphics ((<– PCPer Editor's Note: That says A15 *class*, not A15))

Storage / memory

16GB / 32GB / 64GB eMMC Flash / 2GB LPDDR2 RAM

Color

Black / White

Connectivity

802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 & NFC (mobile payment function is optional and by specific regions only)

3.5mm audio jack, Micro SIM

ASUS 13-pin dock connector (supports Micro-USB 2.0 & Mobile High-Definition Link for HDMI connection)

GPS

A-GPS & GLONASS

Display

4.7“ (1280 x 720) / 312ppi

Super IPS+ (550 nits)

Scratch-resistant Corning® Fit Glass with HCLR Film (anti-fingerprint coating)

Main camera

13MP BSI Sensor Sony Camera, f/2.4 Aperture,

five-element lens, auto focus with LED flash

Front camera

1.2MP

Other

G-sensor, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, gyro sensor, e-compass

Battery

2140mAh Li-Polymer (non-removable)

Talk time

Up to 16 hours with 3G (LTE under qualification testing)

Standby time

Up to 352 hours with 3G (LTE under qualification testing)

Browser

HTTP / Google browser / YouTube browser / Facebook / Google+

Messaging

SMS / MMS / email / IM

Video

Video Playback: MPEG4/H.264/H.263/WMV @ HD 1080p

Video Recording: MPEG4/H.263 @ HD 1080p / 60fps @ 720p

H.264 Video Decode @ 720p / Video Encode @1080p

H.264 / Ogg / Theora / MPEG4 / WMV / 3GP

Picture

JPEG / PNG / GIF / BMP

Audio

MP3 / WMA / 3GP / AAC / AAC+

Dimension

137.9 x 69 x 9mm

Weight

135g

PADFONE 2 STATION SPECIFICATIONS

Color

Black / White

Display

10.1“ (1280 x 800, WXGA), 149ppi

IPS with capacitive multi-touch

Scratch-resistant Corning® Fit Glass with HCLR Film (anti-fingerprint coating)

Camera

1MP front camera

13MP via PadFone 2 rear camera

Battery

19Wh (5000mAh)

Connectivity

3.5mm audio jack via PadFone 2

ASUS 13-pin dock connector (Micro-USB 2.0 Host)

External phone antenna

Wi-Fi & BT, GSM, WCDMA, & LTE receiver diversity

Audio

High-quality speaker with ASUS SonicMaster technology

All specifications are subject to change without notice and may differ from country to country. Actual performance may vary depending on applications, usage, environment and other factors. Content and product availability varies by country and coverage areas, and is subject to change. Brand and product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies.

About ASUS

ASUS, the world’s top 3 consumer notebook vendor and the maker of the world’s best-selling and most award winning motherboards, is a leading enterprise in the new digital era. ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home, office and person, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, displays, desktops, Eee Box and all-in-one PCs, notebooks, netbooks, tablet devices, servers, multimedia and wireless solutions, networking devices, and mobile phones. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS won 3,886 awards in 2011, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC™. With a global staff of more than 11,000 and a world-class R&D team of 3,100 engineers, the company’s revenue for 2011 was around US$11.9 billion.