A phone that you can slot into a bigger screen, turning it into a tablet. It’s certainly an interesting concept, and one that Asus is certainly banking on with their new Padfone kit, but will it ever catch on? We’re betting on “no,” (at least in terms of setting sales records) but it looks like Asus isn’t the only company that’s willing to roll the dice on the idea. ECS is showing off a similar device at Computex: basically a 9.7-inch screen with a dock at the back for cradling a smartphone. The device that they plan on creating is a little more flexible though; while the Asus Padfone works with a specific Asus-made Android phone, ECS’ device is described to fit a range of phone models across different platforms, likely after picking up an optional interface adapter accessory.
The specs and features are still unknown (the device brought to Computex was a non-working prototype), so we have no idea how it’s going to work with different phones with different screen resolutions, aspect ratios and operating systems, but the device that was shown also had its own front cam, SD card slot, HDMI port and USB ports.
The rest of the details are still a bit hazy, but if this prototype ever sees a store shelf, ECS said that it would cost less than $200.
[via ITProPortal]
Tags: ECS, Fonepad, Mobile Accessories, Mobile Phones, Tablets
