Gadgetory

as we said in part 1 of this review series the smartphone half of the Isuzu PadFone X delivers an Android experience just about dead center of average fortunately things get a whole lot more interesting in tablet mode which makes the PadFone something worth considering for those in need of an all-in-one Android solution and best of all you don't pay a single extra penny for it I'm Michael Fisher this is PocketNow and this is our soos headphone X video review part 2 tablet Edition the official name for this device is the PadFone station and it's aptly named because like any dock it's useless without the smartphone it accommodates think of it as a magnifying glass for the handset its LCD screen isn't as sharp as the phone's but at 9 inches it's almost twice the diagonal size the battery within is almost 5000 milliamp hours and it features a micro USB port on the side so you can charge it separately from the phone if you need to about the only downgrade from the phone is the front-facing camera which is 1 megapixel to the phones too the handset slides into a receptacle dead center of the backside held in place by a combination of rubber teeth and a sturdy docking interface that doesn't let it fall out but it does allow for enough movement to make the whole thing rattle slightly when shaken in docked configuration the device is a heavy 664 grams and eleven point six millimeters thick it's fairly awkward to hold especially in portrait and it's wobbly on a tabletop streamlined simplicity this is not on the bright side a soos provides a flip cover for the phone that can be left on even when the phone is docked to the tablet and it's exposed position means the phone's camera lens is open for use in tablet mode fortunately you don't need to rely on the phone's puny rear firing speaker when it's docked the PadFone station includes a pair of front firing speakers flanking the display it takes in time to adjust to the reality of the pad phones interesting approach to computing in a software sense the tablet isn't just a companion for the phone it is the phone docking the to instructs Android 4.4.2 to use the pad phone stations display audio equipment buttons and front-facing camera and just like in the commercials there are hints of real seamlessness here plug the phone into the dock feel the buzz and a few seconds later you're looking at that webpage or photo or spreadsheet on a much larger canvas the pet phone is smart enough to switch display modes when you dock to the station so instead of just a scaled-up smartphone interface you get the tablet mode that's true most of the time anyway some Android apps coded exclusively for smartphones will force you into portrait mode a decidedly awkward experience and there's another huge caveat here Google Play apps like Gmail hangouts etc won't automatically transition between modes instead they'll throw an error that requires you to restart them if you switch between phone and tablet while they're open this isn't a massive inconvenience but it is a bump in an otherwise smooth road of more concern to us is the considerable bugginess of the asou interface on the whole which the company informs us should be fixed by the time the pad phone is made widely available starting June 6th one of the things we dinged the pad phone handset for in part one of our review was battery life well thankfully that's one of the strong suits of the PadFone station you can set the phone and tablet to maintain a balance or you can force the tablet to consistently replenish the phone the latter is our preferred method due to the phone's small battery on one of our first test days we put the combined pair through mixed use in both modes for about 16 hours once the phone was down to 4% we stuck it back in the dock for another 90 minutes of usage finally running the tablet dry and kicking the phone back up to 35% so while the combined pair probably won't get you through an entire weekend of heavy use if you leave your charger behind it's definitely handy to have the tablets power reserve available especially considering how easy it is to just drop the handset in and pick up right where you left off a soos also provides some tools for managing communications when docked you can start calls through the tablets onboard speakerphone or you can set the software to prefer Bluetooth and you can also automatically transition the call to the phone just by pulling the handset out or vice versa and those speakers while quieter than we'd like are great for viewing media or of gaming in a quiet room AT&T is offering the PadFone X package which once again includes the smart phone tablet dock and earbuds all in the same box for $199 on a two-year contract and that's the real story of the PadFone x value it's not just that you're getting a highly Specht smartphone and a tablet in the same box there's also a recurring savings here because AT&T doesn't require a special data plan for the pad phone you're paying the same amount for data that you would if it was just a standalone phone so while it is true that the pad phone handset is little more than average and the PadFone station is big and unwieldy just look how much you're getting for the money that's even true if you consider the Bluetooth keyboard dock from a soos it's very heavy and it's pretty pricey and it's made some questionable choices with regard to its apostrophe key but combined with everything else it results in a near-total low horsepower computer replacement for someone willing to part with an extra $100 would this be our first choice for the ideal Android experience No would a dual device lifestyle be more polished with say a nexus 5 alongside a nexus 10 absolutely but even on a contract the price tag would be much more prohibitive for students penny-pinchers are really anyone shopping for a smart phone and a tablet at the same time it was not too worried about looks and looking to get the most for their money the asou SPAD phone X offers good specs and almost unbeatable value unless you're really averse to contracts or dead set against AT&T for our more in depth thoughts on the PadFone ex stay tuned to pocketnow.com where our full review lands June 4th also be sure to check out our review of the smartphone half of the PadFone available right here on YouTube and do subscribe and like this video if you haven't already the next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow thanks for watching and we'll see you next time