Here it is – the smaller size of the critically acclaimed ASUS PadFone series, yet a very niche product. In theory, it’s a very practical concept. In reality however, it is definitely tricky to just have both devices to work together.
We looked at how the ASUS PadFone Infinity had performed before, and I have hopes for the new PadFone Mini PF400CG to perform with style. Let’s get to the review.
BONUS : Check out our video review here!
We have already done an unboxing video on this product, and you can check it out right here. We do understand that streaming videos on mobile devices aren’t exactly practical, so we’ve provided this picture-based unboxing just for you.
ASUS provides some of the best design for wall plugs as it is self-compressible, but I do really hope that it’ll be smaller than this size – just nitpicking. Inside you’ll also find the micro USB charger cable, a pair of earphones, 2 more sizes of eartips, and the battery for the phone itself.
[nextpage title=”Ports and design”]
The design of the phone itself is pretty much the same as its cousin, the ZenFone 4. Technically, it is exactly the same chassis, the same curves and buttons, but the only noticeable difference is the Intel logo at the back and also the proprietary ports at the bottom for the tablet dock.
Taking a quick tour, it again repeats all of the ZenFone 4 design cues. There’s the earpiece with a 2MP selfie camera, the circular brushed aluminium at the bottom of those capacitive keys, circular brushed metal power and volume rocker at the side, 3.5mm audio jack at the top, and lastly a lonely micro USB at the left side.
Opening the case we can see the microSD expansion slot and because of the PadFone Mini’s phone is actually the ZenFone 4, you get dual SIM card slots as well. However, one major step forward for the PadFone Mini is that it has an 8MP rear-facing camera instead of 5MP.
Note that there is no NFC on this device. You don’t even get ambient light sensor for both tablet and phone!
And as the name suggests, it is a 4-inch phone that has 480×800 pixels running on that IPS LCD panel, just like the ZenFone 4.
The tablet dock – or the PadFone Station as they named it – looks awfully familiar to those some of the older tablets by ASUS. Of course, ASUS couldn’t just rip off the chassis from previously made tablets for the PadFone Station.
They redesigned the entire tablet dock so that they can fit the phone inside the tablet. This added thickness, and also a lot of weight onto the top-rear part of the tablet, causing the tablet to have some rotational force – and it’s not good since it will rotate backwards.
The station expands the display’s resolution to 7 inches, with a bump in resolution that goes up to 800×1280 pixels on IPS LCD panel as well.
[nextpage title=”Performance”]Speaking of performance, the ZenFone 4 – I mean the PadFone Mini runs on the dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 clocked at 1.6GHz processor. It’s my first time using an Intel-based device, and I’m fascinated by how Intel managed to keep up with the price and performance demands.
Over at Epic Citadel, we tested on the dock and the tablet alone just to get the gist of it as the difference in resolution will definitely vary the performance drastically of the PadFone Mini.
And we were right. The was about a 7FPS drop from phone to tablet, which is a huge deal.
Over at Vellamo, there isn’t much of a difference in score as they both test the raw horsepower of the processor itself, not on graphics.
Browsing on Chrome and light gaming is okay, which surprised me. The other thing that surprised me was how well the software has improved compared to my previous experience with the PadFone Infinity.
Recreating the interface from phone to tablet is quick and seamless for most applications, but obviously there are exceptions. The tablet itself does not have a front-facing camera, so you can’t launch Instagram or to use video chat apps for that matter.
ASUS included a settings page to let you select which app to be dynamically scaled between phone and tablet, but there are no promises that it will work. They are kind enough however to notify users that YouTube can’t be scaled.
Compared to my previous experience with the PadFone Infinity, ASUS improved a lot in terms of software.
[nextpage title=”Battery”]To be honest, I thought the Station’s battery would be enough to charge and hold up for both the phone and tablet usage for the entire day. I was wrong.
The phone came with only 1170mAh battery and the Station comes with a 2100mAh battery. What gives?
My drive to Taman Connaught’s pasar malam the other day started off pretty okay. I used Google Maps for turn-by-turn navigation with the GPS set on high accuracy mode, docked it onto the station to charge the phone. I started off with both devices on about 50% battery.
When I reached my destination the battery on the phone had only about 34% left, with the dock having 40% left.
Then I said okay, let’s just switch off mobile data and see how that goes. Again the battery just dropped significantly by the minute.
You can however tune the power plan on the phone to manage how the battery juice should be distributed – either equally amongst the two, or given priority.
If you’re going to use this device without WiFi, it’ll need another power bank for both the tablet and the phone just to get you through the day.
On a sidenote, this device tends to heat up beyond 40ºC easily. Don’t be surprised if it hits anywhere above 45ºC.
[nextpage title=”Camera”]There isn’t much to say about the camera other than the bump up to 8MP for the rear-facing camera. PixelMaster is still at work, and the photos aren’t bad at all even if you’re taking pictures at night.
Here’s another sample picture of Taman Connaught’s pasar malam.
Colours are well saturated, the details are still there even on full-crop. Overall, the camera is surprisingly better than my Nexus 4.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]It’s okay to say that the PadFone Mini is not the best performer. It’s also okay to say that the battery life is disappointing, and I’ll have to carry another power bank around. It’s again okay to price this device at RM999.
I’m just not happy with the lack of front-facing camera on the dock. And seriously, I need need the ambient light sensor.
You can however find some of the weirdest rewards on the device itself – like dual SIM, and stereo rear-facing speakers with the left audio out from the phone and right audio coming out from the tablet. The volume and frequency response is obviously different, but it’s there.
My vote for the PadFone Mini is to test it out for yourself first. You might or might not love it – that depends solely on the user since ASUS aims for this niche market.
For me personally, I love it. I don’t need a phablet all the time – I only need it when I need it, and the PadFone serves this purpose perfectly well.
There’s always room for improvement, but the PadFone Mini is as good as it could be at this time for a RM1000 convertible device.
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Wait I’m confused here…Is the dock getting a SIM card slot as well?
Nope, everything is done from the phone itself. You can listen calls with the dock when the phone is docked though
Bateri boleh bertahan selama berapa jam?Saya dah pakai Asus Zenfone 4,bateri cuma boleh bertahan 3 – 4 jam je…….
Ini sure boleh tahan about 5 jam for you
ok…thank for info,
Does it have OTG connectivity?
Yes, the phone itself has OTG connectivity.
However once it is docked onto the PadFone dock, it does not have OTG capabilities.
I recently bought this PadFone Mini. I like this phone/tablet overall but the battery really disappoints me, it drains so fast!! Even if i use Optimize mode in Power Saver app.
Any tip to increase the battery life?
Or if i use ZenFone 4 battey in the handset? because PadFone Mini and ZenFone4 both looks same. What you say?
Thanks!
Sorry to disappoint you, but the battery on the ZenFone 4 isn’t any better either.
However to save battery, I’m afraid the best is to turn off location, data connection, and also auto-brightness.
But i saw that ZenFone 4 battery is 1600mAh and PadFone mini is only 1170mAh, so isn’t it give any difference?
Yeah it will increase the battery life though it’s not recommended, unless you do check all the voltage and amperage ratings first to make sure they’re identical.
hmm… yes you are right, thanks!
I checked the amperage and voltage rating for padfone mini and Zenfone 4. They are same.
So, I went ahead and bought original Zenfone 4 battery. I found two problems.
1) The phone is not able to calibrate the battery. There is a question mark inside the battery and there is no indication of it being charged. Although, it is charging and giving proper backup.
2) Battery is slightly thicker. The battery door doesn’t close properly. Infact it doesn’t close at all.
I am not sure about the “?” mark inside the battery icon. Any clues?
The amperage doesn’t matter at all, in fact you can get a 5V, 2A charger and it’ll work for any smartphones out there.
The question mark however leaves a sour note. It seems like your battery has problems already.
If the battery is indeed thicker, that means the battery bulged.
ry rotating the battery on a table. If it spins, then it has a bulge, and you need to change the battery immediately.
Hi Kok Kee,
I am sorry if I was not clear regarding the thickness thing. The battery is not swollen. I just bought it from Asus authorized service center. I meant the thickness of zenfone 4 battery is slightly more than that of padfone mini, making it difficult to close the battery door.
But I definitely don’t have any clue about the “?” mark. I will try the battery in my friends zenfone 4 to find out if there is a problem with the battery.
You think there is any other alternate battery that has higher capacity and yet sits correctly in padfone mini. Battery is the only grievance I have.
Thanks
Ah I get what you mean now, sorry about that.
I think the problem with the battery’s question mark is because of the battery not made for the PadFone Mini to begin with.
As far as I know though, there aren’t any 3rd party batteries for the PadFone Mini.
Guess a power bank would be your only option 🙁
Hi Kok Kee,
You think the “?” mark can be because the battery is of higher capacity? Is this information stored somewhere in some config file, which can be changed to support a higher capacity battery? I am just thinking of some possibilities.
For any such experiments I think we need root. Is there a tried and tested way of rooting padfone mini.
Thanks
Hi Galaxian,
I don’t think that rooting can fix anything in this matter.
Try downloading CPU-Z from the Play Store and check the battery capacity. If it detects with no problems, then it shouldn’t have any problems working with the phone, and that “?” is merely something minor.
Do check with CPU-Z and come back to us, this is indeed a weird problem.
Hi Kok Kee,
I am in urgent need of RAW image for Padfone mini. Do you have it? If yes, will it be possible for you to share it? I sort of soft-bricked my phone. I can access fastboot. Install from SD card is giving error, with the firmware provided on ASUS website. I am planning to use ASUS flash tool for which I need raw file.
Thanks
Hey, contact me on my Facebook. I’ll guide you there.
Hi! You wrote this preview back in October 2014. After a few months of using it, did you find any other ‘dissapointment’ in padfone mini? or vice versa? I am planning to get one for myself, I read some comments on oveheating and so on…. Just need your personal view as a user… Thanks!
p.s – btw what is OTG?
Hello Yahya!
To answer your first question, the battery life on the PadFone Mini is disappointing. To put it in a straight forward term, you’ll have to strap a large capacity power bank like the Xiaomi 10,400 mAh for life support.
Other than that, it’s actually very good for the price.
For the second question, OTG stands for On The Go. It’s a type of USB cable which enables you to plug in accessories like USB drives.
If you have any questions, do come and ask again!
Do ask us on our Facebook page for a quicker reply!
Hi Kok Kee, thanks for the prompt reply!!
1. Can the phone be charged without the docking station? (I was told that only the docking station can charge the phone. If the docking station goes kaput, you will not be able to charge your phone any other ways)
2. I know the docking station can charge the phone but can the phone charge the docking station or at least “share the power”?
Cheers!
You’re welcome 😀 To answer your questions :
1. Yes you can, both dock and phone comes with a micro USB port. You can charge the dock and the phone together or both separately. So if either one kaput, you can still charge the other functional part.
2. They can “share power” by selecting inside the settings. Can be priority to phone, or share-share to maintain same percentage.
Hi Kok Kee,
If the phone is dock to the pad station, is it me still can receive a call and sms and answer it or reply it through that pad station? Thank you. =)
Hello Aini,
Yes, yes you can!
Hi,
I bought a kingston 8GB OTG USB drive. When i connect it to my ASUS PadFone Mini handset, nothing happen. Handset didn’t detect the derive….
Is the PadFone Mini support OTG drive?
Thanks!
Hi, did you try plugging the OTG through the tablet dock or onto the phone directly?
i tried through phone directly.
Its working on ZenFone5 but not with my PadFone Mini (tried with both handset and tablet)
Then I’m not sure if the PadFone Mini even supports OTG.
Sorry, I missed out this test in my review :/
no problem 🙂
Hi Kok Kee,
Recently I updated my waze to the 3.9.5 version and now I have problems opening it. It keeps saying “unfortunately, waze has stopped”. Any idea what is happening?
I have uninstalled & reinstall it again but it still won’t work. I tried looking for answers on the internet but not successful. Waze is very important to me. I hope you have the solution…
I think the problem is with Waze itself. You can wait for the next update or try Google Maps instead.