The Nexus 7 has been a surprising hit. While Amazon still rules the Android side of the mini-tablet market, Google’s 7-inch tablet has sold millions of units worldwide. Now, the manufacturer of the Nexus 7 is competing with its own Google-branded tablet. ASUS this week at IFA unveiled its new Fonepad lineup of small tablets.
The Fonepad 7 is a standard 7-inch tablet that doesn’t quite stack up to the Nexus 7. The screen has a 1280x 800 resolution and the device comes with built-in 3G access. It has an Atom Z2560 processor and a relatively small (for tablets) 3,950mAh battery. The tablet’s rear camera is 5MP and its front-facing camera is 1.2MP. It comes with 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of built-in storage and has a microSD card slot for expansion. ASUS is also offering 5GB of cloud storage along with the tablet, as well as several UI changes built over Android 4.2.
While many tablet manufacturers are now focusing on increasing the size of their mini-tablets to the 8-inch range, ASUS has, surprisingly, gone the other direction with its Fonepad line. The new Fonepad Note 6 is a device with a 6-inch display – and ASUS is still calling a tablet. The 6-inch screen size is smaller than what some other device manufacturers are calling smartphones. ASUS stated it is marketing the tablet to customers who “prefer the larger screen of a tablet for apps and entertainment, but who don’t want a separate smartphone just for telephone calls and internet access on the move.”
Oddly, the Fonepad Note 6 has even better hardware specs than the larger Fonepad 7. The 6 has a 1920 x 1080 resolution screen and an Atom Z2580 CPU. It’s front and rear cameras are 1.2MP and 8MP, respectively, and the device comes with a stylus. It also comes running Android 4.2 with ASUS’ software running over it, and comes in 16GB or 32GB storage options, with a microSD slot for expansion.