I’ve seen at some point over the past years a PadFone clone from China that was reasonably cheap and interesting, but didn’t match the specs and the material quality of the ASUS gear. Now, we get to see a truly decent and wonderful alternative called the PhonePad.
The idea is to combine tablet and phone courtesy of a dock device, with a bigger screen and rotatable display embedded. Using any type of modern smartphone with MHL you can insert it in the special slot on the device and have your own PadFone replacement. The PhonePad works with the Samsung Galaxy S2, S3 and the Galaxy S4 for now. You can open the Phonepad by sliding the display back and then locking that part into the bottom half of the screen, that will hold the phone.
There’s a metal arm that holds the PhonePad up and it appears that the British company behind this prototype is ready to go live with the product in May, with a price of around 200 euros or so. There’s also a battery inside for about 8 hours of use, with the handset acting as the brains of the machine.
