Have you ever fantasized about holding a 7-inch tablet to your face and making a phone call with it? Asus is pretty sure that a good chunk of the population has. That’s why year after year, they refresh the Fonepad lineup. This year, it’s getting even bigger. Asus showed off the Fonepad 7 and Fonepad 8 at Computex 2014 in Taiwan.
These mammoth phablets look like small tablets, but they are capable of making phone calls and sending texts just like regular smartphones. The Asus Fonepad 7 and 8 feature relatively low resolution 1280 x 800 pixel displays. As you might have guessed, the displays measure 7 and 8 inches diagonally. Although the Fonepads have truly gigantic screens, Asus has taken the trouble to make the phablets comfortable to hold with one hand during a phone call.
The Fonepad 7 is just 10.9 centimeters wide, so those with large hands shouldn’t have too much of a hard time with it. Asus significantly decreased the bezel on the larger 8-inch Fonepad to just 5.06 millimeters. Doing so allowed Asus to reach the desired 72.2 percent screen-to-body ratio. Additionally, the Fonepad 8 is just a tad wider than the Fonepad 7 at 12 centimeters, making it relatively slim for its size. Even so, unless you’ve got some pretty big mitts, it’s going to be tough holding this thing up to your ear.
The two Fonepads aren’t super lightweight either, but they do weigh about the same as your average 7 or 8 inch tablet. The Fonepad 7 and 8 weigh 299 and 328 grams respectively.
Both of the tablet-sized phablets are powered by Intel’s most recent 64-bit Atom Z3560 quad-core processor, clocking in at 1.8GHz. Asus hasn’t stated how much RAM either phablet is packing, though. The new Fonepads run Android 4.4 KitKat with the Zen UI. Asus also gave the phablets 5-megapixel back cameras and 2-megapixel front-facing cameras. The devices come with 3G LTE and dual SIM card slots, just like your average smartphone.
The Asus Fonepad 7 and 8 will go on sale in mid June in select markets and come in your choice of red, black, white, or gold.
