I saw this article, which says the Asus device could be 'revolutionary.'

Personally, I think it was a bit syrupy. In other words, someone in Asus's PR department did a good job. That being said, I can totally see the value. If I could get tablet functionality with one device, I'd be very intrigued. Battery life would likely be a concern, unless they're two separate power sources...

Now... I thought Asus introduced something like this years ago? (I remember seeing a product intro video with the CEO of Asus mocking Steve Jobs, which would indicate that it was before his death.)

I honestly liked the idea when the original PadPhone was first announced, but at the time both smartphones and tablets were a good deal more expensive. Also, at the time of the original's introduction, tethering via smartphone was a no-no on most carriers without an expensive tethering plan... now it's nearly universally accepted on most postpaid carriers.

Now you can have a top-notch tablet and a separate top-notch smartphone for less than the same or less than a PadPhone. I would much rather have two non-dependent devices, especially when traveling, so if one fails the other can still operate. One can be replaced or upgraded without affecting the other. One can be used by one person and the other by another. One can be used while the battery of the other is dead. Etc, etc, so on and so forth.

I spent some time with the ASUS Padfone 2, and honestly it's a great idea but flawed. On the Padfone 2 the tablet experience wasn't good enough at all. The forthcoming Padfone Mini is attractive as an idea too, but again, there's going to be a compromise.

It strikes me that as long as one is going to carry the pad part of it around, it might as well be a working pad without the phone docked into it.

I guess the only benefit is that when docked, the pad has the same data as the phone. But if that is the benefit, why not have a pad and a phone designed to sync together by cable or NFC?

Personally, if we want to go the docking phone/pad route, shrink the phone down to the size of an old Nokia 6210 or so and make it a basic phone that one can take out for a run, etc.

I see the need but my solution is a phablet - 6"+ screen that also works as a phone (Samsung Mega in my case).

Didn't Motorola have a phone that did something similar about 5 years ago? Correct me if I'm wrong but i believe it was a huge bomb.