Asus' Padfone smartphone is unique in that it docks into a slate-like docking station to turn that phone into a full-fledged tablet, similar to the Motorola Atrix and its laptop notebook. However, it seems Asus has decided that turning a smartphone into a tablet might not be everybody's cup of tea and is broadening the Padfone's horizons a little. At Computex this week the company unveiled a brand new monitor dock for the phone.
The docking station features a 24-inch 1920 x 1200 display with a dock built into the base for the Padfone that aims to turn your touchscreen smartphone into an all-in-one PC controller via the more traditional mouse and keyboard set up. Engadget reports that the dock adds support for HDMI, VGA, DVI and four USB 3.0. You can also just use it as a standalone monitor without the phone.
Unveiled officially at MWC earlier this year, Asus has been talking about the Padfone for a long time. Expected to launch sometime in the fall, the Padfone boasts Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 and Adreno 225 graphics, a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, 1GB of RAM, up to 63GB of flash memory and up to 32GB via MicroSD, an 8-megapixel camera (0.3 VGA up front for video calls), and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich).
No word on a release date for the U.S. (though it is apparently launching in the U.S. market) or a price. Still, we imagine this monstrous dock won't come cheap.
*Image via Engadget
