Asus may unveil 7-inch Fonepad at MWC 2013

Asustek may unveil its new 7-inch Jelly Bean tablet, the Fonepad, at the Mobile World Congress 2013, according to a report by Digitimes. The Fonepad runs on...

Anuradha Shetty|Feb 06, 2013, 19:07:39 IST

Asustek may unveil its new 7-inch Jelly Bean tablet, the Fonepad, at the Mobile World Congress 2013, according to a report by Digitimes. The Fonepad runs on the Intel Atom Z242 processor and has an IPS touchscreen with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. The tablet has 16GB of storage space, 1GB of RAM, a 3 megapixel rear camera and supports 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

The report adds that the Fonepad may be priced at roughly NT$8,000-9,000 (around Rs 14,373 to Rs 16,177). Interestingly, the company is reportedly in plans to slot the Nexus 7 for the NT$8,500-10,000 segment of the tablet market, while the NT$6,000-and-below segment would be slotted for the MeMO Pad. Quad-coring it up

Fonepad on the way?

Only last month, Asus introduced the MeMO Pad, a 7-inch Android tablet. With a starting MSRP of $149 (Rs 8,120 approx.), the MeMO Pad runs on Android 4.1 and is powered by a 1GHz VIA WM8950 CPU and a Mali 400 GPU. It features a 10-point multi-touch LED-backlit display with 140-degree wide viewing angles. The Asus MeMO Pad has a battery life of 7 hours and is fuelled by a 4270mAh battery.

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Here's a quick look at the specifications of the MeMO Pad:

7-inch, LED-backlit display with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels
Wi-Fi
1megapixel back-illuminated sensor, f/2.0, with 720p HD video capture at 30fps
8GB or 16GB storage + expandable memory up to 32GB

A suite of Asus applications is also pre-installed, which includes SuperNote Lite, BuddyBuzz, Asus WebStorage with 5GB of online storage space, and Asus Studio and WebStorage Office for enhanced productivity. The Asus MeMO Pad will be available starting this January in select markets from authorised Asus resellers.

Interestingly, there were reports in December last year suggesting that Asus would be introducing a tablet codenamed ME371MG, which runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and has a 7-inch form factor. A report by Notebook Italia claims that the ME371MG features an Intel Atom Z2420 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory. There is an IPS display on this tablet, which has a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The tablet is also believed to have a GPS module, Wi-Fi and integrated Bluetooth. As far as cellular connectivity is concerned, this model also is expected to support 3G. The rear camera on this device is believed to be a 3 megapixel one. The price range of this device is expected to be around $199 to $250 (around RS 10,554 to Rs 13,260).