MWC 2014: Various brands overview

Asus Padfone hands-on photos

ASUS didn't have anything new to announce at the MWC 2014, but they did bring their latest Padfone Infinity 2 phone + tablet dock combo along. The Snapdragon 800 5" smartphone packs FullHD resolution and a 13MP camera.

All of this is put together in a very nice looking package built with a plastic that feels very premium to the touch. It's polycarbonate and has brushed metal like accents on the back cover, which gives it an extra edge in terms of design.

The phone itself isn't the lightest around, but at 145 grams it feels great in hand. The IPS LCD display has solid color reproduction and can be further adjusted from a special ASUS app, which lets you chose from different presets to suite your taste.

However, the real story behind the ASUS Padfone Infinity 2 is its tablet docking station. It's made of soft touch plastic and besides the 10.1" IPS full HD display, 5000mAh battery, mono speaker and SD card slot, there's nothing else in it. That's why it only weighs 523 grams on its own. Combine it with the Padfone Infinity 2 smartphone and it gets a bit on the heavy side, though.

The Padfone Infinity 2 smartphone didn't experience any problems powering neither the 10.1" tablet, nor itself. Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean runs smoothly, but feels a bit dated. Here's hoping ASUS swiftly launches its KitKat update in the coming weeks.

Asus Padfone mini hands-on photos

The Padfone Infiniti 2's smaller friend, the Padfone mini, also came along. We covered it extensively last month in our hands-on, so we're going to keep it brief.

This time, we met the Padfone mini in yellow, and cyan. The soft touch plastic is definitely nice to the touch and doesn't collect fingerprints, but the bright yellow color won't be up to everyone's taste. The mini carries the same excellent dock design from its bigger sibling and the phone snaps into its tablet dock just as securely.

The ASUS PadFone mini handset measures 124.42 x 61.44 x 6.3-11.2mm, while the ones of the dock are 199.85 x 119.43 x 13.91mm. The phone and the docking station weigh 116g and 260g respectively. Separately their weight is spot on, but put them together and you've got a 376 gram 7" slate, which is 80 grams heavier than the Nexus 7 (2013). Still, it's not the end of the world, but something to consider.