Product Listing

New ASUS PadFone Infinity (late 2013) - Better Performance & Expandable Storage

By James Lu - 29 Oct 2013
Launch SRP: S$898

ASUS PadFone Infinity (late 2013) - Better Performance, Expandable Storage

Overview

ASUS impressed us with the 5-inch version of its eccentric phone-in-tablet PadFone Infinity device when it launched earlier this year. Less than six months later, the Taiwanese company is releasing a new and improved version with an updated Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, improved camera software, and expandable memory via a microSD card slot. The new PadFone Infinity also sports new diamond cut chamfered edges and will be available in two colors: Platinum White and Titanium Black.

Due to the new expandable storage option, the 64GB internal storage configuration has been removed, and a new 16GB option is now available.

Here's a quick overview of the new PadFone Infinity's key specs:

New ASUS PadFone Infinity (late 2013) 

  Key highlights of the ASUS PadFone Infinity (late 2013)

  • Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
  • 5-inch Super IPS display / 1920 x 1080 pixels
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2GHz processor
  • 2GB RAM
  • 16/32GB internal storage
  • microSD support up to 64GB
  • 13-megapixel rear Sony BSI camera sensor / F2.0 aperture
    / 5-element lens / autofocus / LED flash
  • 2-megapixel front-facing camera
  • nano-SIM
  • 4G LTE
  • NFC
  • 2,400mAh battery (non-removable)
  • Dimensions: 143.5 x 72.8 x 6.3 ~ 8.9mm
  • Weight: 145g
  • Colors: Titanium Black and Platinum White
  • Price: 16GB ($898) 32GB ($998)

And here's how it compares to the rest of the family:

The PadFone Family
  ASUS PadFone Infinity (16GB) (late 2013) ASUS PadFone Infinity (32GB) ASUS PadFone 2 ASUS PadFone
  ASUS PadFone Infinity (16GB) (late 2013) ASUS PadFone Infinity (32GB) ASUS PadFone 2 ASUS PadFone
Launch SRP
  • From S$898
  • From S$898
  • From S$800
Operating system
  • Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
  • Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
  • Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (upgradeable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean)
  • Google Android 4.0
Processor
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2GHz
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core 1.7GHz
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (8064 + 9215m) 1.5GHz Quad-core / Adreno 320 GPU
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1.5GHz
Built-in Memory
  • 2GB RAM
  • 2GB RAM
  • 2GB RAM
  • 1GB RAM
Display
  • 5-inch / 1920 x 1080 pixels / Full-HD Super IPS, 441ppi / Corning Gorilla Glass with HCLR Film (Anti-fingerprint coating)
  • 5-inch / 1920 x 1080 pixels / Full-HD Super IPS, 441ppi / Corning Gorilla Glass with HCLR Film (Anti-fingerprint coating)
  • 4.7-inch / 1280 x 720 resolution / Super IPS+ (550 nits), Scratch-resistant Corning Fit Glass with HCLR Film (anti-fingerprint coating)
  • 4.3-inch Super AMOLED / 540 x 960 pixels
Camera
  • 13-megapixel / autofocus / Sony BSI sensor / F2.0 aperture / 5-element lens / LED flash
  • Secondary: 2-megapixel
  • 13-megapixel / autofocus / Sony BSI sensor / F2.0 aperture / 5-element lens / LED flash
  • Secondary: 2-megapixel
  • 13 Megapixels / BSI Sensor Sony with Autofocus, f/2.4 Aperture, five-element lens
  • Secondary: 1.2 Megapixels
  • 8-megapixel / f2.2 / Autofocus / LED flash
Connectivity
  • WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC
  • WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC
  • Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.0, NFC, Wi-Fi Direct, 3.5mm audio jack, Micro SIM, ASUS 13-pin dock connector (supports Micro-USB 2.0 & MHL for HDMI connection)
Storage Type
  • 16GB internal storage
  • micro-SD support up to 64GB
  • 32/64GB
  • 16/32/64 GB
  • Internal storage: 16GB / 32GB / 64GB
Battery
  • 2,400mAh
  • 2,400mAh
  • Li-Polymer 2,140mAh (non-removable)
  • 1520mAh
Dimensions
  • 143.5 x 72.8 x 6.3 ~ 8.9mm
  • 143.5 x 72.8 x 6.3 ~ 8.9mm
  • 137.9 x 69 x 9mm
  • 128 x 65.4 x 9.2mm
Weight
  • 145g
  • 145g
  • 135g
  • 129g

 

Design

The new PadFone Infinity looks essentially the same as the old version.

Design-wise, not much has changed with the new PadFone Infinity. The rear back edges of the aluminum unibody frame now sport 'diamond cut' chamfered edges, which look nice and make the phone a bit more comfortable to hold - although it's still not the best handler out there, and it's certainly not as sleek as some of its competitors.

With the exception of chamfered 'diamond cut' edges on the rear edges.

While we liked the PadFone Infinity's design six months ago, with so many newer models hitting the market, it's looking a bit dated now, and the screen bezel in particular, looks rather fat - it's particularly noticeable on the new Platinum White color.

The back of the white model sports a smooth sandblasted aluminum back, which both looks and feels very similar to an Apple MacBook. As mentioned above, the new PadFone Infinity also sports a microSD card slot located below the nano-SIM card tray. The tablet dock remains the same as the old PadFone Infinity.

The new PadFone Infinity also gets expandable storage in the form of a MicroSD card slot below the Nano-SIM card slot.

Apart from these changes, not a whole lot has changed and the optional PadFone Infinity Station still remains the same as the last iteration. For a full breakdown of the PadFone Infinity's design and features, please refer to our earlier review.

 

OS

The new PadFone Infinity is running Android 4.2.2. Jellybean, which includes some tweaks from ASUS. Compared to the old PadFone Infinity, icons and menus look cleaner and simplified, and a few apps like the calendar and gallery have been given a fresh new look too.

New PadFone Infinity OS on the left with flatter, simplified icons.

A few apps have also been given a fresh look (new PadFone Infinity calendar on the left)

Camera

While the new PadFone Infinity utilizes the same 13MP, f/2.0 shooter found in the old PadFone Infinity, ASUS has updated the camera software which now comes with a whopping nine different camera modes in total:

The most interesting of these is Hi-Light Mode, which uses ASUS' PixelMaster technology, which combines pixels from a 13MP image into a 3MP image (similar to Nokia's PureView technology), and should result in less noise and more overall detail. 

A new 'turbo' burst setting is also included, that shoots up to 100 continuous frames at 12fps.

First let's take a look at the default Auto mode (13MP):

There's not much difference here from the original PadFone Infinity camera. The lens is a bit soft towards the edges and there's noticeable graininess to the image, but overall image quality, contrast and color reproduction is quite good.

 

And here's Hi-Light mode (3MP):

There's slightly less graininess, but the lens is still soft towards the edges. Color and Contrast look about the same. Overall, we didn't notice much difference with the new Hi-Light mode.

 

Benchmark Performance

The new PadFone Infinity is armed with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, which puts it on par with other 5-inch flagship smartphones like Sony's Xperia Z1 and LG's G2. 

5-inch Android Flagship Smartphones Compared
  ASUS PadFone Infinity (16GB) (late 2013) ASUS PadFone Infinity (32GB) LG G2 Sony Xperia Z1 Samsung Galaxy S4 HTC Butterfly S
  ASUS PadFone Infinity (16GB) (late 2013) ASUS PadFone Infinity (32GB) LG G2 Sony Xperia Z1 Samsung Galaxy S4 HTC Butterfly S
Launch SRP
  • From S$898
  • From S$898
  • From S$898
  • From S$998
  • From S$998
  • From S$988
Operating system
  • Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
  • Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
  • Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean (at launch)
  • Android 4.4.2 KitKat (updated)
  • Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
  • Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
  • Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with HTC Sense 5
Processor
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2GHz
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core 1.7GHz
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.26GHz
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2GHz
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 1.9GHz Quad-core
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core 1.9GHz
Built-in Memory
  • 2GB RAM
  • 2GB RAM
  • 2GB RAM
  • 2GB RAM
  • 2GB RAM
  • 2GB
Display
  • 5-inch / 1920 x 1080 pixels / Full-HD Super IPS, 441ppi / Corning Gorilla Glass with HCLR Film (Anti-fingerprint coating)
  • 5-inch / 1920 x 1080 pixels / Full-HD Super IPS, 441ppi / Corning Gorilla Glass with HCLR Film (Anti-fingerprint coating)
  • 5.2-inch / 1,920 x 1,080 pixels / IPS
  • 5-inch / 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (441 ppi) / TRILUMINOS Display for Mobile
  • 5-inch / Super AMOLED / Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (441ppi) / 16M colors
  • 5-inch / 1920 x 1080 pixels / Super LCD 3 with Gorilla Glass 3
Camera
  • 13-megapixel / autofocus / Sony BSI sensor / F2.0 aperture / 5-element lens / LED flash
  • Secondary: 2-megapixel
  • 13-megapixel / autofocus / Sony BSI sensor / F2.0 aperture / 5-element lens / LED flash
  • Secondary: 2-megapixel
  • Rear: 13-megapixel with optical image stabilization
  • Front: 2.1-megapixel
  • 20.7-megapixel / autofocus / F2.0 / 27mm wide angle / 1/2.3 -type Exmor RS for mobile CMOS image sensor
  • Secondary: 2-megapixel
  • Rear: 13MP / Autofocus / LED flash
  • Front: 2MP
  • 1080p recording @ 30fps
  • 4-megapixel HTC UltraPixel camera with BSI, HTC ImageSense 2, f/2.0
  • Secondary: 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera / wide angle lens / F2.0
Connectivity
  • WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC
  • WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC
  • Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP and LE, DLNA, micro-USB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, DLNA, Bluetooth v4.0, NFC, micro-USB 2.0 (MHL), 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, NFC, IR LED, micro-USB 2.0 (MHL 2.0), 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Miracast, NFC, 4G LTE
Storage Type
  • 16GB internal storage
  • micro-SD support up to 64GB
  • 32/64GB
  • 32GB internal storage
  • 16GB internal storage
  • micro-SD support up to 64GB
  • 16GB internal storage
  • microSD card (up to 64GB)
  • 16GB internal storage with free 25GB Dropbox storage for two years
  • microSD support up to 64GB
Battery
  • 2,400mAh
  • 2,400mAh
  • 3,000mAh
  • 3,000mAh
  • 2,600mAh
  • 3,200mAh
Dimensions
  • 143.5 x 72.8 x 6.3 ~ 8.9mm
  • 143.5 x 72.8 x 6.3 ~ 8.9mm
  • 138.5 x 70.9 x 8.9mm
  • 144 x 74 x 8.5mm
  • 136.6 x 69.8 x 7.9mm
  • 144.5 x 70.5 x 10.6mm
Weight
  • 145g
  • 145g
  • 143g
  • 170g
  • 130g
  • 160g


Quadrant Results

Quadrant evaluates a device's CPU, memory, I/O and 3D graphics performance. As expected, the new PadFone Infinity performed well, far outperforming the older Snapdragon 600-equipped version. Impressively, it also managed to outperform both of our other Snapdragon 800-equipped devices: the LG G2 and Sony Xperia Z1.


3DMark Results

Originally developed as a PC benchmarking tool, 3DMark is now expanded to support multiple platforms including Android OS. The Ice Storm benchmark is designed for smartphones, mobile devices and ARM architecture computers.

For an in-depth understanding of 3DMark for Android, do head over to our article, "3DMark - Android Device GPU Performance Review." In a nutshell, 3DMark consists of three test sections:

3DMark Ice Storm is an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark test that uses fixed off-screen rendering at 720p then scales the output to fit the native display resolution of your device. Ice Storm includes two graphics tests designed to stress the GPU performance of your device and a physics test to stress its CPU performance.

3DMark Ice Storm Extreme raises the off-screen rendering resolution to 1080p and uses higher quality textures and post-processing effects to create a more demanding load for the latest smartphones and tablets.

3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited is used to make chip-to-chip comparisons of different chipsets, CPUs and GPUs, without vertical sync, display resolution scaling and other operating system factors affecting the result.

The new PadFone Infinity maxed out the score on Ice Storm so we will be looking at its scores for Ice Storm Extreme and Unlimited.

The new PadFone Infinity was again impressive, outscoring the LG G2 and keeping pace with the Sony Xperia Z1 at both Extreme and Unlimited. 


Sunspider Results

SunSpider JavaScript measures the browsing performance of a device. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience.

The new PadFone Infinity scored excellently on this benchmark, which was backed up by our own usage with the device, where both web browsing and UI navigation were fast and responsive.

 

Battery Life

The new PadFone Infinity utilizes the same 2400mAh non-removable battery as the old model. 

As usual, our standard battery life test conditions apply:

  • Looping a 800 x 480-pixel video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
  • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
  • Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

Battery life was slightly worse than the older PadFone Infinity, presumably due to the more powerful Snapdragon 800 processor drawing more power than the older model. Compared to other models, battery life is slightly lower than average (although it still beat the Sony Xperia Z1).  

Having said that, we didn't notice any difference between the old and new models in actual day-to-day usage, with both PadFone Infinitys easily lasting through the day with about 15-20 percent left at midnight.

 

Conclusion

The new PadFone Infinity adds a few nice upgrades to an already decent device, but overall, it doesn't offer enough over the existing PadFone Infinity. The addition of a microSD card slot fixes one of the negative points we raised with the previous model, but the diamond cut chamfered edges - while a step in the right direction - don't do enough to address the handling issues we noted in our original review.

The original 32GB PadFone Infinity retailed for S$898, which is now what you'll be paying for the new lower capacity 16GB version. Meanwhile, the original PadFone Infinity has dropped as low as S$798. The new 32GB configuration will retail for an extra $100 more at S$998, which seems a little steep to us for, what is for all intents and purposes, just a more powerful version of a six month old device.

While the performance increase is significant, there are a number of Android smartphones offering the same level of performance - and many of them are newer with sleeker designs and more features as well (e.g. the LG G2). Of course, the key feature for the PadFone Infinity is its ability to morph into a tablet with its accessory PadFone Station, thus bringing along everything that you've been using on the phone into a larger screen. The overall handling might not be as good as some of the newer premium standalone tablets, but if you're a light user of such devices, adding S$328 for the accessory might be a decent option. There are plus points and negative points to this concept, but it's the only option in the market that functions in this manner. Last but not least, the PadFone Infinity is the only other premium smartphone (besides HTC) to offer an aluminum frame body (but it doesn't help uplift its dated design).

All things considered, if you're already a PadFone Infinity user, there's absolutely no reason to upgrade (especially if you have the 64GB configuration). As for prospective buyers on the fence about purchasing a PadFone Infinity, the new version offers much better performance (at the cost of slightly reduced battery life) but not much else. So if you're a light user, it might be worth looking for a good deal on an older 64GB first generation PadFone Infinity instead.

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8.0
  • Design 8
  • Features 8.5
  • User-Friendliness 8
  • Performance 9
  • Value 7.5
The Good
Excellent performance
Expandable storage
Optional PadFone Station accessory for tablet conversion
The Bad
Slightly worse battery life
Almost exactly the same as original PadFone Infinity
Handling still not as good as competition
16GB configuration costs the same as the previous 32GB edition
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