MWC 2013: Asus overview

Asus Padfone Infinity hands-on

The Asus Padfone Infinity comes with an improved screen, a handsome unibody, and a duly upgraded processor. The screen resolution is up from 720p to Full HD, for the much more impressive 441ppi. More importantly, the tablet half of the Padfone Infinity package has also seen a major bump in resolution to WUXGA (1920 x 1200).

The Asus Padfone Infinity feels great overall. The phone itself has a unibody design and is made of aero-space grade aluminum alloy, with a brushed finish. The aluminum edge has been anodized twice. We have to say the feel is top notch and the whole thing appears quite durable. The premium looks and the feel of cold metal in the hand are much appreciated.

The Asus Padfone Infinity

The 1080p screen on the Padfone Infinity is superb. We didn't have that many gripes with the Padfone 2 but this one is so far ahead in terms of quality. Viewing angles are great on the Padfone Infinity, brightness levels look like a match for HTC's Super LCD 3 on the Butterfly and DROID DNA.

In terms of saturation the Padfone Infinity's screen is great but things aren't as overdone as on the latest HTC flagships. The screen easily puts the 5" 1080p Reality display of the Xperia Z to shame.

A look at the back

The back has a brushed texture. It allows a good grip and gives the device a high quality feel.

The tablet dock has been improved too. The materials look and feel unchanged - unlike the Padfone Infinity itself the slate is made out of plastic. We suppose Asus had to very much put weight into the equation too.

The biggest improvement is the screen. It's a huge step up from 1280 x 800 to 1920 x 1200. Pixel density doesn't come all that close to retina territory but is more than reasonable in tablet terms.

The Padfone Infinity tablet

Viewing angles are superb on the slate too, which is a rare thing to have in a tablet.

When docked the Padfone Infinity locks firmly into place. The Padfone 2 felt perhaps a tiny bit more secure - but it's by no means a deal breaker for the Infinity.

The Asus Padfone Infinity boasts a Snapdragon 600 chipset with four Krait 300 cores clocked at 1.7GHz. We ran some benchmarks to compare it against the HTC One and LG Optimus G Pro, which have the same chipset. The performance of the three as it turns out is not identical, instead each scores some victories. We guess it's a matter of what each company chose to optimize.

Anyway, the Padfone Infinity tops the Benchmark Pi and Linpack tests, which are meant to judge single and multi-core performance respectively. It lags behind in AnTuTu and Quadrant, however. These two test the overall performance of the phone.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Asus Padfone Infinity
  144
• HTC One
  151
• Sony Xperia Z
  264
• HTC Butterfly
  266
• Oppo Find 5
  267
• HTC One X+
  280
• LG Optimus G
  285
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  350
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  359
• Meizu MX 4-core
  362
• Nexus 4
  431

Linpack

Higher is better

• Asus Padfone Infinity
  763
• HTC One
  646
• Sony Xperia Z
  630
• Asus Padfone 2
  623
• LG Optimus G
  608
• Oppo Find 5
  593
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  428
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  214.3
• Nexus 4
  213.5
• HTC One X+
  177.7
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  175.5
• Google Nexus 10
  172.1
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  141.5

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• HTC One
  22678
• Sony Xperia Z
  20794
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  20241
• LG Optimus G Pro
  20056
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  15547
• Asus Padfone Infinity
  15531
• Oppo Find 5
  15167
• Huawei Ascend P2
  13358
• Google Nexus 10
  12695
• HTC Butterfly
  12631

Quadrant

Higher is better

• LG Optimus G Pro
  12105
• HTC One
  11746
• Asus Padfone Infinity
  10142
• Sony Xperia Z
  8075
• HTC One X+
  7632
• LG Optimus G
  7439
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  7369
• Oppo Find 5
  7111
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  5916
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  5450
• Meizu MX 4-core
  5170
• Huawei Ascend P2
  4838
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  4814
• Nexus 4
  4567

We also ran a quick SunSpider test - and we do mean quick. The Infinity completes the test in 875ms, just edging out the iPhone and Windows Phone competition.

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Asus Padfone Infinity
  875
• Samsung Ativ S
  891
• Apple iPhone 5
  915
• Nokia Lumia 920
  910
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  972
• HTC One X+
  1001
• Motorola RAZR i XT890
  1059
• HTC One
  1124
• Samsung Galaxy S III
  1192
• Meizu MX 4-core
  1312
• LG Optimus G
  1353
• HTC Butterfly
  1433
• Sony Xperia Z
  1906
• Nexus 4
  1971
• Oppo Find 5
  2045

The Asus Padfone Infinity topped three of the benchmarks and we have to say it's not just synthetic performance either. The phone feels blazing fast in real life too.