For those of you that absolutely love the idea of a phablet, we have some potentially good news today. While we try not to use that word too often, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and ASUS FonePad are exactly that. Massive 7 and 8-inch tablets that just so happen to have full phone features. If you’ve been dying to try one, at least one UK retailer says they’ll both launch in April.
At Mobile World Congress last month both ASUS and Samsung announced large tablets with full phone functionality. Those being the 8-inch Galaxy Note 8.0 and the ASUS FonePad coming in at 7-inches. We’ve already debated when a smartphone gets too big, so today we’ll leave that bit out. Instead lets talk about when they might arrive.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 is a powerhouse quad-core Android Jelly Bean tablet looking to take on the Nexus 7, and the iPad mini. Samsung didn’t give us actual launch details, or pricing, but Carphone Warehouse seems to think it will launch next month but without LTE, only 3G. Sometime in mid April.
Then ASUS also announced a Nexus 7 looking tablet powered by an Intel processor, and it will also be enjoying phone features. The ASUS FonePad was detailed last month and you can see our hands-on here. According to them it is slated for a release sometime in Q2 2013. Carphone Warehouse must know something others don’t, because they are also claiming the FonePad will be available in April. For now they just have sign-up pages to learn more info, but we’re hoping for details shortly.
Once we hear a launch date or price on either smartphone – errr tablet – we’ll be sure and update with the latest details and US release dates so stay tuned.
[via UnwiredView]
