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Rumors of the week: Nexus Tablet confirmed by ASUS representative, Padfone coming to AT&T

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One of the most exciting rumors currently is the said release of a Nexus Tablet. This device is said to be manufactured by ASUS and have a 7-inch display and a Tegra 3 quad-core processor. All for an exhilarating price of $150-$250. Nothing is official yet, but a substantial amount of Android fans has been holding off on purchasing current tablets for this one. And if you need just a bit more reassurance, our friends from Android Authority claim to have it.

According to the mentioned site, an anonymous ASUS representative told them during Computex Taipei that the company is in fact working with Google to bring this tablet to the market. Furthermore, the representative mentions that said tablet will be coming by the end of June.

If this happens to be true, we are almost sure this will be one of the highlights of Google I/O this year. We will be there to get you all the juicy details, of course. But if this tablet does happen to be announced at Google I/O, this means that the biggest winner could be one of you.

If the Nexus Tablet is to be announced at Google’s developer conference, there is a high probability they will also be giving it away to attendees. Phandroid is giving away all of its Google I/O gifts; including Rob’s, Steve’s and Chris’ swag. So all of this geeky gear will end up in your hands, if you are lucky.

Another bit of good news from the ASUS ninja is also that they are in the works to bring the Padfone to the US. The source mentions that while “carriers hate it,” AT&T has been the only one to give it a green light. The process is said to be going slower than expected, so we might have to wait a while, though. For now, you can get it from third-party retailers for a very hefty price.

It seems interesting to think that carriers might hate such a unique device. But it becomes more clear as we think about the nature of its novelty. The ASUS Padfone is essentially both a smartphone and a tablet, meaning that users could be able to avoid tethering and tablet data fees. And we know carriers are not easily persuaded to give away their megabytes… or their money.

Remember these are still rumors, so take them with a grain of salt. It all seems very likely, though. We will just have to sit back and see how everything unfolds.

[Via: Android Community]

Edgar Cervantes

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33 Comments

  1. I deeply wish the Padfone had a 7 inch pad dock too.

  2. Nexus 7 = Optimus Nexus. Optimus has seven letters, Nexus 7 is the Public-Code Name…at least I wish, so it would match well with my Prime :)

    1. Optimus is LG’s term. If anything, this could be a Nexus Prime.

  3. First!

    I can’t wait for the release of the Nexus Tablet! The end of June sounds wonderful. :-) I’ll buy just about anything with the Nexus branding. I can’t wait for the Google Nexus Microwave Oven, running Android 4.2 (Gumdrops).
    LoL

    1. at that price, its mentally impossible for me to pass it up.

      1. It is for me right now, dont have the money haha!!

    2. Gum drops in a microwave sounds like a disaster.

      1. Nowhere near as fun as Peeps in the microwave!

    3. Not sure if I should upvote your good comment or downvote you for the douchey “first” remark

    4. Are you drunk?

    5. You do realize they’ve already passed “G”? The codenames for Android are desserts and go in alphabetical order. See below:

      Cupcake
      Donut
      Ecclair
      FroYo
      Gingerbread
      Honeycomb
      Ice Cream Sandwich

      The next release is pretty much guaranteed to be Jelly Bean and after that the best guess is Key Lime Pie. After that it could be Licorice. Either way, its a pretty safe bet we’ll never see a Gumdrop.

  4. Give us a 10″ Asus :D

    1. That’s what she said!

  5. Glad to hear the padfone is coming to ATT.

  6. I’m sad the Padfone doesn’t have 720p on the phone display. It’s such a badass device. Either way I won’t be giving up my Galaxy Note for quite a bit.

    1. I agree with you, I do have the Galaxy Note and I love it.

    2. Assuming that an American carrier would pick it up, you could see that change. You’d most definitely see LTE radios added, but you may also see upgraded features like the screen to help it compete better against the likes of the Galaxy and One series. They can’t alter the design too much or it would require complete redesign of the tablet dock, but swapping to a better screen isn’t far fetched.

  7. I will be getting a tablet for school this semester. I’ll be waiting on a Nexus announcement before making any purchases.

    Looking at it because it would be stock AOSP, great price without contract, and most likely a 7″ screen size. Also, Nexus = crazy dev support, so when I get some time in between semesters I can hack the heck out of it.

    1. I am drooling over the 7″ Nexus too, but as an eReader, gaming device, TV remote, maybe bigger bigger email and web client for the train (my 5.3″ Galaxy Note actually does great for email now). But for classes, I think a full 10″ with a stylus would be MUCH more useful.

      I have a 5.3″ Note and a 10″ Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet (TPT) now, both with active syluses. While the Note is great for just about everything (other than battery life and getting too hot while taking videos), writing on it looks like I’m using crayons compared to near normal pens and pencils on the TPT. You just need a bigger screen for comfortable writing. And even 10″ really isn’t ideal. I figure 12-14″ would be the minimum ideal size for a screen with a stylus. 10″ barely suffices.

      Lenovo has really screwed the TPT up as well. Even thought it has hardware buttons, Lenovo has not enabled hiding the capacitive buttons, so you either write with a glove, or you write just on the top 2/3 on the screen (or you keep hitting the Home key and such losing your writing surface . . .) This in addition to the faulty GPS, camera, volume rockers, power button, and micro-USB port . . .

      The coming Galaxy Note 10.1 is going to address just about all of these concerns. I do wonder if a 12″ stylus-equipped tablet will ever come out. It might just be too big to carry.

  8. Wish they’ll make a 3G/4G version. Like the idea of having always on data if i need to turn it on for the occassional travel here and there…

  9. Wow, are the carriers in the US really that big of a **insert rude word/s here**?

    1. If you were thinking of the word “mountebank?” Then yes… yes they are.

  10. All the Smartphones, the one is coming in the 4Q of this year or after, it`ll comes with Quad-Core processors.

  11. Thanks for the reminder. :(

  12. padfone padfone padfone
    gigitty gigitty goo

  13. i hope the giveaway is not going to be US-only… :(

  14. AT&T was the carrier to give Webtop a shot first, so it makes sense that they’d be willing to do the same for Asus. I’m just going to take a guess though that as with Webtop, you’ll need to pay for the hotspot capability to use the accessories.

  15. Article quotes the representative as saying that carriers “hate it.” Why?! Is it because people like the idea of getting a 3-in-1 device on one data plan? Which means less money for the carriers? Seriously, if their margin is that close on people buying tablets with data plans or phones using tethering plans to be able to connect to wifi-only tablets, maybe the infrastructure to all the major carriers is less stable than we think. Either way, carriers sound like they’re just too damn greedy.

    Granted these corporations are in it to make money, but this is really niche markets we’re talking about here. Not everyone is going the route of multi-function devices (Moto webtop and the like).

  16. Padphone: How do I talk on the phone and use my tablet at the same time. This is an overpriced tablet that will fail. I hate to see them do this when an hd prime is being held off.

    1. There is a stylus that doubles as a handset whenever the phone is docked inside the tablet shell.
      http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/12/asus-padfone-review/

  17. I would really like a grey/blue Phase Beam variant like they show on those devices…

  18. I want 10+ inches, please!

    1. yes, yes… that’s what she said…

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