Asus Padfone ready for Pre-order

The company behind the Eee Transformer Prime has started accepting pre-orders for the Asus Padfone which has a hybrid smartphone that dock inside a 10-inch tablet. The product was teasing the potential customers last summer but until MWC in February there were relatively no specs or availability information except that it would come around during April 2012. The fact that remains is that Asus have stuck with the timeframe and have opened up pre-orders in Taiwan yesterday and shipping will begin on the 20^th of April.

Unfortunately, the anticipated tablet and smartphone will not come cheap (based on Taiwanese prices). The phone alone will allegedly cost $610 and for both devices, it will set you back $850. With the Transformer Prime-like keyboard dock included, the price will come up to a whopping $980. Who knows what can happen if a US carrier decides to subsidize the product but until any further news about that, and with people being very sensitive about price, it seems that the tablet which should be out of this world (based on its price) will only be popular in certain niche markets.