Early glimpse of the Asus Padfone Mini

Asus is all set to launch its mini phone/tablet hybrid later this week. However, pictures of the Asus Padfone Mini are already circulating online and can be viewed below.

As Liliputing’s Brad Linder notes, a Padfone is an Android smartphone designed to work with a specific tablet dock. This means users will have easy access to a large screen and extended battery via the dock, as well as a pocket-sized, stand-alone handset.

“As expected, it looks like the Padfone mini won’t just have a smaller phone — it’ll also have a smaller tablet. The handset has a 4.3 inch display, while the docking station appears to be about 7 inches,” Linder explained.

“You’ll be able to slide the phone into a slot on the back of the tablet when you want to use a larger screen. But the phone is the heart of the system, featuring the processor, memory, storage and even camera.”

The Padfone Mini is reportedly powered by Qualcomm’s 1.4 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, loaded with Android Jelly Bean (4.3 or later) and likely features a 960 x 540 pixel (smartphone) display.