ASUS now appears to be bringing back its dockable keyboard for its PadFone series. Initially introduced on its ASUS Transformer and first generation PadFone, the notebook mode enabling keyboard dock has been absent since the PadFone 2.
The keyboard dock was a nice add-on accessory which attaches seamlessly to its tablet station. Apart from offering notebook like typing experience, it also doubles up as an extra battery pack that charges up your phone and tablet. At the sides, it also comes with additional USB and SD card slots as well.
Probably the biggest complaint of this 3-in-1 design is the thickness and weight. With the phone, tablet and keyboard included, the combination is heavier than most ultra portable laptops which. Now ASUS seems to have addressed this issue by offering a more lightweight design.
The new keyboard appears to be more stripped down and it comes with just 450mAh on-board battery to power up the device. Instead of a mechanical latch for docking, the stand is just a standard holder to rest your PadFone on. It pairs with the tablet using Bluetooth which can be switched on at the sides. Layout wise, the keys looks similar as the previous keyboard docks and ASUS has also retained a touch pad at the bottom which is now button-less. Charging the keyboard is done via micro USB like most bluetooth keyboards out there. Overall the keyboard is rather basic but it should be a much more lighter than before.
