ASUS Padfone X Mini Hybrid Smartphone / Tablet Review
Camera and Battery Life
The 5MP camera on the back of the Padfone X Mini is better than one might expect from a budget phone. The images it takes don't have crisp, sharp edges when you zoom in, though they're detailed and colorful enough for sharing on social media. As with most smartphone cameras the Padfone does best in sunlight and bright rooms. In low or mixed lighting, however, the pictures have a significant amount of noise.
The Padfone is capable of recording up to 720p video. The quality here is less than inspiring. Videos either come with a lot of noise or washed out colors, and the recording quality isn't great, especially out in the wind.
The rear camera is the same whether using the phone or tablet. The Pad has it's own front camera that is 1MP instead of the 2MP on the phone. There's not a discernible difference in quality between the two for video chats, though. Neither does well in low light and selfies are soft around the edges.
While these cameras are fine for video chats; it's the audio quality you have to watch out for. Over 4G LTE audio coming in sounded choppy and slightly distorted, and the other participants in a Google Hangout kept asking us to repeat things because the audio wasn't always clear.
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The Padfone X Mini's smartphone has a 2060 mAh battery that's rated to last over 15 hours on its own and just over 28 hours when coupled with the tablet sleeve. In our testing, the smartphone lasted about 12 hours on average with light to medium usage, taking advantage of the built-in Power saving mode, with Auto Brightness on, and connecting to Wi-Fi when available.
