Asus Padfone Spotted In Benchmarking, Processor Now Known

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Admittedly, we haven’t been hearing near as much about the Asus Padfone, that terrific combination of smartphone and tablet, as we’d probably like. But thanks to some recent benchmark testing, we now know a couple extra things about this one, namely, the processor driving it and a little something extra about its expected performance.

The Asus Padfone recently made an appearance in the OpenGL benchmarks database, and as a result, we now know that the Padfone is set to run on a Qualcomm MSM8960 SoC processor, which is in turn often called the Snapdragon S4. And since it’s currently listed as running at a top speed of 918MHz, it will probably make it to the full gig mark by the time it gets released, and the processor itself will likely go dual-core. What’s more, it’s also shown as running at qHD resolution–960 x 540, specifically–and running on an Android 2.3.5 build, so the chance of getting Ice Cream Sandwich on this one seems a bit remote, though not necessarily out of line, especially given that Asus has often expressed a desire to get the newest Android version in play, and the Padfone has been in development for some time now anyway.

Interestingly, this is said to be one of the first devices that will run Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon S4, so that should give potential users a note of hope on this one. And qHD resolution, well, that’s not half bad either. Still though, this is something of a big step for Asus, and considering we don’t even yet know the release date–we can probably start figuring it in terms of next year, based on earlier reports–we may not actually see this sucker step in until sometime in 2012. And if it does take that long, it’s going to walk into a mine field of other tablets that may keep it out of the running.

So what do you guys think here? Will the Asus Padfone manage to make a splash when it hits shelves, whenever that may finally end up being? Or will the unusual form factor device be swallowed up by a horde of competitors, including possible cannibalization of the market from the Asus Transformer Prime, or possibly the iPad 3? No matter what you think, we want to hear from you, so head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think of this one!