ASUS Fonepad Note 6 - Note Taking, Intel Style

The 6-inch Phablet with a Stylus

"If you see a stylus, they blew it", Steve Jobs once said at the unveiling of the original iPad in 2010. However, within these four years, we have witnessed the rise in popularity of large smartphones equipped with the very stylus that was once despised. The rise of the stylus was sparked off by none other than the original Samsung Galaxy Note, and judging by its successful line-up and uptake over the years, it seems that the trend is far from showing signs of slowing down anytime soon. Of course, the stylus alone doesn't make a phone standout and we understand that it's a combination of factors that gave rise to the Galaxy Note's popularity such as a speedy phone, a large brilliant screen, fluid interaction with the stylus, easy of note-taking and the many extra pen-related functions added to make the stylus a key feature of the device.

Taking cues of the Galaxy Note heritage, ASUS advanced their rapidly expanding Fonepad series of devices with the Fonepad Note 6 - an Intel flavored stylus-based phone with a large screen, as an attempt to challenge the dominance of Samsung in this segment of the smartphone market.

First announced in Computex 2013, it wasn't till late in 2013 when the product was made available, though not officially sold in the local market. Nevertheless, is the ASUS Fonepad Note 6 a worthy competitor? That's what we intend to find out in this review.

Design and Features

So with a large 6-inch screen and telephony functions, is it a phone, or a tablet? At first glance, the ASUS Fonepad Note 6 can clearly be distinguished as a phone, but due to its size and possible tablet-like usage, we'll have to classify it as a "phablet", which is the new growth segment for many brands. Powered by an Intel Atom Z2580 (2.0GHz, dual-core), with 2GB RAM, it sports a huge 6-inch 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution Full HD display, yielding a pixel density of 367 ppi. Its IPS display also allows good viewing angles. This translates to text being rendered very naturally, making reading comfortable.

In fact, to further emphasize Fonepad as a compact reading device, there is a reading mode, which optimizes the colors on the screen that's soothing for lengthy reading. Outside of the reading mode, color reproduction is equally pleasant, but you can't expect it to match the vivid colors seen on an AMOLED display from a competitor.

On hand, the phone feels heavy. Indeed, at 210g, it is much heavier than other mainstream phablets, particularly the Samsung Galaxy Note 3’s 186g, as well as LG G Flex’s 177g. The rubberized plastic back of the ASUS Fonepad 6 is reminiscent of the original (2012) Nexus 7, which reduces the plasticky feel from the phone's face.

One can’t help but notice that the Fonepad Note 6 is very thick. At 10.3mm, it is even thicker than their latest Nexus 7 (2013) which is at 8.7mm, and is nearly on par with their earlier generation Nexus 7 tablet that measures 10.5mm thick. Given such girth for a phone, it can be seen that ASUS is probably emphasizing function over form for the Fonepad Note 6, and is targeting the mid-range market where such dimensions are somewhat acceptable.

The speakers are of stereo configuration, and are placed on the top and the bottom of the screen - a major plus point of this phone. With stereo output, watching movies and listening to music feels more natural, compared to watching on phones with only a single speaker. Music played from the phone is audible even in moderately noisy places. Certainly, this phone is geared for multimedia use.

While there are two internal storage configurations, our review unit came with 16GB internal storage. Storage can be expanded using a microSD card, which can be inserted by opening the flap on the left side of the phone. This is also where the micro-SIM card slot is located. Take note that the phone supports up to 3G data cellular connectivity; there's no LTE model.

Unlike other phablets, the ASUS Fonepad Note 6 does not support external display output options via MHL (Media High-Definition Link). DLNA is still enabled on the phone though so you can interface with other DLNA compliant hardware like TVs and more.

Stylus Functionality

Since the phone is a stylus-oriented device, it comes with a stylus tucked securely in a slot located in the bottom right side of the phone - exactly the same spot and style as the Galaxy Note and the Note 2. Even the weight of the stylus itself felt like that of Galaxy Note 2's.

Despite the design aspects that mimic its Korean counterpart, the responsiveness of the stylus is somewhat questionable. In our use, a small lag was observed when writing. While the lag is certainly better than the first Galaxy Note, it falls behind even the Galaxy Note 2. This input lag will be noticeable to users who frequently scribble notes or sketches. Conversely, casual users of the stylus will not deem it as a significant issue. As such, it really depends on your nature of use and expectations.

One interesting feature of this phone is the SuperNote drawer. Upon taking out the stylus from its slot, there will be an additional drawer tab located on the bottom left side of the screen (notice the blue drawing tab on the side of the above screenshot). Drag it, and the SuperNote drawer is revealed, in which the user can scribble down notes. Such a feature is useful; should the user need to jot down notes quickly, he or she need not fumble about the phone just to open the note-taking app; just take out stylus, slide the drawer, and scribble.

Other features of the stylus will be familiar to users of the Galaxy Note 2. One is Smart-Peek, which is the equivalent of Samsung’s AirView: extra information is displayed when the stylus hovers certain icons in settings and supported apps. Other features such as auto-scrolling upon the stylus hovering the edge, are present.

One major drawback in the design in the stylus is the lack of an eraser function in the stylus' secondary button. On the ASUS Fonepad Note 6, pressing the secondary button does not switch the stylus to eraser mode. Instead, it switches to a free-form screen capture tool. For any user, the two things done most often when taking down notes are writing and erasing. Failing to implement an easy and convenient way to erase is bad implementation of natural language design.

Another minor bug found in the Fonepad Note 6 is that touch functionality seems to be momentarily disabled whenever the stylus is hovering above the phone. This is most likely a software related bug which can be fixed in future updates (if ASUS does look into it).

Intel Atom Processor on Mobile

Intel has long been known for their processors in the domain of personal computers. However not too long ago in 2011, they made a strategic move to innovate in the mobile space and have collaborated with Google to add Android support into their own x86 architecture. While they have yet to gain significant share of the market, the adoption of Intel chips for mobile devices is steady increasing.

App support for Intel chips, particularly mobile games, used to be an issue. However, with the increasing adoption of Intel chips for mobile, and increasingly refined third-party mobile game engines, this issue is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Still, if you happen to dabble with rather old apps, they tend to have compatibility issues as we found from reviewing an Intel-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (10.1-inch). New mobile gaming apps are less of a concern.

In early 2013, ASUS rolled out their Fonepad series, starting from the first Fonepad. Not to be confused with the "Padfone" line-up, the significance of the Fonepad series is that it is powered by Intel. The initial Fonepad ran on an Intel Z2420 (1.2GHz, single-core) processor codenamed Medfield on the Intel Lexington platform, had 1GB RAM and a mediocre 7-inch, 1280 x 720 pixels resolution screen.

In contrast, the second iteration in the series with the Fonepad Note 6 is a vast improvement with a rather powerful Intel Atom Z2580 Clover Trail+ SoC platform that runs at 2.0GHz, sports dual cores with up to quad-thread processing with Hyper-Threading, 2GB of RAM and vastly better storage and screen resolution. What's more, ASUS actually managed to upgrade the processor from a slower Z2560 (1.6GHz) model with a lower clocked graphics core that was found on the earlier pre-launch models. So far, all this tech-talk sounds promising for the Fonepad Note 6, but does it really live up to the fierce competition? Read on.

Performance Benchmarks

To find out how the ASUS Fonepad Note 6 stacks up against other phablet competitors, we've brought out the Oppo N1, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Sony Xperia Z Ultra and the LG G Flex. It would also be interesting to see how the 2GHz Intel x86 chip go up against its ARM-based phablet competitors.

Sunspider

Sunspider Javascript measures a device’s performance in web browsing and rendering webpages, by measuring time taken to run a series of Javascript scripts. Referring to the graph below, the Sunspider score of the ASUS Fonepad 6 compares to that of Oppo N1, while losing out notably to the more powerful phablets.

3DMark 2013

Originally developed as a PC benchmarking tool, 3DMark is now expanded to support multiple platforms including Android OS. The Ice Storm benchmark is designed for smartphones and tablets.

For an in-depth understanding of 3DMark for Android, do head over to our article, "3DMark - Android Device GPU Performance Review." In a nutshell, 3DMark now consists of three test sections: Ice Storm, Ice Storm Extreme and Ice Storm Unlimited. For recent high performance devices, we usually focus on the Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark since most of them are able to max out the score on Ice Storm Extreme.

Despite Intel's fastest Clover Trail+ processor, the graphics performance, powered by PowerVR SGX544MP2 graphics core, did not excel. Even the Oppo N1's Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor was leading the Intel processor by a good degree, let alone comparing it with top tier devices that are running even better processors. Clearly, the Intel powered platform seems to be meeting up only to mid-range performance aspects.

Quadrant

Quadrant is an Android OS benchmark that evaluates a device's CPU, memory, I/O and 3D graphics performance. Once more, we were faced with rather middling scores.

Camera Performance

The Asus Fonepad Note 6 is equipped with a 8-megapixel, f/2 lens camera, and a 1.2-megapixel front facing camera. Interestingly, despite Fonepad Note 6 being designed to be used as a phone, the ASUS team has decided to give it a 'tablet treatment' when it comes to matters relating to the camera. For one, there is no camera flash present on the phone, unlike other phablets (the Sony Z Ultra being the other exception).

Also, despite its wide aperture, the quality of the photos taken using the phone are rather average. Photos tend to turn out blur when taking photos in low light situations.

We also found that the HDR function doesn't seem to work as expected. As can be seen below, the HDR function yields a different color tone.

Conclusion

Interestingly enough, even though the ASUS Fonepad Note 6 was already on sale elsewhere in the world since late in 2013, the device has yet to be launched in Singapore, and from the looks of it, may never be launched locally. Should one really be interested in the device, the nearest country that one can get it from is Malaysia, where it was launched last December for a retail price of RM1,399.

With the ASUS Fonepad 6, we got the chance to test the fastest Intel Atom Clover Trail+ processor, but despite what sounds like a top-tier Intel processor, it isn't. Intel's latest mobile processors are codenamed Bay Trail and are part of the Atom Z3000 series, which is only being seen in very recent products. Even so, the ASUS Fonepad Note 6 saw huge improvements over its original Fonepad and highlights the strides that intel has made.

Given its price point (at least from the Malaysian market), it seems that ASUS has positioned the Fonepad Note 6 as a mid-range stylus-based device. It has a nice large high resolution display that's great for multimedia needs and bodes well for reading lengthy content with a Reading mode that helps tweak the display to suit that purpose. Its stylus, while useful, could have been better designed to integrate eraser functionality with ease. Furthermore, stylus input lags slightly and it may annoy users who use the stylus often or expect more responsive usage. Performance throughout was only average and design-wise, our gripe would be its hefty weight and chunky dimensions - again all traits that are prevalent in mid-tier devices.

Overall, the Fonepad Note 6 is a good attempt by ASUS trying to cater to the large screen market with stylus functionality. Unfortunately, for those thinking of it as an ideal Samsung Galaxy Note replacement on the cheap, you would be disappointed as it's not quite refined or fast enough to contend with the industry's leading stylus equipped device. What the Fonepad will do well is to act as a multimedia companion that crosses between the phone and tablet categories at a reasonable price and offers stylus functions that's suitable for occasional use.

While we've established that the Fonepad Note 6 won't be retailing locally, its non-stylus counterpart, the Fonepad 7, will soon be entering the local market as was revealed in our recent ASUS ZenFone 5 event for HardwareZone members. So look out for it if you are keen to try an Intel powered tablet with telephony functions.