Asus has refreshed its FonePad 7 line announcing two new variants during the Mobile World Congress 2014. The first variant offers LTE connectivity whereas the other comes with a dual-SIM including 3G+Wi-Fi connectivity. With the two new variants under the FonePad 7 series, will the tablet do any better? How will Asus perform in the coming quarter?

Despite the announcement, Asus did not mention when the tablets will be available or what prices they would start with. Majority of the specifications found on the new variants come from the refreshed FonePad 7 tablet series. Previously, Asus only offered single-SIM card slot including 3G+Wi-Fi connectivity.

Introduced during the MWC 2014, the Fonepad 7 LTE variant (ME372CL) has 4G LTE network support. The rest of its specifications are similar to the previous model. The second variant is called the ME175CG model. It comes with dual-SIM support aside from the 3G+Wi-Fi connectivity.

The 7-inch dual-SIM voice-calling tablet is different from the 4G LTE and 3G+Wi-Fi single-SIM variants because it runs on a 1.2 GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2520 processor. The rest of its specs are similar to the previous model.

Other specifications of the Asus FonePad 7 tablet series include:

  • Dimensions: 196.8 x 120 x 10.5 mm (7.75 x 4.72 x 0.41 in)
  • Weight: 328 g (11.57 oz)
  • Display: IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors offering 800 x 1,280 pixels, 7.0 inches (~216 ppi pixel density)
  • Memory: Internal - 8/16/32 GB storage, 1 GB RAM with microSD up to 32GB
  • Primary Camera: 5 MP, 2,592 х 1,944 pixels, autofocus
  • Secondary Camera: 1.2 MP, 720p
  • OS: Android OS, v4.2 (Jelly Bean), upgradable to v4.3 (Jelly Bean)
  • Chipset: Intel Atom Z2560, dual-core 1.6 GHz, and PowerVR SGX544MP2
  • Battery: Non-removable Li-Po 3,950 mAh battery (15 Wh).

Other features include:

  • SNS integration
  • MP3/WAV/WMA/AAC player
  • MP4/H.264/H.263 player
  • Organizer
  • Document editor
  • Photo viewer/editor
  • Voice memo/dial
  • Predictive text input.

Asus hit a bump recently when Google reportedly asked the company to halt its Transformer Book Duet production. It appears the company was not pleased with the dual OS. Google will be releasing a Nexus 8 tablet to which analysts think Asus will be tapped for production.