The ASUS FonePad has been in the news for quite some time now, with various leaks and rumors giving us more than enough information on what we should expect. The device, a 7-inch tablet with phone-calling abilities, was made official at the on-going MWC 2013.

ASUS has followed in the footsteps of Samsung (the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2) and almost every Indian tablet manufacturer, by releasing a tablet with built-in phone features. Of course, if you’re worried about holding a tablet up to your ear and having a conversation, ASUS shows you how it’s done! This is also the first tablet from ASUS to be powered by an Intel Atom processor.

Android Authority’s Darcy Lacouvee managed to get a few minutes with the ASUS FonePad, but before we get to what his impressions of the FonePad are, here’s a quick recap of the specifications of the device –

• 7-inch touchscreen ISP display with 1280 x 800 resolution
• 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2420 processor and PowerVR SGX540 GPU
• 1GB of RAM
• 8/16GB of memory, expandable via microSD up to 32GB
• 3MP rear camera, 1.2MP front camera
• HSPA+ and 3G support for voice calls
• Noise-canceling digital microphone
• 4,270mAH battery
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

On to the video! As you can see, the ASUS FonePad is very similar to the Nexus 7, with the obvious difference being the Intel processor, and the addition of the voice-calling capabilities on the FonePad, and of course the beautiful metal unibody design. Okay, so not as similar as I’d thought.

(Note: The FonePad in the video is Europe-specific, and does not feature a rear camera. Every other specification of the device is the same)

What are your thoughts? How do you think the Intel Atom processor is going to fare against the quad-core powerhouses featured in other Android tablets? How important is having voice-calling capabilities on a tablet for you? Let us know in the comments section below.