The ASUS Padfone 2 was launched in Milan and Taipei last week and Sascha was able to drop by the headquarters in Taipei to take it out of the box and spend a some time reviewing it. We’re expecting to see the hybrid smartphone and tablet duo hit the street at the end of December and we have to admit we’re looking forward to it since they are quite an attractive pair.

The Padfone 2 has very impressive hardware specifications that make it a competitive high end smartphone. This 720p 4.7 inch LG Super IPS+ panel with maximum brightness of 700nits has a top of the line quad core Qualcomm S4 Pro APQ8064 running at 1.5GHz with a whopping 2GB of RAM to provide a snappy multitasking experience.

Style wise it has the same tapered look as the original Padfone but a little sleeker but the big change is that the back is not removable so the battery will remain sealed but it is 2140mAH. This also means that it does not have a micro SD card slot for expansion. The rear facing shooter is an impressive 13 megapixel Sony CCD. The Padfone 2 has a fairly typical weight of 135g and measures 137.9 x 68.9 x 9mm. At the top of the device you’ll find a 3.5mm jack and a microSIM slot.

If you want to see how it performs out of the box and what types of customized apps it has to offer, we’ve got our Review and detailed walk through taking place right after the unboxing.

The dock has received a major overhaul with looks amazing and it a dramatic improvement over the original. Unlike the previous design which had a cassette-like compartment, now the phone simply slides into a sleeve with no extra hassle. This cuts down on the weight and it’s only 649g.

The 10.1″ display has a 16:10 aspect ratio with a screen resolution of 1280×800, the tablet also houses a battery of 5000mAH.

We should see this handset released end of December with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. If you’re wondering where you can pick it up, in Europe Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden and Asia Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, U.A.E. Availability in other countries will be announced at a later date.