What if Apple had unveiled it's own interpretation of the Padfone X on Tuesday, instead of the "Watch" and yet another iteration of the iPhone? That's the question-turned-fantasy that kept coming to mind during my time with the Asus Padfone X -- a terrific, unique idea that's unfortunately executed just a little too awkwardly.

The Asus Padfone X is the first of its kind to hit American shores, though the rest of the world has had several Padfone versions for a couple of years now. Simply put, the Padfone X wants to be your smartphone, tablet and netbook, all seamlessly rolled into one.

With the Padfone, Asus took a hardware-based approach to two simultaneous, contradictory market demands:

1.     A handy smartphone that isn't too big or awkward.

2.     Large-screen devices that are great for watching movies and can instantly pick up where you left off on your phone.

Asus, which is not a super-familiar brand in the U.S., is probably best known here for manufacturing Google's excellent Nexus 7 tablet. For the rest of the world, the Taiwanese company is known for making a lot of different, daring hardware hybrids like the Transformer Book laptop/tablet line -- along with a huge range of computers, components and accessories.

AT&T exclusively picked up the Padfone X for U.S. distribution, releasing the new-to-America smartphone/tablet/netbook hybrid earlier this year for a very competitive on-contract price. But unfortunately for everyone, the Padfone X isn't quite there yet.

Specs: A Decent Smartphone

On its own, the Padfone X smartphone offers a decent experience in line with upper-tier competitors, though nothing in the phone is outstanding.

It comes with a 5-inch Super IPS+ display with a nice 1080p resolution that garners about 441 pixels per inch. Powered by a Snapdragon 800 clocked at 2.3 GHz with 2GB of RAM, the Padfone X comes with Android KitKat 4.4.2 and all the basic functions you'd expect in a good modern smartphone from 2013 and later: dual-band WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, LTE, a non-removable 2300 mAh battery, 64GB of microSD storage expansion on top of the meager internal 16GB (which is your only option), and a 13-megapixel camera with LED flash.

The 13 MP camera obviously won't out-match the high-megapixel, feature rich shooters on other 2014 flagship smartphones. But Asus's camera software is refreshingly simple and well organized, and the camera is decent enough for your general snapshot needs. And that "good enough" sentiment pretty much applies all of the general features of this smartphone.

Design: Awkward and Bulky

The Padfone X isn't very pretty -- or nice to hold and use. Bulky and awkward are keywords throughout the Padfone X and its hybrid incarnations, unfortunately.

Let's start with the smartphone. It's about a third of a pound, which isn't too heavy, but it's getting close for a 2014 smartphone, considering its specs list. The main problem with the smartphone, though, is its size and button placement.

Asus placed the both power/standby button and volume rocker on the right hand side of the device. That, in itself, isn't necessarily a problem; putting the power button way too far up is. 

I don't have small hands, but I found myself shifting the phone up and down to reach the standby/power button. Left or right: either way, it's awkward to operate this phone with one hand.

And though the Padfone X's screen is only 5 inches, reaching the notification drawer was a problem too. The clumsy feel of the phone stems from all-around bad chassis design, not just the button placement.

At 0.39-inches thick, it's bulky in your pocket and makes it hard to hold while using the touchscreen, and huge bezels on the top and bottom of the screen doesn't help. Neither does Asus's inexplicably convex angled edge design, which juts into your fingers while contributing neither to the aesthetics or feel of the device.

It all adds up to a smartphone -- comparable in specs and with the exact same screen size as the Samsung Galaxy S4 -- which makes the GS4 feel like a dainty iPhone 4 in comparison.

Padfone Station Turns the Smartphone Into a Tablet

Let's turn to some more positive aspects of the Padfone X. The Padfone Station -- essentially a tablet/dock -- is part of the Padfone X package and is what makes it special.

Just slide the smartphone into the back, and you've got a 9-inch Android tablet running exactly the same apps and processes as before. The smartphone is the brains of an otherwise dumb screen, so the tablet has the same processor, storage, rear camera, and specs of the smartphone.

Except the IPS screen has a nice 1920 x 1200p resolution, two front-facing stereo speakers, and a huge 4990 mAh battery, which you can siphon to your smartphone, extending its life whenever you're in tablet mode. It's also got a front camera for video chatting.

However, the "bulky and awkward" criticism applies to the Padfone Station as well. Its bezels on all sides are way to large -- think the Nook circa 2011 -- making use of the virtual keyboard a pain. Also, the large battery costs in weight: the over-a-pound Station mixed with the smartphone makes for tablet that weighs over a pound and a half!

The too-thick smartphone also contributes to an awkward and bulky bulge in the middle of the device -- you can never lay the tablet on a table without a teeter-totter effect.

Extended, Seamless Hybrid Abilities

Asus managed to make the transition between smartphone and tablet precise, intuitive, and automatic. Most apps switch to landscape-tablet mode instantly, and software called "Dynamic Display" takes care of any apps that might be confused by the switch. With it, you can set defaults on the fly for those apps to either restart in "Pad mode" or to keep running how they were on the smartphone.

And, though the whole point of the Padfone X is for continuity between smartphone and tablet, you can customize your tablet home screens separately as well, to make "Pad mode" more tablet-centric -- more than just a blown-up smartphone screen.

The seamlessness transitioning between the two is really quite impressive. For example, if you get a phone call while in Pad mode, you can just slide the phone out the back and take it. There's virtually no wait for the device to readjust itself.

And the Padfone X has one more trick up its sleeve -- it can become a netbook as well.

That's because, for about $100 (sold separately), you can get a Bluetooth keyboard that the tablet/smartphone hybrid docks into, making it a tablet/netbook hybrid.

And thanks to lesser-known features of Android, it operates more or less like a touchscreen laptop with great touchpad cursor control, a small physical QWERTY keyboard, audio playback controls, and special Android navigation buttons.

Since it's Bluetooth, the keyboard is standalone and has a battery that supposedly lasts in the month-long range -- so while you'll have one more device to charge, you won't need to very often.

An Awkward and Bulky Netbook

You can't believe how nice it is to type an SMS message on a physical keyboard until you've tried it, and with full-function Google applications like Docs, the netbook side of the Padfone X has a lot of potential for on-the-go productivity.

Unfortunately, again this potential is spoiled by bad design. The keyboard is understandably small, but it's also full of dumb design flaws.

For one, fitting in just one more row of keys would obviate the need to relegate the quote, apostrophe, and question mark keys to function key-enabled afterthoughts, which is exactly what Asus ended up doing -- ruining the fluidity of typing by making these very commonly used buttons a chore to input (good thing brackets, angle brackets, and the semicolon have priority for dedicated keys!).

Another thing: It's great having Android-specific function keys, but putting the "Home" button where every other keyboard's "Option" key goes -- rather than literally anywhere else -- is a great way to cause constant frustration.

The aforementioned weight and bulk of the Pad Station/phone combo makes this one of the most top-heavy netbooks in existence. And one of the most precarious to move, since there's no physical locking mechanism holding the tablet to the keyboard, since it operates on Bluetooth.

The use of Bluetooth, rather than a physical connection, is the final misstep. It takes what could have been a fully functional netbook experience and instead delivers only a limited keyboard accessory -- one that awkwardly holds the bulky tablet in rubber brackets, using Bluetooth connection that you have to wait to reestablish every time the device idles for more than a couple minutes.

Conclusion: A Missed Opportunity For Asus -- and Everyone Else

James Agee once said the most frustrating movies for him to watch aren't the bad ones, they're the ones that have incredibly great potential, but never reach it. The Padfone X is disappointing in this way.

I really wanted to be able to recommend this device. I love the idea of turning your smartphone into a tablet... and then again into a netbook. I think the Android OS is capable, flexible, and developed enough to become a great all-around multi-form operating system, and that goes for Android's continually evolving and ever-more-sophisticated app ecosystem, as well.

If only someone would design a hybrid device graceful enough to pull it off.

Everything you need already exists. Powerful, thin, lightweight smartphones exist. Lightweight tablets with small bezels do too. And a fully netbook-capable keyboard dock with full USB ports, that extra row of keys, a card reader, and an even bigger battery source to charge the tablet/smartphone exists, as well -- I know because Asus made one for its first Padfone in 2012.

Apple or Samsung could easily make a well-designed device like this, and honestly, this great concept -- executed better -- would probably see faster adoption with the general public than yet another smartwatch. But they probably made a calculation that it would be more profitable to sell more stand-alone devices with software-based synchronization like iCloud (patchy though it may be), rather than one device that does it all.

In the future, I'm confident Asus can make a great smartphone/tablet/netbook hybrid, and it may revolutionize how we use mobile devices. But they haven't done it yet; not with the Padfone X.

Availability and Price 

If you think this review is entirely off base or filled only with quibbles, or your excitement just over the concept (I understand) means you're willing to overlook its design problems, you can get the Asus Padfone X from AT&T right now for $199 on contract.

And due to the Padfone X's hybrid design, you'll get an LTE data-enabled tablet without the need to add anything to your basic plan. The keyboard costs an additional $99. Off contract, the Padfone X costs $550 -- which is still not bad for a smartphone and tablet.