ASUS P525 Pocket PC phone

[Guest sporkguy]

If HTC has anything to say about it, most of the major Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition contenders these days are sporting QWERTY keyboards and a bit of bulk.

ASUS is taking a different tact with their new P525 PPC, and if you can stand the lack of text input, it might make a decent bid for your PPC buck.

The quad-band GSM phone has a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, 2 megapixel camera, 416MHz Intel XScale processor, 802.11b WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, miniSD, 128MB flash ROM and 64MB of SDRAM. Even better news is that all of this fits into a 160g, 0.75-inch thick form factor.

The 2M-pixel digital camera also acts as a business card recognition device. Simply take a picture of a business card, the P525 will automatically convert information on the card into Outlook's contact list. In two steps, organizing business cards collected from conventions and conferences is no longer such as hassle.

E-mail, Instant Message and Skype Anytime

The P525 leveraged Push E-mail functions to deliver real-time synchronization with email, phonebooks and calendar items as changes occur on the Exchange account through continuous connection with a mobile operator between the P525 and a server.

Supporting Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, the ASUS PDA phone supports office applications, including Excel and PowerPoint Viewer etc., permitting completion of everyday tasks even on the road.

No word on price or when this phone will be released, but we'll keep an eye out.

[Source]

[Guest sporkguy]

That number 2 key looks awfully awkward to use!

[Guest fluffcat1]

If HTC has anything to say about it, most of the major Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition contenders these days are sporting QWERTY keyboards and a bit of bulk.

ASUS is taking a different tact with their new P525 smartphone, and if you can stand the lack of text input, it might make a decent bid for your smartphone buck.

While it certainly is a very smart looking phone, it isn't a 'smartphone' it runs Pocket PC phone edition so might be an idea to avoid references to 'smartphone' for PDA's to avoid confusing my at first glance...

Richard

(who spends his smartphone bucks on smartphones and his companies' bucks on PDA phones...)

[Guest sporkguy]

Corrected, Thanks.

[Guest chucky.egg]

I really like the look and spec of that

Vaguely reminds me of a Symbian Series60 device, which isn't a bad thing IMO.

More phone-centric, but still with WM5 PPC might be a good compromise (if that isn't an oxymoron)

[Guest Dr Who]

No UMTS makes Dr Who sad.

[Guest w411y]

Sounds and looks pretty damned good :)

[Guest mandt]

Although it seems to have been done to keep the size down I think it would be better with a D-pad, previously owning a C550 has put me right off owning another phone with a joystick

Other than that it looks pretty damn cool!

[Guest Nubbing]

Looks good. One of the few up coming phones that meets my demands. However the size maybe an issue (is it bigger than the HTC tornado?). Move that joystick up to where the logo is and stretch all the buttons upwards and we have a winner (if its not too big).

[Guest bennish]

OH... MAN... nice, i'm getting it. When's it available? If only it had FM radio as well!! :)

Interesting piccie here for size comparison...

What exactly is the problem with the joystick? hard to use? prone to failure?

Edited June 1, 2006 by bennish

[Guest nausea]

How can people fit pocketpc phones in their pockects?? They're huge!

And .75inch thick? Does it come with a purse? :)

[Guest bennish]

How can people fit pocketpc phones in their pockects?? They're huge!

And .75inch thick? Does it come with a purse? :)

lol - i'll admit a 2.4" screen and slightly smaller size would have really impressed me.

It is thinner than the kjam and the same thickness as the i-mate jam, so that's saying something. Both those have been very popular.

Does anyone remember this? http://www.phonemag.com/index.php/weblog/0...r_htc_blizzard/

[Guest Laser_iCE]

I refuse to go to any phone that has a joystick after having to put up with my Smartphone2 for 2 years.

[Guest peekie]

A bit large for me but it does look nice , wonder what the smartphone will be like when they release it later this year :)

[Guest sporkguy]

I refuse to go to any phone that has a joystick after having to put up with my Smartphone2 for 2 years.

Its a pocket pc though, so I doubt you'll use the joystick much TBH, IMO, IIRC etc :)

[Guest mandt]

What exactly is the problem with the joystick? hard to use? prone to failure?

There's a whole thread on here somewhere dedicated to C550 joysticks dying, my one was really temperamental and wouldn't respond down half the time, way back I had a SE K700i and it seemed like I was forever cleaning cack out from around it, so D-pads all the way for me