Remember we told you the Asus P565 will be killed and buried now that Asus and Garmin have wedded to produce a different breed of supercellphones?  Well, seems like its fast 816MHz processor somehow helped it escape the axe as ASUSPDA, a Polish were able to buy it online and have a complete unboxing and review to show that the device is far from dead and a great phone worthy enough to continue a long life.  They did have a few grumbles about Glide, ASUS’ TouchFLO-esque interface, which did not seem to mirror its fast processor, but its skill in other areas including a pretty fast GPS and its lively 2.8-inch VGA display had the reviewers getting over that fact without much grief.

The Asus P565 is available now for a cool $567 from QBit’s webstore and if you don’t want to buy it before you try it, check out their short-term prepaid renting scheme.

As Asus joined forces with Garmin, it had to cancel one of its expected Windows Mobile 6.1 handsets. The P565 has been canceled so you won’t see it arrive soon. It was supposed to sport a VGA display, HSDPA connectivity, and a high-speed 800MHz processor. The phone has made it to Germany and Poland but the French release was canceled.

So did Asus really cancel it because of its partnership with Garmin? Is there any problem with the handset? Neither Asus or Garmin have confirmed all this but we can’t help but wonder how come Asus launched a new handset by themselves, the P835 that we’ve shown you yesterday? And the P835 is just an Asus phone, not an Asus-Garmin one.

The phone here is an original Asus design and it has nothing to do with it’s partner Garmin. The Asus P835 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 phone. Is is upgradable to Windows Mobile 6.5 when the new OS will arrive?

In the mean time lets take a look at its features:

• Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz)
• Tri band UMTS/HSPA connectivity (900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz) for downloads up to 7.2 Mbps and uploads up to 2 Mbps
• 3.5 inch touchscreen display with 800 x 480 resolution
• On-screen QWERTY keyboard
• A-GPS
• Wi-Fi
• Opera Mobile
• 5MP autofocus camera
• Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• USB 2.0
• Qualcomm 7201A 528MHz processor
• 288MB SDRAM, 256MB ROM
• 4GB of internal memory
• MicroSDHC card support
• Talk time: up to 6 hours on 3G networks, or 7 hours on 2G networks
• Standby time: up to 350 hours
• 115 x 59 x 13.8 mm
• 148 grams

The phone should arrive in the following months and we’re still expecting a price from Asus for it.

Asus said nothing regarding the price and availability of P835, but we’ll probably see the smartphone in stores in the next couple of months.

We like Asus here at TrustedReviews. In particular we like the whole Eee PC concept and execution and we like the company’s approach to smartphones too. The last smartphone we looked at from Asus was the P526 which was good, but not ‘top banana’ good.

Now along comes the P750 and I have to say it is the best effort I’ve seen from Asus yet. It ticks an awful lot of boxes, though there are still some irritations.

The P750 is a Windows Mobile 6 Professional smartphone and as such it enters a crowded market. It needs to be pretty special to stand out. Asus knows this, and has risen to the challenge.

In design terms, though, Asus does the P750 few favours. It looks like – and indeed it is – a very chunky candybar style smartphone. It weighs a fairly hefty 130g and is 113mm tall, 58mm wide and 17.4mm thick. There is no mini keyboard lurking in all that thickness, just a numberpad on the front casing.

The black and silver colour scheme isn’t going to bowl anyone over, and nor is the teeny navigation joystick that sits under the screen. I loathe the mini-joystick concept, and this one is as fiddly to use as any other I’ve tried.

However, there is a scroll wheel on the left edge of the casing which can also be used for moving around within applications, and you can always resort to the touchscreen, accessible with a fingertip or the stylus. I’d choose the former every time, as Asus’ stylus is short and incredibly lightweight.

Now in having a touchscreen and all those front (and side) mounted buttons this device is a potential recipe for disaster. Let it rattle around in your pocket and you could call a speed dial, play your music, erase files, and do goodness knows what else thanks to unintended button presses.

However, Asus has thoughtfully included a slider on the right edge of the casing that activates a key and screen lock. Slide it in the right direction and you simply can’t accidentally trigger any controls till you slide it into the unlock position. Why don’t more Windows Mobile devices have this simple, yet effective system in place?

One of the advantages of a chunky chassis is being able to accommodate a big screen, at least in standard smartphone terms. At 2.6inches corner-to-corner I found it roomy enough for everyday use, though I wonder whether the 240 x 320 pixels might have benefited from being upped to 480 x 640.

But it’s inside the casing, in terms of both software and hardware, that Asus really makes me smile. For a shade over £300 you get a Windows Mobile 6 device with HSDPA support up to 3.6Mbps, as well as tri-band GSM with GPRS and EDGE for your mobile communications.

You’ll also find Wi-Fi built in, and Bluetooth of course. And there’s a SiRFStar III GPS antenna. Now, admittedly, there is no sat-nav software provided with the P750, but here’s where I make my first mention of the bundled software on this device.

There are two utilities for using the GPS antenna. Location Courier lets you send your position to up to five recipients at a time as part of an SMS message, and Travelog captures your GPS footprint as a KMZ file. This is the file format accepted by Google Earth, so you can record a trip then drop it into Google Earth complete with self-saved POIs.

As for performance, the 520MHz Marvell PXA270M processor might not be one of the most widespread in mobile devices, but it seemed to zip along well enough during testing.

Battery life was really very good too. I asked the P750 to play music non stop from a microSD card with its screen forced on. It shaded over 12 hours which makes it the best Windows Mobile 6 device I’ve benchmarked in this way – and I have benchmarked a few, I can tell you!

When it comes to memory the 256MB of flash and 64MB of RAM aren’t that wonderful. But the microSD card slot on the right edge of the casing supports SDHC which means you can add comparatively vast amounts of memory to the P750 if you have the desire to do so.

There is a front-facing VGA-resolution camera for video-calling. With all this hardware goodness you might expect the main camera to be higher than 3-megapixels, but that’s all you get here. There is no flash, and no self-portrait mirror. Asus has included easy access to the various camera controls by putting tappable icons on screen, but these are a bit small and a fingernail will only be precise enough if you have dainty digits. Otherwise you’ll have to use that horrid stylus to tap at them.

One feature the camera does have is auto focus. This comes in handy for the business card scanning software. I’ve seen this before on Windows Mobile smartphones and it always impresses. You photograph a business card and the OCR software extracts key information and shoves it into the Contacts application. You can make any edits that are needed manually.

There is a lot more by way of added software, including a utility that can show up to three time zones at once so you can set up phone calls or meetings; an RSS reader to complement the Windows Mobile Web browser; a password-protected area of memory for storing the stuff you’d rather keep secret; and the ability to control the device remotely via Bluetooth. There’s even a graphics-driven alternative to the Windows Mobile Today screen just in case you want a more mobile phone-looking main screen.

Verdict

Asus’ P750 is a very aggressively priced device and under the hood it bundles a large array of software and capability. I can’t say I like the mini-joystick or the hardware design, but in terms of value for money this is a very impressive smartphone.

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The ASUS P735 mobile phone features Wi-Fi connectivity as well as 3G. This mobile phone does not contain a built in GPS system and is incapable of HSDPA connectivity. At the same time, the 3G works quite effectively at connecting to the Internet. Furthermore, this mobile phone makes video calling a snap by utilizing a front VGA camera located above the display area. The speakers are located on the rear of the phone, however, which makes speakerphone usage less than ideal.

The ASUS P735 has a few different connectivity options, one being Bluetooth 2.0. Or, you can choose to go 802.11g wireless LAN. With Wi-Fi capabilities, this mobile phone allows you to surf the Internet as well as engage in Skype communication, which is an important feature for a busy businessperson.

The ASUS P735 does have photo capabilities and includes a 2-megapixel camera located at the rear of the phone. The camera function has autofocus as well as a number of other features, including metering, macro mode, and white balance control. It also offers a photo light that can be turned off and on at will. As a result, the phone produces relatively sharp images, though the shutter speed is slow and a steady hand is required.

The ASUS P735 comes in just one color option, which is made of a combination of gray, silver, and brushed metal. It is a solid unit that is housed within plastic, with the brushed metal only being found on the front. It offers buttons below the display in a single panel format, with four corners that can be depressed. The keys are placed in an orderly fashion, but can be a bit noisy and stiff to use.

The ASUS P735 also contains a 2.5 mm audio jack, a microphone, and a mini-USB jack that can be used for both charging and syncing. The top of the phone also includes a miniSD slot for expandable memory and the top right corner of the phone contains a slot for the stylus. The ASUS P735 is relatively small, with dimensions of 109 x 59 x 19 mm. As a result, it is easy to stow away in a pocket. Similarly, the price tag on this device is quite a bit lower than its competition.

With a 520MHz processor, the ASUS P735 us capable of handling its applications quite nicely, though there is a bit of a lag with the menu interface. The 1,300mAh Lithium-ion battery is rated for being capable of providing about 4 hours of use on the 3G network, though most users will be able to get 2 days from the battery.

This mobile phone does have Remote Presenter capabilities through Bluetooth. With this feature, you can control a notebook and provide remote presentations. You will first need to install desktop software on your computer and will need Bluetooth connectivity in order to take advantage of this feature. It also features WorldCard Mobile, which makes it possible to enter new contact information by simply taking a photograph of a namecard. As such, this makes for an excellent choice for the busy businessperson on the go.

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ASUS loves to dabble in all sorts of categories, and this time the mini-notebook maker has released its first smart phone in the states. The P527 features a touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6 Professional, GPS, and a 2-megapixel camera. Its quad-band support means this device can be used on GSM networks in the United States as well as overseas. But while its rich feature set aims to provide an exceptional experience for traveling professionals, this pricey $575 phone had us yearning for more power and reliability.

P527 Design

The P527 is attractive: It has a brushed-aluminum finish and a large, bright, 2.6-inch 240 x 320-pixel resolution display. Unfortunately, ASUS delivered a cramped alphanumeric touchpad paired with Windows Mobile 6 Professional’s poor on-screen keyboard. We would have preferred a full QWERTY keypad. On the plus side, we appreciated the eight quick-launch buttons for commonly used applications such as the GPS suite, e-mail, Bluetooth settings, speakerphone, and FM radio.

Just above the keypad are soft menu buttons and a small joystick for navigation. On the left side of the unit is a welcome three-directional jog wheel (it scrolls up and down, and you can press it in to make a selection). The camera controls, hardware lock button, and microSD slot are on the right side of the unit, and the power button is directly on top. At 4.5 ounces, the P527 is on the heavier side, but it’s not too bulky or heavy for pockets. The stylus is stored on the lower right side.

Unique But Sluggish User Interface

At first glance, the phone has the humdrum Windows Mobile 6 Professional interface. However, the left soft button can be used to start ASUS’ own suite of applications called ASUS Launcher, which is more pleasing to use. Inside, the improved UI grants access to such applications as the Web browser, the camera, SMS and e-mail messages, preloaded games (the standard WM 6 selection, including Solitaire), your call log, GPS, files, and more. Unfortunately, no matter what UI we were using, the interface felt sluggish. When we panned down in the Programs folder, for example, the icons constantly refreshed on the screen, whereas most Windows Mobile phones display everything fluidly.

The lower right-hand corner of the screen has a small icon that lets you flip the screen between landscape and horizontal mode. It took about 3 seconds for the screen to realign itself. The phone lacks an accelerometer, so it doesn’t switch the orientation manually.

E-mail and Messaging Support

The unlocked P527 supports 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and EDGE data networks but not 3G network connections. We tested it using an AT&T SIM card (you can configure the phone to work with T-Mobile as well); the phone automatically detects and applies settings once you select a network in Connection Settings. You get SMS, MMS, and e-mail messaging capabilities with the P527. We were able to set up our Gmail account using POP/IMAP in Windows Mobile 6 Professional. However, we aren’t fans of using a stylus to type out long e-mails, and the non-QWERTY keypad was even more annoying to use. ASUS doesn’t pack any IM clients on the phone, so you’ll need to download your own messaging client. We suggest IM+ ($29.95; www.shapeservices.com).

P527 Web Browsing

When we surfed the Web using AT&T’s EDGE network, we loaded ESPN.com in a tortoise-like 16 seconds and CNN.com in 19 seconds. Over Wi-Fi, we loaded the sites in 8 and 5 seconds, respectively. ASUS also includes Newstation, a basic RSS reader. The Technology option offers opinions from Engadget Mobile and CNET Reviews, and travel stories from CNN Travel. When we tried to add Travel.com to the travel section, the software searched the Web for updated stories after recognizing it as a legitimate RSS feed but then returned an error that said “Encountering Unidentified Problem.” We attempted again by adding ESPN.com under Sports, and it added the channel but gave us the same error again.

Mixed GPS Performance

We weren’t able to maintain a GPS connection while standing outside on a Manhattan street with a clear view of the sky. Once you do acquire a signal and are locked in with the satellites, however, you can find points of interest based on your location. The P527 also features travel log software, which charts your movements using GPS. After launching the program, the software started drawing a line of movement on the screen, which would have been great if we were moving, but we were sitting still. The program never displayed the map overlay, so it was essentially drawing lines on a blank space.

The included microSD Card launched ASUS Go software, which gives you options for Map, Cockpit View, Settings, and Find and Go. When the software finally found our location—which was accurate down to the street—we tried to get directions to our office from a few blocks away, but the phone didn’t recognize our address as valid. And then the software crashed, and the phone said it was out of memory. This was a frequent occurrence in Manhattan.

However, when we took the P527 to New Jersey, we saw much better results. It was able to obtain a signal shortly after we exited the Lincoln Tunnel; it lost the signal just once, very briefly, as we went under one of several overpasses. The GPS marker stayed only 2 seconds behind us while we were driving. The P527 rerouted quickly (about 5 seconds) and supplied easy-to-understand turn-by-turn directions. It was set to kilometers and meters by default, so we changed it to miles and yards under Settings, where you can also choose from various languages and voices. We could definitely see ourselves using this smart phone as a GPS unit, but not necessarily in cities with lots of tall buildings.

Lackluster Camera

Pressing the camera button on the P527 doesn’t automatically launch the 2-MP camera. You have to take out the stylus and navigate through the ASUS Launcher menu to start it, and then wait 5 seconds for the camera to launch, so don’t plan on capturing a spontaneous shot. Chances are you won’t want to use it anyway. Pictures taken out on the streets of New York City on a sunny day were washed out and lacked vibrant colors; indoor shots were no better. The phone lacks a built-in flash, so we don’t advise taking pictures in low light.

The phone can also shoot 176 x 144 video, but the video camera, too, takes 5 seconds just to start up, and the quality is also very poor. Videos were horribly jagged and blocky with bits of lag thrown in, and audio was a jumbled mess.

Media Playback

Our MP3s sounded loud and clear when played back through Windows Media Player Mobile. WMA videos also played back quite well. When we opened one up at full screen, the phone’s software automatically switches the view to widescreen mode just for the video. If you want to listen to FM radio, you can use the included 2.5mm plastic earbuds, which have an antenna built into the cord. We were able to pick up 14 stations in our Manhattan office and were pleasantly surprised with the sound quality pumped through our headphones; they offered crisp sound and a nice bass/treble balance. Too bad the plastic earbuds got uncomfortable after about 5 minutes of use.

Turning on stereo Bluetooth took an interminable 9 seconds, but once activated, we were able to pair it easily with our headphones. Though we were able to walk only 20 feet before it started fading out on us, we were thankful that it streamed both music and video with clear quality.

Call Quality and Battery Life

Call quality on the ASUS P527 was generally good. We never had a dropped call during our tests, and we were always able to hear the other party clearly without interruption or static. Our callers also said we sounded clear. When we used the phone to surf the Web and make a series of phone calls adding up to 2 hours of usage per day, we had to charge it each night.

ASUS P527 Verdict

Unfortunately, the P527 isn’t nearly as good as competing models from HTC, Motorola, or Samsung. The P527 is fine for checking e-mail, and it provides good call quality and a good GPS experience on the open road. We also appreciated the FM radio and the ASUS Launcher custom UI. But with its steep price tag of $575, we’d expect much faster performance, a QWERTY keyboard, and a usable camera. All of these shortcomings mean we can’t recommend the P527.

While the rest of the mobile phone industry has been producing ever slimmer and sexier handsets, so-called ’smart’ phones have struggled to keep up. Hampered by the need for usability (yes, I know it sounds silly), practicality and power – and the fact that Windows Mobile doesn’t work that well on small screens – most smartphones have traditionally tended to be on the pocket-stretching side.

That is beginning to change, though. The Palm Centro recently demonstrated that you can fit a usable QWERTY keypad on a device that doesn’t require a belt clip to carry it around, and I liked the Asus M930, a beautifully-designed clamshell phone based on Windows Mobile Standard, again with a full QWERTY keyboard, but still small and sexy.

But nothing I’ve yet seen quite beats Asus’ latest, and most exciting, PDA-style handset for sheer pocketability. The Asus P320 measures a mere 100 x 55mm and is 13.4mm slim. It weighs just 105 grams, too, which makes it the smallest, lightest Windows Mobile Professional device I’ve ever come across. It’s more compact even than the HTC Touch and Glofiish X600 – even my small hands look gorilla-like in the presence of this dainty device. Amazingly, given such diminutive dimensions, the P320 also includes a GPS receiver, so you can add full in-car sat-nav via the microSD slot on the side if you want. There’s also a Wi-Fi adaptor packed in somehow.

Of course the tiny dimensions do have their drawbacks: you’ll not be wanting to type out any seriously long emails using this phone – there’s no sliding keyboard, no hardware number pad, and not even any enhancement to the useless on-screen Windows Mobile keyboard. And Windows Mobile’s small check boxes and skinny scrollbars are even less usable on a 240 x 320 screen that measures just 2.65in diagonally.

But Asus has made an effort here to mitigate such restrictions. As well as including the latest version of Windows Mobile Professional – version 6.1 – the P320 is equipped with Asus’ own Today Screen enhancements which, like the HTC version and SPB’s excellent Mobile Shell software, include weather information, plus quick access to other commonly used functions. In this case, you get an attractive snapshot of calls missed, voice messages left, and email plus a scrolling ticker of either recent emails, text messages or RSS feed news stories – the latter supplied via the bundled Newstation RSS tool. Plus there’s the obligatory over-sized digital clock and alarm display. Asus has also included its own finger-friendly launcher software that allows you to initiate, if not operate, many of the P320’s applications and settings without recourse to the stylus, which is tucked away in a slot at the top left of the chassis.

The phone’s physical controls work well. Under the screen on the front there’s a clickable five-way thumb control – nothing fancy, but it does the job – and this is surrounded by a familiar-looking array of Windows Mobile smartphone buttons. Here you get Start, ok, pick-up and hang-up keys, plus a couple of hardware soft buttons atop the cluster. I liked the fact that the P320 has a proper lock and unlock switch on the side: it’s much more effective and reliable than simply relying on the power button, which can easily be pressed by accident, or an on-screen method to lock the phone, as is the case with most other Windows Mobile devices.

Of course, the P320’s Bluetooth connectivity means you needn’t completely forget the idea of using the phone for serious work. One of Windows Mobile Professional’s biggest selling points is that you can create, edit and save Microsoft Office documents, and with the right add-ons, this phone can still be a powerful tool – though you may get a crick in your neck peering at that tiny screen.

Elsewhere the P320 is not the most powerful device, however. It’s a quad-band GSM phone, so it’ll work pretty much anywhere you can get a mobile phone signal, but there’s no HSDPA – just GPRS. It has just a 2-megapixel camera with no flash or self-portrait mirror too. And though Windows Mobile 6.1 helps it a little, the core components aren’t the quickest: the OMAP850 200MHz processor chugs occasionally when launching applications, and the 64MB of RAM isn’t the most generous in the world.

It’s not as bad as it could be, though; help is at hand in the shape of a useful extra application called Auto Cleaner. This allows you to force Windows to remove applications from the memory when you press the X in the top right of the Window, instead of keeping everything minimised and slowing the phone to a crawl. Usefully, you can set some apps up to be exempted from this regime, so you can keep Windows Media player running, at all times if you want.

There are other notable features, too, some added by Asus, some courtesy of Windows Mobile 6.1. The latter is responsible for the Getting Started Centre, which provides handy shortcuts to important setup items such as email, date and time, and Bluetooth headset. There’s threaded SMS, again; a new WMP 6.1 feature that I wasn’t able to test in my review of the pre-production MWg Zinc II last week. Don’t expect anything swanky like the iPhone’s speech bubbles – all Windows Mobile does is group messages to and from specific recipients, a bit like Google Mail – but it is a useful addition. Google Calendar sync has also been preinstalled, as has Voice Commander (speech dialling and phone control software), and some handy additions to the device’s phone functionality in the shape of a call filter and profile setup and selection tool.

Verdict

It all goes together to make a well-rounded smartphone that’s just about the most pocketable Windows Mobile PDA phone you’re likely to come across. Unfortunately, though, there’s no getting around the fact that the P320’s small screen makes using Windows Mobile Professional even more fiddly to use than it normally is. But if you don’t mind getting the stylus out occasionally and want the push email and office document features of a Windows Mobile device without the bulk, it’s a very solid option. And the inclusion of a GPS receiver in a device this small is just the icing on the cake.

We have some new pictures of the upcoming Asus M930W communicator. This PDA phone will have many features but unfortunately none of them involve the use of GPS. However M930W is still a very decent device worth mentioning on Navigadget. And if you must have GPS, you can always get a bluetooth GPS receiver.

M930W has two displays. The smaller on the outside, and a bigger screen inside. Asus M930W really excels in terms of form factor allowing you to open the screen even up to 180 degrees. It has a numeric keypad on the outside and a full QWERTY keyboard on the inside.

Here are some more features:

• 3.2MP digital camera with auto focus
• Triband GSM (900/1800/1900 Mhz), GPRS, EDGE, 3G (2100 Mhz) and HSDPA at 3.6 Mbps
• 256 MB ROM and 128 MB of RAM
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• HC compatible MicroSD port
• Mini USB 1.1
• Windows Mobile 6 Professional

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