PDA Reviews

Overview:

Pros:
1. Numeric Keypad for Text input
2. Bundled Car kit
3. Loads of useful business oriented applications
4. HSPDA Connectivity
5. Convenient Power Switch
6. Amazing Processor speed and hence, great performance
7. Excellent battery life.
8. Hardware lock

Cons:
1.    Camera lacks a flash
2.    An ordinary design
3.    Shutter lag in camera
4.    No Bundled maps for GPS
5.    Bulkier than the average common Pocket PC
6.    Low RAM

Review:

Asus, the Taiwanese company, is an active player in the Windows Mobile smartphones. It lags behind the leading player of the market-HTC.  Asus is not as prolific as HTC; it still has a couple of PDAs in its portfolio. Its main differentiator since the My-Pal devices is the inclusion of GPS. It launched the flagship model – the Asus P750 in the already crowded scene. However, Asus has made sure that the model is not dropped defenseless. It is a Windows Mobile 6 Handheld with HSPDA, a 2.6″ TFT touchscreen, an amazingly fast 520 MHz Marvel CPU, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, stereo and a 3 MP Autofocus camera. Sounds good enough to take on HTC branded devices. But one might re-consider buying the phone due its recent entry in Windows Mobile.

The Asus P750 smartphone caters to users looking for a full featured PDA which can deliver business and GPS functions. It also has its own weaknesses-an average screen diagonal and absence of a FM tuner. It does not have direct competitors even in the HTC league. However, the i-mate Ultimate 8150, the HTC Touch Cruise, the Gigabyte GSmart i350 and the E-TEN glofiish X800 are its rivals.

Design:

Dimensions and Built:
The first impression one gets about the P750 is its well designed in looks and has similarity to some Nokia N series mobile phones. The P750 has a solid built and weighs about a 130 grams, that is 60gm lesser than the HTC TyTN II. Its dimensions of (H x W x D) 113 x 58 x 17.4mm makes it a compact phone in the PDA segment. The P750 is made up of brushed metal on the front and the matt black plastic on the back. The metallic keys give it a distinct high-end feel. Around the display is the brushed metal and above it are the video call camera and the stylishly designed earpiece grill, reminiscent of the Nokia 6500 classic and the E-ten glofiish X800. The coat is wear resistant and the tip of the navigation button is rubber-ized. The stylus is of telescopic design and overall, the phone is ergonomically designed.

Keypad:
Perhaps the most appreciable part of the P750’s design is its well designed keypad. It does not have a QWERTY keypad, something that is initially difficult to adjust to, but a great form factor. Usability however suffers due to the lack of backlighting on the metallic keys of the front row. Apart from this flaw, the rest keys on the keypad have a strong backlighting. Above the screen is the status indicator which changes from colour to colour indicating either battery charge or GSM activation. Below the Display are the joystick navigator, a numeric keypad and a quite number of other shortcut keys including the OK key and the ModeSwitcher key. The P750 lacks a thumbable virtual keyboard, so the stylus comes very handy. The keys might appear to be a bit crowded however they are good to type with. We at PDA reviews, faced a small minor gripe with the ‘2’ button. It required more force to depress than the other buttons.

On the left of the phone are a jog dial button and a shortcut for voice recording. On the right side of the Asus P750 Pocket PC are a GPS antenna slot (to plug in an external GPS antenna for better reception) and a slider that allows you to put the handset in standby more by just sliding it upwards and locking it by sliding it downward. Any accidental press on the keypad brings the device out of the standby mode, so make sure it is locked. But perhaps, the un-noticeable advantage of the slider is the fact that you can lock the keypad in whichever application you use, unlike the other phones, which can be locked only from the homescreen. On the right side of the phone also have a power switch, a camera shutter and a MicroSD slot. The base of the phone has a mini USB port and an audio connector.

Display:
The Size of the Display screen of the Asus P750 GPS PDA is 2.6 inch, smaller than the current standard of 2.8 inches. It has a QVGA resolution of 320 x 240. However, there have been reports of unlocking the display to work in true VGA mode. TFT Technology powers the screen. The colour depth is 65k and the image quality is high. The image dearness and the view angles are better than the P525. Yet the maximum brightness is not very high, which makes it difficult to read it in direct sunlight. This a common issue with most PDAs. The sun resistance is not ideal either.

Interface:
The Asus P750 Smartphone offers a Standard Windows Mobile interface minus the 6.1 upgrade. It does not have anything akin to the TouchFLO of HTC, it has the ASUS Launcher. The upper line has service indicators like the Signal quality, battery meter or GPRS/Wi-Fi etc. The lower line has the contextual button functions. The Default main window shows the current day, the service provider, the messaging stats, the tasklist, the personal data of the owner and the indicator area. It can be varied as per your wishes. The Desktop can feature a custom picture or a photograph. On the main desktop, the start menu contains a list of apps installed on your PocketPC. The Settings options let you alter a variety of settings of your phone.  The Phone has 2 kinds of menus – the quick access and the main menu. To activate the quick access menu press the start button.

The main menu is a windows styled window with icons and app names. The window can hold up to 12 icons per screen. In lieu of a Task Manager, there is a status app that gives you an overview on the CPU Frequency Mode, The USB Mode (Card Reader or ActiveSync), the brightness, the battery, the memory and Storage. In the Interface, the ModeSwitcher application deserves special mention. It gets activated when the ModeSwitcher key on the keypad is pressed. This brings up a row of 4 shortcuts to some features like changing screen orientation and a running tasks switcher.  The last app is the Asus P750 is the Backup which allows a full backup which can be restored later if needed.

Features:

Connectivity:
The P750 features Tri band GSM (GSM 900/1800/1900), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b+g), Bluetooth V2.0+ EDR, USB 1.1 and a built-in GPS antenna and is the first one from Asus to have HSDPA connectivity. So, theoretically, it can hit speeds up to 3.6 Mbps whereas it is usually much lower and depends on the quality of your operator’s network. The Triband GSM radio allows you to roam without a problem. Apart from these, the usual fare of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi allows the user to remain connected with the world. It lacks an Infrared port but there are other options available. So, the Asus P750 is good at what Pocket PCs are actually all about-connectivity. The Wireless Manager is standard. The first one deactivates all the communication modules and the next one handles Wi-Fi , Bluetooth , Phone and Data.
Business Applications:

The various business functional applications include UR Time, Meeting Time Planner and Newstation. With “Ur Time”, one can set up to four different countries. “Newstation” provides news and blog updates through RSS settings. The Meeting Time planner makes meeting scheduling more efficient than ever. AutoCleaner function ensures that your applications are properly closed and free up space and memory for other functions. Perhaps the most interesting business feature that the Asus P750 has is the Business Card Recognition which allows you to capture all details of a business card without the need to input the data into your phone.

Travelog:
One interesting feature of the Asus P750 PDA GPS is Travelog. It allows users to record and share their travelling pictures, routes, Points of Interests (POIs) and schedules. Using Google Earth’s satellite maps format, users can create a journal of their journeys and put snapshots and loads of tidbits about their travel on their blogs with ease. Travelog also provides data like height from the sea level and etcetera. The in-built GPS antenna supports TMC (Traffic Message Service) allowing users to get real time traffic updates and help them avoid those nasty traffic jams. The GPS Catcher feature allows you to update satellite data quickly providing accurate location for navigation on the move. With the GPS Catcher feature, the P750 is able to update satellite data quickly providing the map with the route for your destination.

Location Courier:
The Location Courier feature of the P750 Handheld PDA will also help prevent users from ever getting lost. The Location Courier feature of this PDA reports the user’s position in terms of co-ordinates to predefined contacts preventing them from ever getting lost. Yes, even in large vast open countries, making this PDA the best safeguard for their daily safety.

Lack of Pre-installed GPS Maps:
For a GPS handheld the most important application is maps. The P750 does not come with any navigation software/maps bundled with it. So, the cost of buying those maps adds on to the price of the P750. It has Garmin Mobile XT trial version which is ok to use. When installed with third party software such as the iGo, the SiRF Star III GPS worked like a charm. The lock speed was delightful and the positioning was accurate even in dense city streets.

Intuitive Contact List Search:
Another useful feature that the P750 features is the way it searches for contacts. Just by typing the name on the keypad, all contact names with that combination show up. Users can also preset up to 99 contacts and quickly dial by holding on to the keypad numbers. All of this can be done using the jog dial making it easily operable by a single hand. Each contact has the last call field to it which displays the number and the time in which the last call was made to that contact. A full log including calls to and from numbers, call duration and time of call is available.

Memory:
The P750 has a RAM of 64MB – a disappointment for many. The ROM of 256MB is quite sufficient for basic functionality. The memory card slot is the micro SD standard, which is a universal variant. The maximum card capacity is 4GB. There have been reports that the 64MB RAM can be upgraded to the 128MB by simply replacing the BGA chip with an aftermarket one.

Camera:
For a PocketPC Camera, performance is not usually a high priority. The Asus P750 has a 3 MP auto focus shooter. It offers a nice and well laid menu with features including scene modes (auto, night, and sports), self timer, Burst mode, Colour effects (normal, black & white, negative and sepia) and Geo-tagging. You can modify the white balance, brightness, contrast and saturation. The Asus P750 has let us down in terms of image quality. Its low quality lens makes the images softer on the edges. It fails to reproduce fine details and over sharpens the scene. It lacks a protection cover for the camera, so one has to be as careful as possible. The camera also lacks a flash and a mirror for self shooting. Pictures up to a resolution of 2048×1536 can be taken and videos up to a resolution of 176×144 can be shot. Overall, it is pretty much an ordinary camera.

Performance:

The ASUS P750 runs on the Marvell PXA270 CPU which operates at a frequency of 520 MHz. It is a huge improvement over its previous predecessor and poses a huge challenge to its competitors. The PXA270 core provides a high performance. However 3D profiles in Java are not supported. All the applications we have tested run without a hassle. Even when one runs multiple applications, not much of performance degradation happens.

Accessories:

Along with the Asus P750 is provided a sync and charge cable, a stereo hands-free kit, a user manual, a CD containing essential software, a pouch, a wall socket charger, a spare stylus and the 1300mAH battery.

Battery Life:

The Asus P750 GPS System runs on a bulky 1300mAh which has a reasonable run between charges. Claimed to run for 6 hours talktime and 240 hours on standby mode. It runs for 2 days on moderate usage. A Full charge managed to support the GPRS for a whole 6 hours before running out. The processor speed can be altered to conserve power with four settings available: Turbo, Standard, Power Saving and Automatic mode. In Automatic mode, the P750 was able to play music nonstop from a microSD card for over 12 hours. The battery life is significantly much better than the HTC Diamond which had battery inadequacies.

Battery life:

The Asus P750 is provided with a warranty period of a year.

Verdict:

Asus have outdone all their previous models. The P750 Pocket PC is a wonderful example of business phones that are feature packed and are available in the mid-price segment. It is chunky and the hardware design could have been much tidier. However there is no denying that the Phone is one of the best to be released this season. It has a multitude of buttons which means you do not really need to use that stylus often. It has connectivity features like Bluetooth, WI-Fi, GPS and Edge. It has a great processor and a long lasting battery life. Its features bundled along with some impressive software make it an excellent multi-function handheld.

Asus P750 Handheld PDA - Technical Specification Table

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