Mobile Phone Reviews

sheeza · The Super Geek Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 1564 Gender:

On Friday, technology manufacturer Asus launched two new PDA devices in India. The P526 PDA Phone and M530w Smart Phone made their entrée into the Indian market, essentially targeting businessmen and corporates. Unveiled at the Taj Palace in Mumbai, the event had the who’s who from the Asus group.

At the event, Asus threw light on its mobile communication product strategy for India. The formal initiative to step into the Indian market has been got off the ground with the introduction of two of its premium PDA phones for business professionals.

Benson Lin - General Manager, Asus Asia Pacific region; Andrew Tsui, Managing Director, ASUS India and Edward Wang, Business Head, Mobile Communication Business, ASUS India spoke about each new product along with the company’s business strategies in India.

“We see a huge potential going forward in the PDA Phone market in India. We have leveraged our global leadership in the PC peripherals market acknowledged for quality well engineered products experience to develop best quality PDA phones for the Indian Market”, said Benson Lin.

Adding, “By June 2008 we want to gain a significant market share and in the next two years become the No.1 PDA phone provider in India,” said Mr. Andrew Tsui, Managing Director, ASUS India. “India can expect to see a whole range of premium Asus PDA phones being launched in the next few months.”

Speaking about the M530w, Edward Wang, said, “In today’s day and age, connectivity anytime and anyplace is a vital requirement of all professionals. The M530w is a Smart Phone in the truest sense of the word, because of its varied features for business as well as entertainment on the go!”

The Asus M530w supports Push E-mail and also has the ability to concurrently receive mails from the user’s office Outlook mail server. In addition it can also update their organizers and communications records for easier data management.

Asus Unveils P526 PDA Phone And M530w Smart Phone in India

Asus Unveils P526 PDA Phone And M530w Smart Phone in India

Further on, the device offers support to several Mail Server systems including POP3, IMAP4, Microsoft Exchange, BlackBerry4.0. So no matter where the user is, in the country or elsewhere, different mail servers will not be a hindrance in remaining connected and updated with work mails

The other key features of the Asus M530w Smart Phone are:

# QWERTY keypad

# 3G Video Phone

# 3G

# Ability to utilize wireless connections via 802.11 b/g for high speed data transfers

# Bluetooth V2.0

# Built-in Business Card Recognition

# 2 MP Auto-Macro camera with a powerful flash and strong close-up shot ability

# VGA camera for Telephony

# Windows Live Messenger

# Windows Media Player application

# Windows Mobile 6 Standard operating system’s ActiveSync

# Utilities: To-do-list, Organizer, Calculator, File Explorer, Windows Live Messenger

# Business Features: ClearVue Document Reader (Office & PDF), Supports BT remote presenter, Business Card Recognition

# Comes with 2 built-in brain teaser games

The main specs of the Asus M530w Smart Phone are:

# System: UMTS (3GPP Band I), GSM 900/1800/1900; GPRS Class 10

# Dimensions: 117 x 65 x 13.8 mm, 135g

# Battery: 1200 mAh Lithium-Ion

# Talk Time: 4 -5 Hours(GSM) , 2-3 Hours(WCDMA)

# Standby Time: 150~200 Hours

# Color: Black and White

# Main Display: 2.4? TFT, 65K colors, 320 x 240 resolution

# WAP: HTTP / WAP 2.0

# Message: SMS, MMS 1.2, and Email

# JAVA: J2ME (CLDC 1.1 + MIDP2.0)

# Music: MP3, WMA, AAC, Midi, and WMV

# Video: MPEG4 / H.263 Playback and Recording, Audio/Video Streaming Video

# Memory: Built-in 256 MB Flash + 64 MB SDRAM

Coming to the other device launched, the Asus P526 PDA Phone makes use of Windows Mobile 6 Professional features, Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities and a variety of messaging advancements enabling users to experience Windows Live with enhanced stability and speed. By integrating a number of well-known Windows Live mobile services, the P526 keeps users connected with their communities and lets them find the information they require quickly and without hassle.

Wang said, “The ASUS P526 PDA is a stylish gadget for people on the move and who prefer to remain connected at all times through online communities, instant messengers, blog updates, emails and files transfers. Productivity is also enhanced though built in applications like GPS.”

One of the most significant features of the Asus P526 is the way in which it makes it possible for users to use Windows Live to integrate contacts so that users can see who is online or offline at any given time. Also, users can then share and update their lives via photos, instant messaging or e-mails.

Asus Unveils P526 PDA Phone And M530w Smart Phone in India

The P526 incorporates a convenient feature with the integrated Windows Mobile 6 Professional Smart Dial feature, which enables users to automatically pull up contacts when they start typing a first or last name with the keypad. The search bar located just below the current time launches web searches without requiring opening the browser, thereby simplifying the task of web searching.

The other features of the Asus P526 PDA Phone are:

# Comprehensive GPS Capabilities

# Built-in 2MP camera with full screen preview ability

# Quad-band EDGE

# Asus Launcher allows users to enjoy a feature phone-like interface – making it easy to launch applications or functions

# Remote Presenter to control PowerPoint presentations stored on a notebook or PC via a Bluetooth connection

# Meeting Planner

# Asus My Secret function which encrypts and protects sensitive documents away from prying eyes once activated

# Asus Status to keep users up-to-date with the status of the device

Specs of the Asus P526 PDA Phone are:

# System: EDGE/GPRS/GSM 850/900/1800/1900

# Dimensions: 110 x 58 x 15.4 mm 115g (with battery)

# Battery: 1300 mAh Lithium-Ion

# Battery Life: Standby Time: 150 hours (Subject to different wireless or online networks)

# Talk Time: 4 hours (Subject to different wireless or online networks)

# Color: Silver-Gray

# Display: 2.6? TFT, Supports 65K colors, 240 x 320 resolution

# OS : Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional

# App. Processor:TI OMAP 850 (200MHz)

# GPS: Built-in SiRF Star III Chip, supports GPS

# Messaging: SMS/MMS/Email/MSN

# Video: MPEG4 supporting 30 FPS QCIF video / Windows Media Player 10

# Ring Tones: 128 Polyphonic MIDI ringtones, supports MIDI/MP3/WMA/WAV/AAC/ AAC+/AMR and other music formats

# Memory: Built-in: 128 MB Flash + 64 MB SDRAM
External: Micro-SD

# Java: Supports J2ME (CLDC 1.1 + MIDP 2.0)

# Transfer Interface: USB v1.1 / Bluetooth 1.2

# PIM/Office: IE, Word, Excel, Power Point (viewer), MSN, Alarm, Calendar, Organizer, File Manager, Telephone Book, Notebook, InBox, Voice Recognition

While the Asus M530W is expected to retail in the Indian market at Rs. 20,900/- , Asus P526 will be priced at about Rs.16,990/-. The PDAs will be distributed by India Digital Lifestyle Distributors Pvt Ltd (IDLDPL) across the country.

In addition, Asus is also in negotiations with several mobile telecom service providers to bundle Asus PDA phones with their new subscribers. ASUS plans to initially target the top five metros—Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai for the PDA phones, since a significant number of business users, who are the company’s main target audience are located in these metros.