Windows Phone Thoughts: Asus Launches WVGA P835

"Designed for business-savvy professionals who appreciate a screen as big as their ambitions, the P835 is equipped with a large 3.5" touchscreen that runs at WVGA resolution-offering five times the number of pixels of most phones and delivering the best document, photo, movie and website viewing experience possible. Apart from being able to display more of a webpage onscreen, the P835 boasts features that greatly enrich users' online experience, including blazing fast HSUPA 7.2Mbps download speeds, a responsive trackball that makes scrolling effortless and Opera Mobile, a user-friendly and full-featured Web browser."

Apart from the big screen and Asus' updated Glide interface, the P835 boasts a 528MHz Qualcomm processor, 288MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, Micro-SD slot, AGPS, and 5MP AF camera. The P835 also offers the capability to act as a WiFi AP for up to ten devices, which is a real nice capability to have. I'm a bit dubious about the trackball - the placement might make it a little awkward to use with one hand - and the battery is a little small for a premium device. Everything else makes this a pretty fine top-of-the-range contender for ASUS. Read the rest of the press release for more details.

ASUS Raises the Bar for Mobile Web Surfing and Multimedia Enjoyment with P835 WVGA PDA Phone

Taipei, Taiwan, February 27, 2009 - ASUS, a leading producer of innovative handhelds, today launched the P835, a PDA phone that delivers an Internet browsing and multimedia viewing experience without equal. Designed for business-savvy professionals who appreciate a screen as big as their ambitions, the P835 is equipped with a large 3.5" touchscreen that runs at WVGA resolution-offering five times the number of pixels of most phones and delivering the best document, photo, movie and website viewing experience possible. Apart from being able to display more of a webpage onscreen, the P835 boasts features that greatly enrich users' online experience, including blazing fast HSUPA 7.2Mbps download speeds, a responsive trackball that makes scrolling effortless and Opera Mobile, a user-friendly and full-featured Web browser. It wraps all of its impressive functionality in an elegant touch-optimized interface which is intuitive, interactive and attractive.

Unparalleled Internet Browsing Experience

The ASUS P835 is designed to help users get the most out of the Internet. It is embedded with Opera Mobile, a fast, user-friendly and rich-featured browser that brings a complete Web experience to the P835. Users will be able to perform the full breadth of online tasks-from hopping onto their social networking sites and updating their blogs, to checking email and viewing streaming video. The P835 also enables users to switch between 12-key, half-Qwerty and full-Qwerty virtual keyboard modes, allowing them to choose an input method that best suits their current task. A responsive tracking ball significantly improves scrolling, and the phone's large 3.5" display ensures every webpage is displayed crisply and vividly.

Crystal Clear 3.5" WVGA Touchscreen

The P835 is equipped with a large 3.5" touchscreen that runs at WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) resolution-offering five times the number of pixels of most phones-thus rendering the P835 capable of delivering unprecedented clarity and screen real estate. Regardless of whether it is used for watching movies in full screen, browsing through photos, perusing documents or surfing the Internet, the P835 will provide visual enjoyment on the mobile platform like never before.

New Glide: The Best Mobile Interface, Now Even Better

The P835 features an updated, streamlined and enhanced iteration of ASUS' exclusive Glide-the most innovative, intuitive and interactive mobile user interface available today. New Glide has been given a significant facelift over its predecessor, boasting new icons that take the beauty and interactivity of the interface up a notch-making the best even better. Subtle, bold, modern, swanky or sweet-the P835 has a theme that will appeal to everyone.

Doubles as a Wi-Fi Access Point

The P835 has the additional ability to function as a Wi-Fi Access Point. It can share its high-speed HSPA cellular data or Internet connection over Wi-Fi with up to 10 devices, such as laptops or other PDA phones. Connecting devices is a simple affair thanks to the P835's user-friendly interface, and dropped connections are automatically restored.

Specifications

Networks: HSPA (DL: 7.2Mbps, UL: 2Mbps), UMTS 900/1900/2100EDGE/GPRS/GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Class 12

Operating System: Microsoft Windows® Mobile 6.1TM Professional

Color: Black

Form factor: Bar type

Dimensions: 115mm x 59mm x 13.8mm

Weight: 148g (with battery)

Standby Time: 350hrs with 3G and 300hrs with 2G*

Talk Time: 6hrs with 3G and 7hrs with 2G*

Display: 3.5" TFT, 65K-color Touchscreen, WVGA (800 x 480 pixels)

Processor: Qualcomm 7201A 528MHz

Memory: 4GB Internal Storage + 288MB SDRAM + 256MB ROM

Expansion Slot: MicroSD with SDHC support

Connectivity: WLAN 802.11b+g , USB v2.0, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR

WAP Browser: HTTP / WAP 1.2.1/2.0

Messaging: SMS / MMS / Email / MSN / Push Email

Battery: 1100mAh Lithium

GPS: Yes (AGPS supported)

Business Applications:

PIM: Word (editor), Excel (editor), PowerPoint (viewer), Adobe Reader, Windows® Live, MSN, Voice Commander** and Push Email (Exchange Server).

Other Features: Opera browser, Wi-Fi Access Point, YouTube, Flickr, ASUS Virtual Keyboard, Anytime Launcher, ASUS Today, EziMusic, EziPhoto, Google search and RSS Reader.

Multimedia and Entertainment:

Camera: 5 Megapixel Auto Focus

Video: Record: MPEG4/H.263; Playback: MPEG4/H.264/H.263/WMV; Video Call, Audio/Video Streaming

Picture Format: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP

Audio Format: MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR, AAC and AAC+Ringtone Polyphonic (MIDI, 128CH), MP3, WMA and WAV

JAVA: J2ME (CLDC 1.1 + MIDP2.0)

* Talk and standby time are dependent on the network environment and on phone usage.

** Subject to region availability.Specifications are subject to change without prior notice. Please visit www.asus.com for more details.