Asus P735

Print

Email

Bookmark

Share

The Asus P735 is the company's latest PDA-phone featuring 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. Unlike many of its dedicated handhelds though, this model doesn't come with GPS built-in. With so many PDA-phones in this form factor, what sets this Asus apart from the rest of the pack?

Design
A combination of brushed metal, gray and silver make up the colors on the P735. Though primarily housed in plastic, this handheld has a solid feel to it. The brushed metal finish is only on the front, with dark metallic gray around the display and a lighter shade for the buttons below that. Not including the navigation pad and selector, there are six buttons in total. A single panel with four depressible corners contains the two softkeys and two shortcut keys. On both sides of that panel are the green and red Call and Reject buttons. Though neatly arranged, the keys suffer from being too stiff and noisy, every one of them giving audible clicks when they are pressed.

One thing we did like is the Hold switch on the right side of the device. These switches are more commonly found on MP3 players to prevent accidental key presses, and work well as a key lock for the P735.

	The buttons on the P735 felt stiff when pressed.

Found on the bottom of the P735 is a 2.5mm audio jack, a mini-USB jack for charging and syncing as well as a microphone. At the top, are the power button and miniSD slot. The unit's metal stylus fits into a slot on the top right-hand corner. This stylus is the device's main tool of input, so we would have preferred an extendable and heavier one for better feel.

The form factor of the P735 makes it fall into the same class of products as devices like the O2 Atom Life and Dopod D810. Even though the Asus is marginally lighter than those two handhelds, it is pertinent to note that it has fewer features and at 109 x 59 x 19mm is larger in all three dimensions than its two competitors. At S$1,248, the Asus is marginally cheaper than the Dopod, and about S$200 less than the O2.

Features
Because it was announced and released so recently, the P735's lack of HSDPA connectivity is somewhat disappointing. Otherwise, we did not face any problems connecting to the Internet with 3G. Video calls are also a cinch to do using the front VGA camera found above the display. One gripe is with the placement of the speakers at the rear, which isn't optimal for speakerphone use.

Among the P735's other connectivity options are Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP support for wireless stereo headsets) and 802.11g wireless LAN. Having Wi-Fi is not just good for surfing the Internet at hotspots, it also means Skype communication is possible. In fact, Asus has provided the software in a CD with the P735, saving the need to download it.

Next page »