Asus P750 review: Significant other

Asus P750 lands on the crowded Windows Mobile Pro scene but it sure isn't dropped defenseless. The Asus PocketPC is among the best equipped Windows Mobile devices on the market. A hardware multi-tap keyboard to back up that 2.6" TFT touchscreen, HSDPA, fast 520 MHz Marvel CPU, Wi-Fi, built-in SiRF Star III GPS, stereo Bluetooth and a 3 megapixel autofocus camera certainly sound like the right ammo to take on HTC-branded devices.

Still, many might have second thoughts about buying a handset by a maker with not so long a history in Windows Mobile. To them we say we found the Asus P750 enjoyable at first glance and the first impressions are of a handset that can top almost anything HTC throws at it. In case we've got you interested enough, join us to find out if the potent PocketPC carries its feature load with style.

Asus P750 official photos

Key features:

• Windows Mobile 6.0 Pro
• UMTS/HSDPA 3.6Mbps support with video calls
• 2.6" 65K-color TFT touchscreen display with QVGA resolution
• 520 MHz Marvel CPU
• 64MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM
• 3.15 megapixel auto focus camera and a secondary VGA video-call camera
• Wi-Fi support
• Built-in SiRF Star III GPS receiver (A-GPS support)
• USB and stereo Bluetooth support
• microSDHC memory card slot
• High-quality materials and excellent construction
• Hardware keypad
• Rich retail package
• Microsoft Office viewing/editing suite
• Pre-installed business card scanning application
• Pre-installed additional time management applications
• Pre-installed calls filtering application
• Pre-installed Remote Desktop and Remote Presenter applications

Main disadvantages:

• Tri-band GSM only
• Hefty size
• Limited amount of RAM
• 2.6 inch relatively small (in PocketPC terms)
• Camera is really poor (we guess it might be a faulty unit)
• Video recording resolution is way too low
• No multimedia software preinstalled (Samsung offer that)
• No Task Manager application preinstalled (HTC offer that)
• No alternative web browser pre-installed (both Samsung and HTC offer that)
• Asus Launcher application not customizable

ASUS P750 doesn't seem to have a straight replica in the HTC lineup - the same holds true for the Eten PocketPCs too. That hardware multi-tap keypad really sets it apart - usually in the PocketPC world it's either no keyboard at all or a full QWERTY.

Unfortunately, the Asus P750 doesn't have a good enough advantage over QWERTY devices sizewise. It's on the large side while the display is below the 2.8-inch standard that seems to reign the industry. Still, it's not a big difference, and the tad smaller screen wasn't that much of a bother to us.

Asus P750 views

Asus have only recently announced their thumb-optimized Home screen plug-in, so essentially you can't rely on getting a full thumb-operated device straight out of the box. You have to rely on the stylus in most of the occasions. That's not necessarily a big thing, but we find this to be the major weakness of most current PocketPCs. And yes, we admit that it was the Apple iPhone that served as an eye-opener in this repect.

We are guessing though that Windows Mobile still has a lot of fans and it's a versatile platform with enough potential - a look at the HTC Touch Diamond clearly proves that. So, if you are still interested, we'd love to host a guided tour of the do-s and don't-s of the Asus P750.