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Bundle Asus P525 Headsets USB Cable Magnetic Leather Pouch Spare Stylus (2 Nos.) Bonus Software CD Windows Mobile v5.0 Pocket PC OS Manual & Quick Start Quide 
Specification Band: GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900 Dimensions: 116.8 x 59 x 19 mm Weight: 160 grams Display: 2.8 inches (240 x 320 pixels, 65K TFT Touchscreen) Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC Processor: Intel Xscale processor 416 MHz Battery: Li-Ion 1300 mAh Build & Design The Asus P525 is an elegant looking PDA phone. The phone looks much better than the previously reviewed P535. The P535 has a boxed finish while the P525 has more of curves. This gives the P525 a much more ergonomic feel. You can hold and use it comfortably. Let's take a closer look. 
The P525 has a thin chrome strip above the screen. It's a neat touch to denote the earpiece of the phone. The chrome strip also hides an LED under it, which blinks green when in standby and red for any alert or for that matter even a battery low/charging warning. 
The screen is large and is 2.8-inch in length. The display is sharp and with the brightness set to an optimal level, it's still readable. Below the screen is the numerical keypad with a row of function keys on either side. Then there is a joystick which sits in-between the #2 and #5 keys. This should have actually been very uncomfortable, and though it does to certain extent Asus have done a pretty good job by incorporating a joystick in-between a keypad. The #2 and #5 keys are raised a level above the rest of the keypad. The right side of the phone has a standby button and a hold switch, which locks all the keys instead of having a lock code/combination. It saves a lot of trouble like removing the stylus to touch the screen or key combinations with just a manual open or lock through a sliding switch. 
On the left side of the phone, there is a voice command, a camera hotkey, and a volume control. There is also a Reset switch - if at all phone hangs. The Reset switch can be hit using the stylus. You don't need to look around for pin. 
The lower end of the phone has a miniUSB port and a stereo jack. Both are standards. There shouldn't be any problem in finding a miniUSB cable and a headphone with standard stereo plug. 
The memory card slot is placed at the top of the phone. The phone supports the miniSD format, which will give people some reason to switch to this phone. The PDA is housed on right side of the phone - right on the edge. The stylus should have had a metal body - like the one bundled with the P535. This one is all plastic and drops the image of the elegant phone by a percent. 
The back of the phone has a raise in which an LED, the 2.0 MP autofocus camera, and the speaker of the phone sit. The speaker has a neat grill and there are little budges on the edges of the raise to prevent scratches on the camera lens. 
The overall build of the phone is sturdy. With a blend of hard plastic with matt or gloss finish in the appropriate places, the phone feels pretty solid in the palm of your hand. It can withstand a minor fall - unless it's like from the balcony to the ground below. Interface Moving on, let's talk about the interface of the phone. It has a Windows Mobile v5.0 Pocket PC OS. The OS runs smoothly on the 416 MHz processor, and has a 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB of internal memory. Also there is a miniSD card slot provided to add more memory. If you are already a PDA user there is a good chance you own a miniSD card, which can be used in this PDA as well. 
The OS is very much the same like any other Windows Mobile v5.0 and hasn't been enhanced or played around with. Its usage is simple, just like a Windows-based desktop. The best part of this phone is that almost everything can be done without the use of the stylus. It makes for a much easier use compared to other Windows-based mobiles. The phone compared to the P535 has a slower processor, but I never had to undergo the experience of the phone hanging. There is a little more addition to the phone by Asus. They have their own proprietary software - the links to which are provided in one corner of the "Today Screen". You can switch between Portrait and Landscape mode with just the tap on the screen. There is an Asus Status popup which provides CPU usage. Tapping it gets you to the running apps - if you wish to shut any of them. 
There is also a quick link to the CPU performance: CPU Mode, something much like software overclocking. You can also switch between the various USB modes: ActiveSync High, ActiveSync Low, and Mass Storage. You can set the CPU to Auto (default), Turbo, Normal, and Power Saving. There are also shortcuts provided to activate/deactivate WiFi and Bluetooth. 
The Asus P525 has a lot more going for it. It has a business card reader which makes possible to save contact data by just running a business card through a scan via the camera of the phone. The phone has a voice recognition and handsfree mode. If you can get the time to train the software it will really put things to ease with just talking to the phone. But then it's weird to talk to a phone and there is also a choice of not taxing your voice-box and using some activity for your hands. Also the phone supports online sync with the exchange server for contacts, email, and calendar/scheduler. Being a Windows Mobile handset, it comes loaded with office so you can tackle Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files even on the move. There is MySecret (information security) which is basically a safe-box. You can store any personal files inside this folder which can be locked by a code and kept safe from data theft. The bundle provided with the phone has Skype. By using Skype one can reduce the cost of long distance calling. 
You can add more programs to the phone to extend functionality and its not limited to just the Windows Mobile based apps. You can also install Java based programs. The phone supports Java CLDC 1.1 and MIDP 2.0. All installed Java apps can be found in the Java console of the phone. The phone has Flight Mode which can be activated by just tapping the network icon on the screen at anytime. The bad part though is that the phone doesn't support flight mode without the SIM card inside the phone. Inputs Since the Asus PDA is a unique PDA with a numerical keypad and joystick, I felt it deserved some special attention as to how good the various options of inputs are. Let's take up the obvious one first - the handwriting recognition. The handwriting recognition of the phone is something that takes time getting used to. You can just start scribbling and expect yourself to be understood. I've used lots of PDA phones, but it took me sometime to understand this one. So I switched to the transcriber which has a character list. Once you go through the character list you have an idea of what the phone can recognize best, pen it down similarly and you'll be scribbling quick. This is very much liked by the ones who write in block. 
Next is the onscreen keyboard - that's a piece of cake. As long as you are precisely tapping the screen, there will be hardly any mistake. The final one is the numerical keypad of the phone which allows you type with either the T9 switched ON or else it's numerical only. The T9 isn't bad at all - if it's your preference. But if you countlessly press buttons to type out a single word, then its not happening. It's a bit odd that it wasn't included but then what would the onscreen keyboard be for. Anyways all the modes are pretty good and I preferred using the numerical keypad - so I'd have one hand free. The only problem was the obstructing joystick at times of pressing the No.2 and No.5 keys. Camera Asus have once again provided with a very good camera. This one is a 2MP autofocus and has flash assistance as well. The camera module is good, though the flash doesn't really do much to help over a certain distance in the dark or lighting conditions. The max resolution image captured by the camera is 1600x1200 pixels. 
There is a macro mode as well to capture portrait images with much clarity. The camera can also record video. Video recording max resolution is at 320x240 pixels. The flash assistance is there even in video recording mode. The camera overall is good to be seen in a PDA. Multimedia The Asus P525 has decent multimedia capabilities. Just like Windows desktop PC, this has Windows Media Player for playback of both audio and video files. WMP v10 is the default player in the phone. It has a library for listing all the audio and video files. The library can be refreshed whenever there is any media added to the phone or the memory card. 
There are unfortunately no settings to enhance the music quality. But rest assured, you will be pretty satisfied with the music quality delivered through the provided headsets. You can even change the skin on WMP just for kicks. The better part is the assigning of keys for various functions. Most of the main playback functions can be handled with the use of the joystick (Play/Pause, Next/Previous, and Volume UP/Down). Fullscreen video etc can be assigned to a key. Connectivity The Asus P525 is a quad band PDA. It isn't 3G but provides with the basics none the less. Here in India, we really don't need to bother about 3G, atleast for sometime. It has GPRS but no EDGE which is a bit bad. It has WiFi 802.11b for faster internet connectivity, but you'll still have to be either in a hotspot or have some WiFi service - else GPRS will be your savior. The phone has Bluetooth v2.0 for file transfers and also has Infrared if you sill use it for transfers. The USB is a 2.0 and needs ActiveSync to be installed to save contacts etc. Else you can just switch to the USB Mass Storage mode and transfer data. The USB transfer speeds are not blazing 2.0 but very acceptable as long as it's faster than USB 1.1. Battery Life The Asus P525 has a 1300 mAh battery. The battery rating states that the phone will survive for about 5 days in standby, and offer about 5 hours of talktime. The phone after a full charge lasted me 2 days with talktime around 4 hours. It's pretty decent, as I kept using the phone for surfing - which is taxing on the battery because of the network connectivity. The use of WiFi for about 20-30 dragged the battery life down to a day and a half. The above was achieved with the display brightness set to about 30%, which was still pretty readable even under the sun. It's a decent battery life and is expected from a PDA. 
Conclusion The Asus P525 is available for around Rs.19,000 with 1 year warranty. The best part is that you get a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 6, which is much better because of its optimization. The phone is a decent buy and much to live to the competition. But the problem is how many out there really know of an Asus for handsets. For that matter even Asus as a PC peripherals manufacturer is known by just a few. All said and done this phone is worth the money you invest. Just that you need to get used to the joystick sticking out in the middle of the keypad and the missing EDGE.
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