Asus P526 smartphone review

The Asus P526 is a smartphone with useful features, but we have some concerns about connectivity and low hardware configuration.

The metallic grey toned body will fit right in to your corporate boardroom. The Asus P526's 2.6in touchscreen supports 65k colour. Below the screen is a thin metal strip that performs different functions, they are not user-friendly initially but don’t take much getting used to.

Below the screen is a regular alphanumeric keypad. The absence of a directional key is made up by the Asus P526's three-way Jog Dial along the side.

The memory card slot, reset pinhole, camera capture button and keypad lock switch are all conveniently stacked up on the Asus P526's side.

The Asus P526 also has a miniUSB port that supports only USB 1.1 and a 2.5mm jack port for stereo headset. A basic 2Mp camera is housed at the back and the stylus is also at the bottom corner.

We like the bundled Office Mobile that can create, edit and view Office documents, although creating presentation files is not possible.

The installed 64MB of RAM and its 200MHz processor speed falls short of the mark, however. That said, the Asus P526's generous 128MB internal memory should satisfy most users.

One big selling point of the Asus P526 is its built-in SiRF Star III GPS chip, which turns the phone into a GPS device. However, you have to install your own software maps to use it - no software is pre-installed.

Like other Asus phones, the Asus P526 comes with a Remote Presenter to make presentations via Bluetooth.

The Asus P526 is quite limited in terms of connectivity. There is no Wi-Fi or 3G as the phone supports only EDGE and GPRS. It’s sad that the phone does not support Wi-Fi considering the price.

The Asus P526 includes a fair amount of accessories — a car-holder, a car charger, stereo-headset, data cable, Software CD and a nice leather pouch. However, there is no memory card included.

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