Asus P527 GPS Smartphone Review

May 14 2008, 12:00am CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Today we are going to take a look at eh Asus P527 smartphone. This device rolls GPS, Wi-Fi and more into one package. Asus isn’t a name familiar to many phone users, but it is a name familiar in the electronics industry. Read on to find out how well the Asus P527 performs.

Gallery

6 images

Benchmarks

Features & Specifications
The Asus P527 runs on a TI OMAPTM 850 200MHz CPU. The operating system for the phone is Windows Mobile 6 Pro and the device operates on EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks at 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. The LCD is a 2.6-inch TFT with a resolution of 240 x 320. Dimensions for the device are 113 x 58 x 15.4 mm and the Asus P527 weighs 129g with the batter.

The battery is a 1300mAh lithium-ion good for 4-5 hours of talk time and 150 to 200 hours of standby. Wireless connectivity for the device is 802.11b/g and it has Bluetooth 2.0+EDR. The device can surf the web and view HTTP and WAP 1.2.1/2 sites. Memory for the device is 128Mb of flash and 64Mb of SDRAM. Memory expansion is available with microSD/SDHC cards.

The GPS receiver is a SiRF Star III with an internal antenna. The camera for the Asus P527 has 2MP. Audio formats supported include MP3, WMA, and AAC with supported video format of MPEG-4/H.263. The device has full PDA style functions along with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint capabilities. A FM receiver is built-in and the device ships with maps of North America.

In Use
Physically the phone is thicker than my iPhone, but very near the same size. The GPS functionality of the phone works well, but the maps included on the microSD card appear to be several years out f date. The maps were unable to locate my address, which has been here for 3 years.

The software included with the Asus P527 is very interesting though with the ability to capture images with the camera on the phone and append them to a GPS route that can be uploaded to Google Earth. The software also allows for reporting your GPs position to contacts on pre-defined lists.

The FM tuner works well and is a nice addition to the device. Call quality was good, not on par with my iPhone, but decent nonetheless. The speaker phone volume was too low for my tastes. Connecting the phone to a Bluetooth headset was very easy to do as well. The processor used in the phone is plainly too slow for all the Asus P527 wants to do.

The device ahs an onscreen keyboard and comes with a stylus for using the keyboard. The stylus is rather cheap and made from plastic. It feels like it will last a few months before you need a replacement. The camera is best used for images in a pinch since it lacks flash. Most shots I took turned out dark and grainy despite lighting conditions.

Configuring email accounts on the device was easy enough and for some accounts like Gmail the phone will ever find the server info it needs from the web. Web surfing on the AT&T EDGE network was slower than on my iPhone with the same network. On the whole the Asus P527 is just pokey.

Final Thoughts
In the end the Asus P527 is simply an average phone that does a lot of things well. The real deal killer here is the price of the phone. The Asus P527 goes for over $500; you can simply get more phone for the money.

Verdict

Conclusion

Pros

GPS software is interesting
Attractive
Good call quality

Cons

Slow processor
Expensive
Out of date maps

Verdict
The Asus P527 is a well speced phone that looses out significantly on processor speed and price. If Asus could drop the price several hundred bucks and give the device a better processor the P527 could be a winner.

6.0

where to buy

Buy from Amazon

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Shane McGlaun
Leading our review center, Shane knows technology inside out. His extensive experience in testing computer hardware and consumer electronics enable him to effectively qualify new products and trends. If you want us review your product, please contact Shane.
Shane can be contacted directly at shane@i4u.com.