Asus bringing GPS-packing P527 smartphone to US this year

We've always sort of enjoyed the form factor of Asus' P527 GPS-enabled WinMo 6 smartphone, and now it looks like we'll be able to get our hot little hands on one when Asus officially launches the unit in North America sometime early this year. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Asus thinks its first North American handset deserves 3G, so we're still stuck at quadband EDGE, but the built-in WiFi, Bluetooth, and Google Earth GPS integration kinda sorta make up for it -- but we're wait for pricing info to hit before we go looking for our wallets.

[kyle allen @ Jan 3rd 2008 7:09PM]

grrr, those pension canceling pension cancelers. if they werent so awesome id hate them

[Raymond @ Jan 4th 2008 2:56AM]

Looking at this one, trust me, its not all that awesome. Windows Mobile just isn't exciting anymore. Someone really has to up the built-in memory capacity and interface to make me wanna buy another WinMo device.

[James Ollier @ Jan 3rd 2008 7:16PM]

Wow that thing is UG-LY!

I'd wait for "iPhone 2" which should be here July-ish

[SteveMB @ Jan 4th 2008 5:37PM]

Why? This things unlocked. And you know the innovative part about this phone? It has a removable battery!

[David W. @ Jan 3rd 2008 7:18PM]

I'm definitely interested...I fell in love with asus after I got my G1 laptop...

[Kris @ Jan 3rd 2008 7:18PM]

It looks like Sony's phone.... but more uncomfortable. I didn't think that was possible...

[thethirdmoose @ Jan 3rd 2008 7:28PM]

fugly AND slow

[pilot101 @ Jan 3rd 2008 7:41PM]

hmm wow asus needs to do a lot better than that to compete with htc that already has gained a good market share and customer loyalty in the US

[justin @ Jan 3rd 2008 7:46PM]

I may be a weirdo, but I hope a stylus comes with this phone. I fail to see the usefulness of a WinMo phone with no QWERTY action. I know my mom loves to use her stylus to input text with her Tytn II, but if this doesn't have a stylus, you better have some strong fingers if you do any texting or messaging.

Imagine running Excel with no stylus. YIKES.

[ethana2 @ Jan 3rd 2008 11:10PM]

It bugs me when more efficient key layouts get disregarded for small form factors ;)

[Matt @ Jan 3rd 2008 8:02PM]

There's no WAY I'd buy a device that put the Sydney Opera House right next to the Eiffel tower...

[Randavance @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:24PM]

Maybe I'm crazy but I think it's really nice looking. I wish this would come to verizon, and a stylus would make it nice.

[Randavance @ Jan 3rd 2008 9:36PM]

On second thought, I wish the alphabet keyboard was spread out into those nice evenly spaced set of keys, and not limited to the 9 middle standard texting ones.

[OffBeatMammal @ Jan 4th 2008 12:27AM]

Woot. 2MP camera and Google maps.
Maybe 3MP and Live Maps (and integration with the rest of WIndows Live) and I'd be more excited.

The WM folks really need to look at something like the Nokia N95 8GB and set their sights a little higher than last years models.

And I agree with earlier comments about spreading QWERTY out a bit more. T9 is okay but if you've got the keys cluttering up the device make the best use of them (learn from Blackberry)