Asus shows second MS smartphone

Asus displayed its latest Microsoft Mobile-based smartphone at Computex last week, although the Sony-Ericsson P900-like model wasn't exactly obvious.

We took a snap of the P505, but our rather basic and LCD-free digicam failed to reveal the handset in all its glory. But here's one we found today on the Computex website.

As you can see, the handset features a fold-up keypad, though closing it doesn't appear to pop up a smaller display as is the case with the similarly equipped P900. Alas, the P505 on the Asus stand was encased in perspex so we were unable to give it a go.

According to the accompanying notice, the P505 is a tri-band GSM/GPRS phone with Bluetooth and infra-red. There's a USB port for synchronising the device with a PC. It sports a 1.3 megapixel digicam and a 240 x 320 display, and a SD/MMC slot for memory expansion. Inside is a 520MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor.

The OS is Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for PocketPC Phone Edition, so comes with the usual cut-down versions of Word, Excel, MSN Messenger and Internet Explorer.

The P505 is Asus's second attempt at creating a Windows Mobile-based smartphone. Last year, it showed off the AGP600, a clamshell device with a spec. that included GSM, Bluetooth support, a built-in camera, 32MB of RAM, 200MHz Intel XScale CPU and a 2.2in, 176 x 220 16-bit color display.

That unit appears never to have been released, although Asus has since offered its J100 and J101 GSM/GPRS multimedia handsets for the Taiwanese market. ®

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