ASUS P552W Review – I am fast baby!
When was the last time you used a fast device? Let me say, a really fast device! If you have been an old Windows Mobile user, your memories may roll back to the Windows Mobile 2003 days. Well, ASUS has come up with the ASUS P552W, a device equipped with a very powerful Marvell Tavor 624MHz CPU promising super fast performance and with sleek and slim design, looks like ASUS has product that promises to be a winner among people.
Unboxing
All the usual stuff came into box. The box is simple and packaging is not similar to the ones of HTC. No HTC Diamond style box. Nothing flashy.
ASUS follows plain Jane approach: giving user simple experience while unboxing.
Following are the contents of the box:
- ASUS P552W
- mini-USB earphones
- Charger
- mini-USB cable (not ext-USB that the HTC uses)
- 2 CDs: application CD and Activesync CD
- 1100mAh battery
- Glide user-interface guide
- and some more papers
Design
The ASUS has followed the latest trend. The ASUS P552W follows the minimalistic design approach of not crowding the device with tonnes of buttons. It comes in black or white color. The unit I got was white in color. The body of it is shiny. So, it picks up fingerprints pretty easily. But, since the color is white, they are barely noticable. This may not be the case with the black unit.
On the left side, you can find the volume button, GPS antenna. On the top, you can find the power button.
On the bottom, you will soft-reset hole, standard mini-USB port and microphone.
On the right side, you will find the camera button and lock switch. This is similar to ones used in Motorola Rokr E6. Simple toggle it to lock the device. Nice and simple and it works!
The back of the unit contains the camera and speaker.
Screen
The screen is 2.8″ display with QVGA resolution. True, it is not ultra-crisp like the ones used in HTC DIAMOND and SE XPERIA X1, but, it cannot be overlooked too. It is flushed just like the Touch range from the HTC. I personally liked it a lot. Why? The screen of the P552W is so sensitive that sometimes you feel that you are using capacitive screen. It is much much sensitive than the Touch Diamond’s screen.
Performance
This is where this device truely shines! I used the HTC DIAMOND and ASUS P552W together and felt how slow the Diamond is! The Diamond is not equipped with a slow processor at all (Qualcomm 528MHz). The ASUS P552W comes with Marvell 624MHz processor. Let the benchmarks do the justice:
Now, now the overall result. Poor HTC Diamond could not win in single field. I was spoiled by its speed in 10mins of usage! I felt my Diamond unbearably slow. The speed is lightning on P552W. The ASUS has tweaked the hardware and software alot. The applications lauched very quickly with no or little delay.
Connectivity
The ASUS P552W comes packed with lot of connectivity options. It has Wifi b/g, Bluetooth, HSDPA, UMTS and a SiRF StarIII GPS. I faced no problems in using any of these. Sadly, the USB is 1.1. I don’t know why ASUS did go for the USB 2.0 since all the devices these days come with 2.0.
This is weird considering the fact that the device comes with in-built Mass Storage mode. The USB 1.1 really limits the speed. On the brighter side, it is still faster than the slow Activesync file transfer speed.
The device comes with micro-SD card. The slot is SDHC compatible. So, you can use one of those 16GB SDHC micro-SD card and carry a lot of multimedia with you. Also, the micro-SD slot is hidden under the SIM slot.
Battery Life
The battery capacity is 1100mAh. Is it enough? Face it, it is a device with a powerful CPU and a host of connectivity features. If you use GPS continuously, it won’t last you much. How is it’s battery life compared to HTC Diamond? This will actually give you a better idea.
The battery life is great. You should get 2 days of good usage. To squeeze even more battery, ASUS offers built-in underclocking via which you can set the device to run at turbo, normal, automatic and power-saving mode.
Memory
The device comes with 256MB ROM and 128MB RAM. After a fresh hard-reset, you get around 60MB of free RAM.
Phone functions
The reception is descent. I made a few calls with the device and got no problems. The quality is speaker is great and sound pretty loud with little bass too. They have bundled a finger-friendly Dialer too which makes it easier to dial numbers.
Camera
It is a basic 2MP camera. It works fine for web pictures. Nothing much to talk about the camera.
Size Comparisons
ASUS P552W and HTC Diamond (O2 Ignito)
NOKIA E61i, ASUS P552 and HTC DIAMOND
The ASUS P552W is not think too. It gives you a similar feeling of the original HTC TOUCH. Here are few devices stacked upon each other: ASUS P552W, HTC DIAMOND, HTC S710 and NOKIA E61i.
Software Side: Welcome to the Glide interface!
In this comepitive world, powerful hardware is very important. But, software part cannot be ignorred. The ASUS has done quite a commendable job of giving some good compeititon to the HTC’s TouchFlo3D. The ASUS calls this interface as Glide. The concept is quite similar to the SONY EXPERIA’s panel interface.
It has 3 modes:
- Life: This gives you a big analog clock and covers full screen
- Business: This gives you a world clock
- Original: This brings back the start button with a special ASUS today plugin. This is quite similar to the HTC’s TouchFlo interface.
Some screenshots of Life interface:
You can swip your finger to right or left to move between the images. Tap once to hide the buttons
Here are few screenshots of the Business screenshot
ASUS has bundled few goodies too. They have included simple backup/restore utility and a call filtering software.
They have also included a finger-friendly music player called EziMusic, which is relatively simple to use.
They have also skinned the WMP mobile.
A small, but useful application called meeting time planner, which is nothing but tells you the time of the other city compared to your city.
Remote Calender, an application that lets you sync your calender with the Google Calender is also included.
A simple ZIP application to unzip files on the go.
Youtube and Flickr application also been included to uplaod videos and photos respectively. Voice dialing is also included as-well-as Remote Desktop.
I tested Skype on it and it worked perfectly with no problems at all.
Overall Verdict
If you don’t care much about VGA and want pure speed and performance, then look no further. ASUS P552W is a great deal especially considering the fact that it is SIM-unlocked, meaning that you can use it with any provider/carrier. Coupled with the excellent build-quality by ASUS, it is an overall great package.
What we liked:
- Speedy processor
- Very Light and compact
- Fits in hand easily
- HSDPA, UMTS ready
- Decent RAM, ROM
- Glide interface
- micro-SDHC support
- Great build quality
- Cheap
What we didn’t like:
- No finger-friendly soft input panel bundled
- QVGA resolution
Thanks To ASUS for the review unit!
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[...] the complete review with lots of photos HERE! Technorati Tags: Asus,P552W,Review,Windows [...]
Great review. I wanted to buy one this Christmas but your review has made it clear all the doubts it has for this baby!
Wow! It is a good looking device and packed with features. BTW, VGA on a windows mobile device is crap.
I don’t care about it. This thing has raw power and i love the benchmarks! it pwnd the HTC DIAMOND!
[...] Read the full review here Categories : News [...]
[...] is – (screenshots included) Commenta 25th December , 2008 I’ve just posted a review of ASUS P552W. It felt to me that I should do a post of how badly the Qualcomm 528MHz processor performs against [...]
Is this phone available for sale in India and if so where??
It is available in whole Asia (including India)
I also want ot buy ASUS P552W , how much is it ?
does it have a secondary camera for video calls?
i think not, correct?
even so, can it still make video calls without the 2nd camera?
TQ :D
Hi Grace. I don’t have the unit with me now anymore, but I can confirm you this, it does not have a front facing camera and thus it cannot make video calls
[...] linkuri interesante http://www.mobilewave.ro/forum/topic-3641.html ASUS P552W Review – I am fast baby! | ..:GadgetMix.com!::.. __________________ TF2 [...]
I’m one happy user of ASUS P552W. But there are few things wherein Diamond is better.
1. Screen resolution 320×240 compared to 640×480 of Daimond.
2. Accelerometer is absent in ASUS.
3. Diamond has 4GB of extra internal memory.
I’m a very happy owner of an ASUS P552w. This has got to be the best pocket pc i’ve owned. Comparing this to htc and o2 products, the build quality is much more superb. No chances of paint fading or stripping. And it also has a solid feel. I also love the performance. 600mhz+ of raw power. It’s like a V8 engine roaring. All the connectivity options you’re looking for is all in this product. Very strong wifi. The camera may not be in par with the likes of Nokia and SE, but I really don’t mind. I have a digital camera to make up for that. Two thumbs up for this great piece of device. Nice work ASUS!
[...] The glide interface is same as found on ASUS P552W. I’m just using the same content from it’s review [...]
[...] GadgetMix has given the Asus P552w a good going over, and has published their review here. [...]
Hi… I own a p552w and I am very happy with it, but…
Lately I’ve been having some problems with it. The phone recognizes my network (Vodafone P) but switches it off automaticaly from the list of networks, so I have to keep switching my phone off an on for it to be conected to the network. Everytime I select my network from the list, 5 minutes later, os off again.
I have already done a hard reset and it worked for a couple of weeks, but then it started happening again.
Do you know what the problem is?
Regards,
Miguel
I recently bought ASUS P552W. As of now I am very happy with this.Earlier since 3 years I had dopod 828 . I mainly use it for phone, Music, Net Browsing and running a program similar to Microsoft Access (HanDBase). I am using opera for net browsing on my POST PAID BSNL GPRS connection. It is rocking. I was not very familiar in the initial stage and had to Hard reset. I use 8GB storage card.
Hey! I want to know whether this phone (Asus P552w) comes preloaded with any GPS like Satnav’s Satguide?
@ Vicky: No it does not
Vicky Yes I got it free from the dealer in Bangalore. If you are a regular user go for a better scratch guard. Poor stylus tips. Good smart PDA mobile phone
[...] with top notch gps performance at only $290. Some reviews on the overall performance of this baby ASUS P552W Review – I am fast baby! | GadgetMix.com!::.. __________________ Power is Nothing When There’s No Control Lenovo ThinkPad X61 C2D 2.0 4gb 667 [...]
[...] only $290. Some reviews on the overall performance of this baby. Keen msg me at 97989123 cheers. ASUS P552W Review – I am fast baby! | GadgetMix.com!::.. __________________ Power is Nothing When There’s No Control Lenovo ThinkPad X61 C2D 2.0 4gb 667 [...]
Hi,
I found this phone in the market was immediately wanted to buy. But, in some other shop (which had this phone), I was informed by the dealer that this particular phone is having a lot of problems due to which the company (Asus) has made this product obsolete. He also told that this phone had so much problem that he had to exchange this phone with some othere phone for some of his customers. Can you please help me understand? Also, I see that one of the users “Miguel” has mentioned that the phone is facing some nasty problem with the service provider. Does anyone have clues??
Miguel… did you find the solution for your problem? What more issues have you come across? What about the service offerred by the company?
I am using this phone since June 2009. I was feeling good in the initial stages, bay as the day goes on lot of problems surfaces. I find the network fail without ant warning.Each time when it fail you have to go for default setting.Battery drain toooo fast, that may be because of high processor speed. I have ASUS Board in my DESK TOP and ASUS EE PC but this one is bad purchase.
I have been using P552W for a while now. i have a problem now, touchscreen doesnt respond to taps. all hardkeys are working. tried reboots but no use. not possible to ‘default reset’ since it asks for code which i cant feed in without tap screen. please help.
i got it serviced under warrant. they replaced the touchscreen panel and it is working fine. the service centre was very prompt.
Iam also a sufferer among you all with asus 552w with network related issues (looses contevity offten when talking) ofcourse battery drains like anything
OVERALL useless Phone from ASUS
NEVER TRY A BRAND WHEN TRYING OUT SOME THING
BE PRACTICLE AND DONT SUGGEST ANYBODY TO PURCHASE ANY PRODUCT FROM ASUS