I bought "Asus P535 triband" instead of "HTC Touch Viva" for Rs.12200/- from Wavetel velachery, chennai-42. There is a cheaper model @ Rs.10, 000/- that matches HTCtouch but I took this because it is still cheaper than HTC counterpart but performs better. It has impressive onboard memory(256MB NAND Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM). The processor(520MHz Intel® XScale) is so fast(can be adjusted using the built-in utility from Asus), it can handle any job thrown at it. By the way, my favourite place to get windows mobile software is ppcsoftz.blogspot.com.
The touch screen is good. I recommend installing the VITO ZoomBoard(Not inbuilt) for typing in qwerty. Once it is installed, you can switch between this and the default keyboard. You can easily use your fingers for typing because, it the key you are touching and allows you to change it before getting typed.
It may appear big. But it is lighter than its appearance.
Phone and sms functionalities are good. Even skype works well. I also used VZOmobile and had a video chat using wifi.
You can download Microsoft myphone software and sync your phone data to your account in internet.
I am very happy to own this phone except when somebody asks me if this is imported korean phone. FYI-It is not. It runs Microsoft Windows® Mobile™ 6 Professional. If you can’t live without radio or Infrared, U can see something else. For internet, I use wi-fi and link it to my bsnl broadband modem/router at home so virtually no cost. GPRS is also very good. No 3G/EDGE by the way. The GPRS & Wifi dont seem to like each other so disable one to use the other-I activate a dummy GPRS setting while using wifi. The GPRS setting was a little confusing. I use Vodafone, and they had no idea about setting up GPRS in windows mobile. I figured it out anyway and it is kind of easy.
-
Below are the settings & Procedure:
1) Goto: Start->Settings->Connections tab->Connections->Advanced(Don’t use Tasks tab, it is misleading)->Select "Networks"->"New" button
2) Name of setting: VodafoneLiveSetting
3) Select "Modem" tab
4) Select "New" button
5) Name for the connection: VodafoneLive
modem type:GPRS
6) Access Point Name(APN): portalnmms
Leave the username, password, Domain name as blank and the advanced IP settings to server-assigned. Finish.
7) Select "Proxy Settings" tab
This Network connects to the internet: Yes
This Network uses a proxy server to connect to the internet:: Yes
Proxy server IP: 10.10.1.100
8) Select "Advanced" button, then click on each of following settings to make the entries:
HTTP:10.10.1.100:9401
WAP:10.10.1.100:9201
Secure WAP:10.10.1.100:9203
Socks:10.10.1.100:1080
9) Goto: Start->Settings->Connections tab->Network setting
If an option like "Select your operator" is selected, deselect it. This should be done to avoid anybody accidentally resetting your GPRS setting.
10) Check if you have good signal from your cellphone operator(vodafone in my case).
Enjoy browsing!
Remember to disconnect any kind of wireless connectivity if not required like GPS, GPRS, wifi, bluetooth. They consume extra power. Oh speaking of which I remember, these extra connections will be disconnected when the phone goes to standby mode. So if you want constant connection other than phone line, disable standby mode.
-
For the inbuilt GPS(SiRF Star III single chip), I use Google maps. Works great, depends on coverage of network(for loading maps) and GPS satellites(for the obvious!). The beauty of google maps is, that it caches the locations you have explored already to the memory, so you don’t need internet for already explored places. Clever Google people!
GUI is plain and washed out. So installed SPB-shell GUI. Looks beautiful now. Very responsive even with SPB-shell running which others high priced phones are struggling to handle.
It is documented to support Mini-SD & Micro-SD only. Here’s my secret! It suppots Micro-SDHC also. That means you are free to use memory cards higher than 2GB. I use 8GB card, my friends i-mate does’nt support it! Oh but there is one tiny problem with the 8GB card, If the phone resumes from standby it will forget the memory card. 3 ways to deal with this. 1) Use the default card! 2) Disable standby mode like myself-I still get 2 days battery life-Thanks to the "1300 mAh Li-ion" battery 3) Find a patch/firmware which can fix this-I’m still searching and let me Know if U get!
The 2MP autofocus camera is good. Flash light is the brightest I have seen for close range. The camera doubles as a business card scanner with the help of an inbuilt utility, and is very good at it.
It came with a manual, CD(which I barely need), 2 chargers one for home power supply & the other to use in a car, a suction holder, a 1GB Micro-SD card, a v1.1 USB connector cable(ofcourse the phone will be detected automatically as a memory card with appropriate setting)
The other goodies which are not very uncommon these days available in this phone are voice recorder, windows media player(I use TCPMP instead, it even plays youtube flv files with appropriate plugins). Asus utilities, Shortcut buttons for Volume-Camera-TaskSwitch-Call-Cancel-OK(very useful)-2FunctionButtons-AudioCaptureButton-LockSwitch(very useful), remote contor of laptop/PV via the v2.2 bluetooth, MiniSD card slot, 2.5mm audio jack(yes you need a high quality converter if you need high quality).
Want more? It can even run Google-Android! Check the following links. I’m waiting for my warrenty to expire. I need to see if I can install openmoko-linux too:
https://sites.google.com/site/siteofhx/Home/android/android-running-on-asus-p535
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=455648
https://sites.google.com/site/siteofhx/Home/android/android-porting-steps/english
I don’t find anything wrong with this phone except for its slave dress. Hope the fairy Godmother(Asus ofcourse) will give it a new avatar!