14 DAY TRIAL // Asus intends to compete with its Taiwanese neighbor HTC in the PDA market, by releasing a new Pocket PC that doesn't look far from a HTC one (HTC Touch Cruise more exactly). Thanks to the French website MobiFrance, we have details and pictures of the new Asus device as well as its codename - Asus Galaxy Mini - but we don't know its official name (at the moment of writing, at least).
The pictures show "GMS2-1088" written on the front and the back cases, so this might (or might not) have something to do with the handset's naming. GMS-2 is the name of a hand-held GPS receiver from Topcon Positioning Systems, a leading American producer of precision positioning equipment, but I don't think the new Asus has any connection with the US-based company. Anyway, while waiting for official details, we'll just name the handset Asus Galaxy Mini, which doesn't sound bad at all.
Asus Galaxy Mini is a GSM device with GPRS and EDGE connectivity and comes in a small size, unknown though, packing a 200 MHz processor and a QVGA touchscreen display. Apparently the handset runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and will offer some pretty nice features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, built-in GPS, mini USB, microSD card support and a 2 Megapixel camera that should be enough for pictures at a decent quality. Other specs were not revealed, but it's a sure thing the device is not 3G enabled.
Asus Galaxy Mini will be available in Europe for an estimated price of at least 300 Euro (about $450), in three color options: blue, golden pink and white. Its release date is unknown for the moment, but I'm sure Asus will showcase this little handset at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress that takes place in Barcelona, Spain, in less than a week (11 - 14 February).
