14 DAY TRIAL // Another Asus Pocket PC showcased by the Taiwan-based producer at the CeBIT Fair 2008 in Hanover, Germany, is Asus M536, a high-end device that comes with a design resembling the M530W model, released by Asus in 2007.
In terms of performances, Asus M536 stands somewhere between the M530W mentioned above and M930, the Asus communicator that tries to compete with Nokia E90.
The new Asus M536 runs on Microsoft's latest Windows Mobile 6.1 OS and comes packed with quad-band GSM connectivity (850, 900,1800 and 1900 MHz), UMTS, HSDPA (for data transfer speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps), GPRS and EDGE class 10. Measuring 116.9 x 62.5 x 13.9 mm, the device offers a 2.43 inch TFT display with a 320 x 320 pixel resolution and touchscreen support, built-in GPS receiver, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 and Asus Security Manager. Furthermore, we have 256 MB NAND and 128 MB DDR SDRAM memory, a 1200 mAh Li-ion battery (its performances are not known for the moment), a VGA camera for video calls and a nice 3 Megapixel photo camera with auto focus that should allow users to take pictures at a quality above the average.
Asus M536 also comes with a full QWERTY keypad, designed in a way probably best known from RIM's BlackBerry smartphones. Anyway, the keypad will prove to be very useful for both businessmen and users who frequently send text messages.
Asus plans to release the M536 Pocket PC in July 2008, for a retail price of about 500 Euros (around $760). Might seem expensive, but the device really has a lot of features, so I say it's worth the money. Plus, the M536 looks really, really good (in my eyes at least), so its owners will get to have both performance and style.
Live report by Bogdan Popa and Cosmin Vasile from CeBIT 2008 Hanover, Germany.
