By TAN KIT HOONG

In fact, standalone devices are almost extinct – you'd probably be hard-pressed to find a Pocket PC with no phone capabilities nowadays. 

The Asus P535 is a fairly typical example of a Pocket PC phone, which also throws in another increasingly common technology into the mix – a full-fledged GPS (global positioning system). 

In the box 

While it's certainly not ugly, there's not much in the way of looks with the Asus P535 – it's a rectangle that fits well in the hand and that's about it. 

Inside the box, you do get a pretty good set of accessories, though – a car charger, a stereo handsfree kit, USB cables and even a bendable arm holder with a suction cup for setting the P535 up in your car. 

The P535 also makes up for its bland looks with its software bundle – there are a number of built-in applications, most notably a "My Secrets" application for encrypting your personal files, a cool tool called WorldCard Mobile and even Skype for Pocket PC.  

WorldCard Mobile is pretty cool – it allows you to snap photos of business cards and have them automatically recognised and converted to a contact on the Pocket PC. 

For road warriors, there's Remote Presenter, which turns the P535 into a remote control for PowerPoint presentations from your Bluetooth-enabled notebook PC. 

All in all, a pretty comprehensive software bundle. 

GPS ahoy! 

Unfortunately, we could not properly test the GPS capabilities of the review unit because it did not come with the required GPS software – however Asus assured us that retail versions will definitely come with the popular MapKing navigation software. 

In any case the P535 comes with the SiRF StarIII GPS chipset, which is one of the most sensitive GPS chipsets available today and should perform like other GPS units with the same chipset. 

We've also tested MapKing before on other machines, and although it is not the easiest to use, it is more than adequate for most users. 

If you are looking for more updated Malaysian maps than the ones that come bundled with MapKing, check out www.malsingmaps.com for free downloadable maps. 

The phone 

If you've used a Pocket PC before, the P535 should be familiar territory – running on Windows Mobile 5.0, it's got all the office productivity tools integrated into the system, namely mobile versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Internet Explorer. 

Performance is pretty snappy too, thanks to the 520MHz Intel XScale processor, which can speed up or slow down depending on the CPU load. 

The whole package is pretty small, and feels good in the hand – in fact, if you're upgrading from a Pocket PC, you'll feel right at home with the P535. 

However, I do have to mention that since the P535 works entirely on a touchscreen interface and does not come with any kind of thumb keyboard or alphanumeric keypad, people upgrading from a regular mobile phone to this one might experience a bit of culture shock.  

UP CLOSE: The P535 has a 2.5mm stereo jack input on the left and a mini- USB port for synchronisation.

None of these methods make it easy for a person who has never used a Pocket PC before to do simple things like write an SMS or a Word document.  

Even if you are proficient at any of these text input methods, it's impossible to enter text by "feel" like we do on our T9-capable mobile phone alphanumeric keypads. 

However, if you're not into texting and do all your business by calling people, then it might be okay – otherwise I suggest you look elsewhere for a product that comes with some kind of a keyboard. 

As far as wireless options go, the P535 has most of them – it comes with WiFi and Bluetooth, but strangely only has support for plain-Jane GPRS.  

The phone has no 3G or EDGE, which is a real drag since a full-fledged PDA phone like this would really benefit from high-speed data connectivity. 

AUTO FOCUS: The P535 has a little rubber cover on the top right hand for fitting an external GPS antenna for improved GPS reception

One area where the P535 really excelled was in capturing images with the 2-megapixel digital camera.  

The camera has autofocus (still an uncommon feature in phones) and produces some pretty good pictures compared to most phones and PDAs with built-in cameras.  

For entertainment, the P535 comes with stereo input, which accepts the less-common 2.5mm stereo jack – this means that you'll have to get an adaptor if you want to plug in a pair of earphones with a 3.5mm stereo jack. 

As for battery life, the P535 managed to last for about two days with very little use of WiFi – if you're going to use it to play music, movies and to surf on WiFi, you'll probably find yourself having to charge it every day. 

Conclusion 

Without an alphanumeric keyboard nor a slide-out Qwerty thumb keyboard, most casual users are going to find the P535 difficult to use – you'd probably be better off going for the Asus P525, which does have an alphanumeric keypad. 

For more advanced users, the lack of 3G and EDGE might also be a put-off, although to be fair, the P535 does have WiFi. 

It's not all bad though – the phone, the integrated SiRF StarIII GPS chipset and the autofocus digital camera are all good – these three features might appeal to off-road adventurers who use it primarily for navigation and communication rather than road warriors.  

Pros: Built-in GPS; good software bundle. 

Cons: No built-in keyboard; no 3G or EDGE.