Asus P320: A Thorough Review
Introduction:
Alright I bought this phone way back in 2008(while i was in my 1st year engineering), alright getting down on the phone..
-Its a basic entry level smart phone(pocket pc) having some good features like you are have wi-fi in this price range.
Its design is really very appealing small compact yet stylish makes it unique among others, having a decent amount of display resolution(2.6 inches 240x320) with a 2 MP Auto focus camera with video recording capabilities as well....
Ok its about time that i discuss other parameters in detail...
Design:
Coming to the design part its really good, looks different small in size and fits perfectly in your palm and also the grip is also pretty decent enough to keep holding the device.
On the right hand side of the device you have a slider type of key/button slide it down to lock down the screen and push up to open the lock, this feature is quite normal in touch screen phones, the only problem is first the switch is pretty hard and sometimes the lock doesn't works at all and you have to restart the device!
And also you have a camera button which is just below the slider switch on the right of the device(which is also hard to press) and while pressing it the camera doesnt turns on all of in an instance meaning there by you have to keep pressing the button for approx 3 or 4 secs to activate your camera(and in these seconds you might miss that moment of shot which u were trying to take lol)...
On the of the device you have volume + and - button which is pretty handy and comfortable too.. and while operating this volume button you have the option to select instantaneously either one of them i.e. off mode(silent mode), Vibrate mode and regular/general sound mode and also you have the option to lower or increase the ringing volume all in all in a single dialogue box nice isnt it...
On the the top of your device you have the power on/off button which is really horrible!, firstly really small in size all cramped and really difficult/frustrating to press it and to top it off to switch on your device you have to keep pressing that shit button for 5 secs...
The back panel is pretty smooth and steady with a good lock not like any of the other mobile phones in which you need to make a use of some kind of tape to hold the back panel and whenever the tape goes off the back panel is off lol
The SIM card placement is decent enough and is tight enough so that your SIM card doesn't go air bound :P
and not to mentioning the size of the battery is massive(1100 mAh) even though the capacity of the battery is a bit on the greater side but still this you have to charge every night and moreover as time passes by it becomes lesser and lesser, I swear you have to carry a spare battery if you are on the move....
Performance:
In one word if i have to say......"HORRIBLE"... with only 200 Mhz processor running Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional really not a good idea.. and also with only 128 mb ROM and 64 mb RAM..
To test the performance in a single go just open the internet explorer provided by the device's OS OR you open up windows media player and play a song, minimize it and open your message inbox and start messaging and you will understand what i am talking about...
You open multiple applications and it will eat up your memory in no time, phone becomes sluggish as hell, to overcome this follow the standard procedure to go to the task manager and kill all the apps which are eating up the phone memory.
So this was the multitasking thing, so just forget about it in this device...
Coming to playback capabilities it almost plays all the common audio formats(who cares much until .mp3 format is supported :P)
Coming to video playback it sucks big time! until now after so much of hit and trial, doing research in every corner of the www and by installing almost all the video players(which are available for windows based mobile) in the device, i came up to the conclusion that .avi (divx) plays smoothly without any hiccups using the divx player....
Anything left?!.....
Ergonomics:
Really horrible again if you are considering the stock device(meaning you havent installed any 3rd party apps) and without the use of stylus you are handicapped and will come on the verge of just throwing the device in your trash can! the touch screen is really bad and unresponsive and if you are thinking that you are going to operate this device with your fingers then you better dont...
Use of both hands is a must in almost everywhere considering that you are not using the help of the 4 way directional buttons which are present on the big round button or say the jog dial...
One handed operation seriously is very difficult especially when you are messaging or even when you are adding a new contact or just simple browsing the contents/settings of the phone especially without the stylus scrolling down in a page is almost impossible! again if not making the use of the directional buttons....
Verdict use of the stylus is a must in most of the cases, considering that you haven't installed any 3rd party software like the fingerkeyboard to solve your typing issues and making new contacts issues which again make the use of typing your contacts name....
Battery life
Despite having a powerful 1100 mAh battery, it givers really a low backup no doubt in the new days it will give good backup but when your battery grows old you will seriously buy another spare batter.. the battery life is not that good i must say
Features
-- Windows Mobile OS v 6.1 professional
-- Wi-Fi
-- Bluetooth with A2DP{Advanced Audio Distribution Profile(which is used to stream music wirelessly)} and AVRCP(Advanced Video Remote Control Profile)
-- Blacklist/Rejectlist
-- Photo call
-- Unlimited phone book entries
-- Outlook Sync(you can see your contacts in your MS Outlook)
-- Expansion slot Micro SD supported upto 8 GB
-- 2 MP Auto focus camera with video recording
-- GPS
-- Predictive text Input
-- Use of Transcriber(which means that you write on the screen with the stylus in your handwriting and it will detect the words written)
-- Copy/Paste option available by using ctrl+c and ctrl+v
Verdict:
If you are really on a tight budget and want to experience the feel of a pocket pc then only go with this option otherwise you will definitely suffer.... and will think that this is a waste...
The Good:
What should i say in this now really nothing as such just an ordinary phone with a nice and sleek design which looks very appealing....
The Bad
-- Poor battery backup
-- Really slow processor
-- Frequent hangs
-- No option for creating group contacts
-- No bluetooth icon indicator(and while transferring any data there is no progress bar)
and many more to mention will keep you updated whenever i will encounter one :)
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