Click to View

A week ago we reported that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the quad-band (900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS ASUS P505 smartphone for release in the United States

The P505 is part of trend towards smaller cellular-handhelds built on Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone version of the Windows Mobile operating system. Historically, Pocket PC-based mobile handsets tend to be larger than other types of smartphones.

At the time of our report, it was not known when or if the P505 would even ship in the U.S, however. Now comes word from Brighthand that PROPortable, which sells more ASUS handhelds in the U.S. than any other retailer, is in talks with ASUS to bring the smartphone to these shores

That is, if there is enough demand for the device.

You see, PROPortable won't order the number of P505s necessary to bring the smartphone here unless enough people voice interest in purchasing it through its website.

Should PROPortable sell the P505, it would go for around $700 by itself and $100 less with service from Cingular Wireless. The P505 most likely won't ship until at least the end of February.

ASUS P505
According to the documentation filed with the FCC, the new P505 should be based on Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition. Whether it is the Second Edition of that platform is unclear. If it is, then the cellular-wireless Pocket PC will support portrait and landscape viewing.

P505 measures 4.25 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches and weighs 6 ounces, pretty small and light for a Pocket PC Phone. The handset's small display is only 2.4 inches diagonally and supports the Pocket PC standard 240 x 320 pixel resolution. The device's keypad flips down to reveal the whole screen, as part of the display is covered when the keypad is in its up position.

Other features include a 1.3-megapixel camera for pictures as large as 1280 x 960 pixels, a 416MHz Intel PXA270 processor, 64MB of memory, Bluetooth, and an SDIO-enabled Secure Digital slot for memory and peripheral expansion.

Purportedly, the P505's 1050 mAh battery delivers 4 hours of talk time. You should get 15 hours out of the battery when the P505 is used as a standard Pocket PC.