Asus P525 Gets FCC Approval

The Federal Communications Commission has puts its stamp of approval on the Asus P525, a Pocket PC phone with a built-in numberpad.

Quite a few handsets running this operating system have either been released lately or are expected soon, but the vast majority of these have a built-in keyboard. The P525 will instead be for those who prefer the 0 through 9 keys traditional on phones.

FCC approval isn't a sure sign that this device will debut in the United States, but the fact that this is a quad-band smartphone is a strong indication of this. Only three GSM bands are generally used on models that will be released in just Europe and/or Asia.

More About the Asus P525

When companies ask for FCC approval for upcoming models, they are required to file a description of the device with this government agency. When approval is granted, the FCC posts this description on its site. This often gives the world an advance look at unannounced products.

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However, this isn't the case with the P525, as Asus has been showing it off at tradeshows for months. Brighthand caught a glimpse of it at CeBIT 2006.

This device will run Windows Mobile 2005 for Pocket PC. It will include 64 MB of RAM and  128 MB of ROM, with a miniSD slot allowing for extra storage.

As mentioned earlier, the P525 will be a GSM device. It won't offer EDGE or any of the faster cellular-wireless networking standards, but it will have Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) and Bluetooth 1.2.

In addition, this smartphone will have a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, a 2 megapixel camera, and a 1300 mAh swappable battery.

It is not yet known when Asus will release this device, or what it will cost.

Additional information on the Asus P525, including a draft version of its user manual, can be found on the FCC web site.

Related Information

• CeBIT 2006: Asus P525 Windows Mobile Phone and GPS PDAs
• A List of PDAs from Asus

Via Engadget