The P526 is an affordable PDA phone that goes head-to-head with the Sony Ericsson P1i and Nokia E61i. Priced at Rs 17,000, it offers a good value as an entry level touch screen based cell phone. The handset's design is very similar to its high-end sibling, the P750. The P526 is well-proportioned, and feels more comfortable to hold than Nokia's E61i. The P526 doesn't have a joystick, and completely relies on the touch screen for navigation, which isn't very intuitive. The soft menu buttons and two dedicated buttons are in the form of a small thin strip, and are difficult to operate. The keypad is well spaced, and offers good tactile feedback.

The P526 is also comes bundled with the necessary applications-Mobile Word, Excel and Powerpoint. PIM functions include a Meeting Time Planner, Remote Presenter, Voice commander, business card recognition and Java support. The phone also includes GPS, but the corresponding software needs to be installed separately. Audio quality is so-so, and can't match the Nokia E61i or Sony Ericsson Plio The 2 mega pixel camera delivers decent photographs, but only in well-lit rooms. Outdoors, it performs like any other 2 megapixel camera; good exposure and consistent colour accuracy. The phone comes with 128 MB of internal memory, and that can be increased via the microSD card.

Internet browsing on GPRS was slow, but that's more of a provider issue. No WiFi is a serious shortcoming; the competition has it, and they also have the newer Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, while the P526 just has version 1.2. The ASUS P526 has good signal reception, and we had no problem with dropped calls or static. Voice clarity was good, and the battery survived for two days on 45 minutes of talk, GPRS usage and tinkering around with GPS. To summarise, the ASUS P526 performs well, comes pre-installed with useful applications and has loads of features but misses out on essentials such as WiFi. If you want an affordable touch screen PDA phone, then the ASUS P256 fits the bill. However, also consider Nokia E61i and Sony Ericsson P1i as viable options.

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