Asus P320 Review Information

I know that there are hundreds of pages that would appear while googling this phone. A large bunch of them just give statistics about the dimensions / hardware / OS. Some of them even wrong unfortunately.

The objective of this blog is to put together all the stuff I have grasped being an owner of the Asus P320 all the other users / potential users out there who are planning to pick this phone up. What all can you do with this phone, and more importantly how to do it.


A lot of what you would read here would be available on the comments section of gsmarena but I hope this would be a lot easier for a user to access the information rather than scouring the 30 plus pages that already exist.

have tried to make each part a bit detailed so do skip to parts you feel are relevant to you ..


Specifications

The best place for these details would be the Gsmarena page for the phone. This would be available here

http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_p320-2347.php

The important points not mentioned on the above page according to me are the following

1. It doesn't have support for 3G, not to relevant to people in India as 3G is still not available to the subscribers and will definitely take some time.

2. It doesn't have a 3.5 mm audio jack or a 2.5 mm audio jack. The audio jack for this phone is co located with the mini usb charging slot so you could do only one if you haven't purchased a splitter that allows you to plug in both.

3. The external card works upto 8 GB without any issues, haven't heard of any people trying with 16GB but no reason why it should not work. Please also remember that Kingmax ( not Kingston) cards have capability issues with this phone as reported by some users, so probably a good idea to avoid.

4. There is no FM radio on this model.


GPS

Yes this found supports it, questions have been asked about it too many times. The phone is equiped with a Sirf Star III chipset that supports GPS.

You do not need anything external for the GPS to work.
You do not need to plug in anything.
You do not need to pay anything to use GPS.


You do however need to have a clear view to the sky for it to pick up the satellites. So its unlikely for it to work from inside a building.
It takes sometime ( upto 10 minutes) to lock onto the satellites so please give it some time.



Maps / Navigation Software

Most importantly you need a program that will use your hardware to plot your location on a map. Yes its the most important part and its missing on the device. There are various options such as Nav4All, Mapmyindia, Googlemaps. Some of them have the maps as part of the install, the other download them on the fly depending on where you are using GPRS / EDGE / Wifi.

Google maps is free but you need to have internet access else it won't work. The others need to be bought.

Also note, the GPS Catcher that comes with the phone is an application that only downloads the locations of the satellites, this helps the above mentioned programs to find the satellites faster. It is NOT a program to view your location etc.


Connectivity

The Asus P320 supports GPRS and EDGE where ever available. Please remember that usage of data in these two methods are typically NOT free. There will be a charge by your serive provider to use / download information using these capability.
Typically if you subscribe to the service, you provider would send across an sms that would auto configure the settings and you should be good to go for either internet explorer / Google Maps etc

Wifi supports both b/g. So if you have a wireless router you could switch on the wifi on the Asus P320 surf without having to pay your provider for GPRS access. All application that require an internet connection work seemlessly in both environments with the Wifi typically working much faster due to faster speed of your internet connection.
The Wifi supports connections to secure wireless networks as well, you will need your security key to connect. Once connected , it locally caches the network key so you do not need to reenter the key everytime you want to connect the network.


Activesync via the USB connector, The normal wired active sync creates a small 2 system LAN with your device acting as a DHCP service assigning a 192.168.2.1 for the handheld and a 192.168.2.2 for the computer. This can be checked in the networks page, it will be a LAN type of connection. Ideally it should not take more than 10 seconds for this to happen. You will be able to sync only to the PC that you have connected too. Activesync 4.5 ( the version bundled) no longer supports capability to sync across a network due to security issues. This issue is for Windows mobile in general and not limited to this particular model :)


Bluetooth works with for sending / receiving files. For receiving you need to make the following setting change to accept incoming beam as shown in the figure below.




You can also carry out active sync via bluetooth. To carry this out open ActiveSync, from the Menu option select Connect Via Bluetooth. If an existing connection to your computer does not exist. It will ask you to establish a new connection. Once you now pair your device you should be able to carry out Active Sync via bluetooth.

Couple of problems I have faced that have caused this not to work. The incoming port for Activesync could cause problems preventing the incoming connection if pairing has not happened properly. In this case make sure that the Secure connection for Activesync has been set to Not required. You can reach this screen by right clicking the bluetooth icon in the task bar and selecting Advanced configuration. Check the image below



Being a Windows device , you could also use application like Total Commander to enable LAN access as well as FTP, will detail this out separately later on.


Firmware Versions

The mobile initially shipped with the following Firmware
ROM 4.8.0_0612_WWE

The next release was
ROM 4.10.0_0718_WWE

The Current available firmware upgrade is
ROM 4.13.0_WWE which is available from the Asus website here

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

I would recommend upgrading to the latest firmware, I am currently on the 4.10 version I have seen better battery performance, higher stability in the overall usage. Others users have also stated similar benefits. Please remember when you upgrade the ROM you will lose all of the following

1. Contact Information
2. Application Settings
3. Messages
4. Installed Applications
5. Other data stored in the ROM

The install instructions would be available in the download, please follow them carefully.


Input Options

The device comes with the following options for inputting as do all other Windows Mobile Phones

1. Block Recognizer
2. Keyboard
3. Letter Recognizer
4. Transcriber

The expectation is to use the stylus for all these forms of inputs. There are additional third party keyboards that could be downloaded and installed as well, with some mimicking the iphone input.

I use one called Phonepad, it simulates the T9 that I am so used too , and also allows me to type messages without the need of the stylus.

This is available here for download

http://www.venukb.com/downloads/phonepad_atom_wwe.cab


Battery

I have added this section based on the feedback that this is a cause of concern for everyone using this phone. I do understand as even I felt the battery life is really sad but with proper settings you can get upto two days of use with this phone for normal usage. Will detail out the steps in terms of settings to help you achieve this sort of capability.

First you need to make changes to your Back light Setting. This can be reached by
Start ---> Settings ---> System Tab ---> Backlight

Make sure that you make a similar selection to turn off backlight if device is not used for 1 -2 minutes.


This setting for the external power tab is not important but would definitely help charge you phone faster plus save your screen as well.


Next you need to make changes to your brightness setting. This can be found in the below location.

Start ---> Settings ---> System Tab ---> Brightness



Make sure you reduce the Brightness to a level you are comfortable using. The lower you go the better the battery will last. For external power it does not matter much.


Finally you need to make changes to the power setting. This can be found in the following location.

Start ---> Settings ---> System Tab ---> Power ---> Advanced Tab




Its is extremely important to ensure that this is done otherwise the battery gets drained really soon. You need to check the box to Turn off device if not used for 2-3 minutes. Please remember that this does not mean your phone is completely switched off, you can still receive calls. As soon as a call / message is received it powers back on.


Service

What good is a phone without proper support for the same, I unfortunately did run into some problem with my phone which the Asus service center in Bangalore quickly sorted it out. The contact details of the Bangalore service center is here

http://piglings.blogspot.com/2008/10/asus-mobile-phone-service-centre.html

Please note its different from whats available in the Asus site as they have not updated the contact details for this particular center. For the remaining centers the details are available here though am not sure if there are all still valid.

http://in.asus.com/aboutasus.aspx?show=3

If you do find this useful do drop me a line. Also incase you want me to add something to the blog. I will be adding in useful application on a subsequent blog.

Firmware Upgrade

Have added in details of how to upgrade your phone as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/04/asus-p320-firmware-upgrade.html


Reset Options

Have added in details of how to reset your phone as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/12/asus-p320-reset-options.html


Windows Mobile 6.5 Upgrade

Have added in details of how to upgrade your phone with various builds as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/05/asus-p320-windows-mobile-65.html


IMEI Problems

Have added in details of how to solve any IMEI issue as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/12/asus-p320-imei-fix.html

Internet Access

Have added in details of how to connect to the internet as a separate blog here
http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-gprs-internet-access.html

Antivirus

Have added in details of options / Requirement of Anti Virus as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/12/asus-p320-antivirus.html


Tweaks : Mail on SD card

Have added in details of moving mails and attachments to the SD card as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/02/asus-p320-tweaks-mail-on-sd-card.html

Web Camera Capability

Have added in details of using this device as a web camera as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/07/asus-p320-web-camera.html

Document Capability

Have added in details of what document capabilities exist on this mobile for xls / doc / txt / ppt /pdf files as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-document-capabilities.html

The applications I plan to review for this phone are the following

1. Pointui

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/12/asus-applications-home-pointui.html

2. S2P

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/01/asus-p320-music-player.html

3. My Mobiler

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/01/asus-p320-remote-control.html


4. Total Commander

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/02/asus-p320-file-communication-manager.html


5. Registry Editor

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/02/mobile-registry-editor-for-asus.html


6. Bluetooth Remote

Coming Soon ....

so do bookmark / follow this blog and come back sometime. Also do spread the word of this site to other users out there ! If your feeling generous you could donate a dollar :)