Asus GPS/PDA Is Easy On The Wallet June 27, 2007

Read more Gadgets , Gizmodo UK , PDA , Wireless

About £200 is what you expect to pay for many decent GPS sat-nav devices nowadays which is why the new one from Asus, which just also happens to be a fully-fledged Pocket PC PDA, is worth a closer a look.

This is the £199 Asus A696, clad in stylish and shiny stainless steel and measuring just 1.57cm thick. Underneath the 3.5cm screen is the energy-efficient SiRF Star III chipset running alongside Destinator Technologies’ software. There’s a QuickNav button for getting to a pre-determined address or POI (Point of Interest) quickly.

On the PDA front, it’s Wi-Fi enabled, features Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for all that work-related nonsense.

The whole thing is powered by an Intel XScale 416Mhz processor and there’s 256MB Flash ROM and 64MB SDRam. And, when you’re no longer lost, you can use the device for playing back music and videos. Due out at the end of next month, this does actually look like a bonafide bargain. -Martin Lynch

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