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Asus, which is behind the extremely popular Asus Eee PC range, has now introduced its first smartphone for 2009 — the Asus P565 Windows 6.1 that packs in a 800MHz Marvel CPU making this device the fastest smartphone in the world, at least on paper. The noticeable feature in this device is the Glide feature which offers a single finger sliding gesture to navigate the four directions, as well as tapping to call up applications.

The P565 has an uncommon 2.8-inch screen size that is a major portion of the P565 real-estate and on top of that it’s a VGA screen (480 x 640 pixels). So move over iPhone. With such a high resolution, images look sharper, but at the same time, the text and details on documents will also look smaller. The smartphone also packs a multimedia punch with its 3-megapixel autofocus camera and microSD card slot for extra storage.

It does suffer from a few design quirks like the mini-USB connector, used for charging battery, transferring of files and for plugging in the headset, is located at the base. In other words, you will not be able to charge and use your headset at the same time. The P565 is a GPS-enabled device with SatNav’s SatGuide map pre-loaded on it. The P565 uses a 1300mAh Lithium-ion battery that promises 4-5 hours depending on the usage patterns. It’s a reasonably-good device despite its price tag of Rs 35,000 (1-year warranty on handset)

Flip Berry: The BlackBerry Pearl 8220 also known as Flip phone is impressive with its flip phone design. It runs on RIM’s latest handheld operating system, the Blackberry OS v4.6, which offers new features like the ability to receive HTML email with images. One can custom-build icon-screen folders for better organisation, and even put the device into Safe Mode that can help to identify and eliminate problem applications. BlackBerry OS 4.6 also offers a separate SMS/MMS-dedicated mailbox unlike the previous versions.

This phone has double the amount of flash memory (128MB) over previous Blackberry Pearls, though the processor speed is constant at 312MHz.

One of the 8220’s coolest features is that it lets you display and preview new messages and status information on the external screen when it’s closed (akin to Motorola flip phones). The phone is ideal for Flip phone fans and Blackberry Pearl addicts and costs just Rs 21,990.

Touch Viva: The new HTC Touch Viva picks up where the original HTC Touch left off. While it has a screen that is definitely low-end with a QVGA resolution, mere 2-megapixel camera, what the HTC Touch Viva does offer is a tweaked version of the TouchFLO interface. But a relatively slow processor at 201 MHz can spoil the joyride.

Although users can flip through album artwork, pictures and videos as if they were picture cards in the palm of your hand on the comfortable 2.8 inch screen, don’t expect the bells and whistles like other costlier touch devices. The manufacturer has included a 256 MB onboard memory, which is just enough for your daily tasks. Yes, there’s no 3G, but there is Wi-Fi. Users have two options to listen to music, on the Windows Media Player or the HTC Audio Manager (the latter is integrated in TouchFLO’s music tab).

On using, one realises that it is a tad difficult to activate the touchscreen at the corners of the HTC Touch Viva with just finger or thumb touch. You have to rely on the side-mounted stylus, especially when you want to activate a scroll bar. The default browser is Opera (though users can also use Windows Explorer) and you can pan around pages by brushing the screen with your fingertip. Quite iPhone-like. At Rs 16,490, this could be your first ‘touch phone’ with a few basic multimedia features thrown in.