IT WAS love at first sight for sales executive Janette He when she saw the latest Asus PDA phone in newspaper advertisements.
Ms He was immediately attracted to the design of the Asus P320 Mini GPS PDA phone.
'It has nice rounded edges, and it's slim,' she told my paper. She reckons it is the smallest and, possibly, the lightest personal digital assistant (PDA) phone she has ever seen. It fits nicely in her palm and weighs just 105g. She bought the phone at the end of July for $545.
Its compact design is key to Ms He's lifestyle.
'On Fridays or Saturdays, if I go for drinks with friends, I don't like to carry a bag. I like that I can fit the Asus phone in a back pocket of my jeans and still not feel awkward,' she said.
The phone, launched in mid-June, has an in-built global positioning system (GPS), a 2-megapixel autofocus camera, and works on a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system.
For Ms He, the phone's GPS system was a huge factor that led to the purchase, as she is not good with road directions or maps. It has saved the day a couple of times too. Once, having left early for a work appointment in an unfamiliar area, she might have lost her way if her phone had not helped with directions.
'I was trying to find an industrial area in Jurong, and - thank goodness - my phone helped me find the way,' she said. She ended up arriving five minutes early.
She has also become well acquainted with its organiser function to help her track business appointments and errands.
Singapore Polytechnic student Daz Tan uses the phone's organiser to plan his appointments, from martial-arts training times to school tests' schedules.
The 21-year-old engineering student had also bought the phone because it enables him to connect to his school's wireless network, allowing him to surf the Internet and check e-mail messages. But that's not all - he gets to plug into his music playlists too.
'It means I don't have to buy a separate MP3 player,' he said.
Half of his phone's 1GB storage capacity is devoted to his music collection, which includes the latest chart-topping hit songs in English and Mandarin.
The word-processing capabilities of the Asus P320 have proven useful to Mr Tan when he has to take notes in class. He also uses it to edit documents transferred from his computer. It's a function Ms He likes as well.
'I don't have to lug around heavy paper documents. I can just store them electronically on my phone and read them later,' she said.
Its portability and stylish look have made Ms He and Mr Tan two happy and satisfied Asus P320 phone owners.
'I definitely can't live without my phone. It has, literally, become my personal digital assistant,' said Ms He.
