Asus has announced that its latest Windows Moble 6.1 powered smartphone, the P552w, will use a custom UI which Asus has named Glide. The new UI relies on what Asus calls Gester technology, which sounds very similar to HTC's Touch technology.

Asus has also created a few custom applications that work with the Glide UI and Gester technology, such as "Multi-Home, Anytime Launcher, EziPhoto, and EziMusic." However, the P552w offers a lot more than a custom UI and it's good to see that Asus hasn't skimped on the hardware features like HTC seems to be doing on some of its cheaper models these days.

The P552w comes with a 624MHz Marvell PXA930 processor, 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM, a microSD card slot for expanding the storage memory, a 2.8-inch touch screen, although sadly, the resolution is only 320x240 pixels, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and a SiRF Star III GPS receiver. Finally, we have a 2Megapixel fixed focus camera and USB 1.1 PC sync interface, both of which are a bit yesteryear considering the rest of the specifications.

On the mobile phone side, the P552w offers tri-band GSM (900, 1,800 and 1,900MHz) and 2,100MHz 3G with HSDPA connectivity up to 3.6Mbps. At 102 x 60.5 x 14.5 mm (HxWxD) the P552w is quite chubby although at 105g with the battery it's not too heavy, at least. The 1,100mAh battery is a bit below the norm and Asus claims 300hrs standby in 3G or 250hrs in 2G mode with up to 3hrs talk time in 3G mode and 5hrs in 2G mode.

No availability date or pricing was announced, although judging by the comment on Google maps integration, it looks like the P552w will be available in most of Europe at some stage.

You can find the press release here.