Asus is slowly moving into the portable media market and the two new devices it presented last week offer a glimpse in the future of mobile devices. The A686 and A696 are two fully functional PDA’s equiped with GPS receivers to serve the function of PNDs (Portable Navigation Device) as well.

The differences between the two models are only related to the hardware they incorporate as the A686 has an Intel XScale 312Mhz processor, 128MB Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM, while the A696 has a more powerful Intel XScale 416Mhz processor, 256MB Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM.

According to Asus the differences stop here as both models are packed in the same 11.7 x 7.08 x 1.57cm (approx.4.6″x2.8″x0.6″ ) slim stainless steel case with no external antenna for the GPS receivers and weighing just 165g(6 oz.). The features of the devices also include wireless WiFI 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth v2.0 connectivity and it runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 with a media player for both video and audio playback.

Filed under Portable Media