ASUS has joined the latest craze among phone vendors to include a touch based UI. ASUS's Glide interface seems to take several cues from the one pioneered by High Tech Computer in its Touch series of PDA phones, with gesture controls, digital clock and news and weather updates.

Glide is being debuted in the new ASUS P552w, which if you ask us also bears many similarities with the original HTC Touch. Internally the P552w boasts a Marvell Tavor 624MHz CPU which ASUS reckons is one of the fastest on the market, 256MB flash and 128MB RAM, expandable via MicroSDHC cards, and a 2.8" QVGA display.

The PDA phone also supports HSDPA 3.6Mbps, Wi-FI b/g, and Bluetooth, and includes a SiRF Star III GPS chipset which is unfortunate as SiRF's recent patent dispute with Broadcom is going to cause problems selling this phone in the US next year.

Dimensions of the phone are given as 102x60.5x14.5mm with a weight of 105g including battery.

The phone will be offered in black or white with pricing and availability likely subject to region.

You can read more here and hopefully we'll have a hands on review of the phone in the near future.