Mio has some how let the lid off (intentionally or not) their GPS-enabled Windows Mobile-based smartphone, which it is marketing as a mobile phone with PDA functionality (i.e., rather than a PDA that you can use to make and receive calls). The smart phone will ship with Magneto (that’s Windows Mobile 5 for you and me) and is based on a 520MHz Intel XScale PXA270 chip backed by 192MB of memory (of which a minimum of 64MB will be ROM). If that is still not enough capacity for your needs, there is an SD/MMC slot for memory expansion.

The A701 features a 2.7in, 240 x 320 display. To reply or send emails, there’s no QWERTY keyboard, a virtual, on-screen pad is offered for your use. The smart phone also offers users a 1.3 megapixel camera. Its radio supports tri-band GSM with GPRS and of course Bluetooth 1.2 connectivity.

The smartphones’ GPS receiver is inside the handset. As such, there’s no flip up antenna or receiver stub. Admittedly, Mio’s A701 is not the first smart phone with integrated GPS to hit the market. However, it is the first one to launch that utilizes a traditional handset form-factor.

Pricing information or release date for the A701 has yet to be announced, in the mean time the Mio 269 (Digiwalker) is widely available.