Aha! So that’s what’s been holding the UMPC market back: the lack of a QWERTY keyboard. That’s why every new handheld hitting the market has got a bunch of keys with letters on them, and the GPS-packing R2H from Asus is no exception. On the aesthetic front, I’d have to say that the R2H leaves much to be desired. It’s not particularly inspiring, nor does it come with any sort of flashy lights. Instead, you just might say that this offering is the ThinkPad of UMPCs. Yup, it means business.

But wait, the R2H doesn’t come with a built-in keyboard. Look a little closer and you’ll notice that the folding QWERTYness is supplied by Targus and connects to the UMPC via USB. I guess this helps keep the weight down when you don’t need to enter any text, relying completely on the provided stylus and 7-inch touchscreen.

Under the hood is a 1.3 megapixel camera, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Microsoft touch pack software, Asus’ exclusive “Splendid” video technology, Intel Celeron M 900MHz ULV processor, 60GB hard drive, and a four-cell battery. Plenty of connectivity here too, with the aforementioned GPS, as well as as 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, USB 2.0, miniUSB, VGA, and an SD expansion slot.

No word on price.