This smart-looking Pocket PC is feature-laden and offers good performance to thrill advanced handheld users.With camera-phones moving into the megapixel arena, it's not surprising to find handheld makers following suit. Sony was probably the first to deliver with its CLIE PDAs and now Taiwanese ASUS has joined in the imaging game with its MyPal A730 Pocket PC.
This round, ASUS has decked out its A730's facade in a shade of dark blue with the rest of the chassis in conventional silver. Interestingly, the entire back portion which conceals the battery is removable and optional covers are available for customisation. While we applaud the company for doing so, we found the lid loose-fitting and this smears the merit of a quality product. On a brighter note, it's good to the grip, thanks to its curvature at the sides.
When powered up, one will be attracted to its crisp 3.7-inch TFT that offers a 480 x 640 resolution. A row of launcher buttons are lined up near the bottom separated by a five-way trapezoidal direction pad. ASUS cunningly extends the use of these four hardware keys to map eight applications differentiating them by a press-and-hold gesture.
One crucial design flaw must its oddly placed stylus silo located at the unit's bottom right. This proves counter-productive especially for left-handers. Through wear and tear, there is a tendency for the stylus to slip out and get lost, too.
Similar to HP's iPaq hx4700 powerhouse, the A730 sports dual expansion slots. The spring-loaded Secure Digital socket is SDIO-compliant so it accepts hardware such as Wi-Fi cards in addition to memory. It also takes in CompactFlash Type I and II devices for added flexibility.
The highlight of this handheld must be its 1.3-megapixel video-capable camera. In an attempt to enhance the imaging experience, ASUS has added a mirror for self-portraits and a photo light for difficult lighting situations. Colour reproduction of the images is accurate although shots exhibit graininess when taken under dimmer conditions. With an output of 1,280 x 960-pixel resolution, photos are good enough for up to 4R prints.
With more Pocket PCs utilising Intel's XScale processors, it's natural for ASUS to follow suit. The 520MHz chip planted inside includes Wireless MMX for improved multimedia and SpeedStep technology to optimise battery life.
Although ASUS claims the unit has 64MB of RAM, only 46MB is available for the user to share between storage and programs. To worsen matters, it's a little short on non-volatile memory with a paltry 19MB flash disk. Still, this area is handy for safekeeping crucial documents as files will remain intact even if the power is fully depleted. The replaceable 1,100mAh Lithium-ion battery is a boon for frequent travellers and power users.
As an MP3 player, the A730 delivers clean acoustics via a pair of decent earphones and music aficionados can tweak the audio with bass and treble adjustments offered. Compared with the hx4700 iPaq that sports a 5-band equaliser, this may seem primitive.
For connectivity, you'll need to contend with Bluetooth and infrared. Bluetooth is good for file transfers and to pair with a Bluetooth-enabled phone for Internet access. The slower transmission rate of infrared confines it to the exchange of business cards or small files. With Wi-Fi hotspots gaining popularity, it's odd for ASUS to exclude this wireless feature. Fortunately, you can easily pop in a Wi-Fi card to address this issue.
Another interesting feature is the A730's USB Host capability. Using an optional cable, you can attach devices such as USB keyboard and thumb drives to the handheld.
Software-wise, the A730 runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 SE and puts the high-resolution VGA screen to good use. The operating system lets users orientate between landscape and portrait view on-the-fly, among many other subtle improvements.
By and large, the ASUS MyPal A730 is a snappy machine and credit goes to the 520MHz Bulverde processor. Despite the unit's modest 46MB of main RAM available, default applications show no signs of sluggishness. Unfortunately, the video performance is sub-par. When benchmarked, it scored lower than its predecessor, the A716.
Screen-wise, text and images are drawn in crisp 65K colours. However, the A730 could do better in the contrast department as colours appear a little washed out compared with rival's offering. That said, the screen's digitiser is adequately sensitive and registers taps swiftly. We had no problems viewing it outdoors, too.
Bluetooth connectivity on this Pocket PC works flawlessly. We were able to pair it with a Bluetooth-enabled mobile and exchange media files without issues. It also supports the headset profile and lets you stream music to your wireless headset.
In our battery drain test where we looped a video clip with the sound and backlight set at maximum level, the A730 managed 2 hours 40 minutes. Compared with the iPaq hx4700 and rx3700 which scored 5.5 hours and 8.5 hours, respectively, this result came as a disappointment. Since the test replicates the worst case scenario, it's safe to assume you'll get better mileage in real-world usage.
Asus MyPal A730
Company: Synnex Australia
Price: AU$899
Phone: 1300 880 038
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the reviewer is either not reviewing a ASUS MYPAL A730 or an complete idiot. He does not mention that the A730 is one of very few PDA's around that sport a VGA screen with an 640x480 res. I don't know which PDA he was actually looking at but it was not a A730. This is a completely false review. I don't think I will ever trust ZDNET again.