Asus MyPal A730 VGA PocketPC
There hasn’t been such excitement in the PocketPCReviews team for a long time while anticipating the arrival of the Asus MyPal A730 with VGA screen for a review.
With the high demand for this pre-production unit (it was the only one in Australia at the time of writing) we only could have it for a few days.
Not long enough to do our customary in-depth review, complete with benchmarking and comparisons.
That’s why this review is in 2 installments: today the First Impressions and upon general availability here we’ll do the number crunching.
Splitting this extensive write-up in half will also bring it back to our normal review length again.
Now This is a PDA!
Remember that famous line from Croc Dundee?
If you want to do serious business you need a serious tool.
Be it a big knife to slay outback dragons or a laptop-replacing PDA (well, almost).
It already has a VGA screen and the engine room hums along to the cadence of 520MegaHertzes. Exactly the specs of my old laptop!
What else, apart from that beautiful screen and the pleasant form factor, grabs your attention?
Well, the rest of the attraction is under the bonnet so to speak. And increased power is only the beginning.
We’ll have to see how much of that power is needed to drive the display with 4 times as many pixels to serve up, but let me say that the first test drives did reveal a responsive machine.
The 730 on the Bluetooth model has fairly standard memory: 64MB Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM but the WiFi model, the A730W, should sport a nice 128MB.
Connectivity is another outstanding feature: some models have got the lot! Wi-Fi 802.11b, Bluetooth, IrDA with remote control support for CE.
Closely related to connectivity is SDIO capable CompactFlash and SecureDigital.
For me Dual Slots are still a must.
And, an inevitable sign of the times: it’s got a camera and even a decent one: 1.3MP CMOS camera, with flash and video recording ability (up to 8 minutes of video supported).
Quantum Leap
Whilst all these exciting features are the product of an evolutionary process in computing, they do represent a quantum leap compared to the pace setting iPAQ 2210 from only a year ago.
The new Asus MyPal doesn’t just dish up these goodies because they can – no, all these features serve to make this unit a serious player in the market.
When you come out with a 1.3MP camera you also need a VGA screen to do it justice.
Some folks absolutely need to have WiFi, others want Bluetooth. Why not give them both and shut op the critics that like the unit but bemoan the fact that it doesn’t have this or that? Initially, when Asus offered the first samples for review this was exactly what happened. It takes a bit longer to get the WiFi model through the certification process, I’m told.
The same quandary applies to the dual slot issue. Quite a few folk have invested in CF memory or accessories. Why waste that in favour of a slightly thinner unit that only has the SD slot? Mind you, the new A730 carries some weight all right but in my opinion it was never designed to be carried around in your shirt pocket …
this small picture does not do justice to the difference with the iPAQ 2210
What else will excite you about the A730?
We mentioned the impressive screen. The size of the display at 3.7” is a bit larger than the standard 3.5” we’ve been used to of late.
The new Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (why MS didn’t just call it WM2004 is beyond me) will enable you to instantly rotate the screen to landscape.
Users have been clamoring for a built-in landscape feature for years!
Let’s talk about design for a moment.
Ah, that very subjective element of appeal!
Personally, I’ve loved the design from the moment the first pictures appeared in the press.
I think it looks svelte and urbane, refined and serious.
Good feel of the buttons, not too slippery and the action pad of that pernicious iPAQ 2210, which often let me down, is here a very responsive, solid affair with a separate action button in the middle.
Not everyone would love this design. However, if you were to buy equipment solely on the basis of looks, I could make a lot of money selling you beautifully crafted – but empty – cases!
For me the fact that the MyPal A730 has more memory and processing power than my current PDA is also very attractive.
Memory will be 128 MB RAM on the top WiFi model. On this pre-production unit the flash disk size is 19 Mb but the flash ROM is 64MB and the RAM size is 45MB.
We’ll see what the final score will be when both models come on the market but the more memory the better it will be in my books.
Of course, with dual slots you’ll never lack for memory anyways…
Back to neutral territory: how are things laid out on the A730?
Everything is fairly standard on the front
The four standard keys can launch 8 applications via the press-and-hold function. An excellent feature!
Both expansion slots (SD/MMC and Compact Flash), standard headset connector (3.5 mm), and IrDa are located on the transparent upper part of the A730.
The silvery back and sides are reminiscent of the earlier iPAQs but not as slippery.
The camera, flash and the speaker are housed on the back.
The whole back can be taken off to get to the removable battery. The lock (for which you need to user the stylus) is on the right side.
This back is also replaceable, just like some phone covers.
The left side has the power and camera buttons.
The bottom features the reset key, interface connector and stylus hole.
USB devices (such as a keyboard, or flash drive) can be connected and the device can also be charged through the USB port.
The reset time, a whopping 30 secs on my iPAQ – and all too frequently used, is only 20 secs here.
The cradle has a very convenient stylus holder and the stylus itself feels, well, just like any other, really…
But what were they thinking when they designed the stylus housing??
It’s situated in a most-inconvenient place: on the bottom of the unit!
You can’t get it out when it’s in the cradle (luckily you can put the extra stylus in the special stylus holder) and it might fall out of its case if carried upright…
Speaking of cases: this particular review unit did not come with a case or with a USB cable to test out the USB host capabilities. We’ll do that in Part II later.
Battery Life: All in a Day’s Work
Whilst the Asus A620 set records (for a Pocket PC, that is) with a declared battery life of some 19 hours, the A730 has a reputation to live up to.
If you use the camera mode – even without flash – you’d better have a juice socket nearby!
The charge went down 40% in 40 minutes!
That’s one percent per minute…
It evened out a bit towards the end so that the endurance came to nearly 4 hours on the full bright setting.
The last 10% was still good for well over an hour!
It would be good to get an honest day’s work out of it plus a bit of overtime.
We’ll have the down-to-the-minute figures for you later but preliminary testing revealed just the 4 hours uptime from the relatively small battery.
A real heavy-duty battery of 1500 mAh (I’ve also seen figures of 1800mAh) will become available but in the meantime this 1100 mAh capacity is enough, certainly with judicious use of the backlight.
Comparatively speaking
How big, how heavy is the new Asus flagship?
This becomes an important issue because we all like all those features in a small package, don’t we?
Let’s do the numbers on a similarly equipped PDA, the Toshiba e800.
Toshiba e800: 134.6 х 76.2 х 15.2 mm / 192 g
MyPal A730: 117.5 х 72.5 х 16.9 mm / 170 g
The Toshiba is heavier, has a slightly larger VGA screen but is a fair bit longer as well.
If we compare the A730 with the iPAQ 2210, which measures 115.4 x 76.4 x 15.4 mm, and weighs 144 g, the Asus is a bit heavier but not as wide and slightly thicker than the other two machines.
Camera Capabilities
We’ll test the 1.3MP camera on the A730 extensively in our next report.
The first camera we ever tested on a PDA was the 0.3MP CF option from IA.
That wasn’t a bad little number for its day. Now, our demands are higher and whereas 0.3MP cameras are also fast fading on mobile phones, nothing lower than 1 Megapixel should be the norm.
Initial testing – with and without flash – indicate this camera will do justice to the VGA resolution and vice versa.
With 2x digital zoom and tons of setting configurations there’s plenty to play with but don’t put your regular camera out to pasture yet.
Happy snaps are fine and the knowledge that you always have a camera with you (as long as MyPal is indeed your pal) will ensure that unique moments or situations can easily be captured.
Any dealbreakers?
Are there any problems that we encountered in the few days of getting familiar with the MyPal A730?
You may notice on some of the pictures of this review unit a “pressure” mark or something like that, running from the bottom of the screen, right through the middle, to near the top. Perhaps this pre-production unit has been through too many eager hands or it happened in transit.
I don’t think that the average customer will have to worry about it being a permanent mark on this beast…
This review unit did not have WiFi built-in (that model is still being certified, I understand) but the Bluetooth module did not work either…
Again, this is probably a function of having been damaged in transit and should not be a generic problem.
However, we’ll keep you posted on that score in Part II.
You’ll Love the A730 if…
you absolutely must have:
· that seductively brilliant VGA screen
· the USB host capability
· the integrated camera
· the dual slots
Preliminary verdict?
Kudos to Asus for bringing out a no-compromises machine.
True, it may be overkill for many aspiring PDA users.
But, if like me, you’ve been around PocketPCs for a few years, only the best will do.
How good is the Asus MyPal A730 really?
Check back in on www.PocketPCReviews.net in a few weeks.
We should have thoroughly tested, dissected, benchmarked and analysed the A730 to the max by then and will be able to give you a qualified opinion.
For now, let’s just say that our standard test platform has always been a product from the hp iPaq stable. As a result of having had the opportunity to test it for a few days (our thanks to Zon and Carmen from Asus Australia) we are now seriously thinking of switching to this very capable and handsome machine for our team.
Once you’ve used a VGA screen it’s hard to go back to QVGA….
It would be interesting to compare the A730 with iPAQ’s 4700 series which seems its closest competitor.
PocketPCReviews will endeavour to have a side-by-side review of these two mighty machines very soon!
Price: not officially announced yet for all models but expected to be less than AUD 900 for the BT model, which would be a good price.
Availability in Australia: likely to be in the second half of September.
More information on both models: see Part II in early September.
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