Can ASUS carve a new niche in an already crowded PDA space?
In a highly competitive market, PDA vendors are always looking for ways to make their products stand out. ASUS has taken the old-fashioned route by giving the MyPal A730 a solid core with lots of expandability at a reasonable price.
Despite its compact size, the A730 delivers both Compact Flash and Secure Digital slots for extending its 64MB of RAM and 19MB secure file-store. Built around an Intel Bulverde 520MHz processor, it delivers a substantial boost over the model it supersedes, itself the fastest Pocket PC of its time. And while the overall Spb Benchmark score of 1,405 isn’t at the top of the heap, it’s still quite fast — even after loading a large volume of data, the A730 remained very responsive.
The excellent 3.7in VGA screen (640 x 480 pixels) lets you get the best of Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, although it’s a little dull in brightly lit areas. Bluetooth and infra-red connectivity are accommodated, and Wi-Fi can be easily added with either an SD or CF card.
The A730 retains the standard four buttons and directional controller of almost every PDA. There’s a voice recorder button on the side, and at just 11.8 x 7.3 x 1.7cm (HWD) it fits comfortably in your hand or pocket.
The back of the MyPal A730 also features a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash that’s capable of taking a reasonable snap, but it won’t replace a dedicated camera. It can also capture video, and the ASUS software bundle makes it easy to manage your media. The addition of Microsoft’s Media Player means you can play back most popular formats.
The lifespan of the removable 1,100mAh Lithium-ion battery is the A730’s weakness. A rundown test, executed by looping an MP3 with the screen at maximum brightness and Bluetooth enabled, only lasted two hours — one of the lowest results we’ve recorded. This translates into a day’s use under more typical circumstances, which is still well below what we’d expect.
Otherwise the A730 is a solid PDA with the features and performance to justify its high price. While the battery life and limited built-in memory let it down a little, it’s still worth considering, especially as it has a VGA screen.

Article Tags:
ASUS MyPal A730Article Categories:
PDA