PDA Reviews

As a result of stiff competition in the PDA market, you have all the choices in the world to look for the most reliable and the cheapest PDAs. Asus has been providing such PDAs for a long time now, and their products have become cheaper during the course of time. Their new A- series PDAs were released recently and one of them is the Asus MyPal A626 PDA. Realising the present market and value for money, Asus has incorporated useful features for a lesser cost and made it affordable for almost everyone. Let us have a detailed analysis of this new PDA and see if it is reasonable as well as affordable.

Design:

Cute Device:
As always, with the Asus PDAs, the A626 is designed very well and it is very comfortable to hold. At 1.5 cm of thickness, it is extremely slim to hold in one hand, so that it will be easy to type with the other. The dimensions of the device is, (H x W x D) 11.7cm x 7.08cm x 1.57cm and it weighs only about 158 grams. This means that, you have a very slim and light PDA with you, which makes you feel comfortable and stylish. Now, if you look at the PDA in detail, the device is landscape oriented, which is pretty rare; you will normally see a PDA portrait oriented. The display is fairly large, and occupies most of the real estate. Then there are four main buttons that take you to the most important features of the device. Then there is the conventional joystick surrounded by the directional keys and this keypad is surrounded by two speakers on either side.

Stainless Steel Finish:
This is a very special feature of the Asus MyPal A626 Handheld PDA. If you look at the present PDAs, you will find out that most of them are made of either plastic or aluminium. But, Asus has gone on with using stainless steel for its PDAs instead of the usual options. You may wonder what might be the benefits of using a device made of stainless steel are; well, such devices are highly resistant to damages caused by shock and very durable and they are also resistant to abrasion and finger prints. So, the device is always clean and healthy with its stainless steel panel. The finishing is also very good and the polished surface makes the device very shimmering, giving it the ultimate style that consumers long for.

Solid by any means:
Complementing the attractive design, the Asus A626’s display is one of the best you will see in the PDA market. Since the display occupies the most of the front part of the device, it had to be a touch responsive type. This makes the display look even better and bigger than the usual ones. The 3.5 inch TFT LCD screen is very comfortable to look at, especially when reading or typing mails, reading eBooks, playing games and watching movies. The 16 bit QVGA display, with full 65k colours helps in providing a great display for all the utilities that you will find in the Asus A626. The screen does not retain finger prints and therefore, your screen is always clean and lucid. Another advantage of the display is that it is an antiglare type, which means that, there are no reflections of objects from the screen and this enables a clearer display. All this features of the display collectively makes it one of the best in the current market.

Stylus:
Although the stylus is one of those that are not very uncommon, many PDAs are not providing it now due to issues concerning space and weight of the device. But the MyPal A626 Pocket PC has got a very short and sturdy stylus that is placed very well, at the right hand corner of the device. It is a pretty strong one and does not get damaged even after prolonged use. Another thing is that the tip of the stylus is also quite smooth and the consequence is that the soft and delicate LCD of the device is also not damaged easily. The screen also gives a very good touch response when the stylus is used. Hence, more often than not, the stylus is better than your fingers.

Connectivity:
Connectivity is also one of the important aspects of any device, and particularly a PDA. The Asus A626 has got a few options for you to connect it to other devices and interchange data such as files, documents, music files, videos, pictures and many more. As we have already seen, there is a slot provided for an external memory card, which has to be an SD card and at the most a 4 GB one. There are also a few connection slots provided, like the USB 1.1, which can be used to primarily connect the device to and sync it with your computer. There is also a headphone jack provided for audio out. You can connect headphones or an audio cable of a music system to this jack. Hence, the Asus A626 provides the basic connectivity features and with good efficiency.

Features:

The Asus A626 PDA Pocket PC is equipped with ample set of features for us to talk about. Most of the mid range PDAs produced by Asus, like this one, have more or less the same features. Although there are not any new features in the MyPal A626, the ones that are included are very useful. Let us peek at various features of this new PDA from Asus.

Processor: Not the best in the business
The processor is the most important of all the features since it relates the very performance of the device. It decides how fast and efficient any device works. You can relate this to the processor of your computer. The Asus A626 features the Intel XScale PXA270processor of 312 MHz frequency. This may be surprising because, you will find that most of the modern PDAs come with at least a 624 MHz processor. This indicates that the speed and its efficiency of the device will be half the average ratings. But nevertheless, it is not that bad since there are not many options or features that would pull out a lot from the processor. It will still be able to perform well with the minimal features that are available in the A626. Overall, the problems will be very few and far between.

Operating System:
It can be said that, this feature of the Asus A626 will be the most decisive one. The device comes with the Microsoft Windows Mobile version 6 as the operating system. The benefit in using a PDA with the operating system from Windows is that, the device will be easy to use and also the user interface will be much better than many other operating systems that you will find in other prime PDAs in the market. The main features that you will find in this operating system include a revamped Mobile Office in which there are newer versions of pocket Word, pocket PowerPoint and pocket Excel. This means, these applications are made easier to work with and also to simplify your works such as working out a document and printing, or presenting a project in the office. Things like these make this operating system a very commendable one. A device that looks stylish on the outside, must also look great on the inside too and the MyPal A626 suites the description.

Wi-Fi:
Since people using the PDAs will be online for most of the time, they need to choose a PDA that has the Wi-Fi option. The Asus A626 has the option for you to connect to the internet from your office or a cafe through the Wi-Fi ports. All you need to do is just go to the option in your menu that denotes Wi-Fi and then you will be directed straight to the internet. Now, for those of you who use this option on a regular basis, it will be a lot better and easier if this option is set as a shortcut, so that you can access it with just a single click.

Bluetooth:
Bluetooth has been around for quite a long time now, and it is also a very useful application that allows you to connect your device to any device that comes with this option; like your computer, laptop, television, mobile phone etc., and hence, your device can exchange data and files with almost any other electronic device in your home. Additionally, it is the Bluetooth 2.0 version that is featured here. Hence, the communication is a bit faster than normal and it is also easy to search for new devices.

Memory:
With a memory of 256 MB flash ROM and 64 MB of Ram, your PDA has enough memory for the daily round. But for the purpose of entertainment and expansion, you need to have greater memory. So, Asus has provided the facility for the expansion of the memory of your device. Hence, you can now include a new memory card and can store enough data. But, not all memory cards are compatible with the device; only SD cards and that too only up to a capacity of 4 GB are compatible. Hence, should you buy a new memory card, you must be careful while choosing it.

Gaming:
In the beginning, PDAs were restricted only to office use and were not providing that much of entertainment. But slowly, as entertainment crept into all walks of life, you find entertainment being provided on almost all the devices. Gaming has also been a fascination and it helps a lot in relaxing the minds. The MyPal A626 also, like many other latest PDAs, comes with the option for gaming on it. There are lots of games available on the internet that run on the pocket PC platform. You can download them and install into your device. There is also the accelerator inside the device that is specially designed for this very purpose of gaming. Hence, even while you are on the go, gaming is with you.

Clearly, there is no deviation from the norms regarding the features. Asus has stuck to the basics and saw to it that nothing is exaggerated and also at the same time that the PDA is made useful to almost everyone, let alone the businessmen. And for that mid range price tag of the A626, it is a very good overall package of features on offer.

Performance:

Of late, performance is the one aspect that has been bringing down the sales of the PDAs from Asus. Hence, this time around Asus has decided to concentrate on the performance of their PDAs by lowering the number of features. Many improvements are made in order to make the Asus A626 better than its precursors. Let us have a peek at the performance aspects of the A626 and see if it is any better this time.

Video and Audio:
Even though the Asus A626 is powered by an inferior version of the most used processor, it is still good enough not to make you worry about the overall performance of the device. The fact that there is a reduction in the number of extra features, meant that more of the processor’s power is now concentrated on the most important aspects of the device. Arguably, they are the video and the audio performances of the Asus A626. Both these aspects are very good on the device. With the very good display technology that is used, combined with a reasonable processor, the videos on the MyPal A626 look really good. Watching movies on this device is fun and when a headphone is connected, you get a realistic movie experience. Hence, there is a good audio complementing the videos. This is really a great combination. And also the gaming is quite good and for those that play mid range games, you will experience no lags or blurs and your gaming will be pretty comfortable. The problem arises only with the high end games. Otherwise, everything is fine.

Battery:

The Asus A626 comes with a 1200 mAh lithium ion battery that gives you a battery life of at least 3 hours (talk time). Another good thing about this is, unlike many others, is that the battery is removable. This means that you can remove the battery whenever you want and replace it with a new one. This facility comes in handy when you are out of your house and there is no option or time to recharge the battery. Then, you can always use a second one as a replacement.

Warranty:

The Asus MyPal A626 PDA comes with a limited parts and labour warranty for a period of one year from the original date of purchase. For more details, you can visit their website.

Verdict:

After having gone through all that is detailed above, it can be concluded that you will find very less negatives with the Asus MyPal A626. A pleasing design, with all the strength and beauty in the world, a very good lot of features that includes one of the best operating system and software package, and a very good performance make up the list of positives regarding the Asus A626. A comparatively slow processor, lack of a good number of features including that of a camera and a phone, make up the list of negatives. But, we need to realise that no device in the world in completely perfect and everything has its own negatives. Considering the very reasonable price tag, it can be said that the MyPal A626 is one of the most buyable PDAs in the market. No problems if you do not like this. There are many other devices from Asus itself which are better at performance; but to enjoy that, you have to swipe in some extra from your plastic.

Check Nokia PDA Phones, Acer Smartphone Reviews in this website.

Asus MyPal A626 PDA – Technical Specification Table

Other PDA Reviews

• Acer N35 GPS PDA Review
• Asus MyPal A636 PDA Review
• Palm T|X Handheld PDA Review
• HP iPAQ 114 Classic Handheld Pocket PC Review
• Acer beTouch E100 Smartphone Review