PDA Reviews

Overview:

Pros:

• Good performance
• Included both WiFi and Bluetooth
• Has dual slots for SD and CF memory cards
• Faster processor
• Better than an average battery life
• Excellent audio and video playback

Cons:

• Bulky and undesirable design
• Absence of hold button
• Very poor outdoor display visibility
• Sans simultaneous usage of WiFi and Bluetooth
• Steep pricing

Review:

Asus was not a familiar name in the PDA industry, as they were known for their motherboards, graphic cards and some other components. The Asus MyPal A716 was one of the first PDAs to use the windows mobile 2003 OS for pocket PC which also bundled along with it, Bluetooth, Wi-fi, support for SD memory cards and compact flash too. Though all these features seem to be an eye-candy, the PDA as such was definitely not one of those kinds.

Bulky design:

Asus MyPal A716’s unpopularity was basically due to its very sturdy and bulky design. This Handheld PDA came in silver coating, a kind of silver that did not give the PDA  a pretty look, that the usual silver coloured phones have. It does have a metal polished finish. Its dimensions were 5.3 x 3.0 x 0.7 inches, weighing 6.9 ounces, with this factual data, you can imagine the bulkiness of the PDA.

Display:

MyPal A716 Handheld PDA has a 3.5 inch transflective LCD screen that supports about 65,536 colours. An irritating fact about the display that cannot be left untold is about its complete blank-out in sunshine. Regardless of the brightness settings of the phone, you will not be able to see anything in the display.

Navigation, buttons and ports:

The navigation is quiet user friendly and would look familiar. There are four programmable buttons that surround the circular five-way navigational pad. They are adequately spaced, which reduces the risk of any miss-press. Towards the left is a small speaker. The power button, as in the case of the other PDAs is located on the top of the phone, which is built in a slightly recessed manner which avoids accidental power up. This feature aids in unwanted charge losses.

There are two LEDs in the top of the PDA in a clear strip of plastic. The green LED glows solid which the battery charge is full and blinks while charging. The blue LED on the top of the PDA that denotes if the wireless connectivity is switched on. It would have been better, if the LED glowed in different colours inorder to differentiate between which wireless had been switched on. A fast IR port which has a maximum throughput of 4Mbps is located on the left side of the pocket PC. The Wi-Fi antenna, the compact flash and the SD slot being on top of the PDA.  If you want to perform a soft reset, the antenna can be unscrewed.

The bottom port allows you to connect the Pocket PC to the cradle or to the PC directly with the help of the included USB cable. The right end of the bottom has small openings for the microphone.

When the battery is removed, a tiny switch will be visible that allows you to switch on or off the internal backup battery. This switch when turned off, will erase all the personal data and would reset the PDA to its defaults.

Initial set-up:

Setting up Asus MyPal A716 Pocket PC is very easy and straight forward. All that you will be needing to do is, synchronise the time, calibrate the stylus and just read the quick instruction manual. The desktop screen would look familiar. The top left corner has the start button, which provides access to the pocket PC main menu.

Processor and performance:

Asus MyPal A716 PDA uses a top-of-the-line 400MHz Intel XScale PXA255 processor, 64MB each of RAM and ROM, and an additional 32MB of flash memory. This handheld has more than enough oomph for PIM (personal information management) and productivity tasks. In fact, excellent graphics and sound make this device a solid choice for gaming, as well. Overall, the A716’s performance fell just short of the Toshiba Pocket PC e805’s.

One of the healthiest feature of Asus MyPal A716 is that, it comes with an Asus backup that allows you to have a backup of your data onto a flash card. This feature makes sure that you do no experience any kind of data loss, which is very important if you are owning a pocket PC.

Wireless connectivity:

The exciting information about Asus MyPal A716 PDA/Pocket PC is that it has both Bluetooth and 802.11b wireless, but the irritating fact is that both of them cannot be used at the same time.

The WiFiME application that is bundled along with Asus MyPal A716 is very handy and gives you a greater control over your WiFi connectivity. The signal strength if the WiFi connection is displayed on the top corner of the screen, which can be used to access the menu. The menu offers you options for renewing your IP address, search for access points and also view some statistical data. When the WiFi connectivity is switched on, you can swap to Bluetooth by just enabling it from the bottom right of the display, an action which would automatically terminate your WiFi connectivity. But, you cannot expect the same to happen when you want to switch from the Bluetooth connectivity to WiFi. You must first disable Bluetooth by disabling it by clicking the Bluetooth option. This kind of differences is not ideal for a PDA.

Audio and video quality:

The sound quality of Asus MyPal A7 Handheld PDA was impressive. The integrated speakers were good, but when connected using a headphone jack, it did an even better job. It performed much better than what we actually expected it to do. Having an optional memory card, A716, would eliminate your requirement of any other MP3 player. Good battery life is also complimentary to this fact. The integrated microphone does a decent work. It is handy while taking a quick note and listening to it latter.

Coming to the video playback, the Asus MyPal A716 again surprised with an impressive quality presentation. You can just open the media player and view a content online that can be streamed for free. With its impressive player, it proves to be a good MP4 player too. The video clip is usually in 300k stream, but with the use of the compact flash cards, you will be able to attain better quality.

Impressive battery:

Asus MyPal A716 is having a 1,500mAh removable battery, but each time you want to remove it, you will have to use the stylus. One thing that must be kept in mind is that, you will have to lock the battery once you have inserted it, else, it would refuse to work. Asus’s optional 3,000mAh cell doubles longevity but increases the unit’s size and weight. The battery life of A716 is estimated to be about 19 hours which is not that bad. The box contents of the PDA includes the power chord, a cradle, an USB chord, an inverter chord, a good-looking black carrying case and the PDA itself. It has a very long power chord that tangles very easily, leaving it in a mess. The information package that comes along with A716 has a copy of the Pocket PC premium 2003 including outlook 2002, warranty information, an extra software disk, a quick start guide and a an user’s manual that has sufficient information on everything.

Asus MyPal A716 comes with one year warranty.

Some final words:

The MyPal A716 pocket PC is one of the most feature-rich phones. With its cost being steep too, if the PDA is really worth it, is a doubt.

Asus MyPal A716 needs more improvements. Some of its inabilities makes us, pdareviews.org.uk, not to recommend it strongly. Rather, you can opt for the HP iPAQ Pocket PC h4150, which is available for the same price but is of lesser weight and can manage the wireless connectivity in a better way. But, again, if you do not want to compromise over the compact flash slot, you can choose Asus MyPal A716 itself as HP iPAQ h4150 lacks one.

Asus MyPal A716  PDA - Technical Specification Table

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