Big review of Asus MyPal A716

May 14, 2004 | Pavel Koza | format - Other (ar.) | viewed - 116x
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(2400 votes) | category - -

Big review of Asus MyPal A716

Ladies and gentleman, here is another review of a Pocket PC device with the ASUS brand on its silver body. The most powerful and feature-packed model from Asus is called Asus MyPal A716. I would like to thank the firms Sunnysoft and Levi for kindly providing a specimen for review purposes.

If you have a feeling of déja vu when you look at this photo, you can consider yourself a PDA market expert. Except a few minor differences, the device is identical with Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX 610 BT/WLAN, that's why it looks so familiar. If you are curious, as far as I know, the manufacturer is ASUS:) I wondered whether it was worth writing a completely new review or just mention the differences. Having examined the device closely, I found a substantial number of them, so that I decided to write a complete separate review (and simply copy some of the paragraphs from the earlier review of LOOX).

What is in the box?

The tough, glossy paper box with a larger-than-life image of the device, contains the device itself as well as a satisfactory number of accessories.

Asus MyPal A716
Battery
Cradle
Synchronisation USB cable
AC adapter and power cable
Case with a belt clip
Two CD-ROMs
Two brochures and a warranty card

The cradle is identical with that supplied with LOOX but for the manufacturer logo. It comes in one piece, is made of plastic and although it is not extremely good-looking, it is highly convenient. Two rubber stripes on the bottom side and heavy weight give it good stability. It can accommodate a MyPal with a bigger battery - you just need to click a slider in place. The data cable (some 130 cm long) is detachable and can be connected directly to the device, which is a highly convenient solution.

The AC adapter comes in two parts - the adapter body and a detachable cable with a standard "tape recorder" plug. You can recharge MyPal either in the cradle or directly. Unlike some other devices, this ASUS does not need a special adapter for direct charging - there is a connector for the power cable on the side of the device.

The first big difference between MyPal and LOOX is the case. In my opinion, ASUS beats LOOX 1:0 in this respect. It is made of rugged textile, with two leatherette parts. White stitches look interesting and elegant. The device is protected against slipping out by a mini flip with two magnets (another pair of magnets is sewn in the front part of the case body). On the front, there is a miniature pocket with a Velcro fastener on the miniature flip that will hardly accommodate anything larger than a CF card. Given the size of the device, the term "compact" used to describe the case is somewhat of a euphemism, but unlike the case supplied with LOOX, this one is quite thin, so that the dimensions of the relatively large device do not grow too much. The LOOX case is perhaps more durable but lovers of extreme sports will choose a completely different kind, anyway. The belt clip is fastened to the case. The case is attached to the belt in the horizontal position, which I appreciate. Overall, I would say the case is sufficient, if you do not have special requirements.

The stylus is slim, combining light metal and sturdy plastic. The low price is compensated, besides other things, by the absence of a spare stylus. What the box does contain is a very basic Quick Start Guide, a significantly more detailed 80-page User Manual and a one-page Warranty Card.

And finally, there are two original CD-ROMs. One of them contains Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft ActiveSync 3.7 and other usual apps from Microsoft; the other offers quite a good choice of bonus apps. Czech users will obtain also a CD ROM with localisation by Sunnysoft. If you lack something, you can choose from a wide range of optional accessories.

Design

MyPal and LOOX look much the same, although they differ in some details. The body is made of plastic but is painted light silver for more visual impact. The dimensions of 3.07 x 5.31 x 0.69 inches (78 x 135 x 17.6 millimetres) make Asus A716 one of the larger Pocket PCs on the market. The weight is around 6.95 ounces (197 grams).

There are no surprises on the front panel. The display is somewhat smaller than you would expect given the size of the device, but 3.5 in (88.9 mm) is the same size as in the vast majority of other Pocket PCs. Over the display, there is the main switch and a panel with two LED indicators. The panel transmits the light from the tiny LED diode across the width of the device. The LED on the left is blue and indicates wireless (both Bluetooth and WiFi) activity, the other is green and notifies of various special events. Under the display, there is a traditional set of four soft buttons and a four-directional controller. However, one thing is different than usual. Unlike in other devices, you can assign two functions ton one button (short and long press). If you are used to carrying your PDA in the pocket and often switch it on by pressing a button accidentally, you can deactivate the applications buttons in the suspend mode. I liked the controller very much - it is perhaps yet better than that in LOOX - controlling the device is is fine, comfortable and sensitive. The last spot worth mentioning is the speaker in the shape of a six-pointed star, located to the left of the controller.

There is nothing exciting on the back but for the replaceable battery which is secured in place with a small latch, and a hard reset switch which erases the contents of the memory. It is not visible but hidden under the battery.

As far as the number of controls is concerned, the left side hosts the biggest number of them. Besides a soft reset button and the IrDA eye, there are also three function buttons. Unlike in LOOX, where it invokes a special app, the top button here just confirms action (Enter). You can assign a special action to a long press of this button. The other two are used to scroll menus, such as the Start menu. I found this system with two independent buttons slightly less convenient than a scrolling wheel, but it is my subjective perception, other users may have a completely different experience. Finally, there is the battery lock on the left side.

The top is equally interesting. There you can find the usual 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, as well as both expansion slots - SD/MMC and Compact Flash type I/II. While you can release the SD card by slightly pushing it in, there is a special button to eject the CF card. On the right edge, there is a small Wi-Fi antenna and the stylus shaft.

The right hand side is rather dull, with nothing but a connector for charging. The bottom side reveals a data connector and a microphone pinhole.

Pocket PC	Dimensions (in. / mm)	Weight (oz / g)
Asus MyPal A620BT	3.02 x 4.92 x 0.52 76.8 x 125 x 13.3	4.98 141
Asus MyPal A617	3.07 x 5.31 x 0.69 78 x 135 x 17.6	6.95 197
Dell Axim X3i	3.04 x 4.82 x 0.59 77.2 x 117 x 14.9	4.94 142
F-S Pocket LOOX 610BT	3.07 x 5.81 x 0.72 78 x 147.5 x 18.2	7.23 197
HP iPAQ h1940	2.75 x 4.46 x 0.5 69.8 x 113.3 x 12.8	4.38 124
HP iPAQ h2210	3.01 x 4.54 x 0.61 76.4 x 115.4 x 15.4	5.09 144
HP iPAQ h4150	2.78 x 4.47 x 0.53 70.6 x 113.6 x 13.5	4.66 132
HP iPAQ h5550	3.31 x 5.43 x 0.63 84 x 138 x 15.9	7.3 206.8
MiTAC Mio339	2.83 x 4.88 x 0.6 73 x 122 x 13.8	4.36 120
MiTAC Mio558	2.83 x 4.88 x 0.6 72 x 124 x 15.3	6 170
Toshiba e400	3 x 4.9 x 0.4 76.2 x 124.4 x 10.1	4.59 130
Toshiba e750	3.1 x 4.9 x 0.6 80 x 125 x 15.2	6.1 179
Toshiba e800	3 x 5.3 x 0.6 80 x 125 x 15.2	6 179
T-Mobile MDA II	2.75 x 5.12 x 0.71 70 x 130 x 19	6.53 185

Parameters

The technical parameters are a very pleasant reading, indeed, but for a few exceptions. Main processor in MyPal is the Intel PXA255 processor called XScale. There is no need to introduce it more closely - it has been used in Pocket PC devices for quite some time now. If you envy users of devices with a newer Intel PXA263 processor, stay calm - its clock speed and performance are the same as those of the processor used in this Asus. Power users will surely appreciate the possibility to change the clock speed using a software utility in three modes (Turbo, Standard and power-saving mode). For the first two, you can activate automatic adjustment, which can save some battery power. Changes take place immediately without a restart. I used the power-saving mode most of the time without any performance impairment. I could replay MP3's in the background, watch video and play resources-intensive games. If you combine this mode with reduced backlight, you can substantial increase the time on battery. ASUS A716 has a big operating memory. However, you cannot use all of the 64 megs - only slightly over 55 MB. The operating system is loaded in a 64 MB re-writable ROM, 25 MB out of which is used as a safe storage called simply Flash Disk. If you save sensitive data there, you will not need to worry about them even in the event of a complete loss of battery power.

The display is very nice, much brighter than that in LOOX. (Well, who knows, because the previous model of LOOX also had a much brighter display. It confirms my suspicion that manufacturers sometimes use a different part in the same model.) I think it is exactly the same display as that used for example in iPAQ h4150 - a transflexive TFT display with LED backlight. If you read my review of the iPAQ, you may remember that there is a glitch - the backlight has a yellowish tint. It is not very strong in either MyPal or h4150, but it stands out when you compare the display with h2210 (the first generation, the current displays are the same, unfortunately) whose white is really snow white. It is becoming important once again to mention the colour depth, although there are no surprises in this case - a resolution of 240 by 320 pixels and 65 thousand colours has been a standard, at least for the time being. A somewhat unfortunate solution is the presence of two icons for display in the Settings, one in the System group, which invokes an applet for automatic toggle of the backlight. The other makes is accessible via ASUS Settings and makes it possible to adjust the brightness at eight levels separately for battery and mains operation. In general, most settings are accessible under ASUS Settings, so that you need to tap at least once more to access the controls as compared to LOOX. On the other hand, the ASUS Settings menu is accessible from the Today screen, so it is not such a big problem - you only need to get used to it :) MyPal does not have the automatic backlight adjustment based on the surrounding light conditions. If you'd like to play with more settings, you can activate the ClearType technology using a standard display calibration applet. I can just add that you will surely like the sensitivity, accuracy and fast response of the touch-sensitive layer.

MyPal (as well as LOOX) deserves big praise for its excellent audio features. They rank it among those Pocket PC devices that can replace common MP3 players without any limitations. There are two applets - one for setting the volume of the loudspeaker and headphones, the other for setting the sensitivity and volume of microphone. Besides the volume level (adjustable on a much finer scale than the usual six levels), you can change the balance of the right and left channels as well as to adjust bass and treble at four levels. The headphones connector is a standard 3.5 mm stereo jack, which means you can use any headphones you prefer. I used the top-quality Koss Porta Pro headphones and was surprised to hear absolutely no disturbing hiss. Listening to music is therefore a great experience. The built-in speaker is a little worse (like in all PDAs). It has problems with playing back lively tunes with maximum bass boost. This is not criticism, it is a statement of a fact - after all, the built-in loudspeaker is not meant as a working tool for DJ's:) Speaking about audio features, we should mention excellent sound recording capabilities, also due to one of the applets. My favourite test - recording voice from a two-metre distance - gave excellent results. Here you can download a recording from a five-metre distance. :: Voice recording from 5 meters [58KB]. MyPal has no special button to start recording but you can assign it to any of them because each can be used for two different actions. In other words, if you have a dictaphone and buy an ASUS A716, the former will soon be catching dust on the shelf.

As far as communication options are concerned, this device must satisfy everyone. The main connectivity is over fast USB. As I have mentioned earlier, the cable easily connects both to the cradle and directly to the device. If you cannot use the USB connector for some reason, you can buy an optional serial cable that can easily be used with the cradle, too. I was nicely surprised when testing the infra port, which allows not only for the standard 115.2 kbps but also 4 Mbit/sec. Although I did not reach the full 4 megabits, the result was amazing. Being a proud owner of an excellent new Acer Aspire 2000 laptop, I was finally sure the bottleneck was not on the PC side. The transmission speeds of upload and download of 155 KBps and 144 KBps, respectively, must satisfy everyone who does not like taking many cables with them while travelling. In other words, it took seven seconds to transfer a 1MB file to the PDA over FIR. LOOX gave an excellent result in upload but was not that good in the opposite direction. For maximum objectivity, I tested LOOX again with the new laptop.

That's not everything, of course. Bluetooth is a feature perhaps all Pocket PC users will find useful. Here, it is not controlled using Plugfree but by Bluetooth Manager from Widcomm. It is highly intuitive and it takes just a few seconds to set up communication with a mobile phone, GPS or a desktop PC using convenient wizards. I was able to test connection to the internet over GPRS regardless of the amount of data thanks to unlimited mobile Eurotel DataNonstop tariff and did not experience any problems, such as instability or other issues that annoy the users of some other devices.

The last integrated communication module is Wi-Fi. Neither LOOX nor MyPal can work with BT and Wi-Fi simultaneously, which few will regret. The Wi-Fi is controlled by a special utility called WiFiME, which makes it possible to connect to a hotspot with just a few taps. After activating WiFi, a signal strength indicator displays in the title bar in the upper part of the screen. By tapping the icon you can access various options, most of them standard. Something could be done about simultaneous activity of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. While the Bluetooth Manager automatically closes down the Wi-Fi utility, you need to deactivate Bluetooth manually when you want to switch on Wi-Fi.

There is only one area that we have not dealt with - power. Judging from the size alone, the Lithium-Ion battery must keep the device alive for at least half a year:) It is huge, so the capacity of 1500 mAh is hardly surprising. According to official documentation, it should be able to power the device for up to 19 hours (depending on the services used and backlight intensity, of course). A fully charged battery should keep the device in the stand-by mode for almost two weeks. I tried to completely discharge the battery only once, with full backlight on and maximum processor speed. ASUS switched off after six hours and thirty-five minutes, which is an excellent result. I am not including a chart this time, because it is not very clear. MyPal can only indicate the battery status in 10-percent steps and the numeric result of the test seemed strange in general. Anyhow, if you use low backlight and activate BT and WLAN only when you really need to, you do not be afraid of running out of steam throughout the day. If you need more energy, you can buy either a spare battery or an extra large 3000-mAH battery to click in instead of the original one.

Expandability

The expandability options are simply excellent. I will mention relevant features only briefly because they are the same as in other similarly equipped devices. The CompactFlash slot can accommodate both Type I and Type II CF cards: IBM Microdrive, a GPS card, any 10/100 Mbit LAN - anything you choose to suit your needs and budget. The SD slot will work only with memory cards, which is no problem given the presence of the CF slot. The data connector on the bottom side makes it possible to use a foldable keyboard. You can connect other accessories via Bluetooth. MyPal coupled with a BT-enabled GPS will create a powerful navigation system in a second.

And finally, a fact worth mentioning is that both ASUS A716 and LOOX 610 should be able to use the same accessories, as the data connectors in both models are fully compatible, although the manufacturers will not advertise it too much:) I was unable to find out whether individual models of the MyPal family are backward compatible....

Software

Like most other new Pocket PCs, this ASUS offers the largest software package (except for the specific edition for devices with a GSM/GPRS module) with Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Premium edition, as well as many useful bonus applications. The aforementioned ASUS Settings takes care of all specific settings, from multimedia to the infra port. There are also two standard applications. A simple Backup utility can back up (and restore, of course) either the complete RAM contents or just the PIM data. The other is an uncomplicated application launcher, assigned to one of the HW buttons by default.

MyPal ships with two CD-ROMs. One of them contains the traditional package of basic applications from Microsoft, such as MS Outlook, MS ActiveSync, Windows Media Player, etc. The other offers a wide selection of bonus apps. Unfortunately, some of them will be useful only for those who travel to Hong Kong or Taiwan or students of Oriental languages. Besides two navigation apps for easy orientation in those parts of the worlds, the CD offers Pocket Book, a utility for reading books in Chinese, MonsterSIP for writing Chinese characters, and Monster Chinese, a solution for a complete Chinese localisation of the system. Besides those (for us useless) utilities, there are a few quite useful apps and games. Talented artists can test practice skills with Aidem Pocket Painter. If you have problems with your personal cash flow, an app called Maction MoneyTracer may come handy. Maction Presentation DX will help you publish presentations directly from the Pocket PC. A desktop converter will transform complex slides into a form acceptable for a PDA. Aidem Engineering Calculator is the right app for those who need a robust and powerful scientific and engineering calculator. Two other apps are also freely available for download from the internet (Acrobat Reader for Pocket PC and RealPlayer Mobile). Finally, there are four simple games for you to kill time - an arcade game called Maction Dung Cleaner and three logic games - Reversi, Gobang and Guess color. I would appreciate if the selection of bonus applications were different in supplies to the European market.

Pricing

All the features look attractive but a badly considered price tag has destroyed the chances of many a good product. Fortunately, this does not seem to be the case - the price is quite favourable, at around U.S.$420. It is hard to compare directly with either model of LOOX whose prices went down recently - the parameters of ASUS A716 are somewhere between them. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to watch the market reaction to this aggressive price policy.

[POLL]

Benchmarks

I use Spb Benchmark for a complete performance test. Having reviewed several new Pocket PCs, I will compare them. If you are interested in the detailed results, the complete .XML file is available for download here: Asus MyPal A716 (2003, 400MHz) [1KB]. If you copy the contents of the file to the form on this page (click on Add device), you can compare the results with other devices.