Asus’ MyPal A600: A new sleek PocketPC contender

Asus is one company that has steadily made its mark by developing quality PC motherboards and assorted components. The company has also seen notable success in the portable space with a series of slim, powerful and innovative laptops whose features are comparable to more expensive models from more popular companies such as Toshiba, Dell, Compaq and IBM.

The recent crop of new generation PocketPC-enabled PDAs has brought in a number of unlikely players, including brands that are not traditionally identified with handhelds. Among the companies which recently unveiled their PocketPC-powered devices are consumer electronics companies like Audiovox, PC monitor and peripheral maker Viewsonic and the most surprising, Asus.

Asus’ MyPal A600 is a wonder to behold; it is lightweight and slim, unusual for PocketPC devices. A sizeable research in industrial design has gone into MyPal’s sleek form factor and it shows. Fluid lines, satin-like brushed metal casing, easy-to-access expansion ports and a solid tactile feel to its buttons mix sturdy build quality with stylish yet smooth lines. This is not usually the case with a company launching its first product in a new segment. Asus was able to apply its knowhow in producing portables and notebooks to its PocketPC line.

The device also has one of the more powerful processors around, a 400MHz Intel XScale microprocessor that can ably run multimedia such as short video files and MP3 music files. MyPal’s 320x240 pixel screen is both bright and clear, its backlight is sufficient although not as brilliant as some of the other PocketPCs in the market but the default settings are easily altered.

For its power and features, MyPal is quite reasonably priced at the P31,000 to P33,000 range. It doesn’t stray too far from the top-of-the-line Palm models, yet it is comfortably priced under better known PocketPC models from Compaq, HP and others. MyPal comes with a USB cradle, a basic carry case, stylus, and a host of productivity software worth thousands of pesos if purchased separately.

The unit’s battery life is rated to last for 16 hours on a single charge and should be sufficient for a day’s usage. Our actual experience showed that the battery lasted just under 11 hours although, of course, we did use it quite heavily. We found the built-in 64MB RAM memory to be ample for day-to-day use. This unit is the fastest PocketPC we have tested to date and possibly the slimmest handheld computer with a palmtop form factor next to Handspring’s Visor Edge and Palm’s m515. It is a good option for those considering a very powerful, expandable and portable handheld option. – Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla