The eternal battle between two competing platform, Palm
and Pocket PC (PPC), is one that goes way back. Well, I am here today not to
take sides but having used the Palm M100, M125, IIIC extensively before
crossing camp, I would just say that both formats have their pros and cons ....
and I will leave those comments to another time till I see Palm OS 5 in the
retail channel. Today, we have the slimmest PPC in our lab for some 'slimming
exercise' .... the Asus MYPAL A600.
Asus MYPAL A600
General Impression
My first impression when I held the A600 (Note: This is a
review/evaluation sample which is identical to the retail version)
Light and very sturdy. It gave a very 'hard' and solid feel thanks to the
full aluminum alloy casing.
Directional pad is pretty stiff and the integrated speaker produce a
'metallic' sound.
A 3 way jog dial. Similar to the one found on the Loox and iPAQ 39XX.
A bottom-lit screen. Amazingly, I couldn't find any obvious 'dark corners'. The
screen is evenly illuminated throughout.
Nice built-in 'spring' cover for the SD/MMC slot. I would prefer this over
a 'dummy' card anytime. Notice the deep indent. Inserting and removing a SD/MMC
is much easier now.
ALL 4 nos. of shortcut bottons (with a baby blue backlit) light up when you activate either one of them. A nice touch if you work mostly in the dark.
MYPAL A600 - Front/Back/Side
I 'shamelessly' ripped this slide off Asus's powerpoint
presentation :)
Specifications
If you notice, the A600 claimed a
15-16 hours in Power Saving mode!
This unit is capable of Fast Infrared (FIR) for speed of up
to 4Mbps
