The new ASUS MyPal A620BT is a powerful Pocket PC with fast graphics and excellent expansion capabilities. It has a simple rectangular design with rounded edges and a metallic silver finish. It’s light, but has a reasonably sturdy feel to it. ASUS also offers the device without integrated Bluetooth (the A620). Other than the Bluetooth capability, the A620 and the A620BT are identical.

Turbo, Standard, and Power Saving modes

The device is powered by an Intel PXA255 processor that can be run in Turbo Mode (400 MHz), Standard Mode (300 MHz), Power Saving Mode (200 MHz), or Automatic Mode, in which the device senses the needs of the program currently running and adjusts the processor speed to meet them (Screen 1). These modes are selected in the ASUS Settings utility, located in the Settings folder. While many of the newer Pocket PCs are rated at 400 MHz, actual performance varies because of other design decisions. As it turns out, the A620BT is currently the fastest “400 MHz” Pocket PC available, according to benchmark comparisons done for a review of the iPAQ h4150 ( http://www.bargainpda.com/reviews/default... ).

Screen 1: You can adjust the speed of the A620 from the ASUS Settings application.

The A620BT has 64 MB of SDRAM, 55-58 MB of which can be accessed by the user to store data and run programs. In addition, the A620 has a whopping 64 MB of flash ROM, a little under 32 MB of which is available to the user for file/data storage. You can expand storage memory even further using the card slot. ASUS chose to include a Type II CompactFlash card slot instead of the increasingly popular SDIO slot. For the time being, it's a good design decision that offers you the maximum amount of expandability—there are more accessories available in the CF format than in any other card format, plus you can use SD cards with an adapter.

Good screen and battery technology

The A620BT has a 3.5-inch diagonal, 65K-color transflective touchscreen—the same screen size and screen technology found in the iPAQs reviewed on page 14. Apparently, HP and ASUS get their displays from different sources, as although the differences were small, I found the ASUS screen just a little easier to read indoors and the iPAQs just a little better outdoors. The benchmarks I mentioned above also indicate that the A620 has the fastest graphics system of currently existing Pocket PCs. In my own tests, it handled graphics-intensive games and video well.

The device comes with a non-replaceable 1300 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery. ASUS promotes the A620BT's “Smart Power Saving” technology and gives a battery life estimate of 18-19 hours in Power Saving Mode. But that's 19 hours until the battery is completely empty while continuously running an application that is probably not very demanding—in other words, a best-case scenario. An independent worst-case scenario test—playing a video in Windows Media Player—resulted in 4.5 hours of continuous use until the battery ran dry. That's actually pretty good for a Pocket PC with a 1300 mAh battery.

I like the round, relatively large navigation pad and the application buttons located below the screen. The navigation pad in particular is a little more responsive than the ones found on most other Pocket PCs. Combined with the fast performance of the device, this pad makes the A620BT an excellent choice for a Pocket PC gaming platform. The application launch buttons are larger than those of most other Pocket PCs, making them easier to press.

The quality of the built-in speaker is about average for a Pocket PC. ASUS placed the voice record button on the top of the device, which is a little unusual for a Pocket PC, but it proved functional. They also chose to place the built-in microphone slightly below and to the right of the record button. This is well positioned if you hold the ASUS in your left hand when you make a voice recording. However, if you hold it in your right hand and use your right thumb to press the record button, the thumb covers the microphone opening. Fortunately, this does not diminish the quality of the recording much.

The ASUS A620BT comes with built-in Bluetooth capability that is easily accessed via the Microsoft Bluetooth manager application that is built into the device (Screen 2). I used it to copy a file from the Bluetooth-equipped iPAQ 4350 to the A620BT using the “OBEX File Transfer” capability, which is fairly easy to use. Bluetooth capability will probably become more important as more solutions are offered, but I'd rather have built-in Wi-Fi at this point.

Screen 2: The A620BT's Bluetooth capability is accessed using Microsoft's Bluetooth Manager.

The device also comes with a USB synchronization cradle, an AC power adapter, a Microsoft companion CD, an ASUS bonus software CD, manuals, a quick-start guide, and a carrying case. The latter is a tight, well padded case with a reinforced front to protect the display. It's not the most stylish case I've ever seen, but it certainly gets the job done.

Built-in software from Microsoft and ASUS

ASUS's new standard and Bluetooth-enabled A620s have the Premium Edition of the Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC software. This software includes the Windows CE 4.2 OS, and a rich suite of productivity and entertainment applications, various setup and configuration utilities, and a whole lot more.

In addition to the Microsoft applications built into the A620BT, ASUS supplies a simple backup application that lets you save all your data, or Pocket Outlook data only, to a storage card from which you can restore this data. Also included is a utility called “SmartKeeper,” which teams up with the backup utility to back up your data automatically if you run low on battery power. This is a nice little feature that more Pocket PCs should offer.

ASUS Settings lets you adjust screen brightness, change processor speeds (Screen 1), and more. It even lets you change microphone sensitivity and adjust the audio volume, balance, treble, and bass levels. ASUS also includes a rather basic alternate application launcher program that does not have the ability to close down an application completely.

Two software CDs

The ASUS A620BT ships with two software CDs. The Microsoft companion CD has desktop PC versions of ActiveSync 3.7, Outlook 2002, and Windows Media Player 9.0. The ASUS “Bonus CD” has the following applications:

FULL VERSIONS— complete user-installable versions.

• IA Presenter ( http://www.iastyle.com ) is a mobile presentation tool that lets you play PowerPoint presentations (Screen 3).

  

  Screen 3: One of the user-installable applications that ships with the A620 is IA Presenter.

• IA Album ( http://www.iastyle.com ) is a versatile photo-album tool for image viewing.
• IA Zip ( http://www.iastyle.com ) is a WinZip-compatible file compression/decompression utility.
• Zera ( http://www.jimmysoftware.com ) is a puzzle game in which you arrange pairs of magic balls to explode them and score points.
• Boyan's Crystal ( http://www.jimmysoftware.com ) is an arcade game in which you try to burst crystal balls by linking together three balls of the same color.
• PocketSwap ( http://www.pocketfun.co.uk ) is a colorful arcade puzzle game that challenges you to pop groups of two or more similar puzzle pieces called “counters.”
• Dung Cleaner ( http://www.mactiontech.com/english/index.htm ) is a traditional arcade game in which you have to climb ladders to move to different levels and clean up the…well, you know what!
• Pocket PC 2002 Themes ( http://www.iastyle.com ) is a program that includes over 50 themes displaying original and classic art, animals, race cars, and more.

TRIAL VERSIONS— demo versions of these programs are on the CD. If you wish to continue to use them after the trial period, you must purchase them.

• IA Phone Manager ( http://www.iastyle.com ) is a program that helps you manage phone books and short messages on a Pocket PC that's linked to a mobile phone via Bluetooth.
• IA ScreenShot ( http://www.iastyle.com ) is a program that lets you capture screen shots.
• X-Ranger ( http://www.jimmysoftware.com ) is an FPS (First Person Shooting) game that uses fully textured 3D real-time rendering with key-frame animation (Screen 4).

  

  Screen 4: X-Ranger is one of the excellent free demos found on the bonus CD that ships with the ASUS A620.

• Dizzy ( http://www.jimmysoftware.com ) is a challenging word game.
• Saffron ( http://www.jimmysoftware.com ) is a variation on the old “Breakout” arcade game.
• P-World ( http://www.jimmysoftware.com ) is a variation on Tetris in which you use bombs to destroy lines of puzzle pieces and score points.
• FlipSide ( http://www.pocketfun.co.uk ) is a puzzle game in which the goal is to turn all the pieces on the board to purple by flipping them over. It's not as simple as it sounds.

When performance counts…

ASUS is not as well known in the U.S. as some other Pocket PC manufacturers. The original A620, introduced last year, and this new A620BT, reviewed here, are fast devices with great graphics capability. The use of a CF card slot is a little unusual for a Pocket PC, but it's a good choice since there are still more expansion options available in this format than in the SDIO format. The non-replaceable battery is the only feature that I am not happy with, but there are enough other plusses associated with this device to make it something you should definitely take a look at, especially if you love games and graphics.

The standard A620 is available at MobilePlanet ( http://www.mobileplanet.com ) for $350. If you do a search on PriceGrabber.com, you should find some other online stores with prices in the low $300's. In mid-November when I completed this review, the A620BT (the Bluetooth version) was available for $389 on AJump (http://www.ajump.com) and for $400 on ATACOM ( http://www.atacom.com ).