BargainPDA has published an informative review of the Asus A730W Pocket PC PDA. The Asus device seems to add points with its integrated camera and USB host capabilities compared to the Dell x50v competition (arguably the most advanced PDA today), but lose many points with its bad battery life, limited graphics capabilities, price ($600 over $425) and questionable built quality (and also not enough built-in storage, older Bluetooth protocol support, slower CPU than Dell’s). No matter what though, these two PDAs along the HP iPaq hx4700 are the best of breed today in the PDA world.
Asus A730W PDA Review
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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and long live multifunction phones. seriously, it makes sense to have calendaring on a phone since you already HAVE an addressbook.
Thats one tempting PDA, now to just get Linux on it and hope the wifi card performs well. One day, VoIP+wifi from your PDA on the go.
What’s with the cameras anyway? I mean, generally. In phones, in PDAs, et cetera… Why all these 5 megapixels when you have a 0,5 cm plastic lens?! Even if you have 50 megapixels, it wouldn’t change a thing. Gee, I hate builtin cameras as much as I hate pictures being made with them.
I remember dreaming about a PDA that would only have internet access (via GPRS?) anywhere, but no phone capabilities. Seems there isn’t such a thing.
My husband is a serious hobbyist photographer. He’s got, I think, about 14 cameras. Yes, he knows how much these cheap cameras on phones/PDAs suck, but these are simply cameras to do a quick point-and-shoot (e.g. if you happen to see a UFO parking outside your door), rather than do some serious photography with them.
It’s simply an additional feature that might get handy. It’s not about getting pro results with them. They never will, and nobody really expects them to perform in such a way anyway.
Having said all that, I personally DO want a camera on my PDA, because I can grab some quick video with it (without having to go through conversions, the camcorder and then transfer of it to the PDA), and I also could use it with Instant Messaging. THIS is where a camera *is* really neat to have on a PDA: Instant Messaging, and quick video clips.
Specs are not everything !
My Palm T5 does its job better than my toshiba PPC (e800)
did. I am it using for PIM, as a news reader, mp3-player and as dictionary. I also will use it for witing longer texts (using a keyboard).
I think palm OS is much more user friendly and the developers have put more thought into how to make computing on the go comfortable.
And its not Microsoft…
Actually, I disagree. I have 3 Palms (two Clie’s, one PalmOne). Recently, I got the Dell x50v. I much prefer the Dell over any Palm PDA.
I can do all the things you mention, the same way you do and maybe even better. And dual wireless works like a charm, while PalmOS has trouble with it (the TH-55 from Sony had to be patched over and over again to get it working correctly for example and PalmOne still has HUGE problems getting it to work at the same time wifi/BT reliably).
Additionally, the PalmOS 5.x looks like cr*p. It’s still very plain and the widgets look like it’s the ’80s still. At least WinCE looks more like ’90s (still cr*ap too, of course).
I must say though, Qtopia is the worst-looking and behaving PDA interface today. I have the *latest* version of Qtopia right here running under my X (emulating the framebuffer only, the rest runs natively), and the interface is a lot like “oooh, I am a desktop interface and when I grow up, I want to become a PDA interface”. Trolltech needs to seriously get on board some usability engineers who have worked either for WinCE or PalmSource (unfortunately, not many others have the needed experience to get such a job as it’s a tight market).
Just a quick note about the latest rage in camera phones and PDA’s. I for one can not have a device with a camera attached. They are banned where I work and for very good reasons. I had to work hard to get a cheap cell phone without one and paid more for my x50v because it didn’t have a camera. That is to say a cheaper VGA display PDA is available but it has a camera, so no-go for this happy camper… If I want to I can get a decent camera, but that is my choice to make. As to camera phones, I need a simple(!) phone that works where I am not where it wants to. My worst nightmare is a PDA/phone combo – I like my phone in my pocket not on my belt. I guess that this just goes to show that you can’t please everyone.
… to stop calling these things PDA’s .. they are no longer PDAs. a PDA doesnt have a vga screen, 3d video cards, 600+mhz cpu’s with dual wireless etc etc etc ad infinitum…
the hardware is unimportant. its the purpose they serve. PDA == Personal Digital Assistant. seems like this still fits this category.
then why not call your laptop a PDA if you are the only one that uses it???
I think Helf is on the right track in that these devices will take over from the fat client and access your services on the backend. Better connectivity and usable screens (vga min) will mean I can do the basics on the unit and remote access to more sophisticated services that will be provided by your company, ISP, or even your home server…