When Asus announced the MyPal A730
Pocket PC with a VGA screen several months ago, the
company said versions with (A730) and without Wi-Fi (A730w) would ship. For the
last couple of months, however, only the A730 sans an 802.11b radio has been
available in the United States.
This week, Asus U.S. reseller PROPortable received its initial shipments of MyPAL A730w Pocket PCs, sending them all out to those who
preordered the eagerly anticipated handheld. Brighthand reports a second
shipment should arrive at PROPortable offices today. That means those who
purchase the MyPAL A730 Pocket PC could conceivably receive them by the end of
the week.
PROPortable sells the A730w for $600 and the A730 for $500.
MyPal A730
The MyPal A730/A730w are part of a trend towards new Pocket PCs with VGA (640
x 480 pixel) resolution displays. Toshiba was first out of the blocks with a VGA screen for its
e805, while Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Fujitsu-Siemens all
shipped VGA models this fall.
Theoretically, VGA should let users view whole Web pages on a PDA without scrolling, for example. It also makes
working on spreadsheets and word processor documents easier and more manageable
on a small handheld display.
In addition to supporting VGA, the MyPal A730’s screen measures 3.7 inches
and displays 16-bit color, which translates into 65,536 colors. There is also an
Intel 520MHz XScale CPU, 128 MB of RAM, both CompactFlash Type II and SDIO Secure Digital slots for peripheral and memory
expansion, Bluetooth, and a 1.3 megapixel camera for up to 1280×960
resolution pictures.
For more on the MyPal A730, see Review: Asus MyPAL
A730 Camera Sets Pocket PC Apart.
Reprinted from Pocket PC City.
