Review of PDA Asus My Pal A686

Live photos of Asus My Pal A686

Sales package:

• PDA
• 1200 mAh battery
• User guide
• Charger
• Case
• CD with software (ActiveSinc and Outlook)
• Mini-USB data cable
• Car holder
• Car charger

The recently introduced range of pocket PCs by ASUSTeK contains three models: Asus A600, A620 and A636. The first representative of the product line was tested a few days earlier and today we are examining another one - Asus A686. The device reasonably takes the medium spot between the junior A626 and the senior A696. Asus My Pal A686 carries GPS-module onboard, whereas the A626 comes with nothing of this kind included, but still, it lacks Wi-Fi.

The company positions MyPal A686 as a basic solution packed with GPS-navigation abilities. It’s worth mentioning that in spite of by no means cutting-edge display with QVGA-resolution and lack of Wi-Fi the A686 seems to be a competent solution for GPS navigation specifically thanks to the time-proven GPS-chip SiRF Star III, and outstanding battery life.

We should note it beforehand, that in the sense of design all three PDAs are identical. The only things that allow you to tell the difference are “GPS” label on the casing and the external antenna GPS-antenna slot for the A686 and the A696. If you have read already the review of Asus My Pal A626 you may readily miss the forthcoming paragraph and jump straight to performance an GPS navigation.

Design and controls

The device’s looks can be deemed traditional for Asus-branded PDA solutions. Availability of GPS-module in senior models leaves its own stamp on all offerings that belong to the line. In fact, that is why the first launch goes in landscape orientation. The asymmetrically placed display (if put the device in vertical position, it will be a bit closer to the right spine) serves as just another proof that landscape setup is intended for the A686. On the left-hand side sits “GPS” label.

Measuring 117x70.8x15.7 mm at 165 g, the A626 fits in the image of a today’s PDA. The device is larger in size than Acer n311 but is pretty much comparable with other solutions. This PDA is meant to be carried in bag or briefcase in the first place; as although it comes packaged with a carrying case, it has no belt clip. The case made of thick black material features Asus logo on the face and has firm grip on the PDA.

The A686 comes in conventionally-looking rectangular form without protruding details and slightly rounded edges and spines. The PDA’s face has metal finish that goes along the perimeter and partly touches the side plates. Black plastic is used for the display’s frame. Our review unit had silver front plate; however they are now planning to launch three extra trims: gold, blue and light blue. At that, the only part that varies in color is the front fascia, whereas the rest of the casing remains coated in black.

The rear utilizes standard black plastic, which seems far too unsophisticated and cheap; and naturally the combination of metal and plastic is something we haven’t used to see too often, which makes for more primitive looks of the A626. This part also features a slot for GPS-antenna covered with a flap.

Beneath the screen, on the face plate, you will find four keys and a round five-way navigation key. Further down on the left is a small speaker grill, on the opposite side is the similarly-patterned grill, hiding wireless interfaces indicator underneath, as for the rest it is here chiefly for the sake of it.

The keys under display are dedicated to the following functions (from left to right): voice notes, contacts, calendar, quick menu, more of which later.

Bulky in size navigation pad stands a bit above the casing surface, which makes it a cinch to work with, as well as with other fascia-mounted keys. Above the screen you will find a small hole, where charging LED is placed.

The left spine plays host to a Mini-USB slot which serves for linking up the PDA with PC or charging up the handheld. The slot is left uncovered. The right-hand side houses two elements: hold switch and 3.5mm audio jack. The elements mentioned, placed both on the spines and on the edges, are placed flush with the casing, which is a reasonable approach in view of GPS-module embedded, implying that the A686 is supposed to be used in car. That is why the casing is made flat with no protruding parts.

Presence of 3.5 mm jack for headphones gives you an opportunity to use Asus A626 as a music player. We tasted sound quality with in-ear headphones Sennheiser MXL 51 and on-ear type - Sennheiser HD-212 Pro. The sound proved to be clear without any unwanted noises. Top volume level is not particularly high, but seems sufficient for using the player on the street. Of course, music-conscious users will definitely turn up their noses at the A626, but our point of view is purely subjective.

The upper edge is armed with the power button and unprotected memory expansion slot. The card format applied here is one of the most wide-spread among PDAs – SD/MMC with SDIO support. The biggest memory card you can use with the A686 should be the most capacious unit on the market, just like we’ve come to expect. Switching to the bottom end, you can see the soft reset key and Infrared window, as well as the stylus silo.

The stylus slides into the silo vertically, if you are holding the A686 sideways, which is quite different from our previous experience. In other words, if you put the device vertically, the stylus socket will be located horizontally at the bottom edge. The advantage of this layout is that whichever way you hold the A626, the stylus will never end up sliding out of the silo on its own.

Stylus is extensible, though it snaps open and closed with authority. When closed, it measures 62 mm tall, and 92 mm when opened. Basing of its thickness and size, we should better say that it is not very easy to use, just average. For most of the PDAs this stick usually turns out to be rather thick. But in this way Asus A626 is inferior even to Acer n311 with its already pretty skinny stylus. Ultimately, you will get used to it, but at first it might seem too small and inconvenient, especially to those who have dealt with other PDAs in the past.

Display

It is one of moot points about the whole of Asus’s updated range. The A686 sports touch-sensitive TFT-matrix measuring 3,5” from corner to corner. The active zone of the display at that makes up 70x52 mm with 320x240 pixel resolution and up to 65 K colors. Usage of QVGA resolution in the at-the-frontier PDA line-up is a questionable step. The company decided to arm the screen with glare filter, which makes for matte shine of the display and thus dim and faded picture. But this drawback is fully compensated by the screen’s high brightness and the ability to adjust this parameter precisely.

Battery life

The handheld carries a 1200 mAh Lo-Ion battery onboard, which is par for the course for many PDA by various manufacturers. Though, it is quite another matter that in many models capacity like that allows getting only moderate or even sub-standard figures of battery life. Though the A686 doesn’t fall flat on this front and even outdoes its already great sibling – the A626. As the manufacturer claims, in the A686 this capacity will be enough for 15 hours of music playback with the screen switched off and 5-6 hours of GPS navigation.

Below are the results of our standard battery life tests.

Reading mode – the least power-hungry mode of all. Display backlighting level is set to the minimum that makes for comfortable reading, then we launch Haali Reader and activate auto-scrolling. 

MP3 mode – self-explanatory test. Display backlighting gets switched off (in case with the P3400 it was set to the floor), volume level is set to the medium level, and then we link up the PDA with headphones and playback MP3-files with 128 Kbit/s bitrate via MortPlayer.

Maximum load – Display brightness is set to maximum, thereupon with start up TCPMP player and initiate playback of 320x240 pixel movies.

The figures for Asus A686 are up to other ASUSTeK-branded PDAs and even take the bar a step above. Like other Asus PDAs the A686 has shown the best rates in each mode compared to the models by other manufacturers. Specifically, it lasts 5 hours at maximum load and more then a day (!) in reading mode. MP3 mode made the A686 switch off in 23 hours 47 minutes, which automatically makes it one of the best all-round performers in terms of battery life to date.

Performance

Asus A626 is powered by a 312 MHz Intel XScale PXA270 CPU. Out of 64Mb of RAM 54.05 Mb is user-manageable, which is enough to get most of the tasks completed. The size of the bundled flash-memory makes and 77.65 Mb, and is more then enough for installing and running the most essential applications. Vast majority of apps may be installed on the memory card.

We carried out a standard test with SPB Benchmark pack. In view of the fact, that the test does not give an objective picture of the performance of handhelds running WM 5.0, we have extracted only a few types of data from it. In terms of performance, the A686 is among the best in our chart.

Then the device was put through its paces in TCPMP benchmark. tested with Benchmark built n TCPMP video player. 100% performance means smooth film rendering without dropped frames, but with possible collapses during dynamic scenes. 120% and more ensure smooth playback without lags or dropped frames at all

It comes as no surprise that nothing has changed here since the A626, whose performance rates can be found in the respective review.

Connectivity

The device comes with all the wireless connectivity options you might need

As for Infrared-port, there is nothing to dwell upon.

The PDA has Bluetooth and Infrared connectivity options onboard, though Asus wasn’t generous enough to arm the A686 with Wi-Fi. Probably it is due to the fact that if it actually had it, then it would impossible to set the A686 apart from the top of this line – Asus A696.

The device comes equipped with miniUSB cable used for synchronization with PC as well as for data connections. The A686 makes use of a dated USB 1.1 protocol, which limits the data connection speed to 12 Mbit/s. In practice it will take from 30 to 40 seconds to upload a 10Mb file to the handheld’s memory. For USB-connection the capability to use PDA as a card reader is provided. To make this possible, you should enable this option in the USB settings.

The device carries Bluetooth 2.0 module with EDR support onboard. The PDA comes installed with Broadcom (Widcom) drives, which is a good thing, as many latest-and-greatest PDAs are preloaded with Microsoft’s software, whose functionality is limited The number of profiles supported can make unprepared user tremble. The A686 contains all necessary profiles including A2DP (stereo sound to Bluetooth-headset).

 

When tested, the A686 brought about no Bluetooth-related issues. All profiles did well: Internet access via phone, synchronization with desktop PC, files and contacts beaming, Bluetooth keypad coupling. Driver version - 1.7.1. Build 9701

The list of supported profiles is as follows:

- A2DP-Source
- AVRCP-Target
- BIP-ImagePush
- BNEP
- BPP-SenderDev
- DUN-DT
- FT-Client
- FT-Server
- GAP
- GAVDP
- Generic Object Exchange 
- HCRP-Client
- Headset-AG
- HID-Host
- OPP-Client
- OPP-Server
- PAN-Group
- PAN-User
- SDAP
- Serial-DevA
- Serial-DevB
- AVCTP
- AVDTP

GPS

The device makes use of SiRF Star III GPS chip which is installed in most of communicators and handhelds these days. The chip is placed in the upper part of the casing. The cold start time makes 14 minutes, which is pretty much. It takes the A686 about 3-5 minutes to pick up the signal while on the streets. Though when we had it indoors, specifically 3 meters away from the window in a 5-level building, it spent about 20 minutes on getting online, but ultimately it managed to detect the signal and then didn’t let it go.

We tested reception quality in car, moving around the center of Moscow. Take note that the device was always in my hands, that’s where some inaccuracies come from.

The scale is 180 meters per 1cm. The route goes smoothly, in two places you may see how the line breaks.

Now we are zooming in to 110 meters – breaks in the line become more apparent. The first lost of signal is caused on purpose - we just cover the casing’s upper part with hands for a few seconds, and this results in a 3-second long offline session for the A686.

Scale – 55 meters. We are driving the car under the bridge, the signal is lost again. The device manages to reestablish connection in 50 seconds.

In both cases when signal is regained, the navigator slightly distorts your located during the first minute. The recorded track lines reveal this in the form of lines crossing the route. Generally speaking, navigation with the A686 is quite accurate. When moving in a car with an adequate application installed on the Asus A686 (TotTom Navigator, for example), the navigator binds the route with road, so that the driver won’t deviations of a few or even a dozen of meters, since all of them will be smoothened by the application.

Now a couple of words on the sales package of the navigator – apart from standard constituents, it includes car charger and car holder, which is quite natural, taking account of the device’s main focus. Though these two widgets are nothing special – just about any GPS-navigator or GPS-equipped PDA comes boxed with a holder like this.

Software

The device runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC. Standard applications this operating system comes loaded with are covered in our dedicated article. Don’t forget, though, that this one is a PDA, meaning that it has no phone functions.

   

Review of Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC >>>

Review of AKU update packs for Windows Mobile 5.0 >>>

Now let us turn to the suite of applications pre-installed on the PDA, which is not big, to be honest. As most of other manufactures, Asus has decided not to modify what the OS already brings to the table with additions of their own.

Mode Switcher is a small app that proved to be of great help in practice. In fact, it does the same job as ALT+TAB combination on your desktop. If you remember, such combination is used to bring up menu to switch between active applications or programs. In Asus A626 everything is done in pretty much the same way with two modes at your disposal – active applications or system programs and options. The former allows you to browse launched applications, while with the latter, you will be able to go back to Today screen, start up Windows Media Player and rotate the display.

This application has a dedicated button on the casing – the last key on the right. Pressing it one time calls up a pop-up window, and after that, punching this button, you can select in the list the application you need, let the key go when an application is highlighted, and the A626 goes into it.

ASUS Status is a module used for displaying system status thumbnails on Today screen. In minimized state it is the A icon you see, tapping on it will bring up a window in the lower right corner, featuring system information: USB connection type, CPU work mode, backlighting level, memory volume and battery charge. Any of these items can be removed from the list if your wish.

Audio is here to enable you to adjust sound. Using it you will be able to tweak balance, 3D, Bass, Treble. Here you may also set up microphone sensitivity during recording as well as record modes themselves.   

Conclusion

By and large the conclusion on the new range of Asus PDAs is quite moot. This line-up almost doesn’t improve upon its predecessor, sporting only subtle design-related tweaks. Functionality-wise these two ranges are no different either. The A686 carries the same QVGA-display and PXA270 312 MHz CPU onboard. The main and, well, the only advantage of handhelds by Asus is supreme battery life – in this sense Asus is still out of competition.

The model will best fit people looking for a basic car GPS-navigator. Of course, SiRF Star III chip does not provide altogether brilliant positioning for Asus A686, yet it copes with the essentials. The face-off between a GPS-navigator and GPS-enabled PDA is always won by the latter, thanks to its enhanced functionality an ability to choose navigation software.

There is still no word on the handheld’s price, though you should expect less that 350-400-dollar worth price tag. Within at least this price-bracket the A686 has quite a lot of rivals that don’t necessarily match it in terms of feature-pack.

Its closest rival has to be HTC Galaxy platform and Qtek 100 that is based on it. Price under 350 USD mark, pocketable size and Wi-Fi onboard speak in favor of the latter. Thus much like Asus A626 the very decisive role for the A686 will be played by its pricing policy.

Specifications:

• Type: GPS-enabled PDA
• Position in the line-up: above Asus A626
• Rivals: Qtek G100
• Materials used: plastic, metal
• Operating system: Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC (AKU 2.6)
• CPU: Intel XScale PXA270 312 MHz
• RAM: 64 Mb (53.97 Mb available)
• ROM: 77.65 Mb available for storing user data and applications
• Connectivity: SDIO/SD/MMC, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, USB 1.1 for charging/synchronization, IrDA
• Display: TFT 3.5” (70x52 mm – active zone) with 320x240 pixel resolution, 65 K colors, adjustable backlighting
• Battery: detachable 1200 mAh Li-Ion unit
• Dimensions: 117x70.8x15.7 mm
• Weight: 158 g (battery included)

Short review of the PDA Asus MyPal A639

Review Asus MyPal A636>>>

The handheld line-up of Asus has never contained more than two actual models. The experience with the high-end handheld turned a failure, the Asus model with the VGA LCD (MyPal A730/A730W) brought less success than expected. Then the company switched the focus to GPS, which is still a most prospective direction on the market.

Asus MyPal A636 and the junior modification Asus MyPal A632 were positioned as navigation handhelds. They were completely adapted for car navigation: landscape screen orientation, a car kit (car cradle, choke charging) and an integrated GPS-receiver. The model surprised us with its long battery life. There isn’t any competing model to break or come close to this unprecedented battery life record. However this handheld hasn’t become the bestseller, because of a relatively high price and big size. It was tuned to the old SiRF Star II chip generation, which required an external antenna, thus the developers had little chance to make the device compact, the task was impossible. They only achieved to hide the antenna inside the device.

The navigation handheld by Asus enjoyed a portion of success, the fact ensured the appearance of updated modifications in future to extend the life cycle of the model till the brand new model emerged.

At first there was a “cosmetic” modification Asus MyPal A636N, which featured updated wireless interfaces. Bluetooth 1.2 module was replaced with Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and IEEE 802.11b with IEEE 802.11b/g. The final user didn’t see great improvements, the important thing was that the model was new.

Asus A639, which we have in out test laboratory today, looks much more like a real update, however old features are still visible. Now let’s deal with the new changes of the handheld.

The sales package contains a cradle, which is quite ordinary and doesn’t have anything special. I’d just mark a definite advantage – it is possible to charge an additional battery and the PDA simultaneously. Well, there is nothing left to tell about the cradle.

Design has not serious, but noticeable changes. Control elements under the screen do no longer have circle style (speaker, navi-button, group of buttons), they got more strict forms. The screen framing doesn’t have hairless metal any longer, which was the peculiarity of Asus A636. There is nothing tragic about it, hairless is rather a decoration thing than the important design element. In all, we have refreshed design, a good one, however one can easily notice old design traces.

Basic software and the set of additional programs weren’t changed. AKU 2.2 update package is installed above Windows Mobile 5.0. Taking into account that Asus A639 is a handheld PC, not a communicator, the user won’t notice real difference (you’ll hardly buy Asus A639 to use Microsoft Push-Mail).

Naturally Asus A639 comes with renewed wireless adapters – Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and IEEE 802.11 b/g. Nominally they increase the maximum data transfer speed. To my mind, “old” speeds are quite sufficient to cope with the most tasks. Remember, this is a handheld PC, with the tasks different from its desktop mate. However, if you plan to download to your PDA megabytes of music and video, higher data transfer speed will turn to be a great advantage. Bluetooth functionality hasn’t changed compared to the base model.

We’ve come close to the main change in the model – built-in gigabyte of flash-memory, the company specially highlighted the fact. You can download the navigation map into the memory, so not to launch it from the disk. Following the price cut for memory manufacturers will equip main devices with large internal memory. To compare, a 1GB SD card costs $18. No doubt, large memory size onboard is a nice feature, but not a decisive factor to buy the device. If you bought Asus A636, it wouldn’t be a great financial loss to get a 2-4 GB SD card.

If something is missing in this short review, you can find it in the review of Asus A636. The hardware of Asus A639 is almost identical to the old model.

In result we get the restyling of the MyPal supplied with the cradle and 1GB of flash ROM. If you are the owner of Asus A636, there is no sense to replace it with the new A639. However new users, who need a navigation PDA to be used mainly in the car, can choose the A639. For the alternative, I’d note Fujitsu Siemens LOOX N520 (more compact, shorter battery life, no Bluetooth), the Mio A201 (weaker features for the same price), Qtek G100 (more compact, lightweight, but unstable GPS work).

Review Asus MyPal A636>>>

Description:

• Class: navigation PDA;
• Position in the line: above Asus MyPal A636;
• Rivals: FS Pocket LOOX N520, HTC Galaxy, Mio A201;
• Operating system: Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC;
• CPU: Intel XScale PXA270 416 MHz;
• RAM: 64 MB (53.91 MB available);
• Flash ROM: 74.65 MB available;
• Flash Disk: 830.60 MB;
• Interface: SD/MMC (SDIO), IrDA, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11b/g), USB 1.1 client (synchronization, charging, card reader);
• Integrated GPS-receiver SiRF Star III, external rotating antenna, connector for additional antenna;
• LCD: 3.5” (active zone – 53x71 mm), 240x320 pixel, 64K, 240 backlight levels;
• Battery: removable Li-Ion 1300 mAh;
• Dimensions: 122x73.2x19-19.5 mm;
• Weight: 186 g.

Asus MyPal A636 - an absolute battery life record

Standard kit:

• PDA
• USB cable for synchronization
• Case
• Charger
• Choke charger
• Car cradle, car screen mount
• Documentation
• CD with the software

Asus has never been the PDA market leader and hasn't aspired to take leading positions. This was a fashion direction for the company, it yielded profits from sales of motherboards and notebooks and plenty of OEM/ODM orders. The first PDA models (Asus MyPal A600 and A620) added the status of productive PDAs with long battery life. The following Asus A716 still kept the status, though it seemed clumsy.

The latest model Asus A730 (and its modification Asus A730W) seemed to be an advance at first time - a VGA screen, relatively small size. However later comparison with rival models revealed it was a far from better solution (read the comparison test of VGA Pocket PC here). The most important moment was that the model lagged behind with its productivity and battery life. That is it lacked the things, for which many liked previous Asus handhelds. In result we see poor sales and the stop of production. To say the truth there was another factor in the assessment, the overall crises on the PDA market. Asus A730/A730W and previous models are no longer produced, now stocks are offered for sale. Thus there won't be an upgrade to Windows Mobile 5.0.

Asus will follow the current trend on the market for the coming year - shifting to GPS navigation solutions and smartphones/communicators (with the focus on the latter). Asus A636 (navigation) and Asus P505 (communicator) offered by the company now are pilot balloons on the market.

Today we review Asus MyPal A636, which is a successful handheld in the both aspects of navigation and the ordinary PDA. Some features make the model unique, and as for the battery life there isn't any rival even to be near it. But we won't run ahead, let's start from the beginning.

Design, control elements

Dealing with the appearance of Asus MyPal A636 designers should have created strict design and control elements easy to work with in portrait and landscape orientation. On the photos below you can see rejected design versions, we think that an optimal version has been eventually chosen.

Design is strict enough dominated with straight lines. There are no light forms like in Asus A730, we see the model returned to the ideas of Asus A620. Due to external flip GPS antenna its dimensions and weight (122x73.2x19-19.5 mm, 186 g) are rather typical for a dual slot PDA (SD/MMC and CF) than for a single slot solution. GPS onboard can't be a good explanation to big size and weight, as there are smaller solutions - FS Pocket LOOX N520, HTC Galaxy. You can put up with such weight and size carrying the device in your overcoat, the bag or at the belt. And if you'll take it out of the car rarely, so these things aren't important. In hand the PDA rests the same way as Asus A620, I had similar feelings.

The front panel is metallic with the engraving unique for each device, it is done under hairlines technology - laser applies non-parallel lines to the surface. This technology is used in expensive Asus notebooks (for example, Asus W1). In addition to attractive appearance it has a utilitarian feature - it doesn't leave fingerprints, even you try it on purpose. Another plus is nice touch. I'd note that the assembly quality is high, when you squeeze the device in hand, you feel it monolith.

Under the screen are 3 equal circles. The left circle is the speaker, its sound volume is higher than average (though we expected much from big dimensions), it doesn't creak at the highest sound level and produces pure sound.

The joystick with the enter button in the middle carries out standard functions, makes sound volume higher/lower, changes scale in navigation mode. The joystick and buttons are very good gaming - 4 buttons fit the right thumb, that's ideal for SNES emulator, for example. In games the joystick and functional buttons proved well. Sides are free from control elements, you find only an infrared window and grooves to mount the device in the car cradle.

At the top end we see Power button, a silo for the big and comfortable plastic stylus pen, a SD/MMC slot supporting SDIO. At the bottom are a synchronization connector (like in Asus A730, FS LOOX 710/720), a rest button, a standard audio jack protected with a rubber gag. However I can't follow the logic, why the audio jack is protected and the synchronization connector is open. Music playback quality is standard high, I have no claims to it.

Hold button, rarely seen on PDAs, is located at the back panel and blocks the screen from an accidental touch. The battery compartment has nothing peculiar.

Kit, modifications

The car-cradle for the windscreen and the choke charger are integral items of a navigation PDA. The Asus MyPal A636 kit includes it all.

Another essential element of the kit is navigation maps - so after you bought the device you can install it in the car and use it right away without searching for and buying additional software. The sales package in Europe contains a 256 MB SD card with Destinator PN5 navigator. In Russian the device will be shipped without maps at first, that will lower the attractiveness of Asus A636 as the completed navigation product.

There is a junior cheaper modification - Asus MyPal A632. It lacks Wi-Fi, but is equipped with a dual slot (SD/MMC and miniSD). For the first time we saw this slot in HP iPaq hw6515, both modifications had similar distinctions. In 2Q 2006 we'll see an update of Asus MyPal A636 - the main change will be the built-in flash disk capacious of 1 GB.

GPS

This handheld has SiRFstarIII GPS chip, in fact this is the standard for all new PDAs with integrated GPS. All rival models have this very chip.

The GPS chip is the heart of any GPS-receiver. It is as important as CPU in PDA or GSM (UMTS) chip in the phone. SiRF stands out on the GPS-chip market, the solutions of this company are used by many manufacturers. An important milestone was the appearance of 3G chips SiRFstarIII. This is a new break in the development of personal satellite navigation. In the table below you see the comparison of SiRFstarIII and 2G chip.

The main difference for the final user is that it became possible to use the internal antenna saving place and making the appearance better. But there is a by-problem: the new chip is vulnerable to noise made by the TFT-matrix and the processor. In the foreground are brought talents of engineers, who try to minimize and isolate noise. There is an alternative solution - to place the external antenna, so the accuracy will be higher (larger surface of the antenna, direction adjustment, lower noise). But you shouldn't expect a miracle - the difference between the external and the internal antenna for the final user is negligible. I haven't felt the advantage of Asus A636 against Qtek G100 (HTC Galaxy) in positioning accuracy. Moreover if you use the device in the car, you can plug the external antenna via a special jack. The advantages of the external antenna are the subject of many disputes now and in future. Salespeople will provide strong arguments in favor of the external antenna (with the external antenna the signal reception is better).

The antenna can be completely hidden inside the shell, almost not giving itself away (the shell here is 0.5 mm thicker, you can neglect the fact). In the PDA mode the antenna won't disturb you in any way. If you eject it, it can be bent for the portrait or landscape use.

In navigator mode Asus A636 is the typical Pocket PC based on SiRFstarIII chip, so we won't go into details.

Screen

The screen of the A636 has standard specs for Pocket PC: a transflective TFT screen with a 320x240 pixel resolution and 65K colors, a 3.5" diagonal. The screen behaves well inside and outside, that is typical for all transflective screens. There are 240 backlight levels, the lowest level is comfortable to read in the dark. As for the quality we have one of the best QVGA screens, however there are no fundamental differences from the average level.

Battery life

The Li-Ion battery is capacious of 1300 mAh. That's not the highest figure among the PDA, it's higher than average. The manufacturer claimed 44 hours of offline work. We haven't believed in this statement, until we checked it.

In the read mode (auto scrolling in Haali Reader, the lowest backlight level and the lowest clock rate) the A636 lasted for 35 hours 50 minutes on a single charge. The MP3 playback from the memory card with the screen of drained the device completely out within 23 hours 24 minutes. Under the maximum load Asus A636 worked for 4 hours 10 minutes. In GPS navigation mode with 50% backlight level the device was good for 7 hours 10 minutes. Bravo Asus! Hats off! The PDA outpaced all previous records. And don't forget that the A636 is equipped with Intel XScale processor and not the efficient TI, and the battery capacity is far from 3600 mAh. We suppose, this record will be kept for a long time, this model should become the standard to access offline work. Other manufacturers should think about power consumption optimization for Intel XScale processor.

Interfaces

As for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in the A636, we won't go into details, as both modules work without reprimands. There are Broadcom drivers of latest version for Bluetooth, the fact says much about their complete functionality.

The most interesting here is the implementation of USB. The connector remained the same inherited from Asus A730. There is no USB host function in this model, but there are 2 extra modes implemented: Asus MyPal A636 can be used as the Wi-Fi adapter for PC - some of you might find this function very useful. The second mode is the use of the PDA as the card-reader, Windows XP recognizes the device without drivers as the external drive. The later mode is available for Palm devices for a long time, but it is applied for Pocket PC for the first time. Frankly speaking, it's possible to activate this function in other Pocket PC with the special program.

Specs, memory

I'd remind you that memory has been organized other way in Windows Mobile 5.0. Volatile RAM is used as RAM, user's data can't be stored there as before. There is 59.21 MB of flash memory onboard to store user's data and programs and 58.09 MB of available ROM. There is also an extra flash disk for 25.74 MB. Asus MyPal A636 is powered by Intel XScale PXA272 processor with 416 MHz maximum clock rate. Let's see how the handheld can perform in tests.

At first we run our standard test with SPB Benchmark package and take PDAs with similar functionality. Here we won't provide the integrated index, as it is distorted by the new OS version (we've written about the SPB index peculiarities in the review of HTC Wizard).

This index describes Pocket PC's CPU speed. The models occupied positions according to the nominal clock rate, Asus A636 slightly behind Asus A620.

The file system index test failed because of memory reorganization, in reality there is no such gap from the leader. As we've written many times - the test isn't adequate.

The synchronization speed unfortunately turned to be low.

The results on graphics productivity for Asus A636 are the highest.

Let's see the test results in real applications, they are much closer to the reality. At the video playback the PDA showed best performance. In this case without using Wireless MMX optimization (the function of PXA27x processor), we launched 4 clips at different stream intensity, the index was formed on the basis of dropped frames. The less dropped frames, the higher the index is. 1000 index means no dropped frames at all.

As we see the result is quite good, entering the top 5 among pocket PC.

Test of graphics productivity with of the PocketQuake game in the mute mode (turn the sound off by nosound 1 console command, leaving other settings unchanged) suggests the results of the most productive Pocket PC. We have an averaged figure by 2 tests (Demo 1 and Demo2).

If for some reason you need higher productivity, you can speed up the PDA (the only thread is the hard reset with the loss of all data). For example, we sped up the processor by XCPUScaler, measuring the productivity growth with BetaPlayer, Wireless MMX optimization was on. The handheld worked stable at the frequency up to 624 MHz. Higher speed up caused unstable work and made the system busy. As we see, the results are quite good, though not the best.

The PDA productivity (with the speed up) will be enough to cope with any task. The results of real tests suggest that this is one of the best Pocket PC.

Software

The handheld is powered by the 5th version of Windows Mobile. You can read about its standard applications in the special review published on out site (remember that the version for Asus MyPal A636 doesn't have specific phone applications, the PDA can't be used as the phone), here we just mention non-standard programs:

• Review Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC

Mode Switcher/ Task Switcher. It switches between active applications, like Alt+Tab combination on the keyboard.

Impressions, conclusions

The important advantage of this model is the record battery life. Other peculiar features include the front panel made under hairlines technology, built-in card-reader mode, the dual slot modification (miniSD, SD/MMC), high quality.

As for the weak points I'd note big size and weight because of the external antenna, and relatively high price. The A636 is already commercially available, in Europe it costs €550 with navigation maps, the junior modification without Wi-Fi and with the dual slot is priced at €500. The price tag in Russian is $450-480 for the senior model and about $400 for the junior one.

Soon we pass to the detailed comparison of GPS-handhelds based on Windows Mobile 5.0 in the review of Qtek G100 (HTC Galaxy).

Description:

• Class: navigation PDA
• Position in the line: above Asus A620
• Rival models: FS Pocket LOOX N520, HTC Galaxy
• Operating system: Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC
• Processor: Intel XScale PXA270 416 MHz
• RAM: 64 MB (58.09 MB available)
• Flash ROM: 64 MB (59.21 MB available)
• Flash Disk: 25.74 MB
• Interfaces: SD/MMC with SDIO, IrDA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11b), USB 1.1 client (synchronization, charging, card reader)
• Built-in GPS receiver SiRF Star III, external rotating antenna, connector for extra antenna.
• Screen: 3.5" (active zone: 53x71 mm) with 240x320 pixels, 64K colors, 240 backlight levels
• Battery: removable Li-Ion 1300 mAh
• Dimensions: 122x73.2x19-19.5 mm
• Weight: 186 g