asus 730 W

[LightMan]

Originally Posted by Patrick Y.

I still prefer Asus to hx4700. I mean, Asus is small and stylish and 4700 is big and ugly. Also, 4700 it is one of the most expensive PDA in the market. I bet that Asus can do a lot better with the similar amount of money. The 4" VGA screen of Ipaq is nice but I don't think it is worth it due to its price. Asus also have higher benchmark than Loox. The battery issue, in my opinion, isn't very important. You can always get more batteries. The camera on Asus, according to the review of PDAGold, is very good for a Pocket PC that small. I really appreciate your feedback.

I agree. I'm also not fond of the 4700, but the between the Loox and the Asus, the choice gets much tougher.
The battery issue is starting to get to me about the Asus, although after getting a retractable sync'n'charge cable, things have improved. Nonetheless, the fact that you have to charge the spare batteries in the pda itself (cradle has no charging slot for spare battery) becomes a bit annoying, having to remove the battery cover somewhat frequently.

Surur makes good points in his post. Actually, now that I'm using wifi more and more and the Asus average battery duration is dropping fast due to that, I'm considering moving to the Loox ... I'm going to take a look at one this weekend "hands-on" to see if it feels much bigger or heavier than the Asus.

[LightMan]

Originally Posted by Patrick Y.

I still prefer Asus to hx4700. I mean, Asus is small and stylish and 4700 is big and ugly. Also, 4700 it is one of the most expensive PDA in the market. I bet that Asus can do a lot better with the similar amount of money. The 4" VGA screen of Ipaq is nice but I don't think it is worth it due to its price. Asus also have higher benchmark than Loox. The battery issue, in my opinion, isn't very important. You can always get more batteries. The camera on Asus, according to the review of PDAGold, is very good for a Pocket PC that small. I really appreciate your feedback.

I agree. I'm also not fond of the 4700, but the between the Loox and the Asus, the choice gets much tougher.
The battery issue is starting to get to me about the Asus, although after getting a retractable sync'n'charge cable, things have improved. Nonetheless, the fact that you have to charge the spare batteries in the pda itself (cradle has no charging slot for spare battery) becomes a bit annoying, having to remove the battery cover somewhat frequently.

Surur makes good points in his post. Actually, now that I'm using wifi more and more and the Asus average battery duration is dropping fast due to that, I'm considering moving to the Loox ... I'm going to take a look at one this weekend "hands-on" to see if it feels much bigger or heavier than the Asus.

[Patrick Y.]

I still think that Asus is the best though...... As I mentioned before, Asus has better benchmark result than Loox. Also, Asus' camera is much better than the one on Loox according to PDAGold. As for the battery problem, you can get a extended 1800mah battery.

[Kowalski]

Originally Posted by Patrick Y.

I still think that Asus is the best though...... As I mentioned before, Asus has better benchmark result than Loox. Also, Asus' camera is much better than the one on Loox according to PDAGold. As for the battery problem, you can get a extended 1800mah battery.

i am afraid i dont agree with you, i dont find asus the "best" for a couple of reasons. firstly with an extended battery, the device is very heavy and very tick, in fact the device is tick without the extended battery.
the back door is moving a little and this is very annoying.
there is no rugged or plastic side grips like found in 2215, the new 2400 etc, and the device is likely to slide in my hand.
the device is useless in powersaving mode, and lastly the model without wireless has very little ram

[etabetapi]

I have to agree with Kowalski. My first choice would've been a Loox if not for the fact that Fujistu doesn't offer them here and I didn't want to forfeit my warranty in importing one.

The battery on the Asus is a serious limitation, so I ended up shelling out another $70 for the extended battery. I know that some units come with 2 batteries (although my reseller wouldn't confirm this) but the reason I got one was because I couldn't be bothered swapping the charged battery out in the middle of the night.


OT, but it's refreshing to see people honestly talking about their PDAs and not frothing at the mouth defending them for no good reason except that they own one. You have no idea how ridiculous people are about their electronics on other boards. You'd think you were insulting their children or something. :roll:

[Patrick Y.]

I agreed with both of you in many aspects. Though, I'm going to list some reasons that makes me decide that A730w is the best VGA device. (Correct me if I list something that's not true)

1. Asus has a nice camera with rich features
2. The device is stylish and small compare to other VGA Pocket PC
3. The package comes with two batteries, which last longer than other devices together. Some people doesn't like to change battery all the time (it may be a bit troublesome), but it is fine with me.
4. Have a lot of bonus software. (Some people said that Asus has very "little" bonus softwares because most of the softwares are in traditional Chinese. But it actually comes with lots of softwares if you can understand Chinese. (Look it up on Asus' official website if you don't believe it)
5. It may have less memory than Loox, but it seems more than enough to me. (You don't install more than 96 MB of programs in the main memory, do you?)
6. It has nicer performance than Loox



For the battery problem, I can't deny that. Correct me if I am wrong, but the battery seems to be the only major problem. It still has a lot of qualities that Loox doesn't have.

In conclusion:

You may not agree with me, but I think it really depends on our own personal taste.



P.S.

there is no rugged or plastic side grips like found in 2215, the new 2400 etc, and the device is likely to slide in my hand.
the device is useless in powersaving mode, and lastly the model without wireless has very little ram

I may be wrong, but very few devices have plastic side grip, right? Also, A730w (not a730) have 128MB of RAM, which is plenty. Lastly, what do you mean by "useless in powersaving mode"?

[Kowalski]

lets see what we got here:
1. i would rate the camera of asus mediocore, it shoots still images with a decent quality but video recording is not good enough
2. yes, the device is small compared to other VGA devices, and stylish but i didnt find the device "solid", i mean the build quality doesnt feel top notch
3. the second battery coming with the device is reay a plus, but some devices have much longer runtimes thus no need for second battery
4. have alot of software? sir, i cant understand chinese :roll:
5. the device has less than 50 megs of ram space and after a soft reset, device uses more than 12 megs for program memory. this leaves a small space just for average users
6.well, asus performs well, i agree with you

see, asus may fit your needs but 730 is not a good device for most of us

[etabetapi]

Originally Posted by Kowalski

lets see what we got here:
1. i would rate the camera of asus mediocore, it shoots still images with a decent quality but video recording is not good enough
2. yes, the device is small compared to other VGA devices, and stylish but i didnt find the device "solid", i mean the build quality doesnt feel top notch
3. the second battery coming with the device is reay a plus, but some devices have much longer runtimes thus no need for second battery
4. have alot of software? sir, i cant understand chinese :roll:
5. the device has less than 50 megs of ram space and after a soft reset, device uses more than 12 megs for program memory. this leaves a small space just for average users
6.well, asus performs well, i agree with you

see, asus may fit your needs but 730 is not a good device for most of us

I think we have to consider the fact that most PDA cameras suck. We are not talking about a camera we would want to bring to a wedding here. But this is the best that most PDAs can do (with that exception of the Sony Clie that had a 2 MP camera but was bloody MONSTROUS in size.) Comparitively, the Asus fares well in this respect I think.

I like the design as well, but I haven't yet had the chance to handle my Asus yet (in the mail.) It would've been nice if the unit had been made in metal, but that might've added too much weight to it overall.

Different reviews have said different things about the build quaility though, some like it and some don't. One reviewer stated that he liked the fact the back came off easily; it made the battery easy to replace. I can imagine how much worse it would've been if it had been _difficult_ to remove the back and have the battery fly out and hit the ground, or cause the user to damage the unit.

The biggest drawback is the battery. I don't think anyone will disagree with you. But I think the PDA overall is quite good. It's just that the Loox offers everything the Asus does and MORE, so that makes it better.

As for the average user, I think most people justify their $700 PDA by telling themselves that it's for _work_. Well, if that were true then these PDAs would be overkill. They can certainly do everything QVGA models can, but are slower, and suck up more battery life. And for what? Extra power that you don't need if your PDA if all you're doing is opening up word documents...

What we really want them for is an all around multimedia device. But really, the Asus can do EVERYTHING that other PDAs can (with the exception of the x50v, that has accelerated graphics for the real gaming nut.) You won't be installing movies on the device itself, nor will you do that with MP3s. Everything will go on to SD or CF cards, and Asus can do that just fine.

[surur]

The difference between a man and a boy is the price of his toys. My Loox is definitely my toy. I use it for work of course, to keep notes, keep track of work Ive done, keep my calender etc. But I love the VGA screen and WIFI for surfing the web when I cant get to the computer, and of course I use it play music. For this the good battery life is a real blessing. If its within my budget, and the technology has advanced enough to justify the upgrade to myself, I don't have to claim productivity benefits. A toy is for pleasure, not work. After 5 PDA's I've trained the wife now to expect a new PDA every year.

The nice thing is that if I DID want to use it for work I could easily plug in a USB keyboard and I'll be up and running, doing documents in Textmaker. The good battery life means I could do this for 4-6 hours without any problem. The truth is though that a laptop is much better suited for such work.

Now what I'm having a hard time doing is justifying spending £1400 on a nice tablet PC, to use on the couch. Thats a bit tough. Ive got the wife on board, but cant really justify it to myself yet

Surur

[Patrick Y.]

Originally Posted by Kowalski

lets see what we got here:
1. i would rate the camera of asus mediocore, it shoots still images with a decent quality but video recording is not good enough
2. yes, the device is small compared to other VGA devices, and stylish but i didnt find the device "solid", i mean the build quality doesnt feel top notch
3. the second battery coming with the device is reay a plus, but some devices have much longer runtimes thus no need for second battery
4. have alot of software? sir, i cant understand chinese :roll:
5. the device has less than 50 megs of ram space and after a soft reset, device uses more than 12 megs for program memory. this leaves a small space just for average users
6.well, asus performs well, i agree with you

see, asus may fit your needs but 730 is not a good device for most of us

The camera, in my opinion, is very good. You can't expect a small device with Wifi, Bluetooth, dual slots, USB Host, VGA screen, etc. to come with a camera that has the quality of a top Sony camcorder. Also, the camera is already a big bonus since neither Dell and HP have it. From what I've seen so far, the rating of Asus' camera is higher than Loox's. Even with a camera, this device is the lightest, smallest VGA device.

You may not think that the device is "solid", but one of the good things most reviewers said about A730W is its design and quality. I don't think most people will find the battery door "annoying".

As for the battery, Asus came with two battery with price of one. Like you said, the battery won't last very long. However, that is why it comes with two batteries. With both of batteries, Asus can last longer than other devices. The second battery, remember, comes with no additional charges.


I don't think it is really fair to say that Asus lacks bonus software just because they are in traditional Chinese. Besides, this device is mainly selled in Taiwan. You may not found most softwares useful, but the people who buy them in Taiwan do. I believe they won't have the same point of view as you.

Originally Posted by Kowalski

the device has less than 50 megs of ram space and after a soft reset, device uses more than 12 megs for program memory. this leaves a small space just for average users

I will have to disagree with you. The device that has less than 50 megs of RAM space is A730, not A730w. A730w has 96 MB of available RAM, which is bigger than HP and Dell's device. I admit that it has really little flash ROM, but who needs flash ROM when you can just get a SD card.



Lastly, it has really good performance.

P.S.

I don't think that I am the only one who find Asus suitable. (it is really popular in Taiwan, you know. ) It offers a lot of features with reasonable price. The device itself is not low-quality either. I still think that it is better than other VGA device.

[Kowalski]

i am glad that you like your device
so we all agree that a730w is a good device if you dont mind the short battery performance
but wouldnt it be great if you dont have to carry second battery with you to achive good runtimes.