01-03-2005, 03:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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PDA Buyer's Guide Reviews ASUS's A730w
"Power users rejoice: the feature-packed A730W has every feature you can pack into a Pocket PC except a mobile phone. This VGA device has WiFi, Bluetooth, a 520MHz XScale processor, 1.3 megapixel camera, dual expansion slots and a user replaceable battery. Impressive. Does this top of the line ASUS live up to its feature set?...The A730W arrives on the heel of the A730 which we reviewed in September 2004. The units are identical in most respects, using the same casing and having many of the same features. Thus our reviews of the two units share some editorial text. The A730W adds WiFi (that's what the "W" stands for), has 128 megs of RAM rather than 64 and thanks to firmware improvements does a bit better on benchmarks and camera performance."
Looks like a fantastic unit, overall, but PDA Buyer's Guide finds that the battery life is indeed very poor, especially with Wi-Fi on.  Too bad; it seems like nearly everything else was done right on this unit.
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01-03-2005, 04:10 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jun 2007
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Quote from the article: "In our tests the unit lasted about 2 hours on a full charge in a mix of use with brightness set to 60%: access PIM info, working with Pocket Word and Excel, playing MP3s for 30 minutes, watching a five minute video, shooting 10 photos and playing games for an hour. If you have Bluetooth turned on, battery life will be reduced by about 30 minutes."
Interesting to see that most new VGA PDA's have certainly inferior (read: they consume far much power) BT unit than the 2210. If you switch on the BT on the 2210, and use it for e.g. web browsing, you barely notice the difference in the (absolutely great) battery life. How come no manufacturer can achieve the same (low) power consumption?
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01-03-2005, 04:16 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 190
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Menneisyys
Interesting to see that most new VGA PDA's have certainly inferior (read: they consume far much power) BT unit than the 2210. If you switch on the BT on the 2210, and use it for e.g. web browsing, you barely notice the difference in the (absolutely great) battery life. How come no manufacturer can achieve the same (low) power consumption?
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You're right (except for great battery life on h2210).
Question: Why there always have to be some "IF" ? :cry:
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Omikron using SonyEricsson K700i & iPaq h2210
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01-03-2005, 05:00 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,067
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by omikron.sk
You're right (except for great battery life on h2210).
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Well, I'd certainly be very happy if my Pocket Loox 720 consumed the same power than my 2210 at the same, non-CPU-intensive and the-screen-is-akways-switched-off tasks like recording MP3 with NoteM 
IMHO the 2210 has really great battery life.
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01-03-2005, 07:21 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 1,208
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Quote:
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Standby time wasn't terribly impressive either, with the unit losing 10% charge per day
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my 1 year old 2215 still uses 3% battery per day. 10% is realy, realy bad!
think of it, you leave the device with 30% battery and 3 days later, boom hard reset!
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IMHO the 2210 has really great battery life.
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i totally agree with you, if especialy if you are not using wifi alot and can sacriface a little screen brightness, the battery life is realy good
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01-03-2005, 07:28 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 734
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This doesn't really surprise me - the A730W only has an 1100 mah battery after all. 8O
Compare that to the HX4700 - 1800 mah - or the Loox 720 - 1640 mah - and it's obvious the A730 won't last long.
That's one of the reasons I took it off the list of potential candidates for my next PPC. I'm going to buy a Loox 720 instead of an HX4700 (the third candidate) 1100 mah just won't cut it for any long term surfing.
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01-03-2005, 10:09 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 101
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Don't forget that you do get a 2nd battery with the A730W which certainly helps matters. Though you do have to carry that battery with you-- one extra thing in the bag or pocket.
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http://www.mobiletechreview.com(formerly pdabuyersguide.com)
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01-03-2005, 10:27 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,468
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by pdagal
Don't forget that you do get a 2nd battery with the A730W which certainly helps matters. Though you do have to carry that battery with you-- one extra thing in the bag or pocket.
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Plus - no charger on the cradle - so the spare battery has to be charged on the a730 itself. Hardly convenient.
I can't help but think that the extra battery offer is an attempt to ward off criticism of the (frankly appalling) battery life.
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01-03-2005, 10:33 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 418
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Quote:
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Size: 4.62 x 2.78 x .53 in. Weight: 4.67 oz.
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That doesn't sound right.... specs I've read have it at 4.62 x 2. 87 x 0.67" and 6.something ounces.
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HP 48s, 200lx, USR Pilot 1k, Palm 3, V, M100, Handspring Visor, Sony N610c, T615c, T655c, HP iPAQ 1910, 2215, Palm T3, HP hx4705, Dell X50v, HP rx1955, Apple iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, Samsung Galaxy Nexus
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01-03-2005, 10:52 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 275
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I don't see any backup battery compartment in the specs. Does that means that when I replace the main battery, ASUS will hard reset itself? (in other words... all data will be lost?)
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John Cruz
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