Asus MyPal A730

Posted by T3 Online on Thu 1 Nov 2007

Plenty of pocket power, but not enough class

Handhelds from Asus have traditionally been as exciting as a night out in Whitchurch, but this newbie has managed to generate a real air of expectation around it. This is largely thanks to whispers that the company was planning to kit it out with both a megapixel camera and a high-resolution VGA screen.

Thankfully, it's managed to deliver on both of these promises, but it's also added some surprises into the mix, such as an LED flash on the camera, a user-changeable lithium-ion battery pack, and both CompactFlash and SD expansion slots.

As with all the megapixel cameras we've seen on PDAs and phones, this one is a significant improvement over VGA models, but won't have your digital camera trembling in its boots. It really struggles in dimly lit conditions, even with the flash turned on, and it isn't really that hot on colour reproduction.

The screen, on the other hand, is excellent. Pin-sharp and - at 640 x 480 - around twice the resolution of virtually every other PDA display we've ever seen, this is as good as you'll find.

But it's not all plain sailing. The case, although much more attractively styled than those of previous Asus models, still feels too plasticky and cheap for our liking, and the stylus holder is oddly placed on the bottom of the machine. Crucially, there's also no Wi-Fi support at present, only Bluetooth.

So, while there's a lot to like about this handheld, and it's definitely the best offering from the company so far, it's still not quite the classy machine we were hoping for.