My New Asus A730

[Tempest929]

I've had my A730 (bluetooth only) for a couple of days now, and here are some of my initial impressions. I've had a number of different handhelds in the past (Toshiba e755, ipaq2215, ipaq 4155, and a Tungsten T3 being the most recent ones) so most of my comparisons will be relative to these divices.

1. Screen-The screen on the asus is amazing. There is no coloured tint what so ever. White backgorunds and colours appear without the yellowish tint that some ipaqs posses (4155). The brightness of the screen is also very good, much brighter than those of my previous ipaqs.

2. Movies-The movies that I have played on this device (using betaplayer) play great. Trust me, video quality on a VGA device is a lot better that on a QVGA device. I conducted the same video test as described here:

http://discussion.brighthand.com/sho...v&pagenumber=1

and obtained the following results:
betaplayer: 129.78%
pocket tv: 51.59%

I have no idea why pocket tv performed so poorly. Perhaps because the a730 doesn't have a graphics chip?

3. Games/Joy Pad-The joy pad and gaming experience on this device is very similar to that of the ipaq 4155. The buttons take a bit of getting used to, but once you get over that, gaming is very enjoyable. There is no button lag what so ever. Morphgear plays with framerates that are slightly better than those of the ipaq 2215.

4. Microdrives-My 4gb Hitachi microdrive does work with the A730.

5. Battery Life-This is one of the A730's poor points. Battery life on this device is worse than on any other device that I've ever had. With the screen brightness at about a quater, and surfing the internet using bluetooth for a half hour, the battery life drops about 30%. Today, I had the A730 charging in its cradle, with the backlight at 100%, and playing music from my microdrive, and I revieved a warning message that was something along the lines of: "The power being consumed by this device is greated than the power being supplied through the A/C adapter. Please lower the backlight in order to prevent battery drain."

6. Camera-I believe the camera on this device was designed to be a gimmick more than anything. Pictures look okay in bright light, but otherwise are of low quality. The flash isn't really bright enough to make much of a difference in low light, but does have the option to be left on, and makes a pretty good flashlight. One cool thing, is that with my 4gb microdrive, the Asus can record 14+ hours of video (but the videos poor quality too).

7. Bluetooth-I've found that the range on the Asus' bluetooth to be much better than any device that I've ever owned. I have a bluetooth dongle hooked up to my laptop, and recieve a clear signal anywhere in my house.

8. The feel-The device actual feels very plasticy. Its very comfortable to hold, but at the same time is very smooth. The plastic casing is a fingerprint magnet. This is one device that I wouldn't want to drop.

9. Size- the A730 is very small. Its actullay very similar in size to the 2215. Its is a bit thick, but its barely noticable because of the rounded edges. It sits comfortably in my pants pocket.

...And that about all for now. I'll post more as I continue to play with it.

[RiPpeR]

Thanks.. I have been waiting a long time for someone with a new Asus to post their ongoing thoughts...

[pdaadp]

well.....hmm......

maybe this isn't the pda to replace my e805, when that times comes......

like the size....but the battery life is poor? already dealing with this issue on my Tosh....sure there are ways to save battery life, but I can't bring myself to dimming that beautiful 4" screen!

i've read that the camera pic quality is the best of the pdas with cams....but sure, it's not a full blown camera, so you can't expect top notch quality....

wonder how this competes head on with the Fujitsu Loox....

[Tempest929]

Actually...I stand corrected on the camera quality. Its actually pretty good! When I was testing it out before, it was set to vga resolution...at full resolution, its a lot better. The movie recording quality is still really poor, but picture quality isn't bad. Also, I'll try some more tests on the battert life. I've had my microdrive installed in the device since I got it. It might be sucking back the juice.

[tankee531]

possible to post some pictures you took?

[StevePPC]

Tempest, the microdrive is definitely most of your "abnormal" battery usage. Looking forward to hearing how it does without it.

Thanks for the review

[Tempest929]

Its kind of hard to test the battery life on the Asus because the scale only moves up or down in 10% intervals. Without the microdrive, the device does shows a significant improvement. Roughly, I've found that the microdrive was using about 30% more power. For example, surfing the internet on bluetooth with the microdrive installed for a half hour used about 30% of the battery life. Without the mcrodrive, surfing the internet with bluetooth for a half hour used about 20% of the battery life.

As for the pictures, I'll try and post some later today.

[RiPpeR]

Hey Tempest I just noticed your in Canada... where did you get your device..? I am in Vancouver and was looking for a possible source to pickup the a730W when it comes out...

And thanks for the undates... always good to hear the first hand experiences of a real user.

[The Ironduke]

my ASUS 730 is in transit back to the supplier, a new one should be here next week.

It had a serious flaw with the touch screen on the right hand side.

I agree the 730's screen is lovely, my one gripe is its viewing angle is very small

the camera is decieving when u first use it u think this is a joke why bother but when u start messing with the settings and most of all allow it to focus and adjust the light (takes several seconds)
the output is very good.

The video is very similar to phones like the sony k700, pretty good when held still but gets very blurry when u start to pan

[yrevo]

Can you tell me if a Seagate ST1 5GB Microdrive Compact Flash II CF card will work on this Asus A730?