Customer Reviews

Asustek Computer - My Pal A716 Integrated Wifi & Bluetooth

5 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought a MyPal 716, thinking it would be a purchase that could pay me back with it's convenience. But the protective case is actually designed poorly, with some hard magnets directly over the screen when the case is closed.

Less than two weeks after purchase, I went to a restaurant next door to my apartment. I used the A716 in the restaurant. When I got home and put it on the charger I noticed the screen was cracked! Since I didn't hit the screen or cause the PDA to be hit, the only blame I have to lay is on the magnets that hit the screen every time you close the "protective" case, and then crack it. For that reason I don't believe the protective case to be doing its job.

It's been at the shop over a month and the people at ASUS are still deciding "Who's fault it is." Judging by the comments all over the internet about people who buy PDAs and the screens cracked, ASUS will soon be accusing me of damaging my PDA, the same PDA that I treasured more than anything else I own (aside from my computer) and cared for like it was a baby. I'll change my review in the unlikely event that ASUS repairs my PDA, but to hear after one month in the shop that they are still trying to determine who's at fault makes me upset over slow customer service.

I did a bit of research before settling on the Asus Mypal, 716 and I have not been disappointed. You can find this product online for around $380. Yes it's slightly larger than most pocket PC's but it's packed with features and built strong.
Battery life is fair if using wifi, 2-3 hours at best, but running multimedia or software applications the battery last long enough to get you through the day. I was a bit curious as to why it ships with windows mobile 2003 first edition instead of 2003 Second Edition which has a few features I would have liked to have had. But as it turns out the features I wanted, like the ability to change the screen to landscape view, and some of the new features found in Pocket Internet Explorer, were available through third party applications. In fact I came across a better browser so I no longer use P.I.E. at all. (It's called Netfront v3.2 in case you'd like to know.) I have yet to use the Blue Tooth function although I'm sure it works just fine. I use a 1 gig CF card and a 1 gig SD card in their respective slots. This gives me plenty of room to carry along movies, music, and saved web pages for offline reading.
The program Active Sync which ships with it, is used for transferring data and files from a PC through the supplied usb cable. The program works fine with Windows XP but I have yet to get it to work with Windows 2000. Others have also experienced many problems with this software, (It's Microsoft so what do you expect?)
Also be aware that devices such as these have programs loaded into ROM (Read Only Memory) and you will not be able to get rid of them to make room for the software you really want. For instance, I never use MSN Chat and have no use for it, same with Excell and Windows Media Player, but they're placed in ROM bundled in with the operating system taking up precious memory. Microsoft force feeds you their products once again when there are others out there that do the same thing only better. Didn't the courts tell them to cut that out? Aside from those slight annoyances, (that's right Bill your company is an annoyance, ok I'm through, I feel better now) this is by far the best bang for the buck. Like Ferris Bueller once said, if you have the means I highly recommend it.

PS: With a decent pair or earbuds you will find yourself leaving the IPod home.