I have been awaiting my chance to use the Asus A620 for some time now. I was lured in with reports of its speed from many of our forum members. When it arrived, I opened the box up to find the unit tucked away in its plastic pouch. I soon liberated the device and started using it. One of the first things I noticed was the likeness in size to the Toshiba E series, very slim, but somewhat wide and flat. The buttons are laid out nicely to give you a good grip when holding it like a gameboy, and the unit was quite light in my hands. One qualm I do have, and this may be an issue with only my unit is that the “dummy” CF card was loose and would fall out if you shook the unit while it was upside down. Not a big deal since I always have a real CF card in the device, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Now let’s get down to the specifics…

Since I assume most of you are looking for more than just a list here, I am going to touch on some of the things that I found in the box that exceeded my expectations. Most of the items in the box are standard with every pocket pc, so it’s extra stuff that sets these units apart.

• Asus A620 PocketPC (that’s a good start)
• Asus A620 Cradle
• AC Adapter
• Manual, Quick Start Guide, and Warranty Card
• Microsoft Companion CD: including Microsoft Outlook 2000 and Microsoft ActiveSync 3.5
• Asus A620 Bonus CD
• Protection Case

The bonus CD included with the A620 was a very nice surprise. I think Asus said it best with this line:

“Thank you for purchasing an ASUS MyPal A620 Series Pocket PC! This Bonus CD contains a comprehensive set of application software, games, and free goodies for you to install and play with. So enjoy the software!”

Here is a breakdown of what came on the CD, the bold lettering denotes a full version, and the rest are trials:

And lastly, you will find a comprehensive collection of free themes under the “free goodies” section of the CD.

Included Case	Optional Leather Case

The case that came included is beastly enough that I will mention it in the review. I say beastly for two reasons, the first one being, that I found it to be somewhat repulsive, and the second, is that it is very sturdy case and provides nice protection. It should be noted that Asus refers to it as a protection case, so I don’t think they were trying to win any fashion shows. It has a thin sheet of plastic or perhaps metal inside the case to protect the screen, and the rest of the case is carefully wrapped up with a thick padded nylon. This case would more than likely keep the unit well guarded in a briefcase or a backpack.

The optional leather case that you see pictured to the right seems to be a very nice case that snaps into the sides of the unit, leaving the entire front of the case open for use. It is made of high quality leather with a snap enclosure. Normally it retails for $39.99, but Justin from ProPortable has told me that if you buy it along with an Asus A620, or when you pre-order an A620BT(more on this later) you will get the case for $25. For more pictures of this optional case, click the image to be taken to a gallery.

-Specifications

• 400MHz Intel XScale PXA255 Processor
• Microsoft PocketPC 2003
• 3.5” Transflective TFT LCD Display (65k colors)
• 32mb Flash, 64mb SDRAM
• Compact Flash Type II slot
• 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
• FIR/SIR (infrared)
• 1300mAH Lithium Rechargeable Battery
• 125mm x 76.8mm x 13.3mm (L x W x H)
• 141grams

-Screen

Going with the tradition first set with the Asus A600, Asus has once again included a screen whose backlight has 255 levels of brightness. Allowing users a great amount of flexibility when choosing the backlight level. I find that I keep my device around level 20, which provides me with ample light, and is about the same brightness as the first notch on the 1945, and the sixth on the 2215. I have found the A620’s screen to have richer color than both the 2215 and the 1945. The picture below illustrates this fairly well.

I know one of you inquiring minds will ask, so as of yet I have not had any problems with dust behind the screen, or the digitizer acting up.

-Buttons & Gamepad

To the average PocketMatrix’er™ PocketPC’s can often be looked at as more of a gaming/video powerhouse, rather than a personal information managing god. So you can bet that a good directional pad is on the top of a lot of people’s list. Now, you can stare at pictures of every devices d-pad and figure out which one you think looks like it would work the best. But the real test is to load up a NES or SNES rom, sit back and play for a couple hours. I have done this on both the HP2215 and the A620, and I have found the A620 to be an all around better game pad.

While I do like the 2215’s joystick like d-pad, I find that it can often be hard to keep my thumb on it while playing for an extended period of time. And the 2215’s buttons are too recessed and angled badly for console emulation. On the Asus however, the d-pad fits nicely under my thumb, and the larger buttons allow for some fierce game play. Overall, I would have to say that this device has the best game pad I have experienced to date, that is including all PocketPC 2002/2003 devices. I must have played Secret of Mana for the SNES on this device for about 4 hours straight the other night, and for the first time, I did not feel like the game was handicapped because I was playing it on a PocketPC.

-Speaker

The speaker on the Asus is located on the bottom right of the device, below the buttons and d-pad. And thanks to Asus’ built in control panel, you can adjust the bass and treble of your audio. But unfortunately, the audio is nothing to rave about. The speaker is rather tiny, when you put the volume up on the 4th or 5th setting’s it becomes very crackly and distorted. And to make matters worse, there is a problem with the audio “popping” as the speaker turns on and off. Some of you may remember this issue from the older iPaq’s. Hopefully Asus can fix this with a firmware update. The headphone jack on the other hand does not suffer from this problem, and provides clear stereo sound, so if you want to use this device as an MP3 player, that is still an option for you.

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