Here are the reasons:
1) It's available now and it is cheaper then the A730W will be. I paid $667 CDN which is $520 US. I should receive it early next week.
2) Bigger screen (and a really nice one I might had). If you are going for VGA, might as well get the biggest screen available. If you've never seen the E800's screen, go to the store and take a look. It's amazing.
3) I already have two small PDAs (iPaq 2210/Tungsten T3) and don't need another one. I don't intend on carrying the E830 with me. It will be for development purposes and for browsing the Internet anywhere in the house/garden (again, bigger screen is good for browsing).
4) The other reasons are developer related: VGA, WM2003 SE, 8-way dpad, bluetooth 1.2 (A730 has BT1.1), CF/SD and newest XScale processor with "MMX".
It is bigger then the A730 and (presumably) the Axim X50, but not much heavier (190 g for A730W vs 200g for E830). Reason probably being that the E830 is thinner.
Performance wise, I do not expect a big diff between the A730 and the E830. They both have the same processor and both use the CPU's video controller. The A730 might be a little faster, but frankly, it's not a factor for me. In fact, a slower PPC is better from a developer's point of view (to ensure your app runs on all PPCs).
I'd say that it boils down to this: if you are going to carry the thing with you all the time in your pocket, then the E830 is probably not the right PPC for you. Otherwise, it's got a big nice screen and it's cheaper. For the kind of usage that I will make of it (home use and development), I think it is the best PPC amongst the latest generation.
