The PDAs In Brief
- 1. Battling Brothers - XScale Or StrongARM Processor?
- 2. The XScale Dilemma: Neither Application Software Nor OS Are Optimized
- 3. XScale Power: Asus MyPal A600
- 4. It's Not Just Pretty - It's Fast, Too
- 5. Armed To The Teeth - The Pocket Loox
- 6. The Yakumo Alpha Reigns In Running Time
- 7. Put To The Test: The PDA Benchmark
- 8. CPU Performance: Heap Management
- 9. Battery Runtime
- 10. The PDAs In Brief
10. The PDAs In Brief
| Manufacturer | Asus
Mypal AD600 |
Fujitsu-Siemens
Pocket Loox |
Yakumo
Alpha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processor/Core Frequency | Intel XScale PXA 250/400 MHz | Intel XScale PXA 250/400 MHz | Intel Strongarm/206 MHz |
| RAM | 64 MByte | 64 MByte | 64 MByte |
| Dimensions (W x H x T) | 75 x 13 x 125 Millimeter | 82 x 17 x 132 Millimeter | 77 x 14 x 121 Millimeter |
| Weight PDA/Power Supply | 134 Gramm/216 Gramm | 169 Gramm/100 Gramm | 151 Gramm/138 Gramm |
| Operating System | Pocket PC 2002 | Pocket PC 2002 | Pocket PC 2002 |
| Accumulator/capacity | Lithium Ion/- | Lithium Ion/1520mAh | Lithium Ion/1000mAh |
| Expansionslot(s) | SD/MM-Card | CF- and SD/MM-Card | CF- und SD/MM-Card |
| Infrared/Bluetooth | yes/no | yes/yes | yes/no |
| Flash-ROM | yes | yes | yes |
| Display | TFT/3.5" | TFT/3.5" | TFT/3.5" |
| Colors | 65 536 | 65 536 | 65 536 |
| Visible Screensize | 54 x 71 Millimeter | 54 x 71 Millimeter | 54 x 71 Millimeter |
| Resolution | 240 x 320 Pixel | 240 x 320 Pixel | 240 x 320 Pixel |
Conclusion: The Future Belongs To XScale - Probably
As Asus has clearly shown with its MyPal A600, it is possible to build elegant, powerful and long-winded XScale PDAs.
The full-featured Pocket Loox from FSC demonstrates - on behalf of the bulk of the current stock of XScale pocket PCs - the downsides of the first-generation devices. The new PDAs have much shorter battery runtimes at the same display brightness than much slower-clocked devices with StrongARM CPUs. Users have yet to reap any benefits from the faster CPU clock, since there are precious few optimized applications. At the moment, the main thing in favor of the XScale devices is that they are future-proof. However, the balance may tilt in favor of the XScale products in the next several months, once Intel's Software Optimization Initiative takes hold.
Of course, in some situations, PDAs with StrongARM CPUs may still be the better buy. If you don't want a device for the long haul, but would prefer not to unload too much money, the long-winded and inexpensive Yakumo Alpha may very well be the PDA for you.
- Previous page Battery Runtime
