Asus Mypal A636N review

This article is a review of the Asus Mypal A636N. It’s a PDA and a GPS in one, and it works with Windows Pocket Mobile. There are other similar products, but for the price and the features you can’t go wrong. These units have been around for a while, and recently the A639 was released which replaces the A636 range. The 839 is much more expensive (and DOES have some better features), but the A636N is real value for money.

Anyway, let’s get down to the features and specs …

Specifications are as follows:

PU Latest Intel® XScale (TM) 416 MHz processor

Latest operating system Microsoft® Windows Mobile (TM) 5.0 (Pocket PC)

Screen 3.5? Brilliant 65k full color transflective TFT LCD display, 16-bit QVGA display, 240X320 resolution touch panel

128MB Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM

User available storage ROM, 75MB for Western languages, 71MB for Eastern languages

GPS SiRF StarIII GPS chip

Integrated 25mm * 25mm Rotating Patch Antenna

External antenna socket

Expansion slot One slot – SD slot (SDIO / SD / MMC)

Audio Integrated microphone and speaker

One 3.5mm headphone jack and MP3 stereo

Bluetooth 2.0 communication

WLAN 802.11b + g

SIR (115.2 kbps max.)

GPS Navigation USB 1.1 Client

1300 mAh battery, removable / rechargeable Li-ion battery

Dimension 122mm x 73.2mm x 18.8mm / 19.45mm (L * W * H)

Weight 186 g (with battery)

The main differences between the A636N and the A636 is that the A636 only has 11M wireless and Bluetooth 1.1. Furthermore, the A636N allows charging via your PC’s USB port, while the smaller A636 does not. Unfortunately, they both have a USB 1.1 interface. USB 2.0 was introduced in the A639.

For GPS navigation, I use TomTom software. You can buy the A636N as a bundle that comes with CoPilot GPS software, but everything I’ve read convinced me that TomTom must be better. Works fine on this unit. Especially since I can turn the screen sideways on the A636N for better map / route viewing. From what I was reading on the net, the SiRF StarIII GPS chip (which the A636N has) was a must as it fixes on satellites faster than other chips and works better. I have not had any problems yet. The GPS antenna has a swivel mount, which folds neatly behind the unit when not in use.

The other major consideration when buying a PDA was getting one with a removable battery, which the Asus has. If the battery fails, all I have to do is replace it, not send the whole unit in for repair. I’m not sure what the battery life is like as it hasn’t worn out yet. This is because when I am in the car using GPS, the A636N is charging at the same time. I ran it for a while with no load and noticed that the power consumption is quite significant.

As far as the PDA side is concerned, it works just like any other similarly equipped PDA. Windows Pocket Mobile is flawless and connectivity to other devices via bluetooth and wireless is easy. Application installation is done via USB connectivity to a PC running Microsoft Activesync.

Windows Pocket Mobile works similar to a “real” Windows PC, with Microsoft Word, Excel as standard. There is also a file explorer, a control panel, and even Internet Explorer if you connect the PDA to the Internet via bluetooth or wireless. So if you’ve used Windows before, this won’t be too difficult.

The only thing that takes a little getting used to is the stylus for input, but there are various input modes that rang from an on-screen pseudo keyboard (where you tap the letter you want), to a transcriber mode where you can write as you normally would with a ballpoint pen. The Asus interprets your writing “style” quite well.

What really impressed me is that the A636N came with all the necessary cables / adapters, including the suction mount (and charger) for the car when using the GPS function. A case for the unti was also included. The only additional purchase I had to make was a decent sized SD memory card to store all my data. The Asus comes with a 64M card. Memory cards have come down a lot in price in recent years, so the added cost wasn’t too bad for the wallet.

Overall, I think the Asus A636N is a great product for a great price. Packed with features, I really don’t know what else I would prefer in a PDS / GPS combo unit, except USB 2.0. It’s definitely a step up from my old Palm Pilot LCD.