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When the new high-end Pocket PC with VGA screens began to roll out a couple of months ago, the first few did not ship in the United States. These missing devices included the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOK 720 and Toshiba's e830 handhelds.

Since that time, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Asus have come to serve the needs of those looking for their VGA-enabled PDA fix—with the Axim X50v, hx4700, and MyPal A730, respectively.

While Fujitsu-Siemens continues to short change the American market, importer eXpansys USA is now offering that company's Pocket LOOX 720 in the United States. Although the $630 device comes with an English version of the Windows Mobile operating system, it is the edition meant for the United Kingdom.

So, as Brighthand points out, the bundled power cable is compatible with English and European outlets. A trip to the local Radio Shack for an adapter or the right cable for U.S. compatibility should easily remedy the situation, however.

Pocket LOOX 720
This Pocket PC is the flagship model in Fujitsu-Siemens new Pocket LOOX 700 series, replacing the Pocket LOOX 600 series as the company's high-end offering. The 700 series also encompasses the more modestly endowed Pocket LOOX 710.

Both new Pocket PCs run Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, but only the LOOX 720 takes advantage of that platforms support for 640 x 480 pixel resolution or VGA displays. A VGA screen lets you view whole Web pages on a handheld. Or, perhaps, work on a spreadsheet on a PDA without continually scrolling the document up and down and side to side. The LOOX 710 features a more traditional, for a Pocket PC, QVGA or 240 x 320 pixel screen resolution.

The handhelds measure about 4.8 x 2.8 x 0.6 inches and weigh 6.3 ounces. Each device features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking.

In addition to dual wireless, you get two types of expansion slots-CompactFlash and Secure Digital-with the Pocket LOOX 700 series. With these slots you can greatly expand memory and use a wide variety of peripherals, such as GPS, scanners, and even a GSM/GPRS card.

Even though each of Fujitsu-Siemens new Pocket PCs use Intel's PXA272 XScale processor, the LOOX 710's runs at a slower 416 MHz while the LOOX 720 uses a more powerful 520 MHz CPU. The LOOX 710 also has half the amount of memory, 64MB, as the LOOX 720's 128MB of RAM.

Another nice feature of the LOOX 720-shared by only one other new VGA Pocket PC, the Asus MyPal 730-is a 1.3 megapixel camera for up to 1280 x 960 resolution pictures and video. Both models also have a 3.5mm headphone socket, as well as a speaker and microphone, so that, with the proper software and service connections, the devices could serve as VoIP phones.

The Pocket LOOX Pocket PCs also integrate a swappable 1640 mAh Lithium battery for what the company claims is 12 hours of uninterrupted use. That's good news for users, as Wi-Fi and larger displays are notoriously power hungry.