Asus also provides a companion CD with a number applications I found useful, including IA Zip, a file compression utility, IA Presenter, which can display PowerPoint files, and IA Album, which organizes image files. Also included is a quartet of less useful yet entertaining games along with a couple of dozen attractive desktop background images. Thankfully, none of the aforementioned software is crippleware, though you do also get the opportunity to sample a number of trail applications.

The A620bt's battery is unfortunately not user-replaceable, thus requiring you to travel with the AC adapter if you think you might run out of juice on the road. Asus claims the 1300 mAh Li-Ion unit is rated to power the unit for 18-19 hours with power management features enabled. It may very well achieve that, but count on considerably less battery life with Bluetooth use, expansion cards, or when the unit is set to deliver maximum performance.


A top view of the MyPal A620bt.

To help get the most life out of the battery, the A620bt offers four separate modes to balance performance and power management. Three of them-Turbo, Standard, and Power Saving, operate the CPU at fixed speeds of 400, 300, or 200 MHz respectively. A fourth mode, Automatic, is supposed to throttle the processor to provide performance appropriate to the application you're running. Another useful and power-saving feature is the ability to select a screen brightness level from 1-255, and define a separate brightness setting when the unit is powered by AC.

The A620t also features a nice utility called Smart Keeper that will protect it from losing programs and data should the battery drain completely. Smart Keeper will automatically back up system contents to an installed CF card (at least 64MB in size) just before the unit quits. It also backs up system state, (equivalent to the hibernate mode on a notebook PC) so that open applications that have not been saved will also be retained. Smart Keeper will activate even if the unit is turned off when the battery reaches a low threshold. The utility worked quite well.

The Asus MyPal A620bt is a competent all-around package that compares well against the Dell Axim X5 and similar PDAs from HP and Toshiba. On the other hand, the A620 has got stiff new competition in the form of the recently released Dell Axim X30 series. This is because some versions of the new X30 offer a faster and more advanced processor along with additional features like built-in Wi-Fi and the ability to run the display in landscape mode at a price and in a package roughly equivalent to the A620bt.