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America is the largest market in the world. When it comes to getting the latest and greatest gadgets, however, the U.S. often plays second fiddle to Europe and Asia. Case in point, the next-generation Pocket PCs with VGA (640x480 pixel resolution) displays.

The first two next-gen VGA Pocket PC models released, Toshiba's e830 and Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX 720, shipped in Europe and Asia but not North America. Three other models, from Hewlett-Packard, Asus and Dell, have all been delayed for one reason or another (see I Want My VGA!).

VGA Pocket PC enthusiasts can finally rest easy and fork over their dollars: the wait for new Pocket PCs with 640x480 screens is finally over, as HP and Asus are finally shipping their respective VGA handhelds in the U.S. Dell's VGA model problely still won't be available until November.

According to Brighthand, people who ordered their $650 iPAQ hx4700—also known as the hx4705—from HP's Small and Medium Business website, started to receive them last week. (Those order the handheld now from the same website won't receive their unit until after October 8th.) In addition, some folks received their hx4700s fairly quickly after ordering it from online retailers. For more on the HP hx4700, see HP Launches Wi-Fi Enabled Smartphone, PDAs.

Back in March, Asus announced one of the first of the new generation of VGA Pocket PCs, the MyPal A730. After much delay, the Pocket PC is finally shipping. While there are two types of MyPal A730, one with Bluetooth and the other with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, only the Bluetooth version is available for order. It sells for around $500. For more on the Asus MyPal A730, see Asus MyPal A730 One Step Closer.


Asus MyPal A730

VGA Advantages
With VGA displays you can view whole Web pages on a handheld screen. Or, perhaps, work on a spreadsheet on a Pocket PC without continually scrolling the document up and down and side to side. These are just a couple of the benefits promised by the advent of VGA or 640 x 480 pixel resolution displays for mobile devices. VGA as well landscape-viewing is supported by Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (see Review: Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition), which is the operating system used for all of the new VGA-enabled Pocket PCs.