News

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given ASUSTeK permission to release in the United States a version of the MyPal A620 with integrated Bluetooth wireless networking.

The MyPal A620 has been available in the U.S. for some time but it includes no form of wireless networking. Aside from the addition of Bluetooth, the MyPal A620BT is essentially identical to the original version.

This handheld runs Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC on a 400 MHz Intel XScale PXA255 processor. It has 64 MB of RAM and 32 MB of ROM. The performance of this series appears to be quite good. The A620's Spb Benchmark Index is 1573, compared with an iPAQ h2215's score of 1146.

At 4.9 by 3.0 by .5 inches (12.4 x 7.6 x 1.3 cm) and 5 ounces (141 g), the A620BT is one of the smallest handhelds to offer a CompactFlash Type II slot. However, the A620BT doesn't include an SD slot.

Both the A620 and A620BT have a 3.5-inch transflective TFT LCD display capable of displaying 16-bit color at the Pocket PC-standard resolution of 240 by 320 pixels. They include a 1300 mAH rechargeable Lithium battery, which is above the average for most handhelds.

ASUSTeK has not yet announced when the MyPal A620BT will be released in the U.S. or at what price. However, a spokesperson for PROPortable, an online retailer, says it has been told by ASUSTeK to expect the first shipment of this device the week of September 15. PROPortable is offering the A620BT for $410 with free shipping to Brighthand forum members.

The documentation filed by ASUSTeK with its application is available on the FCC web site.

About Bluetooth

Bluetooth was created to allow devices to connect together without wires. Its range is short and it's frequently used to allow a handheld to use a mobile phone as a modem to connect to the Internet. An increasing number of Bluetooth-enabled devices are coming on the market, such as GPS receivers and hard drives.

Related Links

• MyPal A620 Pocket PC Now Available