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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 20 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Slim and lightweight; fast performance.
The bad: Bare-bones software bundle; narrow vertical viewing angles; cramped cradle.
The bottom line: The Razor Zayo A600 is a fast and slim Pocket PC, but a couple of small issues keep it from being ideal.
Specifications: OS provided: Microsoft Pocket PC 2002; Installed RAM: 64 MB; Processor: Intel 400 MHzPXA250; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 09/23/2002
- Updated on:10/16/2002
- Released on: 09/16/2002
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| Cards are used to suggest scale. | No playing cards actually come with the unit. |
Another thing that'll catch your eye are the blue lights that flash behind the hot keys when you press a button or touch the directional keypad below the screen. A cheap thrill, sure, but several tech elitists around the office were nevertheless impressed by such gimmickry. Not to be left out of the fun, the cradle also has its own blue light that illuminates when the Zayo is inserted and powered on.
In the way of buttons, ports, and controls, the device has everything that you'd expect to find in a Pocket PC. An infrared port, a stylus, and a microphone accompany the aforementioned SD slot on top of the Zayo; a power switch, a jog dial, a record button, and a reset button live in the thumb zone on the PDA's left side. The only aspect found here not common to all Pocket PCs is the DC-power input on the Zayo's bottom, which allows you to recharge the device sans cradle.
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| Power, record, and scroll: things to do with your thumb. | No cradle? It's no problem to power up the Zayo on the road. |
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 Decked out like the Fonz in a faux-leather jacket. |
The preproduction Zayo A600 test unit that we looked at didn't have a case, but shipping models will come with a leatherette protective jacket. The Zayo's computing muscle is provided by Intel's PXA-250 XScale processor. A step up from the previous StrongARM chips, the XScale can run at 400MHz yet uses less power than its 206MHz predecessor. The Zayo also has 32MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM onboard for storage and add-on applications.
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 There's a slot for SD media but not for CompactFlash cards. |
In terms of software, the Razor Zayo comes with the basics but little else. You get the standard Pocket PC 2002 package, which includes Outlook 2002, Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, and Microsoft Reader, and Pocket versions of Word and Excel. While the extra applications that typically come bundled with Pocket PCs are mostly limited versions or demos, it's nice to have them to test the capabilities of your new gadget; we were disappointed that Razor failed to include them.
The software features that set the Razor Zayo A600 apart from its competitors revolve around the Asus motherboard at the heart of the unit. The Asus settings in the control panel offer some advanced features not found in other PDAs. The Mode setting lets you optimize the processor's performance; you can toggle between Turbo and Power-Saving modes or configure the unit to switch automatically. With the AGC setting, you can adjust the microphone's sensitivity and gain levels. Asus also provides a rudimentary backup program for stowing your vital data on external storage, such as an SD card.
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| The Turbo mode kicks the processor into overdrive. | You can crank up the mike if you like. |
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 The Zayo's fast processor allows for high frame rates. |
The A600's battery life is average. While the product literature rates the battery life as up to 12 hours, that figure is probably calculated with the backlight off and without running applications. Our real-world tests showed that battery to have a lesser lifespan. Listening to MP3s with the screen at medium brightness, we got 3 hours, 2 minutes of life out of the A600's cell.
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 The unit's display gets a tad dark at the top. |
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