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| Product: Maestro |
Company: Audiovox (Toshiba) |
| Web: www.audiovox.com |
Phone: n/a |
| Platform: Pocket PC OS 2002 |
SRP: US$500
Street Price: $300-400 |
Cred Rating: | Special Award:
Road Kill |
Many people who've been using Palm PDAs for the last few years have found themselves tempted to upgrade from older monochrome units to newer color PDAs - either from Palm or Sony, or even jumping over to the Pocket PC camp. The latest batch of Pocket PCs definitely has a lot to offer: large color screens, more memory and more expansion options. But they're also pretty darn expensive. I was anxious to road test the cheapest of the lot, the Audiovox Maestro, to see if it was worth the money.
The Audiovox Maestro is identical in design and specs to the Toshiba e570, but for one exception: it has only 32 megs of RAM rather than the 64MB on the e570. Because of the lower RAM, Audiovox brings the Maestro in at more than US$100 less than most of the other PPCs for 2002, a cost savings that can easily be cashed in for a modem, wireless network card, or 128 megs (or more) of extra Flash RAM. Some folks have even snagged the Maestro for as little as $300, a real steal for this machine, if its shameful battery performance wasn't a deal breaker (more on this below).
The design of the Maestro is sleek and relatively trim compared to other PPCs. It measures 3.0" x 4.9" x .7" and weighs just 6.3 oz. That makes it about the same size as (and just a little heavier than) the Palm III, the machine with which many PDA aficionados got started. The Maestro is simple and elegant, perhaps the best looking of the new crop of Pocket PCs. The front sports four metallic buttons, one each for Calendar, Tasks, Home and Contacts. Each of these can be reassigned to any application you wish through the Settings menu. Below the hardware buttons is the four-way directional pad (or "d-pad") that includes an "action" function when pressed. This d-pad is unique in that it is a sort of ball-in-socket design, which makes moving it around a little like playing with your eyeball. As creepy as that sounds, it's actually a great design, especially welcome during gameplay. The only problem with the d-pad is that, as of yet, it only supports four directions, and no diagonals -- though a recent software patch fixes this.
Next to the d-pad on the right side of the unit is the speaker, behind four oval holes. The speaker is not quite as loud as the iPaq's, and although it's a little tinny, it's more than adequate for alarms, playback of voice recordings, and even music playback in situations without a lot of ambient noise.
There is also an additional button on the side for activating the voice notes program. This button too is user-configurable. It is somewhat slim and difficult to press, but that may not be a bad thing considering how easy it is to make inadvertent voice recordings on the similarly-configured iPaq. Above this button is the microphone hole and IR port. This is not a great location for the IR, but otherwise, the infrared seems strong enough to share information at about five feet without trouble.
On top of the unit are found the stylus hole, the headphone jack, the power button, indicator LED, and the expansion slots. The stylus is made of really cheap plastic, and while I've come to expect that from most manufacturers trying to save on money and weight, plastic this poor can have burrs on the tip that scratch screens! The headphone jack is remarkable because it includes an extra connection for a proprietary remote control, as found on most portable MiniDisc and some CD players. The remote costs a whopping $60, so it's probably an accessory you're unlikely to buy. The power button is easy to press, but not so easy as to be accidentally turned on. The LED flashes green or orange, for charging status or to indicate an alarm.
Both expansion slots, one CompactFlash (Type-II) and one SecureDigital (MMC or SD), are located at the top of the Maestro, with the CF slot covered by a cheapo plastic flip lid. The SD slot is completely open. The CF slot is a must-have for any PPC, since it can accommodate inexpensive memory cards, as well as other expansion options like the IBM MicroDrive, 802.11b wireless networking card, modem, GPS, or Bluetooth card. With the SD slot, it's possible to have expanded memory at the same time as using one of the CF peripherals, and other SD options (like Bluetooth) are sure to be around in just a few months. SD memory cards are expensive though -- roughly 1.5 times as much as comparable CF cards.
The screen is a 3.5-inch reflective TFT ("Thin Film Transistor") capable of displaying 64,000 colors. That sounds pretty impressive at first, but there are some shortcomings. First, as a reflective TFT, the screen is not nearly as vibrant as the HAST ("Hyper Amorphous Silicon TFT") screens so beloved on older Casio machines. The colors on the Audiovox seem washed out. The advantage of the reflective screen, is that it is very legible without the built-in light being on, as long as natural or artificial overhead light is sufficient. Given the choice between reflective TFT or HAST, I'd probably choose the reflective TFT because I'd rather be able to read it at all times, rather than the HAST models which are completely illegible outdoors. Compared to the Casio E200 or the iPaq, the screen of the 'Vox has more balanced color. The second problem with the screen is the size: it's only 3.5-inches diagonal, rather than the 3.8-inch screen of the iPaq series (and yet-to-be-released NEC). While that doesn't seem like much of a difference, it is definitely noticeably smaller than the iPaq. It's sort of like going from a 15-inch monitor to a 14-inch -- it's not that much, but somehow, it just feels more cramped.
The Maestro's processor is a 206-MHz StrongARM, originally used in the iPaq but now found in all new Pocket PCs. This processor is zippy -- much better than the MIPS chips used before, by Casio and others. Another advantage of the StrongARM is that, because the iPaq is so popular, there is more software available for the chip. Speed-wise, the Maestro seems on par with other newly released PPCs I've tested, though that testing has been far from thorough.
There is precious little software that comes with the Maestro. Included with its MS Pocket PC 2002 operating system are "pocket" versions of Word, Excel, MS Reader (for e-books in the proprietary MS format, of course), Inbox for email, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player 8 (MP3 and .WMA) and MSN Messenger. There are also the calendar, contacts, tasks and notes programs. All of these sync automatically with the included MS Outlook 2002 for PC. Of course, there are several utilities like the terminal services client (for file sharing over networks) and file explorer. Other than these apps (standard on all PPC2002 machines), the only program that Audiovox added was the "home" program, which is a fairly weak tab-based program launcher.
The critical weakness of the Audiovox is apparent after just a few short hours of use --because that's when the damn thing dies! Despite being rated for eight hours of use, my unit never managed more than 3.5, according to UpTime (a program that starts a timer whenever the machine is turned on). And that was using power saving techniques such as minimal use of the CF card, not playing MP3s, and spending about half the time not using the backlight. Under fairly standard conditions of mixed usage (low front light on most of the time, running standard apps and playing a few games and MP3s), the Maestro usually had a low power (40%) warning after only two hours. A 10% warning came at just over 2:45 hours (on a very good day). At 10%, the backlight and CF card are shut down completely, so it's basically just a high-tech paperweight until you get back to your charging station. Under heavy usage, such as using my Pharos CF GPS, with the front light on, battery life was reduced to about an hour. That kind of pitiful uptime makes the Maestro basically useless for the serious road warrior, and barely functional for even a casual user.
Critically-short battery life is apparently not just a problem with the Maestro. User reports indicate that Toshiba put the same anemic battery in their Toshiba e570, though some claim much longer battery times than I got. Other PPC manufacturers reportedly have similar battery problems, but even if the Audiovox is comparable to the other PPCs out there, it's still gets the Street Tech Road Kill award, and we'll give such an award to every PPC that falls short of its battery life rating by such a large margin. If you say eight hours, mean eight hours of real-world use. Here's the new Street Tech PDA "Sucks Less" Battery Test Protocol: Any PDA whose battery can't last from D.C. to New York by train or New York to L.A. by plane (minus the time being facially profiled and cavity searched by airport security), will be deemed Street Tech Road Kill. If you pass, we'll sing your praises, buy your gear, and pay for a round at the next PCExpo after-hours party.
It's too bad really. I like the styling, the formfactor, and many of the capabilities of the Maestro. The screen, while not large or particularly brilliant, is good enough for business users, while people who really like playing games may be disappointed with the slightly washed out colors. The expansion capabilities are wonderful, and the size is the smallest of any Pocket PC to date. If the battery weren't such an issue, I'd probably give the Maestro a 4.0 rating. But with only a few hours of use (at best), this PDA is just not worth the investment. I'd rather wait for fuel cell-powered PDAs to come out than waste $400 on something like this.
- Nate Heasley [4/10/02]
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