Well, I got my NEC MobilePro 790 last night, and I thought I would post on my initial findings for the benefit of anyone looking into getting one.
I first ordered the device late on a Friday. I recieved the item from Unity Electronics the following Thursday via UPS Ground. I first opened the box, and I was suprised at how large the machine really was... It is not quite a laptop, but definitely not pocketable.
(I will try to post photos later.
) I opened the device, and powered it on. I was met suprisingly by a fully charged MP790's 640x240 screen. However, I did notice something rather upsetting... The screen had a few very noticeable scratch marks and what looked to be pen marks. My purchase was refurbished, thus I should have expected as much. I eventually came to terms with the problem, and moved on.
I began to install applications onto my MobilePro, as I already had ActiveSync installed I just plugged everything in and gave it a whirl. It took me awhile to get everything to work just right, but it synced and made a partnership. I only got it to work twice. After that, for some odd reason ActiveSync just... won't work correctly. It was probably user error, but oh well. I got the basics installed: Deseppear, my wifi driver
(more on that later
) and a wallpaper. Man that took forever! The serial connection was just slow, so I tried to up the bitrate with no avail, as it just would not sync... period.
About the wifi adapter... I have a Dlink DCF-660W CF wifi adapter that I am using with a PCMCIA --> CF adapter I bought locally. At first, the device just choked when I inserted the card. Start up time was significantly increased after I installed the drivers. Also, note, the driver I needed I had to get directly from the Dlink FTP site, as it is not supported
(HPC2000
). If anyone needs that driver, I can get it for them.
After installing the adapter, I set up my wifi settings
(wep etc.
). I still couldn't ping the router. After many card removals and reinsertions, I turned the machine off and back on, and it started working... Weird.
Total Commander, Wisbar, and H-Bomb I got installed using the cabs that I put onto my 128mb CF card.
Wisbar was useless. Just too much bloat for the machine to handle. H-Bomb worked as expected
(am working on a site made and for the MP790!
). Total Commander however... confused me. Took me all night to find out that you need to browse to /// to get to the plugins. Opening /// will get the ftp plugins and the like to work. Very helpful to know!
Battery life with wifi on was approximately 1 hour to 60%, so I am guessing 2 hours max? I may be wrong, but I think I can turn on power saving mode to get more.
Anyways, more to come later.