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Display diagonal – 91 mm, which is a cool centimeter smaller than in Toshiba E800 or iPaq 4700, LOOX 720 outscores them by dimensions instead. Display processing technology is also different. Unlike Toshiba E800 and ASUS A730, where Sharp CG Silicon (Continuous Grain Silicon) is used, the display in LOOX 720 is manufactured by Sony. Fujitsu-Siemens model is a little better at the viewing angles and colors: the colors are more vivid and less faded when looked at a large angle. It's difficult to select a winner in comparison with HP iPaq hx4700 (they have got the same display type). Due to a smaller pixel size, LOOX display looks sharper. But an extra centimeter is a noticeable bonus when you read books.
The display reads comfortably at night with the minimum LED backlight. Maximum LED backlight turns the handheld into a rather bright flash light – the range of backlight control will be appreciated even by exigent users.
We have mentioned many times that the display resolution is 480x640. It's a new standard taking root only in the most expensive devices. When the manufacturers will skim the cream off the most impatient buyers, there will also appear middle end VGA handhelds. We can say almost for sure that it will happen already in 2005. And in a couple of years later QVGA will become a thing of the past. And users will have to buy VGA devices, willing or not.
Allow me to digress for a minute and try an ungrateful thing – forecast. The further increase of display resolution of handhelds has no sense – pixel size is already so small that a human eye cannot make out separate pixels. Does it mean that another "display revolution" cannot be repeated? No! Until customers buy "megahertz" and "megapixels", manufacturers will not stop producing "novelties".
The quality of the sound section of this handheld is a pleasant surprise. Built-in speaker is traditionally good only for groaning, crackles, and clicks. But the quality of output from the headphone jack (standard 3.5" jack) is pleasantly surprising.
Audio test results in RighMark AudioAnalyzer demonstrated that the audio quality can be compared to that in modern mp3 players. Subjectively, listening to music from the handheld is better than from an mp3 player, if you don't pay attention to inconvenient controls (in comparison with players).
Sound volume is more than enough to listen to music in a very noisy environment (metro train). No overloading even at maximum settings. Using the audio applet you can control treble and bass frequencies. The 3D option widens the stereo base and spoils the sound quality.
The input turned out a match for the output: voice recorder provides excellent sound quality, being almost on a par with self-contained units. User can select one of several amplification and noise reduction modes: Short range recording, Normal, and Conference recording. The automatic mode will manage just fine in most cases, but some cases may require manual control.
Thanks to the long operating time LOOX 720 may be successfully used as a player and a voice recorder.
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