HP iPAQ Hw6910 Mobile Messenger

...one of which is the HP IPaq.

It arrived on Friday so I charged it up to put it through its paces.

I was a bit disappointed in the screen size, it is about two thirds of the size of the XDA and it is hard enough to work on that one.

The overall feel of the PDA is good, it feels solid but I can't yet tell you how it responds to being bounced off the floor.

The Wireless function works well ...
...it uses the now out-dated 802.11b protocol, I would have hoped for 802.11G on a product in this price range.

The phone is a bit of a let down. in my kitchen there is usually 4 bars of signal, even on the XDA. The Ipaq shows 'no service'

There have been a few modifications to the operating system since the XDA but it is basically the same, now Windows Mobile Version 5.

One of the most iritating things ... more

Background:

The company I work for distributes my jobs to the field via a PDA phone.
This system was introduced last February when we started out using the disastrously poor quality O2 XDA IIi pda phone, which suffers badly from poor battery life and an overwhelming aptitude to crash several times a day.

In an attempt to improve the situation the company is trialling a couple of new handsets, one of which is the HP IPaq.

It arrived on Friday so I charged it up to put it through its paces.

I was a bit disappointed in the screen size, it is about two thirds of the size of the XDA and it is hard enough to work on that one.

The overall feel of the PDA is good, it feels solid but I can't yet tell you how it responds to being bounced off the floor.

The Wireless function works well enough but it was a let down to discover that it uses the now out-dated 802.11b protocol, I would have hoped for 802.11G on a product in this price range.

The phone is a bit of a let down. in my kitchen there is usually 4 bars of signal, even on the XDA. The Ipaq shows 'no service'

There have been a few modifications to the operating system since the XDA but it is basically the same, now Windows Mobile Version 5.

One of the most iritating things about the XDA was the camera button, it was placed so that you pressed it simply by picking the phone up. You can re-assign the button in system settings so that it does something else but each time you have to reset the phone, about 5 times a day on average, the default function is restored.

This phone comes with GPS navigation built in, something that would be very useful for field service engineers, such as myself. Sadly, although I stood out in the middle of our street under a clear sky, the unit was not able to track any satellites at all. it would be great if it did work as finding some of my calls can be a challenge.

The memory card now lives in the side of the phone but it only takes micro-CD cards, rather than the full sized cards used in the XDA. They come with an adapter to fit into a standard SD card slot but it did mean that I needed to change my card. The card contains vital information like all the service manuals for all the equipment I work on, as well as the internal phone directory for the major multinational company, which is quite amazing for a card that is the size of a finger nail.

The battery life is a lot better that the XDA. with the XDA, if I take it off charge at 8.00am I will not be able to make phone calls by lunch time. The ipaq, given that it is a new phone and has had only one charge, is still showing 72% battery after 72 hours, although I haven't made many calls on it.

There is a flip up cover for the screen which looks quite natty, but after a few minutes it becomes irritating.

The screen is small because a lot of space is taken up by the full qwerty keyboard, which I believe to be unnecessary on a PDA but I am prepared to give it a go.

The bluetooth works a lot better than the system on the XDA, which frequently loses the connection to my headset and usually fails to answer an incoming call first time.

If you want a well featured phone with some additional computing functions it is pretty good, provided that you live in a 5 bar signal area .

The camera is crap, as they are on nearly every mobile phone have used. I still can't understand why you would want to take pictures with a phone, to me a camera in a phone is like a gent's urinal in a convent.

There are so many useful features that nearly work and quite a few that do. maybe the manufacturers of PDA phones would listen and fir fewer accessories and make the remaining ones better, I could do with the ability to view PDF files, maintain a large contact database and make phone calls, with a calculator for working out my expenses and a note taking facility for remembering those odd part numbers. All the rest is dross.

My recommendation to buyers is conditional on what it is to be used for. if you want to look at parts diagrams you will find the screen too small.  

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