HP iPaq 210 Enterprise Handheld (09/04/2007)

Review: This is probably the end of the line in non-phone Windows PDAs, but HP went all-out to create the penultimate device in that category.

I've been using and developing for WinCE/WinMobile PDAs for over a decade, and so I have a pretty large collection of apps. Most of these -- especially any WinMo 6.x apps that aren't phone-specific -- will work fine on the iPaq. WinPhone 7 abandons all those legacy apps for a new development paradigm; that's all well and fine, but it means those apps aren't available until someone rewrites them from scratch.

One not-well-advertised gem on this device is the HP Photosmart Mobile app, which provides an easy way to browse your photo collection. Remember that the device has an SDHC slot, so it's easy to pull the card from your digital camera and start looking through the thumbnail view. When you find a picture you want to view bigger, switch to full-screen mode, and the full-color VGA screen really shows its abilities.

Internet capability is impressive -- as long as you're in WiFi range. Full email (including Exchange server) access for multiple accounts. Internet Explorer mobile is included, although I switched a while back to Opera, which is closer to a desktop browser and includes browser tabs. WiFi connectivity is very good, and includes WPA2+AES, which is the current state-of-the-art in wireless security. Basic VPN functionality is also available.

I rarely have problems with battery life, although I make sure to charge it every night. I have found that the WiFi and Bluetooth chew through the battery quickly, so you can't leave them on all the time. There is an optional extended battery, but I never bothered to get one.

Supported Bluetooth profiles are very broad, including standard phone headset, stereo headphones/speakers, PDA sync, object exchange, file transfer, modem and PAN, etc.

Wired connectivity includes two different connectors: a standard mini-USB, which can be used for both charging and syncing (simultaneously), and a proprietary port, which is mainly for charging, but can be used for syncing using a special "Y" cable (included in the box). I've found that the proprietary port charges faster, but the USB port is useful for the occasional top-off (e.g. in the car).

In short, there are very few occasions when I wish for more functionality; most of those are when I want Internet access, but am out of WiFi range. I've been thinking about getting one of those 3G-WiFi data gizmos (e.g. the MiFi), which would allow this device to do just about everything I need.

Review: 64 Bit users should just leave this one behind. You're (and I'm) spoiled. We need more. The installer is not good. It's sad that people want to move toward smart-phones not realizing that if their service is interrupted, so is their smart-phone's capability. Keep the PDA market alive with better performance, HP. My 64 bit quad layer desktop is an HP. I love HP. This PDA, however, is a thing of the past, not the future.

Review: Great multimedia device, it is a pocket size, but large screen, high resolution Windows Mobile device. The music sounds great with earphones (who cares about the inside speaker?) , it is fast and stable, 2 memory slots and it works with 32GB each, great looking watcheable movies, ebooks in all formats imaginable - a great PDA just when I was loosing hope. Compared with the tiny 2.5" "smartphones" completely unusable , this is a treat! I could not understand why people do not buy a cheap little mobile phone and use a real PDA for the rest (4" VGA screens are the perfect balance of size and performance). This is way better than the Apple touch and obviously compatible with all Windows software including Office. It also feels great in the hand and the milky screen (when off) also looks appealing. The auto brightness senzor also works great.

Review:

Review: I am glad I purchased the new IPAQ 210. Even though the size is big it is worth it to have a device that does it all and to have one with such a great screen. Not everyone in this world likes to work off a one inch square screen.

Review: I had high hopes for this after using the old hp's pda with a vga screen but I was really disappointed with this screen outdoors. In bright sunlight it disappears. They claim it is transflective, but it clearly isn't. I could barely read it in brightsunlight. I had to shade the screen to see anything. What is going on with displays in this business--the old pda's are far better outdoors than anything I've seen in the last two years. I guess "mobile" computing means walking through airports and not going outdoors!

Review: The iPaq 210 is definitely a great device. The large, VGA screen is wonderful for viewing pictures, watching movies, and surfing the web. The fast processor and 128mb of RAM make for snappy performance, while the dual memory card slots (SD and CF) let you have tons of storage. And with a 2200mah battery, it can keep running for hours.
It does have a few drawbacks, though. For one thing, the plastic casing it's made with feels creaky (that's not to say it isn't solid, though; it is solid and should hold up to wear and tear nicely). The catch for the stylus is also a little weak and lost styli could be an issue with this device. Finally, for some reason CF cards cause un-warranted power drain even when the device is in standby. There is an option in the settings menu to fix this, but it doesn't seem to work.
But all in all the iPaq 210 is a wonderful device.

Review: If you're like me, you've been wondering if the Pocket PC market would ever spin off a solution that got it right before the niche was absorbed by convergent devices. While late to the party, HP has finally managed to bring a device to market that satisfies the need to balance small size and big possibilities.

I paid $450 for my Enterprise 210 - not chump change by any stretch. But as I later discovered, it was money well spent. The device is a lot smaller than I expected, and it fits nicely in my pocket. The 4" VGA screen is absolutely brilliant and sharp. Out of the box, Microsoft and HP provide a rather clunky interface and icon layout. I fixed that with an additional $100 in expense to install sbp Pocket Plus (to customize my desktop), ibe file manager (to improve the explorer), pocket DOS (for command line environment), z2 Pocket Lan (for a suite of TCP/IP tools), and Thunderhawk browser (to fix the still ridiculous PPC IE experience).

I administer a network, which is exactly why I bought this device. The wireless tools included are satisfying and my ability to configure and attach to encrypted networks was easy and thus far no dropouts taking it past 100 feet. The Bluetooth is equally easy to setup. Since this device has no phone, I thought this was a great alternative since I will use my cellphone as a modem where there is no wireless coverage (and preserve my weekends not having to drive into the city).

The processor has a lot of horsepower at 624Mhz, and even though I was skeptical about the 185Mb available Ram (384Mb total minus the OS) it sprinted along with multiple apps open and multimedia (I added an extra 4Gb SDIO card for storage). The touch screen is a nice feature and frees up having to pull the stylus every time, but you still need it for articulate keyboard work.

Security-wise, it does not have the buggy biometrics of other iPaq's to crash the system. Instead, you get a good set of encryption and intuitive setup to create VPN and other connections. I tested it out and was able to get reliable remote access over wireless using IPSEC. There is a noticeable pokeyness to the WIFI on startup pulling DHCP, but once it does it works great.

The screen deserves some comments. I have owned several PPC's in my time and this one absolutely blows them away. It is crispy and has a lot of real estate (but do yourself a favor and use a plain color background theme so you have a desktop without the distraction of graphics near text on the Today screen). Orientation landscape or portrait is easy to set, and you don't need to run it on full brightness for user-friendly display (nice to extend battery life and it includes a light sensor to adjust automatically).

Speaking of battery life, I did some tests: fully charged, I left it off for several days and found it lost about 6% of the charge - not bad. I also tested to see how long it would run Wireless before it ran down (almost five hours). I did have to use a 3rd party app to change the close 'X' from background to actually closing running programs, which improved battery time as well.

Something I find really cool about the 210 is the ability to use a mini USB cable for both charging and sync. The proprietary adapter HP ships with their AC charger is not needed if you have a laptop or desktop to plug into.

Expandability-wise, the SDIO and CF slots offer plenty of options too depending on what kind of goodies you want (GPS, camera, etc, none of which is built-in to preserve space and power). The audio is nothing to write home about from the external speaker, but with headphones it is a pleasure to listen to.

Overall I'd say if you're looking for a well-designed, stocked unit that has a strong (but not over the top) suite of processing power, expansion, connectivity, and battery life, the HP iPaq 210 Enterprise is definitely worth your time and money. Granted I had to spend an additional $200 by the time everything was upgraded and customized(for a total cost of $650) but it seems to be just what I was looking for and I now carry it everywhere. I was not disappointed and for purists who don't need a phone this is about as close to a real computer in your pocket as it gets.