Customer Reviews
The IPAQ 210 is Superb!
HP iPAQ 210 Enterprise Handheld
HP hit a homerun! The IPAQ 210 is an outstanding handheld laddened with enough features to serve admirably as a laptop replacement. Its brilliant screen displays photographs, Adobe pdf attachments and spreadsheets with ease and is large enough to accommodate your favorite movie. Typical PDA functions - calendar, contacts, notes, voice recordings etc. are a snap with Windows Mobile 6.1. WiFi and Bluetooth are easy to use and well integrated. This little trooper runs for hours on a single charge. If you are serious about using the IPAQ as a laptop replacement, you will need to purchase the Bluetooth keyboard accessory. Excellence is expensive, but the IPAQ 210 well worth it -- think of it for less than 0 bucks you can stop lugging that laptop!
Pros: Outstanding PDA and Microsoft Office Mobile, Gorgeous Screen, Laptop Replacement
Cons: Weak Speaker, Bluetooth Bonding for external keyboard can be finicky
iPAQ 211 Review
All in all I'm pleased with the product. It has the best "video/screen" resolution I've seen, battery life is pretty good when you aren't running a boatload of wireless connections, and synching with Exchange is improved over my Palm T|X. All in all the online experience (browsing, mail, synching) is superior to Palm.
Nits and irritants:
1. When connected via USB, I cannot seem to find a way to configure the device to not come on every few minutes (maybe with every change in schedule/mail/contacts, etc.) and it is almost impossible to survive without saving your password as a result. You can't just turn it off it seems, it will pop back on within minutes. Half the time my goal is not to have it sync, simply to let it charge, so this is a major annoyance. If there's a better way, it isn't obvious and that leads to irritant number 2.
2. Documentation, especially configuration assistance is abysmal. What's new about that anymore? The art of good technical writing simply seems lost on us as a society anymore.
3. On occasion you have to wait on some update in the device to finish, just like on PCs. One of the main reasons I spent more on this than I would have on a micro-PC is I wanted instant on for schedule purposes and a usable web interface. It's truly annoying to be delayed. Easiest way to avoid delays seems to be to leave the wireless off as might be expected. The concept of throttling down background tasks seems less advanced.
4. Like a lot of folks I dislike the "up" position on the directional rocker - too small for my fat fingers to use accurately.
5. Text recognition is far inferior to early Palm Graffiti in my estimation. I could really input almost as fast as I could stroke characters on early Palm. None of the input methods on this device are as trustworthy, accurate, or fast, in fact I tend to hunt and peck the keyboard.
6. Oh yeah, really stupid thing - you can adjust the backlight down to 0, that is can't see a thing. Pretty hard to find the slider to adjust it back once you do if you happen to take your stylus off the screen. I don't know what they were thinking.
7. App interface is a bit vertical, that is seems to stack a little too much. Don't like all the drill downs, Palm was quite a bit simpler, and for general purpose more usable in my mind. It can be difficult to figure out why something is "grayed" out or why some button isn't working on iPAQ, and drilling down often requires too many levels in book. Hides/Obfuscates functionality meaninglessly.
Value/Cost: Give the price of micro PCs, 2*s.
Interface/Visuals: 4*s. Font scalability is remarkable.
Browsing: 4*s. Nice to be able to see a whole page when you need to. Not all pages reproduce accurately tho.
Wireless: 3*s: Somehow it's just more difficult to configure correctly than it should be.
Synching: 3*s: Especially bad with the auto turn on/alert features. No amount of work seems to get that configured in a likable way. Otherwise pretty good. Blame ActiveSync and the Device here.
Apps: Powerpoint I like, does what I'd want it to in this format. Word seems to not manage graphical content well at all. Haven't tried Excel much or the Media Tools yet.
Palm vs. iPAQ? For usability, simple schedule/contact management I prefer my Palm T|X, cept it's dead. For Web/Browsing and Exchange Integration the iPAQ get's my vote. For input, the old Palm Graffiti with all its proprietary quirks remains the most functional in my estimation.
USB Host - lose the laptop!
The iPaq 211 is quite a bit bigger than than the 2200 that I have had for 3 or 4 years now and does seem a bit clumsier to hold. BUT it has a larger screen with twice the resolution so that it is a joy to look at and it does seem a bit more responsive. I bought mine refurbished and it's perfect. It did have a few spots of something sticky on it but they were easily cleaned off and there are now no signs that it was anything other than brand new.
The good:
It has USB host capabilities so I can transfer photos directly from SD or CF cards to a powered hard drive without a PC or Laptop. You need a special cable which costs another but it is well worth it for me. The hard drive must have a separate power supply, as all 3.5" ones do. The smaller 2.5" drives are usually powered from the USB port and the iPaq has not got enough power for that. However, my Buffalo 320GB ministation is capable of being powered from the mains (my TomTom mains charger fits and supplies the 5v with the correct polarity). File transfer is SLOW (about an hour for 1GB) but that is no problem if you can get through the day and download while you have dinner or something. The reason I value this capability so highly is the ever increasing restrictions on baggage that the airlines are imposing. Hand baggage allowances within Europe are so measly now that a DSLR camera with 2 lenses, a hard drive, a PDA and a silver flute + piccolo is as much as I am allowed leaving no room for a laptop as well. And no, I would not want to pack any of that into the checked luggage.
It has both SD and CF card slots so you can have your cake and eat it. That covers both my point-and-shoot and my DSLR camera so I am very happy. It also means that you can get 64 GB of storage if you invest in 32GB cards in both slots. Yes, it does support SDHC.
It has full VGA resolution so that your photos actually look good. And you can rotate the screen with a long press of a button.
It can run movies (with added software) without significant glitches and the screen does a good job.
The wireless just works. It picks up a new connection without fuss and there is an icon to disable it (to save power) right on the Today screen.
I haven't tried the Bluetooth yet but I see no reason to suppose it works any less well than the 2200 which was fine. Apparently it does support the protocol that allows for stereo bluetooth headphones.
And Skype (free download) works almost as well as on my laptop (without the webcam of course). There is a tiny speaker on the front and a microphone to bottom left so that when you hold the iPaq up to your left ear it works just like a large cellphone.
Some people seem to hate the fact that the headphone jack is at the bottom instead of the top. However, I love that. It means that all the cables come from the same edge. It also means that you can put it in your pocket top down so you can easily reach the control dial and the headphone wire comes straight out from the exposed edge.
The not so good:
It takes a second or two to turn on when you press the button. The 2200 turned on almost instantly. Not a deal breaker but disconcerting. Also, the buttons for contacts and calendar do not turn the unit on as they did on 2200. It has to be on already for the buttons to launch the programs.
I read all the reviews of the weakness of the main speaker (at the rear) and decided that for me this wasn't so important. They are right, the speakers are very very quiet. But you can hear it very well if you hold the unit up to your ear and a pair of headphones solves the problem completely. Now I need to invest in a stereo bluetooth pair!
Also you do need to press a bit harder on the screen than on the 2200 but you get used to that very quickly. I found the bare screen rather sticky so that my letters had breaks in them and were therefore mis-recognised. (This could have been because I was afraid of scratching the screen before the screen protector arrived.) Anyway, I forked out for the official HP screen protectors (you get 3 and they last for ages) and after that, writing on the screen was a joy. If choosing off-brand protectors go for the crystal-clear ones rather than the glare-reducing. I think that will get you the smoothest writing experience.
HP has not provided the backup software that saved my bacon a couple of times on the 2200. I believe there are free downloads and I will have to get one (you never know when you'll forget about it long enough for it to run down completely). However, I have now learned to install all new software to a card or to the iPaq store rather than to the default location so that at least I won't lose the programs if the power goes.
Talking of which, the unit does seem to need charging at least every other day. I believe that while in use, the power lasts longer than the 2200, but when in standby, the 2200 would go for the best part of a week without significant discharge. The 211, however, seems to lose 10% of its power just overnight even with bluetooth and wireless turned off. I haven't been able to find out why this is. Some say that it is better if you stop all running programs (and maybe pop the CF card out) and so I have found, but it still isn't as carefree as the 2200 was.
All in all, this is a pretty good PDA and the only one on the market running Windows Mobile that has USB Host capabilities, dual card slots and a big VGA screen. I don't need a keyboard so I am not prepared to pay almost twice as much for a umPC. In spite of its drawbacks, I love the 211 and really enjoy using it.
This is my first PDA, maybe I'm just expecting too much.
The product itself is not too bad. It has a solid feel to it. Programs open quickly and respond well. As soon as you turn it on its ready to go, there is no bootup time. Has a great picture but lousy sound. I ended up buying a Bluetooth headset so I can hear it. I also strongly recommend buying screen protectors because you'll be poking and stroking pretty hard with the diddle stick until the touch screen breaks in after a couple weeks of use.
The software and firmware is what's bad about it. Every time you put it on or off the charger, connect or disconnect anything, it automatically turns itself on. There is no setting to defeat this. The mobile office software and clear view PDF don't have full screen mode, so a third of the screen is taken up by the window frames. Bring up the input window and now you only have one third of the screen left see what you're working on.
Bottom line, it's a great tool for doing simple tasks. It won't replace a laptop when traveling. If you're waiting for the mini PCs to become practical, this is a great pacifier.
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