IPAQ Data Messenger Sly
Ok let me start off by saying the legal stuff: This represents my Opinion and not that of my Employer or its subsidiaries
Let me start off by saying, i used to love iPAQ’s they were at one stage advanced devices at the time but the market has changed and even how people use their phones, this includes businesses as much as individuals. I have had many iPAQ’s at this stage and indeed many Win Mobile HTC devices with the occasional iPhone thrown in for good measure.
What’s in the name ?
Data Messenger, its a specific model of HP iPAQ’s that has a touch screen and normally a full sized keyboard and these functions allow data to be manipulated and created with more finesse; As opposed to the Voice Messenger series (Smartphones) which is in a standard non touch phone configuration.
Design
Ill start off by saying that for the most part this is a nice stylish bit of kit, the polished front surface has a nice look to it that offsets the device very nicely, the addition of a full useable QWERTY keyboard (unlike the previous 91x series) sliding keyboard is a page from the HTC Devices book of design.
The new IPAQ series feature a new innovative optical navigation system which reduces the need for any big buttons / wheels on the face of the device.
Spec
Which i couldn’t get off hp.com because of a 404
Technical features
Operating system installed
Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
Wireless technologies
Integrated WLAN 802.11b/g, with WPA2 security, Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
Display
2.81” transmissive TFT, 65K colours, 320 x 240 pixel touch screen display with LED backlight
Power features
Battery: removable/rechargeable 1140 mAh Lithium-Polymer (user changeable)
Integrated camera
Integrated 3.1 Megapixel autofocus camera, 5X digital zoom, 320 x 240 QVGA resolution, 640 x 480 VGA resolution, 1280 x 1024 SXGA resolution, 1600 x 1200 UXGA resolution, 2048 x 1536 QXGA resolution, LED flash
Mobile phone
3G wireless broadband connectivity for voice and data, Tri-band UMTS (900/1900/2100 MHz), HSDPA Category 8 (up to 7.2Mbps downlink) and HSUPA Category 5 (up to 2Mbps uplink), Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
GPS receiver
Integrated GPS navigation (Assisted GPS)
Processor type
Qualcomm 7201A Processor
Processor speed
528 MHz
Expansion slots
64-bit Micro SD card slot, supports up to 8GB
External I/O ports
1 micro-USB connector for synchronization and charging
Audio
Integrated microphone, receiver, speaker and wired stereo headset
Standard memory
128 MB SDRAM main memory for running applications, 256 MB flash ROM
Memory slots
64-bit Micro SD card slot – for memory expansion, supports up to 8GB
Product dimensions (W x D x H)
5.7 x 1.74 x 11.4 cm
Product weight
160 g
Keyboard
Full QWERTY slide-out alphanumeric keyboard
Pointing device
Touch-sensitive display for stylus or fingertip
Review
Battery
At this point id love to big up the iPAQ, i really would but i cant and its not just because of a feature list or design because id love to be able to say that you could ditch your iPhone for an iPAQ. Sure, the first day will be a great experience you and your new ipaq doing all forms of email, texting and syncing with your email accounts but at the end of that day you’ll look at the batter meter and see that after only 10 hours of use it needs charged. What you quickly find out is that if you use the ipaq in low 3G / HSDPA signal areas you will get increased battery consumption…..
Right now the entire HTC community are screaming at their monitors “Man that is fixable by a radio firmware update had i ever seen one” and yes you will be right but….
Yes, April 2009 is the last time a release was done (take note its only a Minor release) and I’ve patiently waited…. waited some more….. emailed….. and nothing.
/disappointment
Keyboard
Unfortunately id love to say that the battery drain is one of the only problems, however after a while you start to notice that your well formed text messages soon turn into “hi hw re yo”, for whatever reason anything that now requires typing takes for ever because you constantly have to go back and re-correct (if you touch-type like me); I suspect that this may be more hardware than software related.
Usability
Throw your favourite win mobile application onto it, have fun but be prepared to do some waiting.. Im not sure really what’s going on here, its got a beefy enough processor yet its like a Rear wheel drive supercar; Its got the power but it just cant get it onto the road… Again all the HTC guys are sitting there thinking “ROM update” and ordinarily if my HTC TyTN II did that id flash it with a different rom but that option doesn’t exist here.
Conclusion
A fantastically designed device that has a lot of really cool features and HP Applications included so you can print wirelessly to your HP printers. It follows the brand image refresh that is seen in all of HP’s current product lines, its nice and slick. But as a consumer i just couldn’t see the benefit of switching to a iPAQ Data Messenger over an iPhone or HTC device; There isnt really anything new being brought to the table, its out-dated technology and an expensive price tag. As a HP Employee my iPAQ has been provisioned to me by the Company and this is the only reason why i still have mine.
Some of these issues may be resolved with a New Rom update, but i honestly don’t see an update coming any time soon; It unfortunately leaves this device as something that was rushed to marked and has no committed software support afterwards.
The Good:
Design and Image
The Bad:
Cost, Battery Life, Usability, Physical Keyboard problems, Nothing new