PDA Reviews

The age of the PDA was over long back. Or at least most of you would have thought so. At a time when most players in the market dropped the pure PDA, HP has launched 2 models in its iPAQ series – the HP iPAQ 110 Classic and the HP iPAQ 210 Enterprise. The name iPAQ 110 is a misnomer, as it is not just targeted at Businessmen but the ordinary everyday user as well.  It runs the latest Windows Mobile 6 Professional Edition along with Integrated Bluetooth and even Wi-Fi. It is powered by a 624 MHz Marvell PXA310 processor and 256MB Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM. It also has a 24 pin connector and a mini USB port for terminal attachments. Apart from all these, it also has a 4 inch, VGA touch screen, 262,000 colors and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.   So, in the age of smart phones and pocket PCs, will the PDA click? Read the review and find out for yourself.

Design:

The form factor and make:
The HP iPAQ 110 Classic Handheld PDA is a based on a design that HP bought from HTC in 2002 and used them in several iPAQ form factors. The 110 is the 4th device to have the same form factor. However, HP has not updated the design and the phone reminds you of how things were like in 1999.  At 2.7 x 0.5 x 4.6 inches, it is thin and light weight and weighs a measly 3.68 ounces, amongst the lightest in the market. As far as the design is concerned, it is too simple and HP could have tried much better than this.
The plastic face is textured to convey the impression of brushed metal. The back side is made of black plastic and tends to retain a lot of fingerprints and smudges. The casing is quite sturdy and the battery cover latches securely and the SD Card mechanism feels strong. There is a SD Card slot on the left and a power and audio note button on the right. The top has some space for the stylus and a 3.5mm Standard port for headphones. The Stylus is a rugged metal barrel and is not of the telescopic design that most other models have.  It also houses the LED indicator and a light sensor. There is neither a camera lens nor slide out phone controls.

Keypad:
Coming to the details of the Keypad, the buttons on the keypad feel lighter and flimsy. The Directional pad is large and easy to use and the buttons are good for average use. If you are into Action gaming, the buttons might be unacceptable. The layout of the buttons is rather odd- the Start and the OK/Close buttons are the innermost pair unlike other devices where they are the outermost.  It lacks dedicated soft keys for one handed use, but you can re-task your Calendar and Messaging buttons for the purpose. The iPAQ allows press and hold choices on its three re-mappable buttons. So, you can launch about 4 programs from the buttons with soft keys or launch 6 applications without soft keys.

Display:
The iPAQ has a larger screen than most phones in the market. The 3.5″ inches screen is simply marvelous. The only downside is perhaps that the resolution is available in QVGA only. However, it seems less sharp than a 2.8″ screen and has polarization issues as well. The latter makes the screen glow and is very evident in landscape mode and gets annoying when you watch videos with dark scenes. The Auto Sensor adjusts brightness automatically and the built in screen lock function allows you to tap the app on the screen to lock it and another tap to unlock it. The phone’s display is as good as one expects out of a QVGA.  The resolution is not lively and a high screen protector would help with the polarization problems.

Features:

Connectivity:
Connectivity is top class in the iPAQ 110 Pocket PC PDA.  It has with Bluetooth 2.0/EDR, along 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. It is more connected than the last generation level PDAs. It also comes with HP’s wireless connection manager from where you can manage both WiFi and Bluetooth connections. The WiFI range on the phone is amazing, not only was it able to detect all Wi-FI routers in the area, but also was able to connect with the home network as well. Web pages loaded fast and data transfer was easy. There is a complaint though, the iPAQ claims to have connected to the network sometimes, when it actually was not.  Can get annoying sometimes!
Bluetooth on the iPAQ is good. HP uses the Widcomm stack unlike others which use the pathetic Microsoft Bluetooth stack for Windows Mobile. It allows you to discover services on another Bluetooth enabled device, access the internet or a LAN using a PC. Even in a radio crowded area, the connection between the iPAQ tested and another phone was solid.  There was no hitch in the connection while loading pages over Wi-Fi wile using Bluetooth headphones- a chronic problem on several devices. However, when blue tooth is activated, Wi-Fi’s performance took a hit.

Windows Mobile Office 6.1:
The iPAQ 110 runs the standard package of Windows Mobile 6 which translates to the latest version of Mobile Word, Excel & PowerPoint 6.1.The phone is far from being classic as it is one of the very few phones in the market with 6.1and is compatible with Office 2007 so you can open docx, xlsx and pptx file formats on the Pocket PC. Apart from the basic application package, a PDF viewer (ClearVue) and a HP photo application and a few other apps are present. Windows Live is another feature on the phone. The Windows Update manual can be switched to either automatic or manual modes.  However, HP has not included Microsoft Outlook keeping in tune with its policy. There are third party options such as syncing to Mozilla via Birdiesync.

Syncing:
Since the iPAQ runs MW 6.1, one needs to use the latest version of Active Sync- ActiveSync Version 4.5 on your Windows. Active Sync 4.5 allows simultaneous WI-FI and ActiveSync connections making syncing easier than ever before.

Software:
The software bundled on the HP iPAQ 110 is similar to the fare offered on WM5.0 PocketPCs. Windows Mobile 6.0 adds several improvements – better ways to share events, calendars, etc., full HTML display with images and display advanced formatting. However it is still inferior to the desktop version. There is the Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Live Messenger Client and Windows Media Player 10 Mobile offered. WMP 10 Mobile supports WMA, WAV and PlaysForSure files. The sound through the integrated speakers is average. Through the stereo headphones, there is an improvement in sound quality. The best sound performance with the HP iPAQ 110 is with the Plantronics Pulsar 590a Bluetooth wireless stereo headphones- it allowed great channel separation and full volume. The other applications provided are ClearVue PDF Viewer and Microsoft’s Picture and Video viewer. It also comes with 2 basic games: Bubble breaker and Solitaire. Third party applications run really smooth on the 110.

Gaming:
The great screen and the fast processor make gaming an absolute pleasure on the phone. The rectangular D pad on the phone is great. Audio through the speaker is decent and several Pocket PC games run very smooth. If you are a hard-core gamer, this iPAQ 110 Pocket PC would not disappoint you.

Expansion:
Most Devices do not have a SDHC slot like the 110 does, giving it an advantage in the microSD age. SDHC cards allow you to store data up to 32GB, giving it more solid storage than any but the most advanced multimedia devices.  16GB card can store up to 4000 songs or 20-100 feature length movies. The iPAQ 110 has a total of 64Mb, with about 20 Mb free after boot. It has a 256MB flash memory with 196Mb available for usage. The RAM is on the shorter side, however actually is good by Pocket PC standards.  The SD card supports SDIO, though the most popular SDIO is Wi-FI and is already built in.

Accessories:
The HP iPAQ 110 Classic Handheld PDA is provided with a 120mAH Lithium Ion rechargeable battery, an AC Adapter with power cord, a Mini USB Sync/Charge cable, a slip case and a HP iPAQ companion CD.

Performance:

What is inside?
The iPAQ 110 is the first device to have the new XScale PXA310 processor, built by Marvell. The PxA310 and the PxA320 are based on Intel’s chips. The new PXA320 runs at a clock speed of 624 MHz as high as the older PXA270 line. However, Marvell claims that the 310 is capable of delivering 50-100% more performance than the PXA270.

VGA resolution:
When tested for VGA resolution, its average speed was a whopping 264% making it the best in the Windows Mobile Segment (beating competitors like the Advantage).

Speed:
File operations on the Hewlett Packard  iPAQ 110 are fast and so are the graphical operations because of the lower resolution. The only major selling points of the new processor are the lower power consumption and integrated video functionality. A 624Mhz needed 530mW for playing video, much higher than the PXA320 which needed only 320mW. What difference will 200mW make? Averaging this over a few hours, the battery life of the PXA320 processor based phone will be 20 percent higher than the PXA310. The iPAQ 110 lacks an applet for controlling CPU clock speed; however it seems to do a good job on its own.

Media functionality:
Coming to the details of the integrated video functionality, the PXA310 was able to play MPEG-4 parts such as H.264.  It was as good as the Axim’s X51v’s hardware acceleration. Code compatibility was good as well, DivX and Xvid files worked perfectly. In layman terms, the iPAQ 110 has a tremendous multimedia performance. It can handle high quality desktop videos with out a synch. The new processor makes it a power intensive device; however that still does not extend battery life.

Battery Life of iPAQ 110:

The HP iPAQ 110 Classic comes with a standard rechargeable 3.7v Lithium Ion battery which is 1200mAh in capacity. The battery life on the iPAQ is really good in spite of having a lot to power- a large display, Wi-Fi, a high end CPU and even Bluetooth radios. On starting with a full battery, playing high end videos, switching on Wi-Fi and other applications, it took 4 hours for the battery to go down. That is exceptional considering most phones have difficulty in crossing the 3 hour mark. The battery should be able to last 2-3 days with moderate usage. So, in short, the iPAQ 110’s battery life tramples all competition in its league. It equals the Dell Axim’s battery life and is twice the battery life of the iPod Touch. In other words, simply an amazing battery life.

Warranty:

There is a one year warranty on parts and labor on the HP iPAQ 110 Classic and a warranty of 90 days for technical support in most regions.

Verdict:

The iPAQ is the fastest processor available on a PDA. It has a large and excellent display not found in the mobiles and smart phones of the time. It has integrated Wi-FI and Bluetooth and a software bundle that covers Office Mobile, email, music & video playback, picture and PDF viewing.  It does get overshadowed by its more advanced sibling the unreleased iPAQ 210, the 110 is not just a data repository, but is capable of tasks like Internet, Entertainment etc.  The Battery life could have been better and the built in speaker was disappointing. However, it is an easy choice for people who are looking for an affordable PDA minus the phone and who want to complement this PDA to their mobile phone.

Check HP iPAQ 111 Review in this website.

HP iPAQ 110 PDA Pocket PC - Technical Specification Table

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