
Its long been thought that the Ford Transit is the backbone of
British industry but as we move away from a manufacturing based
economy to a service based one technology could easily be our
backbone and the PDA our portable commercial strength. One name
stands head and shoulders above the rest, the Ipaq and the latest
slimline HP 2210 Ipaq could lay claim to being the PDA of choice.
Clearly that's a bold statement but LP has been driving the 2210 in
recent days and its a far cry from his first Ipaq 3600 which is
still running today and acting as a host for his Tom Tom 3 software,
so what's new and why should you go for a HP2210 Ipaq rather than a
Dell Axim?
First thing that smacks you right in the chops is the size, its
like first Compaq and now HP have been keeping the Ipaq designs in
the steam room measuring just 76x16x116mm and weighing a little over
142g the
2210 is really top pocket sized unlike so many other PDA's you can
really take it out without feeling like you have grown an extra
limb. Connectivity wise the HP 2210 Ipaq packs Bluetooth 1.1 wire
free communication as standard giving a 10 meter range at up to
1mbit for connection to mobile devices and suitably equipped PC's
the 2210 is also wifi ready if you go with either an optional SIDO
or CF WiFi Card. Of course that old favourite IrDA remains for
trying to line up an beam business cards (never overly successful)
and the 2210 comes with a USB cradle in the box for use with Active
Sync software. For storage the Ipaq comes with 64mb of onboard
memory of which 57mb are available to the user for running
programmes and storage of files, the SD / MMC slot can be used to
further enhance storage capabilities with either solid state disks
or the IBM micro drive, both can give up to 1gb of storage to the
unit. Based on a 400 MHz PXA255 Intel XScale processor the 2210 is
more than a match for the most demanding user coping admirably with
multimedia tasks like MP3 replay and even full screen MPEG4 encoded
video.
Shipping
with Windows Pocket PC 2003 Pro the Microsoft operating system
brings the joys of MS applications to the small screen, unlike so
many other PDA's you can work with native Excel and word so no need
for translations just open the file and then save it back to your
desktop PC or email it on with the Pocket outlook client. Real use
of the HP 2210 Ipaq is a rewarding experience, the battery life is
good for a handheld especially if you can do without the wireless
networking it's possible to add an extended battery for those road
warriors who spend a long period of time away from mains. The GUI is
first class due largely to Microsoft but also in part to the 3.5"
TFT screen which delivers a remarkably bright colour image, the feel
of the 2210 is also one of class the engineering is just right a
solid feel but without being too heavy, the new sleek design means
it sits in the hand far better than its rival the Dell Axim and the
quick access buttons have been copied by almost every other PDA on
the market. After a few days with a HP 2210 Ipaq LP now has the
difficult job of convincing his boss that productivity would rise if
he had one of his own (good luck LP) but with the plethora of
software available for Pocket PC even LP could find something that
would make him more efficient!
 More PD reviews -
[ Sony Clie TH55 ] [ iMate Pocket PC and Phone ] [ HP 2210 Ipaq ] [ PalmOne Zire 72 PDA ] [ Palm Zire 31 ] [ Tungsten T5 Review ] [ Acer N30 PDA ] [ Tungsten E2 Review ] [ Dell Axim X50 ] [ Fossil Abacus Review ] [ PalmOne TX Review ] [ Nokia N800 Review ] [ Dell Axim X30 ] [ Sony Clie TJ35 ] [ Dell Axim X3i PDA ] [ Lifedrive Review ] [ HP 4150 PDA ] [ Palm Tungsten E ] |