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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: HP iPAQ 211 Enterprise Handheld (210 Series) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted HP iPAQ 211 Enterprise Handheld (210 Series) Reviews (cont...)Date: 2008-02-09 Best PDA ever I really like this iPaq 211. My old 1945 died unexpectedly so I went in search of a replacement and selected the 211. The screen is very large, and extremely clear. The 640 x 480 can be used in landscape or portait mode, and high or low resolution can be selected. It's amazing how much you can get on the screen. I've used it for several hours of browsing the internet, and it's very easy to use most sites. My old iPaq's screen was just too small to be usefull for any serious writing, but this thing is so easy to see. The processors speed is very good. A fast processor and lots of memory means that it doesn't bog down when I've got lots of apps in memory. Also the battery life very good, I've surfed the web on WIFI for several hours, and had plenty of juice to spare. MS Mobile office has some nice improvements,too. I really like the way that it handles multiple mail servers - it keeps the email boxes separate, and allows you to specify which one you want to work with. I have my google, msn live, comcast, and corporate mailboxes available. Before you put an ounce of faith in any less than favorable reviews, go see what Mobile Tech said about this beauty: [...] The only negative is the Activesync program that is used to synchronize the iPaq with my PC. It can be very slow at times. Date: 2008-02-09 Good value for a high end pda This device is the much anticipated replacement for the hx4700 series. It is almost the same device, with changes in the processor and memory as well as a return to the dpad navigation button rather than the touch pad. It sells for $200.00 less than the hx4700 and only 2 years later. The big screen is a treat for tired eyes and fat fingers as Mitch pointed out above. However, as he notes, Windows never did make good use of the VGA size and "pixel doubles" most software. Keep and eye open for the likely workarounds such as SEVGA, RealVGA and OzVGA created for the earlier VGA models such as the Toshiba e850, Axim VGA pda's and the hx470x series. Unfortunately, all software plays nicely with the WM6 solution but not the "real VGA" solutions, relying on the pixel doubling rather than providing layouts and icons for the larger potential resolution. I do miss the tough and light magnesium case found on the hx4700, and the case designers really missed the ball by not including buttons for the two softkeys for the WM6 OS on this release (there are 4 progammable standard pocket pc buttons, plus a recording button). They did move the power button to the front, which makes easy access through Otter Boxes or waterproof cases. Luckily they put a much larger base memory on this model, hurray! It makes a big difference. Memory expansion is great. With 32GB compact flash out now (64gb this spring) and SDHC card support, you should buy as big an sdhc card as you can and install many of your programs to it to save main memory space while leaving the compact flash for your maps and music and get bluetooth peripherals (GPS, laser rangefinder, barcode reader, Stereo Headphones) etcetera. My let down was that they made the microphone monaural again. What does it take to get these guys to make a stereo mic input???? It would make a fantastic little CF recording machine for professional quality reporting. Currently you will have to be satisfied that it does record in stereo, but only has one mic--so recording birds, interviews, detailed med school lectures, that next pop/rap song sketch or mumblings of genius can continue in one channel. On the plus side, with some share ware, the iPaq 210 makes a sweet little guitar/uke/banjo tuner. It does have much better speakers, which is fantastic for listening or playing bird calls while looking through your electronic bird field guides. If you are scared by the price, consider buying a used hx4700 or if you have cash to burn, look into the HTC Advantage X7501 with a 5" screen and all the features this PDA does not (including a phone, a 3 megapixel camera, and keyboard). I like my IR port on the hx4700 so much (missing on the 211)that I will be ditching the 211 and returning to my older model. That's my 2 cents. Date: 2008-02-06 Takes some getting used to I must be one of the first to own a iPAQ 211, which I purchased directly from HP Shopping. I plan to write a more extensive review but for now I think the most important thing is that you understand what the new high resolution 480 x 640 screen is like. The 211 is BIG. Taller, wider and thicker than an iPhone. Heavy. Roughy 33% larger than a iPAQ Classic 100. Understand as I am writing this that the word I hear on the street is the days of the stand alone PDA are numbered (the 200 seriers are stand alone devices). The only kind of PDA that can be a success in the market is one that has a phone built in, or looking at it another way, celluar manufacturers are choosing to use the Mobile 6 OS to give users a very rich platform. Most importantly you need to understand this. Yes there are 4X more pixels on this screen than on the 240 x 320 standard screen BUT Microsoft has not taken advantage of this higher resolution. What they have done is basically expand the size of interface to fit the screen. So icons are bigger, text is larger, everything is much easier to read for old and tired eyes. But it is not what I expected. What they could have done is keep the fonts and icons the same size as the 240 x 320 screen and then distribute more of them in the screen area. that way there could be way more information packed on the screen than the smaller handhelds. In other words imagine you bought a new video board that had double the resoution of your old one. But when you played DOOM on things just got bigger, you saw no new detail. Anyway that is my PITA at this point. I hope to have more to say in a few days. So the feeling I get is that the interface is big and lumbering, not refined and tastful as the resolution would allow. This may not prove to be of major importanct to people, but this is my personal take and parly gripe on the iPAQ 211.
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