Experiences With The HP iPAQ 910 Business Manager
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When it comes to device reviews, I tend to get very in depth about a product as I try to cover as many aspects of it as possible. Same goes for the HP iPAQ 910 where Part I introduced the device, Part II covered it’s hardware and Part III the software. However, no review is complete without the reviewer’s personal take on it and that is what Part IV is all about. So what did I think of it?
Making And Receiving Calls
Even though it’s a Pocket PC, many seem to forget about call quality when it comes to choosing one. Thankfully, HP didn’t because I was rather impressed when making and receiving calls with it.
As a caller, I received no complaints from those receiving my calls. No issues about echoes (which I have received while using other models) or asking me to speak louder when using the Business Manager. HP actually has an audio settings where you can choose the microphone gain depending on your environment. If that’s too troublesome for you, as it was for me, you can turn on Automatic Gain Control (AGC) and it will adjust the mic’s gain for you.
As for hearing the person on the other end, no problems there. In fact, the volume was pretty loud that I had to actually lower it. I doubt my hearing had improved to warrant such a change so it had to be the 910’s speakers. Don’t be fooled by the small size of it.
What about dialing numbers? One thing I like about the HP iPAQ 910 is that it is smart enough to figure out whether you are using the hardware keyboard to dial a number or search for a contact. This is rather useful because there were times when I wanted to dial a number I was given and there were times when I wanted a contact and on both times, I had no problem. Best thing is, you don’t even have to change any settings.
Keyboard Feedback
After using it for several weeks, I have to say that the iPAQ 910 has a really great keyboard. That was not my initial impression though because I was coming from a SIP background and made quite a bit of mistakes with the keyboard. So much so that I thought HP had designed it pretty bad.
Several days later, that impression was gone and I ended up loving the keyboard a lot more than before. It was a joy to use. From sending out brief emails, I now typed out full length emails when I had to, just because it felt so good to use. In fact, I even typed out drafts of MTS articles with it on the train ride home from work, something which I never do with a SIP. Some could say I had the crackberry addiction, but on a Window Mobile platform. I guess a well-designed keyboard can have that effect on you.
Feel In My Hand
If I have not said it before, I’ll say it again: the HP iPAQ 910 Business Manager feels really solid in my hand. The device does not feel cheap at all.
Thanks to the rubber back, it does not feel like it’s going to fall out of your hand when you’re running with it (to chase that bus).
The layout of the buttons is great too. Whether you’re using it one-handed to just go through your emails on the train or typing out a long email with both hands, you’re able to cradle it comfortably and access the needed buttons easily. Very nice!
Data Connection
The HP iPAQ 910 Business Manager comes equipped with quadband GSM which makes it a great business companion for the jet-setters out there. It also comes equipped with triband 3G connections but here’s where it gets interesting.
The version I got was from the United States so naturally I would expect it to work well in the US. That expectation fell short because it did not support one half of T-Mobile’s 3G bands (1700MHz). While it did support the other half (2100 MHz), the device showed some problems when I tried to get it to connect to T-Mobile’s 3G network in Philadelphia. My network connection went down and when I tried to reconnect back to the GPRS/EDGE network, it would not do so. This went on for a good 4 hours before I could finally reconnect.
HP should definitely look into this issue because for anyone to not even be able to connect back to their preferred network for an hour is a real downer. You can imagine 4 hours.
GPS/Navigation
Another thing that HP could improve on would be that of GPS fixing. While it does provide an application for you to download ephemeris data to speed up the fixing process, it was not as quick as I hoped it would be. That’s not to say that the application is useless.
Without updating the required data and from a cold start, it took about 15 minutes to get a fix which is pretty standard for a GPS chip. When I used the application, it took about 6 minutes which is 2.5 faster. So it does cut down the time considerably. Compare that to my Glofiish X500 which takes around 2 minutes in a similar situation and you can see why I was rather disappointed.
When you do get a fix though, it does a great job of holding that fix. Even when I was in places that you’d expect the signal to be weak, such as in the city, it held its own pretty well so I was rather impressed.
What about the navigation programs? Well there were no problems there as well. Even before using the HP iPAQ 910, I was using my Glofiish X500 in landscape mode for navigational purposes so I knew the applications (TomTom and Garmin XT) would work well on the iPAQ 910 and it sure did.
Screen
Earlier, I had mentioned that the screen on the iPAQ 910 can get really bright, so much so that I have been using it at 50% brightness most of the time. What’s great about such a bright screen is that you would have an easier time looking it at when you are outdoors on a bright, sunny day. No problems there for me which is always a welcome.
As an added bonus, it would have been great if HP had incorporated a light sensor that allowed the brightness of the screen to be adjusted based on your surroundings. This way, you would not have to toggle with the brightness when you are indoors and then stepping out or vice versa. A novel solution but one that I think many users will definitely like.
Camera Quality
Well, instead of talking about the quality, I shall let the pictures do the talking yeah?
Outdoors
The first 3 shots were taken on a cloudy day while the last (bottom right) was taken on a bright morning.
Indoors/Night
Surprisingly, the flash did not fire in any of those 4 shots.
Macro
The camera on the iPAQ 910 was not made to take macro shots but just out of curiosity, I wanted to see how well it handled close shots with its auto focus module. Here’s what I got:
Not too bad I would say. If your subject is less than 3” away from the lens, it turns out like the images on the left; anything more than 4” makes it a lot clearer.
Conclusion
Well, pictures are rather sharp though color could be better. Thanks to the auto focus and 3 megapixel resolution, pictures you take turn out crisp and you even print them out on traditional 6×4” paper if you wanted too. Before you do that, you’ll want to practice taking some photos with the iPAQ 910 though. Reason I say this is because the button does not jut out enough and can cause some shakiness when you press to take a picture. However, once you get the hang of it, you can leave that digital camera at home.
The camera was also a bit slow to take pictures and I am not sure if it’s more of a software issue or because of the auto focus at work. It was even more prominent when you take those pictures in low light condition. Hopefully, the next firmware can fix this problem or at least make it a lot more snappy.
Another thing that I found interesting,was that the flash did not fire, even in low light or no light conditions. I tried tweaking the settings but on all occasions, it still did not fire. I wonder why.
One thing that I felt HP should have incorporated is macro mode which can be found in some other models. With this mode, you could take a picture of say a business card. HP could have then gone a step further and provided an application that translates that business card picture into a contact so you don’t have to type those details in. Alas, HP did not incorporate such a feature.
Video Quality
Unlike many other Pocket PC I have encountered, the iPAQ 910 only allows you to shot in 3GP format. That’s right, no MP4. While this is not a deal breaker for many, I just thought you should know. Also, while the camera may be a 3 megapixel, the highest resolution you can achieve is qVGA (320×240) with the iPAQ 910. Seriously?
Alright, here’s the video for those curious:
Looks a bit blurry though I think this more of a YouTube issue than of HP. Reason is because the video is stretched to fill the YouTube space. To be honest, video capture is nothing special. Sure it takes video but I wish it had used the auto focus feature and 3 megapixel a lot more to create a better video.
Multimedia Capabilities
Commuting can be a real downer for just about anybody. Sure you could whip out your iPAQ 910 and reply to emails or edit your word documents but what if you just wanted to sit back and relax? Well it’s got you covered too.
The Business Manager handles audio and video really well. While I usually use TCPMP to benchmark a device’s video playback capability, I could not get it to work on the iPAQ 910 so I had to make do with CorePlayer’s benchmark feature. Considering that they share a lot in common, there shouldn’t be too much of a difference. Here are the results:
Sure there are a lot of numbers but the most important thing you want to look at is in the first row – Average Speed. If the value is at least 100%, it means that that format/resolution would have no problems playing on the iPAQ 910. In this case, WMV qVGA as well as both XVID qVGA and VGA would play just fine on the iPAQ 910. Which is rather surprising if you ask me.
Usually, at least on devices that I tested, devices with qVGA resolution, like the iPAQ 910, would have no problems with qVGA resolution videos. However, you can’t say the same for VGA videos so when I saw the results for XVID VGA, I was rather surprised.
So what does all this mean? As much as I want to say you should encode your videos in VGA, that would not be a good idea since the iPAQ 910 only supports qVGA resolution. Now, if the iPAQ 910 had video out capability, that would be a different story altogether.
As for MP3, hey, no complains there from me either. While the sound may not be as rich as I would have liked, I guess that had more to do with the ear phones than device. Which brings me to my next point: no standard 3.5mm jack. While it is becoming more and more common for devices to ship with a USB jack that doubles up as an audio out, I wish manufacturers would ship much better ear phones. Or at the very least, a USB to 3.5mm adaptor so we could use our own headsets.
Spb Benchmark Test
For those interested in Spb’s Benchmark tests, here are the results. First up, the raw results of the HP iPAQ 910 Business Manager:
I have also compared them with other devices which I have personally reviewed so you can get a better feel for how the iPAQ 910 fares:
Looks like the Atom life trumps 3 of the 5 major tests but it’s not surprising when it’s CPU is clocked at 624MHz. However, the tests does explain why the iPAQ 910 could handle XVID VGA files pretty well: it tops the Graphics index test.
Battery Discharge Graph
Using Spb Bencmark’s test, I also did a battery discharge test with maximum backlight, video playback. The results?
It got me 5hr 42mins of playback time which is not too bad. Remember that this was at maximum backlight which means very bright backlight. When I bring it down to 50% backlight, I manage to get almost 7 hours of playback.
For those curious about charging, it takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge the battery from a dead charge which is not too bad.
In both cases, all radios (GSM, Bluetooth and WiFi) were turned off.
Speed & Performance
Now I would advice you to take the results of Spb Benchmark with a pinch of salt. It’s a software that has been out for a long time now and had not been updated. While I am not saying that the results are entirely useless, one should always find out for oneself how the device handles. Before I get into that, here’s a breakdown of how the specs’ 256MB ROM and 128MB RAM are used:
So from your 256MB of ROM, you get about 121MB free and 75MB from your 128MB of RAM. Not too bad. The iPAQ File Store, in case you’re wondering, is like another drive on the device, if you may. When you do a wipe, all the data on the Storage (ROM) would be wiped out but those on the File Store are left intact.
Before you criticize it, this has been something that HP has been doing since I can remember. The reason behind this was that the File Store was a place that you stored your backup files so even when your device goes down, your backup does not. However, with users having bigger and bigger capacities on their added microSD cards, I do wonder if such a feature is still needed.
Anyway, in terms of device’s responsiveness, it was really good. I did encounter slowdown from time to time, but that was when I had many (about 10) applications running in the background. I was rather pleased with the device and the 256/128MB ROM/RAM combination really helps a bit. I did wish that the CPU could have been a tad higher to make it even more responsive.
Conclusion
HP has done a good job with the iPAQ 910. At $499, it’s rather affordable for an unlocked phone. Sure there are issues that I wished HP could have fixed before it was shipped, such as the supporting of T-Mobile USA’s 3G band considering that this is the US version. By not doing that, users like me are not fully sold on the device. But if you don’t care about the 3G connection or are on AT&T’s network, you’d definitely want to give the iPAQ 910 a look.
It’s front facing keyboard is a rarity in the Windows Mobile world but it’s been done right. Business professionals who need such a form factor and want to harness the power of Windows Mobile would really like the HP iPAQ 910. It’s not just limited to this group though. With instant messaging and email being used by just about any group, it’s a wonder why there are no many devices like this.
So if you are in the market for something new that would increase your productivity and at the same time, help you unwind while on the move, be sure to check out the HP iPAQ 910 Business Manager.
Manufacturer: HP
Model: iPAQ 910 Business Manager
Price: $499
Special Offer: Get it for only $484.99 through Expansys! Limited stock!
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I was seriously considering one of these until looking at the consumer reviews. Many in the tech press have published rave reviews but each site has comments from consumers all making the same point: battery life sucks.
It’s nice that you included the battery drain results (in an incredibly detailed review) but I’d love to hear more on your real-world experiences over a week or more just regarding the power.
Well when someone says something sucks, I always ask, relatively to what?
To me, the battery works really well though I think many users think that just because it has a larger battery, it should last a lot longer.
When you look at the numbers, the battery in the iPAQ 910 is only 1.25 times larger than that of normal Pocket PC which has a battery capacity of 1500mAh.
Factor in the fact that 3G can put a drain on the battery and I am not surprised that there are users who complain about battery life.
As for my personal use, I can usually go 1-1.25 days with my Glofiish X500 (which has a 1500mAh battery) but with the iPAQ 910, I could stretch it to almost 3 days.
One thing to note is that I did not turn 3G on because I am on the T-Mobile network and the iPAQ 910 does not support it’s bands. Another thing is that I seldom used the touchscreen of the iPAQ 910, instead relying on the keyboard and shortcut keys. I have heard that using the touch screen (i.e. tapping it) drains more juice than just leaving it on and that could be another reason.
Hopefully, that answers your question but if you need something more specific, do let me know.
Definitely agree with you. I’ve had this phone for just over two weeks now, and I absolutely love it. For the record, I’m not an international businessman who is constantly on the move, just a first year university student.
The Wi-fi browsing with Opera (which does not come preloaded…) is great, and the keyboard is a huge step up from my old T9 Nokia.
A feature also worth a mention is the scroll wheel on the right side of the phone, it comes in handy when scrolling through lists for email, programs or even when surfing.
As for the camera, I think the lag is due to the autofocus feature. While this does let it capture good quality photos, it still lags somewhat, which can get annoying as it may sometimes lead to blurred shots. The only way I’ve found to use the flash is to switch it on manually when in camera mode, it does not activate automatically.
Great work on this article!
I do agree that the scroll wheel can be a real advantage at times, just that I have not gotten used to it. It would be great if you could easily switch between page up/down for the scroll wheel instead of link to link. I think a registry hack will do the trick.
You could be right about the autofocus. I guess something’s gotta give? As for the flash, unfortunately, I don’t have the device anymore so I am unable to try out your suggestion but hopefully other readers who get one will be able to do so.
I am thinking of getting one soon for keeping all my Dictionaryes handy when i need it for work .I am also with T-mobil and I have two question that like any of you to answer,
1-Do you think it will work well with T-mobil ?
2-If I will use it for dictionary’s as installed sofwear ,will drain the battery?
finally , do you think that is the best PDA/phone out there for my use .
By the way I like only to ckeck my email while I am on the road .
kindly advice .
Adam
Hi Adam
When I tested it, I was using it on the T-Mobile network so it will definitely work with it. The only problem would be 3G, or the lack of it. Even though the iPAQ 910 is a 3G-capable phone, due to the lack of bands supporting T-Mobile’s AWS 3G network, you will not be able to get faster mobile speeds on it.
As for battery drain, I am not sure exactly what dictionary we are talking about. If it is constantly running and does not allow the device to go into standby mode, like navigation applications, then it will definitely drain the battery pretty quickly.
But if it only runs when you turn on the device and it goes into standby when not in use, then you should have no problem with it. Just remember to condition the battery when you get the device.
I am not too sure what your needs are exactly but as far as dictionaries, you should be fine with the iPAQ 910. I would recommend that you check with the dictionary software developer that they support the 320×240 landscape before heading out to get one just to be sure.