In the years before the Pocket PC was all but replaced by the Pocket PC Phone, iPAQ was the name in Windows Mobile handhelds. It wasn’t until early 2005 that the Pocket PC began losing ground to converged Pocket PC Phones (and later to Windows Mobile Smartphones), and iPAQ Pocket PCs declined right alongside their contemporaries, eventually becoming little more than a blip on the Windows Mobile radar. The iPAQ hx4700, which was announced in late 2004, was perhaps the last iPAQ Pocket PC to enjoy success with consumers, and HP clearly put the Windows Mobile PDA on the back burner as it attempted to focus, somewhat unsuccessfully, on converged devices.
Today, there may be a bit of a reawakening of the iPAQ, or at least an attempt at one, as HP has announced two new Windows Mobile PDAs without built-in phones. The more feature-rich of the two, the iPAQ 210, is due out early next year, but its sibling, the iPAQ 110, is available now.
The iPAQ 110 is an affordable Windows Mobile PDA, a device without any cumbersome telephony add-ons, and with a familiar design that helped make iPAQs so popular back in the day. If you’re looking for an all-in-one mobile solution, the new iPAQ is clearly not for you, but if you want a zippy PDA to partner with your existing mobile phone, the iPAQ 110 is the first winner I’ve seen in years [CHECK PRICES: iPAQ 110 / 111].
NOTE: The iPAQ 110 is sold as both the iPAQ 110 and the iPAQ 111 in the United States. The two units are identical. HP often uses subtle model number differences to track sales venues. This model is also sold in Europe as the iPAQ 114.
Design
The new iPAQ is similar in design to the h1900 and rx1900 models, so there’s nothing radically new here. The iPAQ 110 does feature a more modern take on the design, however, with an updated gunmetal gray metallic finish and beveled, curvy edges. The flat-top-and-rounded-bottom look continues to work well, both in terms of aesthetics and usability, and the uncomplicated controls are a welcome sight.
The 110 is very light, just over 3.5oz, which makes the unit truly pocketable. While testing, I often dropped the iPAQ in my pocket and give it no further thought until it was needed. Although the 110 is the lightest PDA I’ve used, the unit feels solid and well constructed, and is a pleasure to hold. The backing is the same semi-rubberized plastic found on other current handhelds, and keeps the unit from becoming slippery while in extended use.
Aside from the Start, OK, Calendar and Messaging hardware shortcut buttons on the iPAQ’s face, there is a recorder shortcut button on the right side of the unit. The power button is oddly located on the right side as well, which made powering the device on and off a little awkward for me. Fortunately, there is a 3.5mm standard audio jack on the unit’s curved top edge, which means you can use the iPAQ as a media player with any standard headphones, no annoying adapters required; bravo to HP for foregoing the annoying – and now all too common – miniUSB hybrid audio/syncing port. The stylus slot, which holds a full-length, non-collapsing stylus, is also located on the top of the unit. On the unit’s left side, there’s a full-sized Secure Digital slot, which accepts both standard and new SDHC high-capacity flash memory cards.
My only serious disappointment regarding the design of the 110 is that it has no scroll wheel. A side-mounted scroll wheel or jog would have been a great addition to this device. Aside from this, the unit’s design is quite satisfactory. HP was wise to reuse this classic HTC form factor as it works as well today as it did five years ago.
Features
The iPAQ 110 has a host of features, each doing its part to make the unit far from the budget device its price might suggest. Perhaps the most welcome feature is its shiny new PXA310 XScale processor, which operates at 624MHz, and helps make the iPAQ one of the fastest Windows Mobile handhelds I’ve used. This new processor easily outperforms older PXA270 XScales running at the same clock speed. Browsing the system menus is a painless experience, with virtually zero lag time. Launching programs from Windows Media Player Mobile to MS Word to the included ClearVue PDF reader is also much faster than previous iPAQs, and even current PDA Phones from the popular manufacturer HTC. The PXA310 also features hardware video decoding know-how, which makes the unit ready to tear through video without the need for a dedicated video processor.
Other onboard features include 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate (EDR), a 3.5” QVGA touchscreen display, 256MB of flash memory (file storage) and 64MB of RAM (system memory), an SDHC flash memory card slot with SDIO support, and a removable 1200mAh Li-Ion battery.
The onboard wireless radios are controlled via the iPAQ Wireless utility, which allows you to power Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth on or off, make changes to the settings of each, view current status, etc. In my tests, the Wi-Fi worked quite well, and I was able to connect to several wireless networks with no problems. Bluetooth is also well managed, and I connected to a range of Bluetooth devices without incident.
The full-sized SDHC flash memory slot is fantastic for two primary reasons. First, you can use the same SD card from your digital camera to view photos or video without having to use adapters. The microSD card format is a marvel of memory engineering technology, but it is not used in many devices other than PDAs and phones. The second and more important (at least to me) advantage is that you can add up to 16GB of storage per SDHC card. This means that you can carry as much storage with the iPAQ 110 as two iPhones or a $400 iPod touch for a fraction of the cost. And with 32GB SDHC cards just around the corner, the iPAQ 110 offers the best storage capacity options of any Windows Mobile device sold today.
Multimedia
Although my feelings regarding Windows Media Player Mobile are somewhat, shall we say, lukewarm, the hardware powering the iPAQ 110 is more than capable of playing back both video and audio quite well. WMP does an adequate job of handling simple MP3 or WMV audio, but if you want a more user (and format) friendly experience, I suggest a third-party player.
With Core Player, I was able to enjoy a wide variety of video files, from ripped DVD movies to short AVI videos I downloaded from the Web. It would be nice if the iPAQ’s screen were VGA (like the upcoming iPAQ 210), but the QVGA display served up video well enough.
For audio, I installed Pocket Player 3.5 from Conduits Technologies and enjoyed hours of music from the iPAQ. Because the 110 has a standard headphone jack, I was able to use my Shure e2c Earphones for crystal clear sound. Again, you can use the included Windows Media Player Mobile for audio if you’re not looking for anything beyond a basic experience.
I wish there were a more elegant media player built into Windows Mobile, but if you’re more than a casual user, there are many third-party software alternatives.
Battery Life
I tested the iPAQ 110’s battery life in two separate tests. The first test was of general usability. This test was conducted with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth powered on and with the screen’s brightness set to full. Testing involved general tasks such as adding contacts, reading and responding to e-mail, browsing the web and a bit of Solitaire. In this test, with a full charge, I was able to get nearly four hours of use out of the iPAQ. Not bad for a full-on test with all features activated or maxed out.
My second test was of multimedia functionality. In this test, I viewed a 320x240 WMV video file on full screen with the screen at maximum brightness and with the wireless options powered off. With this configuration, I was able to squeeze 4 hours and 11 minutes of playback from the iPAQ before the screen went black. Another surprising result, as this playback time is equal to that of the iPod Touch Media Player from Apple.
These results unquestionably put the iPAQ 110 at the top of the battery life heap, both in terms of Classic Pocket PCs and converged Pocket PC, or PDA, Phones running Windows Mobile.
Software
The iPAQ 110 runs Windows Mobile 6 Classic, the lesser-known version of the WM6 OS designed for touchscreen devices without phone hardware (or what we used to call Pocket PCs). The iPAQ runs the latest version of WM6, including Office Mobile v6.1, which is natively compatible with Word 2007’s XML-based DOCX format. You’ll also find the normal features of Windows Mobile 6, including Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, Word, Excel and PowerPoint Mobile, Contacts, Calendar, Messaging, IE Mobile, File Explorer, Live Search, Messenger, Solitaire and more.
There is very little in the way off add-on software right out of the box with the iPAQ 110. These add-ons include ClearVue’s PDF reader and a few HP utilities. The review unit I received did not ship with a CD-ROM software disc, but I’m told by my HP press contact that the retail version of the iPAQ 110/111 includes a disc with the standard array of companion software including ActiveSync, product documentation and a setup utility.
Unfortunately, the iPAQ does not ship with a copy of Microsoft Outlook, which is fine if you’re already an Outlook user, but the lack of this companion software makes syncing right out of the box an impossibility. HP should seriously reconsider this omission as it obligates many end users to a separate $90 purchase in order to get the most out of their new iPAQ. Given Windows Mobile’s complete dependence on Outlook in order to sync, there is no excuse for this oversight.
Conclusion
I’ve owned several iPAQ Pocket PCs since 2001 and the iPAQ 110 represents everything I loved about the best of these handhelds. The device is solid, functional and attractive, and at less than $300, it’s well suited for students, small business users or anyone who needs to be more organized.
If HP were to move the price of this iPAQ closer to $200, and do a better job of highlighting the unit’s multimedia capabilities, the iPAQ 110 would do more for the standalone Pocket PC than any other non-converged device in the last three years.
Classic, Comfortable Design
QVGA Display
Fast, Late Generation Mobile Processor
No Scrolling Mechanism
Outstanding Battery Life
Outlook Not Included
Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
Full SDHC Memory Card Slot
Reasonable Price
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