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★★★★☆

“The HP iPAQ H2210 pocket PC comes with stacks of...”

written by ibentall on 14/01/2005

Good Points
Wide selection of application programs
Easy connection with Bluetooth
Expandable

Bad Points
Handwriting recognition
Easily scratched screen

General Comments
The HP iPAQ H2210 pocket PC comes with stacks of software already loaded including pocket versions of Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, Appointment manager, contacts list, notepad, calculator, Active Sync, backup, Image viewer, messenger, Microsoft reader, Windows media player, Bluetooth manager and Nevo (universal remote control), Solitaire and Jawbreaker.



If the software application that you require is not already loaded onto your Pocket PC, I am sure that you can find a suitable program on the many supporting web sites. I have found Diet Plan software, Cricket and Golf scoring applications, Password managers, Navigation Software and even a travel mileage logger.



The 2210 is supplied with a rechargeable battery, USB cradle, mains charger, software CD and a protective case. A short printed user guide is included but most of the documentation is supplied in Adobe Acrobat format on the CD.



The Pocket PC has a power button, four hardware buttons and a directional joystick. The hardware buttons can be programmed to run any of the applications, but they default to 'calendar', 'contacts', 'inbox' and 'itask'.



Data is input into the device using a stylus on the touch sensitive LCD. You can input in four different modes - Block Recogniser - you write characters and numbers in different areas of a 'sub screen'; keyboard - you get a keyboard layout on the screen and tap the keys with the stylus to type - I find this the easiest to use as it does not rely on the character recognition (may be its just my bad handwriting!); letter recogniser - similar to block recogniser; transcriber - write anywhere on the screen and the computer will recognise what you are writing.



The microphone is ideal for recording short memos. Simply open up Notepad and select the 'tape' icon. Press the record button and then talk. To play the recoding back press the play button. The speaker volume can easily be adjusted with the loudest settings loud enough to hear from several meters away.



I have not used the Bluetooth interface as I have not got any other devices that support this. In theory it would be ideal for communicating with laptops and mobile phones.



The built in memory is easily expandable using a combination of SD memory cards and compact flash cards. To use a memory card simply plug it in the relevant slot and then when you use the 'File Explorer' you can select the external memory. I have a 256 M-byte SD card containing map data for my navigation software and use compact flash for additional file storage. If you use a digital camera with one of these memory cards then you can simply plug the memory card into the slot and view a slide show of the pictures taken - it is a bigger display than you will get on most (all?) cameras and the battery lasts longer.



When the Pocket PC is plugged into the USB cradle connected to a PC Active Sync runs on both the Pocket PC and the computer to synchronise the data on both devices. During an Active Sync session the calendar, contacts, inbox and tasks are synchronised with Microsoft Outlook on the PC keeping everything up to date. When connected you can synchronise continuously, on connection only or manually. Active Sync is also used to load or remove programs to or from the Pocket PC. While connected you can list and copy the files on the Pocket PC from the desktop PC but you can not open them.



The display is crisp and gives a good clear picture. The brightness level for the display can be programmed so that it is clearly visible in all light conditions including full sun light. I find it difficult to judge the battery life as my unit is frequently plugged into the USB cradle or used with the navigation software in my car which requires the unit to be plugged into the cigarette lighter, but I have never had a warning that the battery is getting low.



To prevent the screen getting scratched from every day use I have purchased a flexible screen cover. This attaches to the screen with out using any adhesive. When the cover gets dirty I simply remove it, wash it under the tap and then when its dry put it back on. Always use a stylus never anything harder on the screen.



Specification

Processor Intel XScale 400 MHz

32 M-byte ROM

64 M-byte SDRAM

SD Memory Slot

Compact Flash slot

240 x 320 pixel LCD, 65535 colours

Contrast and backlight adjustment

Audio - Microphone, speaker, audio jack.

IrDA with a data transfer up to 115.2 kb per second

Universal remote control

Bluetooth communications up to 10m.

3 alarm modes - Flashing green LED, tone and pop ups

Removable / rechargeable 900 mAh Lithium ion battery

internal 10 minute bridge battery to retain data while main battery has been removed.

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