First impressions of the HP iPAQ 910 Business Manager
It has been quite a while since HP announced the new iPAQ 900 series back in September 2007 and I was beginning to wonder if the device would end up being vaporware. I was just sent an evaluation HP iPAQ 910 device to check out for a couple of weeks and it looks like the device is getting closer and closer to actually shipping. The iPAQ 910 is currently listed on the HP site for US$499.99 with a red label stating it is coming soon. I posted some product photos in my image gallery and have some initial thoughts and a walk around the device below.
| Image Gallery:Check out some product photos of the HP iPAQ 910 Business Manager. |  | |||||
In the box: The HP iPAQ 910 Business Manager comes in a compact and attractive retail box. The evaluation unit I was sent does not include the manuals or CD, but the retail box contents are listed on the side of the box. The contents include the iPAQ 910, 1940 mAh battery, USB sync cable, A/C adapter, wired stereo headset, and Getting Started CD and manual/brochure.
Specs: It looks like the original 520 MHz processor announced back in September has been replaced in the actual release device with a 416 MHz processor, but the rest of the specs from the original announcement look to be the same and include:
- Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
- Marvell PXA270 416 MHz processor
- 256MB ROM (about 120MB available to the user)
- 128MB RAM (about 62MB available to the user)
- 2.46 inch 320x240 touch screen
- Integrated 802.11 b/g WiFi radio
- Integrated Bluetooth 2.0 radio with EDR
- Integrated GPS receiver
- Quad-band GSM/EDGE radio and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA radio (speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps)
- 1940 mAh Lithium ion battery
- microSD card slot
- 3 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom
- Weight of 5.4 ounces
- Size of 4.5 inches x 2.5 inches x 0.6 inch
HP also includes some software utilities on top of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, including HP iPAQ GPS, HP PrintSmart, Sun Java, HP Asset Viewer, Ringtones manager, HP audio utility, and HP iPAQ DataConnect utility.
Initial thoughts and experiences: The device feels good in my hand due to the solid construction and soft touch backing. It feels much like a BlackBerry Curve that measures 4.2 inches x 2.4 inches x 0.6 inch (see how close that is to the above listed size), but is an ounce and a half heavier and feels more dense.
The display is nice and bright, but I have been spoiled by the VGA display on the HTC Touch Diamond and am not sure I can go back to a QVGA display. ClearType does make the fonts look much better and I recommend you enable this in the settings.
So far the device feels pretty snappy and responsive. I was able to get a GPS fix with Google Maps (included in the ROM) in less than a minute while sitting in my house about 6 feet from a window.
Browsing is OK with Internet Explorer Mobile, but I would have preferred to have seen Opera Mobile installed on the device and will try out Opera Mini 4.1 soon. The Java Gmail application works very well and looks good on the landscape display.
I am looking forward to trying out the scroll wheel since there are very few Windows Mobile devices with such a controller and I think it can be very handy for ebook reading and browsing.
I will be spending another couple weeks with the device and if you have any specific questions regarding the device, please feel free to post them and I'll try to answer them in my follow-up post.