Name: gooseberry
Location: San Diego, CA
Date: 2008-06-29
Customer Rating: - 
Summary: By far not bad.
Comment: I've had it for several months. The only rediculous flaw is the speakers. They are very silent. Otherwise this pocket PC is very good including the screen and battery life. And it doesn't freeze like some others write. I would've given 5 stars had it not been the speakers.
Name: Patrick J. Hawkes
Location:
Date: 2008-05-03
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Not bad
Comment: This is my first pocket PC. Seems pretty good to me but I don't have much experience with others.
Name: Jerry Saperstein
Location: Evanston, IL USA
Date: 2008-03-13
Customer Rating: -
Summary: A few shortcomings, but they are major.
Comment: The HP210 / 211 / 212 / 214 could have been a truly great product. (They're all the same product: the different numbers indicate the channel and country; i.e., 210 US - Consumer, 214 - Asia, etc.) But it has a few shortcomings that, in my opinion, reduce it to an average product that should be considered carefully.
First, I am a big fan of PDAs and so-called smartphones and have been using them for years. None of them are perfect. In fact, most of them are far from perfect. In recent years the smartphone category, combining the cellular phone, the PDA and a camera, has really taken off. The standalone PDA is probably an endangered species and the HP211 could be the last of its kind. The emergence of the mini-laptop like the Asus Eee and Fujitsu U810 may, in fact, be the final nails in the coffin of the standalone PDA which I think would be a pity.
HP did a lot of things right with the HP211.
The screen is absolutely gorgeous. Photos and videos shine forth in all their glory. Glare from the screen surface has not been a problem. I have not tested it in direct sunlight, but it holds up well in bright daylight. The screen does require a fairly strong touch, but it is something you become accustomed to fairly quickly. Scrolling, however, in Internet Explorer seems to somewhat difficult. You have to apply firm pressure which the device may be interpreting as repeated taps. Something makes navigation in IE more difficult than it has to be.
For those who use the inking capability, once you get the touch done, it is a great experience. The Marvell processor is fast enough to make inking a delight. If you use an onscreen keyboard like TenGo, you'll be well impressed with how responsive the screen is and how fast your input can be.
Overall, the CPU powers the device with lots of horses to spare. And it is wonderful to have all that memory available, knowing as well that you can add humongous SDHC and CF cards as well. The idea that you can add 32GB of memory with 16GB card in each slot is mindblowing.
WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities are excellent.
The four function buttons are well placed and can be reprogrammed to meet your needs. On left side is another button that starts the recording function. The on/off switch is mounted on the front near the top right corner. While it hasn't happened to me, I am afraid it can be depressed accidentally, but the auto shutdown should render that moot even if it happens.
The D-pad is a major drawback and could be a dealbreaker for a lot of people. The designers lopped off the top of the D-pad. It is smaller than the right/left and down pads and, mounted just below the screen bezel, feels funny. It is also difficult to toggle precisely which is frustrating. As I use it more, it seems to be becoming more natural, but I consider it a dumb design move. I would strongly suggest that prospective owners either try it in a store or buy from a vendor with an excellent return policy.
The other major flaw - and this could be a deal-killer for a lot of people is the speaker arrangement. There are two speakers, but they do not work together at the same time. The front one is used only, as far as I know, with Skype. It has just barely adequate volume in a quiet room. If there's any kind of noise, forget it. By the way, the HP211 works very well with Skype.
The rear speaker is just plain horrible. It is inaudible even in a quiet room. It is unusable for playing back voice recordings and trying to use it for music or audio tracks on movies is unthinkable. You can also whistle goodbye to using it for voice prompts for GPS. In a unit this expensive, this design flaw is inexcusable. Making matters worse is that the headphone jack - which is, thankfully, a standard 3.5mm - is located on the bottom of the unit. I haven't tried it with Bluetooth headphones. one of the big pluses of a standalone PDA like this to me is the recording capability for quick notes. But if I can't hear them playing back without headphones, what good is it? Another reason for a standalone with Bluetooth is GPS. Obviously, you want GPS with voice prompts. But if you can't hear the voice prompts, what good is it?
Considering HP's legendary engineering, I am surprised these flaws made it into the final product, but they did and I think they greatly reduce the appeal of the product.
The unit is pretty big, which I appreciate because I want an ample writing surface and I have big hands. That's the good news. The bad news is that the surfaces are all slippery plastic. If you intend to use this unit without a case, I suspect it will become a casualty within a matter of days. Overall, the construction feels a little on the cheap side. Not awful, but it doesn't feel very robust either.
My primary reason for wanting a standalone PDA is to have a way (other than pen and paper) to take notes throughout the day. The HP211 fills this role well. I primarily use PhatNotes and TenGo. The HP211 screen provides an excellent inking experience with no vectoring problems. The stock Windows Mobile Notes and other applications and the letter recognizer also work well. It's a joy to have a ton of memory with the ability to expand to previously unheard of dimensions. The screen is a marvelous platform for viewing photos or videos. (The CPU, by the way, doesn't have quite enough ooomph to play video back smoothly. Using TCMP, I had lots of dropped frames.)
If I were ranking the device very narrowly, I would give it 5 stars without hesitation and then take 1 star away for the price, which I think is too high. Thus a net 4 stars. Because of the D-pad design and, in particular, the utterly useless audio, I can give it only 3 stars. Considering the high price in conjunction with these defects and I have to strongly urge that anyone considering this device consider it very, very carefully. One of the reasons I prefer Windows Mobile devices is the wide array of software available for them. The main reason for buying the HP211, on my part, was the large screen, which is admittedly much easier to work with than the one on my smartphone.
But at $400+ for the HP, there are alternatives and I suggest that they be considered. The Nokia N800 is less than half the price and provides WiFi, web browsing and email. The screen is great, though converting video for the N8*0 is dicey. The N800 offers SDHC expansion capability. The N810 adds a sliding keyboard. And both have a rudimentary camera which the HP211 should have, but doesn't. The big drawback to the N8*0 devices? They're Linux and apps are still relatively scarce.
On the whole, I think the HP211 is well suited for a notetaking function and moderately well suited for web browsing when Opera is installed. It is an adequate video platform. But the built-in speakers simply stink. The headphone jack is inconveniently placed and the D-pad is something of a design disaster.
The big problem is that there just aren't that many standalone PDAs out there running Windows Mobile 6 with a ton of memory and a great 4" screen. At half the price, I'd live with the problems. At $400+, though, I'm still wondering about it. My smartphone does everything the HP211 does: it's just smaller and more difficult to work on. Is the convenience worth $400+? I'm not sure yet, but am tilting toward saying "no".
Jerry
Name: F. Conrad
Location: Cincinnati, OH United States
Date: 2008-08-24
Customer Rating: -
Summary: This is my first PDA, maybe I'm just expecting too much.
Comment: The product itself is not too bad. It has a solid feel to it. Programs open quickly and respond well. As soon as you turn it on its ready to go, there is no bootup time. Has a great picture but lousy sound. I ended up buying a Bluetooth headset so I can hear it. I also strongly recommend buying screen protectors because you'll be poking and stroking pretty hard with the diddle stick until the touch screen breaks in after a couple weeks of use.
The software and firmware is what's bad about it. Every time you put it on or off the charger, connect or disconnect anything, it automatically turns itself on. There is no setting to defeat this. The mobile office software and clear view PDF don't have full screen mode, so a third of the screen is taken up by the window frames. Bring up the input window and now you only have one third of the screen left see what you're working on.
Bottom line, it's a great tool for doing simple tasks. It won't replace a laptop when traveling. If you're waiting for the mini PCs to become practical, this is a great pacifier.
Name: Wing J. Flanagan
Location: Orlando, Florida United States
Date: 2008-12-11
Customer Rating: -
Summary: Buy the armor case with it!
Comment: Three stars - not because it is a mediocre product, exactly, but because HP screwed up one important aspect of the design: the screen is WAY TOO FRAGILE. This is the second one I have owned. The first has a broken screen and HP won't support it. It's understandable, in a way - they have to assume you mishandled the silly thing because, how can you prove otherwise?
I'm here to tell you unequivocally that it is delicate. It is possible to break it while exercising reasonable care. I didn't drop it, I didn't hit it, I kept it in the little protective sleeve that comes with it.
Didn't do any good. I stuck it in my pants pocket, had it there about 15 minutes. Took it out to use it - broken screen. This, while it was IN THE PROTECTIVE SLEEVE. The lesson? Buy the armor case...it's well worth the investment to keep your iPAQ from turning into an expensive paperweight.
Aside from its fragility, I love it. It has become an essential accessory in my life for time management. I work at a busy company, and this thing syncs with my to-do list, calendar, documents, etc. to keep me on track. The Wi-Fi is outstanding - I can connect to the office network while on campus and never have to worry about not being able to access my stuff, or having to carry around a full laptop to do so.
It's bigger and more user-friendly than a smart phone, and as such does not tie me to a service provider. It has plenty of memory expansion capability and some really useful features, like voice recording and bluetooth. I only wish it had a built-in camera. For that, I use my cell phone. Can't have everything, I guess.
But, buyer beware: get the armor case!
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