With about two years of service from my Pocket PC, the HP iPAQ 2495b, I am now going to take the opportunity to upgrade. Indeed, the iPAQ 2495b has been an incredibly handy workhorse for me. My day has always been more productive thanks to the functionality it offered in terms of connectivity, features, etc. The built in Wi-Fi alone was well worth the price, I never saw a more sensitive Wi-Fi device, this thing would pick up the weakest of Wi-Fi signals so easily and would hold on without a hitch.
Unfortunately, I've been experiencing hardware issues where the internal wireless card is sometimes not being detected by the operating system itself, which leads me to believe a complete wireless hardware failure may occur in just a short period of time (this issue also happened before where my current iPAQ had to go back to HP for warranty service). Also, Bluetooth audio playback sucks on the iPAQ 2495; the audio drops out constantly and then plays at a slightly different pace every time the audio would reappear - absolutely annoying to say the least. All that being said, I've been looking for a replacement Pocket PC the last month.
HP came out with a new line of IPAQ Pocket PCs, and the one I set my sights on is the new iPAQ 211 Enterprise Handheld. The specifications are quite impressive, as are most of the reviews I've read online.
The specifications are as follows:
| Wireless | 802.11 b/g with WPA2, Bluetooth v2.0 with EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) |
| Processor | Marvell PXA310 624 MHz |
| Operating System | Windows Mobile 6 Classic |
| Display | 4" transreflective TFT 65K color 480x640 (VGA) LED Backlit |
| Memory | 128 MB Application Memory, 256 Mb Flash ROM |
| Battery | 2200 mAh Lithium Ion rechargeable, user changeable battery |
| Expansion | 24 pin docking connector, mini USB, Compact Flash and SDIO (SDHC) |
| Audio | Integrated microphone, receiver, speaker, 3.5mm 4 pin headphone jack |
I now await delivery of my new Pocket PC by June 9th (WTF, why so long?). I anticipate putting this new iPAQ through some paces, and I especially look forward to listening to my music via Bluetooth with no bothersome audio drop outs. Hmmm, I'll have to get a 16 Gb SDHC to load all of my favorite music on.
Oh yeah, just so you know, the wife suggested I take this opportunity to upgrade my iPAQ in the first place. Talk about love for her computer geek husband. I'm such a lucky guy. ;-)