What’s a mobile professional to do?

Switchman · 04-14-08, 11:51 PM

I swear on a stack that I was ready to buy a HP IPAQ 211 on Monday April 7. It was the night of the college basketball championship game, and I’d knew I’d be home :)

In any event, that afternoon, I figured, what the heck, I’d check the website and see if anything new had popped up. Sure enough, there were posts that warned about bugs in the machine (especially w/ flexmail, using CF cards (but not about SD cards) etc. So i decided to wait. And in the following days, there were more posts about how HP isn’t going to upgrade its ROM and some posters took that as an indication that these bugs weren’t going to be fixed. I’ve also read posts about excessive battery drain

I used to be the type of guy that would wait forever for the perfect item to buy. I’m not that type of guy anymore; I understand that nothing is perfect. However, when I lay my hard earned buck down, what I buy had better work.
I have done my research and there is a lot about the 211 that I do like--the 624 MHz processor speed, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM, battery size is 2200 mah, the VGA screen resolution is 640 x 480 pixels etc.—indeed, what’s not to like? That's what I thought before I read about the problems listed above.

So my question is.....is the 211 worth buying?

Thanks in advance for anyone that gives me free advice.

04-15-08, 02:02 AM

that will indeed be dependant on what you want from the machine and if you are willing to "work" a bit for the machine before it works for you, IMHO. If you didn't plan to use it for email...if you didn't plan to be far from a source of power....if you didn't plan to use a CF card since you have all you need in the 16mb SD card you got with your canon point and shoot....

it all depends. will you get it from a place that will take it back if you decide that you don't like it, without having to make a sacrifice of 2 score sheep and 1 score goats on a night with a fulll moon......

do you have an alternative choice?

so many ifs...ands...and butts (on purpose).....

Theemed · 04-15-08, 05:42 AM

I got used to it, and afterall I'm way past the give-it-back time lapse. Plus, it looks so sexy with a glossy screen protector on that I cannot stop caressing the VGA LCD in ecstasy :P:P:P
Anyhow, as soon as I really started using it back then, I immediately thought I would have better waited and stayed with my old iPAQ. The pros I am getting from it now are:
1) Sexy looking black device
2) VGA res lets me use 128dpi resolution and have a lot more stuff (data-wise) displayed; also, I can read the small subtitles of Death Note fansub while in QVGA they were unreadable unless I zoomed/panned the video in tcpmp
3) Nothing more, as the nerdy feeling of owning "the latest tech" is not really a practical advantage
4) Oh, and miniusb grants a practical way to charge it (almost) anywhere

The cons are all the ones you've already read about in here.

FrinkTL · 04-15-08, 08:08 AM

I dropped and sold my Axim X51v - a very nearly totally bug-free device running WM5 - to buy the iPAQ 211, which made sense for what I use it for.

Why did it make sense for me? Here's the list:

I bought it directly from HP, so I had 21 days to change my mind and get a full refund
I don't use the CF slot (just SD), so I get 0% (that's ZERO PERCENT) battery drain overnight - no matter what programs I leave "running"
I don't care much about whether HP is going to build a ROM release for WM 6.1. The install WM 6.0 (as it's listed on the device) already can read and write (except for Excel) in Office 2007 format and, besides, WM is not 98.7% for smart phones exclusively now anyway, so all the new features are targetting to phone functionality or making the most of a painfully tiny screen (which the iPAQ definately is NOT)
I do use a LOT of programs at once (some of which are serious memory hogs (like ActiveSync and my GPS software) and desperately needed the 128MB of SDRAM
The Axim's color screen, while good, is pale (literally) in comparison to the iPAQ's. For me that mattered because I need to be able to tell at a glance which path my GPS software has drawn for me and on the Axim, certain colored roads made the line drawn by the GPS blend into the color of the road
Another screen-related reason is that the extra size allows for: (a) more stuff to fit on the screen for the few VGA-coded apps and (b) makes fonts/images about half a point size larger and much easier to see, even at smaller scaling
The Bluetooth & WiFi work just great, with an awesome range. Connections are both straight-forward and reliable.
I get a new warranty and - because I paid for it - a new 3 year period of accidental damage (or whatever I wanted to buy for) coverage
The buttons are bigger and much easier to use (I HATED the unnecessarily tiny buttons on the Axim). I can actually play Tetris or Space Invaders (don't laugh at me - oh, OK go ahead and laugh) using the navigation pad with accidentally launching an application.
A MUCH bigger battery. I can now take notes during a meeting using the BT radio throughout ALL DAY and still not burn the battery down to below 20%.
I can "trickle" charge/maintain the battery with any old mini-USB cable I can find - universal charging/synchronizing option. WHY didn't someone do that sooner??

Now, that said, I have to be honest and say that I have sacrificed the following in that transition:

No cradle (yet - maybe never). If I want to stand the iPAQ up to work a detailed task listing, I have to use my keyboard stand (which does work just fine unless I want to use it in portrait mode and charge it)
Can't configure CPU manually. BUT, I only ever used that on the Axim to save battery power which is an issue I no longer have on the iPAQ
Record/Command buttons can NOT be configured to turn on the device (or record without the device on the today screen). The iPAQ is very unfriendly for this. Not only do you have to first turn on the device, but you also have to get to the today screen (enter your password to unlock) before any button press is even acknowledged. I used to be able to record with the device still password protected on the Axim

You can see from comparing the lists that I personally gained more than I lost. In the end you'll have to look at what everyone posts (or has posted already elsewhere) as their PROS and CONS and decide if they are YOUR list of pros and cons and decide in favor where your scale tips. ALL devices have bugs or have things that SOMEone is going to hate; the "perfect" device is a total fiction. The real question is whether those items will really impact you or are something you even care about at all.

JakeRich · 04-15-08, 08:29 PM

I'm one of the folks who have had problems with it. But barring the sudden power drops that were happening with the old one, and that have not, so far, happened with the replacement (four days in and doing ok so far), I'm pretty happy with the machine. It's not as snappy as my X50v with WM2003, but not much is or will be. But I do like the screen, the overall feel of the device and some of the useful stuff HP threw in.

04-16-08, 05:18 AM

Remember that the folks that post their problems here and elsewhere are enthusiasts. They tend to be critical and post every fault, thats not say that this device does not have problems, it does. Mine does. It also appears that not every device has the same problems. Apart from the screen sensitivity issue, my device is almost flawless, has never let me down. Some software works, some does not. Its the way it is.
For example Flexmail crashes my device - others report it works fine. Some report the CF battery drain issue - I have an 8Gb CF card and I don't have the problem.
So really there is no easy answer to your question. If I was asked would I have bought this device knowing what I know now, yes I would.

DrAT · 04-16-08, 08:58 PM

I've used mobile devices since before Psions (when they were mobile if you had the strength that is) and I think the 214 is my favorite so far.
It has a few big bugs. The worst is a problem with how it collects e-mail. I have FlexMail working at the moment (it used to crash, terminally, with the default settings) but our IT department can't get it to connect to our e-mail system. My previous iPAQ hx4700 did.
It has also crashed on me, wiping all internal data. I think a 3rd party program was the cause but I haven't lost everything like this before.
If you plan to use it as a GPS, bear in mind that the maximum volume is quite low. I can't hear mine in my car.
The bottom line if buying for business use is to make sure it will connect to your systems at work... and buy a good backup solution... and make regular backups, of course.

HappyCamper · 04-16-08, 11:34 PM

For the last 4 years or so I have not used a PDA - just kept my life on a laptop. While that was OK, there were plenty of times I wished again for the small form factor of a PDA.

I purchased the 210 for Church and Work - Church stuff is relatively benign, but useful.

For work email, I have Microsoft Exhange Server configured with a certificate. I sync email, calendar and tasks without a hitch over any wireless network I have access to. Additionally, I have two personal accounts that work great with a manual send/recieve. They are set that way because the work networks are firewalled against pop3 accounts.

All in all it has done what I want - which is to have the smaller form factor that eliminates carrying a heavy bag. There are some minor annoyances like the screen sensitivity and like.

Knowing then what I know today, I would buy again.