It's Here

07-10-08, 09:52 AM

HP is finally selling the iPaq 910 and mine arrived yesterday. I was very excited last September when HP announced this device, but now that I have it I'm not so sure - I posted this at Brighthand, but thought it would be relevant here as well:

I received the iPaq 910 yesterday and here are a couple of first impressions:

-It's smaller than I expected. Narrower than the Q9H, thought a little thicker. It fits in both my hand and pocket well.

-The keyboard is a little disappointing. The keys are steeply domed, but the plastic is quite slippery. I find my thumbs slipping off the dome and pressing the key next to it. It's something that will probably improve with time, but I'm not sure why the keys have to be so glossy.

-The device is fairly responsive and snappy. It seems a little faster to me than the ATT Tilt I have been using. No significant concerns regarding performance so far.

-No distinct audio jack. HP is using the mini-USB port for audio, as seems to be the trend these days.

-My biggest complaint -- NO rotate function available for the screen. Some of my favorite older games will not work because I can't rotate the screen and use the device horizontally. I tried the registry edit some posted for the HTC Diamond to bring back this functionality, but no luck. I even tried the function built into QuickMenu and still no rotate. What brain-dead moron on the design team thought it would be a good idea to use a non-standard resolution, and then remove any possibility of running the device in the standard WM resolution, despite the fact the hardware would obviously support it?

-The battery is huge, but so far it seems to drain pretty quickly. Just light usage yesterday and drained about 50%. Even with the small screen and huge battery, I'm not sure it's much of an improvement over the Tilt. I think I need to test a little more before drawing conclusions though.

The lack of rotation may be a deal killer for me, and I may send the device back to HP. I know it's just a few games, and the primary purpose is for business use, but one of the primary reasons I prefer WM professional to standard is so I can enjoy these specific time killers during down time.

spunker88 · 07-10-08, 03:50 PM

You could probably use a software such as Nyditot Virtual Display to fix your rotation problem. This software allows you to set custom resolutions and custom orientations (portrait, landscape).
More info here: Nyditot Virtual Display Description

There is a 30 day trail available here: NYDITOT Software Downloads
^It says its WM5 compatible, but i imagine it would work with wm6, which is pretty similar to wm5.

07-10-08, 04:28 PM

That's a good thought. I've used NYDITOT previously with my Treo to help with issues such as this, but didn't think to try it on the iPaq. I'll give it a go and see if it works. I think I'll back up first though. :)

scottriding · 07-26-08, 02:59 PM

Did you decide to keep the IPAQ? I love mine! I put in a 8 gig micro sd and loaded it up with music. I bought Logitech bluetooth stereo headphones, and now I can enjoy music with no wires. No Iphone can do that.

The voice email is also handy if you're too busy to type regular email.

I can also use my Excel to make engineering estimates out in the field and email them into the office for others to see. I could not do that with either an iphone or a blackberry.

dutchie1 · 08-17-08, 02:02 PM

First of all I do realize that having one handheld instead of two is an advantage, however,............
I checked the internet for any possible users' comments on the 910 and the overall impression I got is not very favorable. Reading SCOTTRIDING's comments I learned that the 910 supports 8GB (nowhere mentioned by HP!), so that is an advantage for music lovers.
I have an LG VX8700 phone, which I think covers the phone part of a handheld extremely well. It does everything a cell phone should, supports 8GB and is also very nice looking.
I also have the "old" Axim X5, which supports 16GB of CF-storage (in my case filled to the brim with music, using the best player there is: PocketMusic), also has a 320x240 resolution with a nice and bright 3.5 screen, has Bluetooth and WiFi, Nyditot Virtual Display, Resco Explorer, in short can still compete with PDAs like HP's iPAQ211.
So far I have not been able to find a Smartphone (living in Montana I have to depend on Verizon's assortment) that will replace my Axim X5 and LG VX8700.

Julie · 08-17-08, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by dutchie1

First of all I do realize that having one handheld instead of two is an advantage, however,............
I checked the internet for any possible users' comments on the 910 and the overall impression I got is not very favorable.

Well, I am reviewing an IPAQ 910 and find it to be a very nice device. I have already posted a few articles about it here and will be posting more in the next few days. It has WIFI, GPS, a 3 megapixel camera, 3G...

I'm not very keen on the keyboard, it is small and too slippery and would not be comfortable to use much for text messaging. The screen resolution is different so that's taking some getting used to, but all in all, it seems like a solid device to me.

dutchie1 · 08-17-08, 07:14 PM

Contacted HP on the external memory and they mentioned that it was tested and approved for 2GB. If somebody tries a bigger card, they do so at their own risk and if it develops problems, "it will not be supported by HP".
Apparently 8GB works in the unit and I do not understand why HP does not test cards up to the current 8GB capacity and advertises it as an advantage.
Nobody wants to invest in an 8GB card if it is not certain it works, but everybody wants as much memory as possible and if advertised by the OEM, it will certainly help sales.
Why are OEMs so "shy" about external memory?

scottriding · 08-22-08, 04:18 PM

Well, I just kept my receipt for the 8 GB card just in case. It was a Sansdisk (spelling?) card, and it hasn't given me any problem at all.

The longer that I have kept the phone, the more I like it. With me it usually the other way around. It has so many things that it can do that it takes time to learn them all.

I know of no other phone that is 3G capable and plays bluetooth stereo music.

scottriding · 08-23-08, 08:18 PM

I'm not trying to be smart, but I would like to tell Dutchie1 that I'm a former owner of a Dell 51v. I ended up giving it to my nephew because it was too much trouble to carry it around with my cell phone. Basically, it was a $350 mistake! With the IPAQ 910 I have both.

09-13-08, 03:31 PM

Wich is better the Hp910 or the eten X900?

scottriding · 09-20-08, 12:53 PM

I've never heard of the eten X900! I can tell you that the HP910 has so many bells and whistles that it will take about 3 months to know how to use them all.

bravo3 · 10-07-08, 09:08 PM

the 8gb sdhc cards are not supported cos they tend to intermittently fail to be detected. i've tested the kingston 8gb sdhc and it sometimes disappears after waking the phone from standby. i've also tried a 4gb kingston sdhc on my old hw6515 and it exhibits the same odd behavior. i can understand hp being firm on not supporting them. it would be a support nightmare.

scottriding · 10-12-08, 08:18 PM

That's funny because I've never had any problem with my 8 gb Sansdisk. Not even one problem! Compared to all of my other electronic problems, it seems kind of weird.