HP iPaq 914 review

We review HP's long-awaited iPaq 914 - its first Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone. With so many handsets targeting business users, will HP's latest effort make the grade?

The iPaq 914 is finally here after a delay of almost three months. The biggest concern when a handset is delayed like this is that the market will have moved on by the time it hits the streets. As the ice hockey legend Wayne Gretsky said when asked to explain his success: "I skate to where the puck is ghoing to be, not where it is." Quite.

To avoid skating off the market place, HP has crammed every possible function possible into the BlackBerry-like shell of the iPaq 914, including quad band GSM, tri band 3G, a GPS receiver with external aerial connector, 7.2Mbit/sec HSDPA support, a good 3 megapixel camera with flash and the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, version 6.1.

The iPaq 914 is neither small nor elegant, encased in plastic that both looks and feels cheap and nasty, with the back and battery cover coated in a layer of easy grip tactile rubber. This is very much a business phone with an industrial user in mind.

While the construction looks and feels poor, it is actually put together well, and has survived a great deal of rough-housing, including being dropped several times, knocked off a desk and bounced around the inside of my car. There's still not a mark on it.

The iPaq 914 weighs in at 146g, which is average for a device with a full Qwerty keyboard, and the size (64 x 16 x 113mm) is on a par with RIM’s BlackBerry Curve, easily the closest competitor handset to this one.

The screen is a half VGA 320 x 240 pixel touch display, which is common on Windows Mobile phones, except that it has been mated to the Smartphone version of Windows Mobile 6.1 which is designed specifically for keypad control. The result is a rather clumsy user experience, and you will often find yourself frequently switching between the keypad controls and stylus when accessing various functions.

Once you get your head around the on-screen navigation, you can turn to the keyboard. Like the Blackberry Curve, the iPaq 914 has a full Qwerty keyboard. Numbers are arranged in numeric keypad format, slightly to the left of centre, making it comfortable to dial numbers with just a thumb (but only if you are right handed).

There is a volume rocker switch on the left hand side, and a thumb wheel and a second OK button on the right side, mirroring BlackBerry units of old. This is by far the 914’s best interface option. The wheel works well, and is positioned in just the right place to be both comfortable and allow easy one-thumb movement between wheel and OK button.

The actual keyboard is average. The keys, while well-sized are very close together, and the curved key tops don’t help with accuracy. There also isn’t much 'play' in the keys, so you get little feedback on whether you’ve pressed a key far enough.

Software-wise you get the basic Windows Mobile setup: a web browser, email client, text messaging support and basic Office document handling. HP has included the mobile version of Google Maps (which refused to work with the integrated GPS unit) and a GPS configuration tool, and that’s it.

On the plus side, the GPS works fine with software such as TomTom and CoPilot, making this 914 great for users who spend a lot of time in the car, where the external aerial connector will also help. There’s 128MB of built-in RAM, as well as a microSD card slot on the side under a rubber cover, so you can add and remove memory cards without having to take the battery out.

Email access and web browsing benefit hugely from the iPaq 914’s HSDPA data support, as well as built-in Wi-Fi. The phone supports up to 7.2Mbit/sec (providing your network can offer it), and has more than enough processing power to cope, as we discovered when we tested it with a Vodafone SIM in an area with 7.2Mbit/sec coverage.

As well as being one of the fastest mobile web devices out there, the iPaq 914 can double as a HSDPA modem, either as a tethered USB modem or as a wireless Bluetooth one. As with most Windows Mobile smartphones, Bluetooth modem setup was pretty easy, providing you have to hand the settings used by your mobile provider for wireless modem access. Tethered modem use requires the installation of some drivers on first connection, after which it is no different to using any other hardware modem.

Finally, the iPAQ 914 does have a removable battery, which is just as well as HSDPA data access saps the power quickly. HP claims talk time of four hours, which was about right, and standby time of 250 hours, which we found wasn't even close. Our record was 96 hours with no data use and the screen turned off. With moderate data use, you will be recharging this every one or two days.

 

 

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