Throw away your iphone (HP iPaq 614c)

Name: whatanoldbag

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	HP iPaq 614c
Date:	14/02/08 (6404 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: all the ease of mobile windows/outlook plus phone, GPS, camera, MP3

Disadvantages: nothing so far

Those of you who have read my previous iPAQ Classic review will know I decided they were pointless, got annoyed and wanted a blackberry. But now I'm back doing a bit of work again (following babies), I need something to keep in touch with the business world on the go, and my company must have an HP contract, cos they won't give me a blackberry. Sob. Actually wanted an iphone too, but still...

So they gave me one of these babies. The iPAQ 614c And guess what? HP iPAQ have made it into the 21st century! This is great!
Throw away your iphones (well, OK, sell them on ebay then). I'm in lurrrve.

So what's so cool?

Well finally iPAQ have woken up to the fact that you want a phone in your PDA. And there is one. It's 3G - boo expensive - but never mind. Even better, it has GPS navigation so I don't get lost going to a meeting any more. Have sat nav in the car built in, so I can get to any venue with an attached car park but anything city centre where you have to find a parking space then walk to the venue and I'm toast. No sense of direction. Can't do it. My PA used to print off directions from web sites with maps for me (though she did once send me into the centre of Birmingham without so much as an address!) But this has a sat nav thing built in so you can walk where you want to go and know where you are going. The basic thing uses google maps. If you buy the add-on HP GPS Navigation Kit you can turn your iPAQ into a Tom Tom type thingy which gives turn-by-turn navigation. Brilliant. And of course it all the personal organiser functions that iPAQ always did do well.

Apparently it has Quad-band wireless technology. Sorry but I don't exactly know what that means, but it does mean you can connect to the internet in wifi areas. You can IM and e-mail like with a Blackberry. It has a high-speed HSDPA data network.

All the stuff that was there before in old iPAQs is still there, like Mobile Office Outlook to give you the essential Calendar plus Contacts, Email, and Tasks. It's almost as good as a phone with its integrated 3 Mega pixel camera (4x digital zoom), and it comes with Windows Mobile Media Player, so in theory you can watch videos and read ebooks. Haven't tried that yet, but as soon as I am in a meeting boring enough, I'll let you know! It has speakers but it's a bit tinny - OK to get basic video soundtrack I imagine, not really up to Wagner's Ring Cycle though! But though I don't have one (yet. Working on IT dept as we speak LOL) you can get an optional Bluetooth stereo headset which would improve that. So without that it would have to be a really really large boring meeting to get away with watching videos in the middle with the wired earphones they give you - a bit obvious!

It's got a new gimmick - the Smart Touch Wheel/Thumb Scroll Wheel, as well as the touch screen display my old iPAQ had. This wheel is a bit weird to get used , but I've had it about three weeks now, and I'm getting the hang of it. It is neat - you can scroll in and out of maps for example but because it's not like anything I've ever used before I keep getting it wrong so it ends up taking longer! You can switch between portrait and landscape display modes. Move over iphone!

Allegedly it has 4 hours talk time, but I've never tested it to those limits. The stand by time is pretty good though, certainly several days.

You can record audio (useful if you are mystery shopper tee hee) and it plays MP3s, of course. It's a neat size: manufacturers dimensions are:

Depth
1.8 cm
Height
11.7 cm
Weight
145 g
Width
6 cm
It has a 2.8in LCD which is fine for what you need.

It comes with the following Software:
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Asset Viewer
Bluetooth Manager
Bubble Breaker
Calculator
Certificate Enroller
File Manager
Google Maps
HP Help and Support
HP Photosmart Mobile
HP Setup Assistant
IPAQ Wireless
Microsoft ActiveSync
Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile
Microsoft Office Mobile
Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile
MSN Messenger
PDF Viewer
Phone Dialer
Solitaire
Today PanelLite
Voice Notes
Voice Recorder
Windows Media Player Mobile
Wireless Manager
ZIP

The Clock Speed is 520 MHz and it has 128 MB of RAM, 256 MB ROM.

Ooh a word of warning - don't throw your iphone out if you have a Mac - this is only compatible with PCs. Otherwise... Well this is less sexy that an iphone (but isn't everything Apple make just soooo gorgeous?). But in terms of a useful tool, I swallow all my words about HP. They've just sorted out the problems of all their previous iPAQs and they are forgiven!

They retail about £300.

Review also available on Ciao.

Summary: HP have redeemed themselves - this is great!

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Installation:
Noise:
Battery life: