Old Tricks
Written: Mar 12 '05 (Updated Mar 12 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Reasonable performance increase over last generation. Built in dual wireless, dual memory card slots.
Cons: Expensive for what you get, glitchy firmware, button press issues.
The Bottom Line: Miserable value for your dollar. Button press issues, graphical issues... I want some of what HP is smoking.
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| zero_'s Full Review: Hewlett Packard iPAQ HX2410 Pocket PC |
You know, all I'd need to do is find the right CEO and with this here pound of nails and a hammer I could make this technology market hold still.
Loyal readers, you know we can't have a PocketPC generation change without me picking up a new machine. Now, the HP h2410 wasn't the one I settled on, but that's a longer story. I'm going to bang on about my experiences with it anyway, because I did own one for a short time, and it didn't do it for me. Maybe it will for you, who knows?
OS Oddity
First and foremost, there has been a generation change in the PocketPC world, which means there is a new version of the PocketPC operating system – Which Microsoft has wanted us to call “Windows Mobile” since PocketPC 2003 made its debut.
This is what it boils down to: There are multiple versions of Microsoft's PDA operating system, which under the skin is Windows CE. Of course, for maximum consumer confusion, Microsoft hasn't called it “Windows CE” since the end of the Handheld PC days, back in the dark ages of 1998 or so.
There is Windows CE 3.0, which existed on those older machines. Then there was “PocketPC”, plain old, which was essentially a GUI change with a new look that didn't mimic desktop Windows. Then there was PocketPC 2002, which made a few small changes, and mandated certain hardware and design attributes on the machines that ran it – Namely, an ARM processor, 4 application buttons, and center mounted directional button. This was not necessarily a logical layout, but it carries over to new PocketPC's to this day because hardware manufacturers are stupid. Not long ago came PocketPC 2003, which in addition to being the latest and greatest also removed the hardware mandates and allowed the use of various other processors and allowed manufacturers to design machines as they saw fit once more. Which they didn't. However, PocketPC 2003 brought about a lot of (in the opinions of many) unnecessary kernel level changes that made a portion of existing PocketPC 2002 software not work on it for no very good reason whatsoever. Also, none of the problems that users have been reporting since the original PocketPC OS debuted have been fixed.
So now there's “PocketPC 2003 Second Edition”. It has some of the same under-the-hood changes that break yet more software, and doesn't include much in the way of the GUI updates and bugfixes that users have been clamoring for. But it does include some new tidbits, some of them even bordering on useful.
The h2410 runs PocketPC 2003 Second Edition. This is about to real relevant real quick, as it were.
Demographics
My previous machine was an HP h2215. It was geared towards power users but wasn't HP's flagship businessperson geared model – That was the h5555, with integrated wireless, bluetooth, and a fingerprint scanner.
Likewise, the 2410 is supposed to be a mid-to-high end machine, but is not HP's top-of-the-line – That distinction goes to their hx4700, which is a dual slot, touchpad equipped, 480x640 screened monster that retails for about 650 dollars. The h2410 is a slightly more sensible buy, ringing up at about 450 in most retail establishments, but compared to the bang-for-the-buck of the previous 2215 and a host of models from other manufacturers it's not a very good buy after all. It's still a middle child itself, as the next price bracket is occupied by the h2750, which sports the same chasis but more RAM, a 624 mhz processor, and a bloody fingerprint scanner.
Before setting out on this venture, you have to determine if a PocketPC is what you really want. The PocketPC platform has evolved to and from being a classic PDA – That is, something you keep your notes and schedule and phone numbers in – And a full fledged computing platform.
If all you're really after is an organizer, the 2410 or any PocketPC presents a high price tag, steep learning curve, and the investment of a lot of spare time to get everything set up the way you like it. For basic PIM, as revolting as it sounds, I'd suggest shying away from the PocketPC platform and even more modern Plam devices and sticking with an inexpensive Palm Zire or even a dedicated organizer in the Sharp Wizard vein, which are getting cheap enough that you can literally stroll over to the supermarket and buy one for less than 30 bucks.
As it stands, the PocketPC platform is for people who want a very portable computer for portable computing tasks – And the h2410 isn't a very good one, all things considered.
Das Pocketmachinen
The h2410 is a mid-high end PocketPC. It's got the usual host of features you'd expect from a PocketPC these days, like a 240x320 semireflective display (readable indoors and out), PocketPC 2003 SE operating system with the usual compliment of Pocket Word, Excel, Outlook, and so on. It also has integrated Bluetooth and 802.11b wireless (WiFi) to connect to the internet and various other networks and devices. Like its grandaddy the h2215, it also has both SecureDigital and CompactFlash memory slots, which in addition to the built in wireless is what drew me to it initially.
Also of note is the built in transparent plastic flip cover, which folds down to cover the screen and buttons to protect them from harm. Back in the Bad Old Days, HP used to make their Jornada series handhelds with flip covers and everyone loved them. HP and Compaq merged, and nobody's made a PocketPC with a flip cover since. Well, until now, obviously.
The cover doesn't lock or anything – It's just friction between its hinge pins that keep it open or closed. It's a nice touch, though, and it's certainly better than nothing. It's also easily removable if you want to put the machine in a case at some point. Because of the flip cover you don't get one with the machine – Not even one of the horrible cheap ones we're used to getting from HP. Nyaah. As a mostly useless sidenote, you can take the cover off and attach it backwards to make a little easel to stand the machine up on a table.
The h2410 runs the new and shiny PocketPC 2003 Second Edition OS, which means a few things. 2003SE supports high resolution displays out of the box for a start (too bad the 2410 hasn't got one) and also on-the-fly switching between portrait and landscape modes. That is, you can rotate the 240x320 screen 90 degrees to use it in a mode where it is functionally wider than it is tall, like desktop PC's screen.
Most of the things everyone's been begging Microsoft to fix haven't been, however, including the whole thing about the X button not actually closing applications, lousy task management, alarms intermittently not working, and the mysterious disappearance of the ability to assign custom sounds to various system events.
Unfortunately, compatibility takes a hit in the name of progress once more, and many applications that used to work in the original PocketPC 2003 (sometimes even the ones that you dragged through PocketPC 2000 and 2002 already) don't work. Hurrah. There is no simple reason for them not to work, but there are plenty that don't, some refusing to load and some doing more subtle things like glitching out graphically or functionally. Developers of most commercial software have 2003SE versions out by now, and the freeware community already has a strong following. But it's a pain. And if the software you're installing isn't compiled with a specific set of flags the OS will throw a “This program may not display properly as it was designed for a previous version of Windows Mobile software” message in your face. That doesn't mean that the program you installed won't work; It just means that Microsoft sure isn't going to care if it doesn't.
Under the hood the 2410 runs Intel's latest, an ARM PXA 270 processor running at 540 mhz. This chip is plenty fast, and notable features include actually being able to play high bitrate video, run games and emulators at decent speeds, and so on. The fast processor is a noticeable improvement over the last generation. However, most of the cool kids are putting 624 mhz chips in their machines these days, so the 2410's performance isn't much of a standout, especially considering that there are faster machines out there for less.
Like a lot of the upper crop of machines these days, the 2410 has built in 802.11b wireless – That's WiFi, kids, the type you use to connect to wireless hotspots at home and in coffee shops where a latte costs 10 bucks. I am, at least, happy to report that unlike earlier generations of machines with built in wireless the 2410's pretty much works as advertised and also works with the current spread of third party wireless applications (the ones I tried, anyway) such as WifiGraph and WiFiFoFum (both of which are wireless network sniffingprograms, or 'wardrivers'). There is no hardware switch for either of the 2410's wireless radios – You toggle the power for both Bluetooth and WiFi through a little applet that sits in the system tray on the Today screen. Built in WiFi is what drew me to this machine initially, since I was very happy with my old 2215, but lugging it around, the spare battery, and the external wireless card sort of negated the slip-it-in-your-pocket portability.
I think I already spoiled the suspense on this one, but the 2410 has Bluetooth, too. The usefulness of which is still very slight but increasing a little as time goes on. Bluetooth is a short range so-called 'personal area network' technology, supposedly to allow you to connect various devices from all ends of the spectrum together wirelessly – Cell phones, PDAs, headsets, and so on. These days the use is pretty much limited to phones and headsets, anyway, and the 2410 comes with the more modern Bluetooth 1.1 hardware and firmware which supports all of the above (older models with older Bluetooth ware didn't support some odds and ends like headsets). There are also Bluetooth headphones (music headphones, that is), GPS recievers, keyboards, mice, and so on, but they invariably cost more than their infrared or wired counterparts and are therefore not only a lousy buy but of dubious functionality at this point. Maybe things will change in the future.
The main use I found for Bluetooth on my handhelds was to use it to talk to my other handhelds – Because like all PocketPC's from day one the 2410 has an infrared port for interhandheld communication, the range is limited and it has the caveat of both machines having to be aimed at each other, which is a pain.
We have dual slots again, which is a welcome change from previous years' flirtation with nothing but svelte and slim machines that didn't have CompactFlash slots. The 2410 has one CompactFlash and one SecureDigital slot, both I/O ready, meaning you can use card based accessories like barcode scanners, GPS receivers, USB cards, and so on in addition to plain old memory cards. Any memory you add with cards is in addition to the machine's 64 megs of internal RAM, which acts as both temporary memory and long term storage, and whatever the OS doesn't eat up of a 64 meg ROM. This is what HP calls the “File Store” - It's just some nonvolatile memory where you can stash data that you want to keep safe, but it's slower than keeping your data in RAM and like all flash memory it's got a limited number of write cycles its rated to live through.
As with the processor, we get shortchanged on the storage as well. Most current models have 128 megs in them, and machines with 128 megs of ROM aren't unheard of, either.
The buttons. Meet design flaw number one. There are five, plus the obligatory directional pad. The usual four on the front are for launching applications. Well, three of them, one each for Calendar, Contacts, and Inbox – The fourth launches the universally useless iTask by default. The side mounted record button marks its triumphant return as button number five, and while the record function is largely useless in my opinion it's no trouble at all to bind the extra button to something useful.
The four front buttons are positioned two on either side of the directional button – Which is front and center – And are not what would traditionally be called “button shaped”. Rather, they're carved out of two U shaped pieces of plastic at irregular curves. The outermost two are larger than the innermost, and have a superfluous leg of plastic that wraps all the way around. The only parts of these larger buttons you can actually press are the parts with the icons engraved on them. The rest of the button's mass goes squish, but won't go click unless you hit it in the right spot. This makes the buttons uncomfortable, unintuitive, and hard to use accurately. All in the name of form over function, kids.
That's not all. Those of us that are intent on using this blazing fast machine for game playing (and many of us are, based on what I've heard) will find that the buttons will not map properly in GAPI based games. At all. Period. All of the buttons except Record map as the same value. Instead of performing their intended function they either do nothing when pressed in the game or launch the apps bound to them instead of letting the game trap the keypress.
This applies to applications other than games, by the way. This includes various media players (not the built in Windows Media Player) and button mapping utilities like BtnPlus and so on. The cause of this seems to be the extra twiddly bits that HP decided to tack on to the button mapping options. In their customized Control Panel applet you can map two programs to each button – One for when you simply press a button and another for when you hold it down for a moment. There is also a checkbox for a button lock mode, which prevents the machine from powering on if any of the buttons except for Power are pressed. These would almost be useful if it weren't for the compatibility problems that ensue. All of this nonsense is contained in the machines ROM as part of the operating system and can't be disabled or deleted.
Oops.
Hey, remember the Ipaq h3765, from way back in the dark ages? Yeah, it had button press issues, too. If I wanted to buy button press issues, I could go on eBay and pick one up for about 50 bucks. Haven't we gone through this song and dance before?
The 2410's... characterful traits don't end there. There is apparently a confirmed
bug in the way that HP decided to handle drawing the screen on this machine (this bug also exists on the hx4700, incidentally). This results in graphical glitches in many programs, third party and built in alike, generally resulting in glitched out or invisible toolbar buttons and sometimes positioning and sizing errors for some controls and window elements. This renders some applications difficult or impossible to use: Wisbar, WiFiFoFum, Pocketwarrior, and many others among them.
Oops again.
Also in the Bad News department, users upgrading from the h2215 (like me) will lament the loss of both long range IR and Nevo, the bundled universal remote control software that came with older machines. HP still makes machines with Nevo, but only in their RZ series “Mobile Media Companion” line, none of which have dual memory card slots, and only the most ludicrously expensive of which have built in wireless.
This is a matter of personal preference, but I was not fond of the 2410's stylus. It's mounted on the rear right, as we're used to, but as time marches on these machines' styli seem to be getting shorter, narrower, and cheaper. Remember the original Ipaqs? Remember those pimp metal styli about the thickness of a Bic pen they came with? The ones with the spring loaded locking storage slot? What happened to those? HP sells three packs of styli through their site – With the description making allusions to “those who seem to keep misplacing or breaking their stylus”. Gee, I wonder why. The 2410's stylus is too small, feels flimsy, and it sits far too tightly in its little storage slot for my liking. I could flick out and retrieve the stylus from my 2215 with one hand. I'm lucky if I can pick the one out of my 2410 with both hands and some fingernails. I suppose the only positive thing going for it is the fact that you know that stylus ain't going anywhere until you want it to.
It is of note that the 2410 uses the same bottom connector as the 2215 series and all the previous Ipaq models that could share accessories with it. Theoretically, accessories designed for use with older models should also work with the 2410, but driver availability and overall compatibility with the new OS still seems to be up in the air. For what it's worth, I plugged my 2215 into my 2410's cradle and it worked. That's all I was able to test.
On a slightly more positive note, the 2410 does at least retain some of the features that earlier Ipaq models (finally) evolved, including an easily swappable, replaceable battery (extras available from HP for a price, different from all other HP models), add on support (though there are no 2410 specific add ons yet), and rubberized side grips.
Caveat
When you add all this up, we're left with a supposedly finished product that still smells seriously half baked. Given the crowd that HP is trying to cater to with this machine – The high end businessperson who, supposedly, wants to get work done on the fly and not spend his/her life tweaking, twiddling, and working around hardware and software problems – You figure HP could have figured out how to put together a product that works properly. Again, I set my hopes too high for good old HP/Compaq and they've been dashed again. Exactly as they've always been, time and time again, save the exceptionally rare specimen, every decade or so.
If you're going to ask me, and since you're reading this I presume you are, there are far better PocketPC's out there, especially for the amount of cash you'll drop on a 2410. HP has the unique position of being essentially the only manufacturer that currently has PocketPC's on retail shelves in the United States. Plenty of other manufacturers are out there with better and cheaper machines, but Toshiba has backed out of the US market, Casio as well, and brick-and-mortar stores simply don't carry machines from Dell, Asus, or NEC. This means that HP can churn out whatever crap their marketing visionaries can smoke up and the majority of PocketPC buyers will continue to cough up for the things because they don't think they have a choice. Long live the monopoly.
Me, I put up with the 2410 for a short while and eventually canned the thing. I returned it, did a lot more homework, and wound up buying a Dell Axim. You can read all about that when I finish my review of it.
For now, suffice to say that the 2410 is overpriced, overrepresented, and suffers from serious design flaws. It's a lousy bang for your buck, and there are better alternatives elsewhere.
Not recommended.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 450.00
Recommended for: Business Executives - Powerful and Professional
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Epinions.com ID:
zero_
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Member: Robert "Zero" Drendall
Location: Claymont, DE, United States
Reviews written: 102
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Providing your semi-regular dose of extreme verbosity since somewhere around the turn of the century.
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