HP iPAQ 614c - good business

Introduction, packaging

Better later than never, so does the saying go… We hope this really is true, as this review is coming a bit late, but still with maximum enthusiasm: here is HP iPAQ 614c Business Navigator, the machine that made the fantasy of many people go wild!

HP’s new generation PDAs have given up the old conventions and that’s visible on 614 and on its couple too. The aforementioned devices (iPAQ 114 and 214) are classic PDAs, without telephony features, such handsets that are demanded by quite a large number of users, still there is no other company besides HP that would include such products in their portfolio. 614c is something different, it’s a Pocket PC and a phone, it’s a business model, which focuses on functions and speed, rather than modern design and small size. The device codenamed Business Navigator is special not only because this, but also because of the sum on its price-tag, which really makes it hard to believe that we’re looking at a Hewlett-Packard handset, as the company has been famous for their rather expensive products a couple of years ago.

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The device, provided by SpeedShop came in a shockingly small box. There weren’t many accessories, I didn’t even get a stylus, only a stereo headset, but of course you’ll get a charger and a sync cable too in the shop.

Exterior

I have already mentioned on the previous page that our business navigator is not small; we could say that it’s large. It weighs almost 150 grams and its size is 60.3 x 117 x 17.5 mm, so it’s no pocket device. It’s not exceptional in terms of material quality, but it’s basically fine, the back is made of a rubber-like plastic that feels good to touch; the area around the display is made of the same material, while the grey part running around the sides is made of a harder plastic.

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The display has a diagonal of 2.8” and QVGA resolution. Its image quality is rather good, the colors are vivid. The panel is situated quite deep, which doesn’t make finger tapping too easy. Above it we can see the inevitable speaker, the two status LEDs and the manufacturer’s logo. In the center there is an iPAQ Business Navigator label, while in the bottom there is the special keypad. It’s uniqueness is due to the Smart Touch Wheel technology: as you can see on the picture there is a touch-sensitive circle around the numeric part, which lets us scroll the currently displayed content, just like on an iPod. It’s a very smart idea, it’s easy to use, but there still are two problems with it: the first is that the OK button is in the bottom left part so we constantly have to keep stretch our hands there – I would have preferred the part between the five and eight to be also touch-sensitive – and the second is that it’s a bit strange to press the 2/4/6/7/9/0 key, due to the embossed parts. Fortunately one could get used to these and it’s a great thing that there are soft keys too, so we don’t have to keep tapping the display whenever we want to access a submenu.

The back side is not that elegant, it’s rather like puritan. Probably the designers have also felt that the grey rubber surface is not enough for a business model, so they’ve spiced up the camera and it’s LED flash a bit, which is on the left side. It’s interesting that it’s kind of “milk-glass”-like; I’ve liked it. On the opposite side we can see the handsfree speaker and between these two we can see the 3 Mpix camera’s lens and the mirror for making self-portraits. On top of the detachable part there is a great HP logo, while on the bottom there is only a WiFi and a Bluetooth logo.

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On top there is only a single a button, which is not used for powering the handset on/off, but for muting it – I still consider such a dedicated key very useful. On the right side of the handset there is the camera’s exposure key.

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On the bottom we can see the reset button, a miniUSB connector, the wrist-bands hook and the silo of the stylus. On the left there is a shortcut key, the jog-dial and another OK key – as you can see we won’t have trouble navigating in the menu, no matter how are we keeping the phone in our hand. Still we can ask that where is the 3.5 mm jack output or the memory card slot? The first is missing from the handset, while the latter is unfortunately placed under the battery, so we must turn the phone off in order to change the card, which is not a very good thing.

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Hardware, operating system

iPAQ is running Windows Mobile 6.0 as an OS, its CPU is a 520 MHz Intel XScale PXA270, there is 128 MB of RAM and 256 MB of ROM, the storage space can be expanded with a microSD card. There is 77 MB free for running programs and 118 MB for storing data, which should be enough.

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The handset’s speed was absolutely okay during everyday usage, screen changes and scrolling are fast enough and there is no considerable wait when launching applications. Let’s see the speed tests:

The benchmark results are quite contradictory. VsBecnchmark results are quite good (although I’d have expected more of a 520 MHz CPU), the only exception being the test of the sound system. Anton Tomow’s classic test software has, however, yielded some really weak results after running the CPU tests; such a chip should get triple the marks. The memory test results are average, while file- and graphics test results are quite good.

Software, phone calls, data transfer

HP handsets were never bad in software, and this Business Navigator is no exception. The Today screen is still quite poor, there are no extra plugins for it. There is, however, a quick-launch software called HP Shortcuts, where we can store icons for ten applications.

In the menu there are a couple of treats. To begin with there is a PDF reader (ClearVue PDF), a bit below we can find three HP apps, one of them being the configuration part of the previously mentioned shortcut panel, the other being Help And Support, while the last one is iPAQ Tips. The platform that provides support for Java applications is also pre-installed, just like Voice Commander. We can also find HP’s image viewer and the software called Voice Reply, which lets us answer to incoming stuff with voice messages. The last two extras are everyone’s favorite Google Earth and the system info software called HP Asset Viewer.

Software related to phone calls are the default ones, so messaging and contacts are handled by Outlook, which does its job flawlessly, the email client supports authenticated IMAP servers and attached files, while in the contact list we can store contacts until there is some internal memory free and there are lots of extra fields.

I had no problems with sound quality during phone calls. The GSM module is quad-banded (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), but the phone supports 3rd generation networks too. For data transfer we can use 802.11b/g WiFi or HSDPA, and in case there’s no network coverage we can fall back to UMTS/EDGE/GPRS. Bluetooth is of version 2.0 and it supports the stereo profile.

Multimedia, GPS

There is no camera on the front, so we have no chance to make video calls. On the back, however, there is a rather good 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, which is enhanced with a LED flash in poor lighting conditions. The quality of the pictures (max. resolution is 2048 x 1536 pixels) is rather good for a PDA, they are characterized by a low dynamic range, medium noise level, weak noise filtering and good edge sharpness. The automatics, however, do not function properly at all times, at least in white balance selection, as it tended to use interior values even when shooting in a bright sunny weather.

The camera’s software is not very good in settings, besides picture size we can set jpeg compression amount and white balance, we shouldn’t even be dreaming about light metering or sensitivity! Camera sounds can be turned off, videos can be recorded at 320 x 240 pixels at most. When taking pictures focusing and image saving are both very fast, which is quite rare nowadays.

Music playback: extremely basic. That means Windows Media Player with its few features; I have been writing about it a couple of times, so I won’t do it again. The phone is a bit too quiet but sounds good and without hiss (and of course bass) via the speakers, while the headset is of medium quality, it can be used for listening to music, but this mostly depends on the user’s pretensions. The GPS receiver works fine, and I think that’s enough about it.

Battery, summary

The battery has a capacity of 1590 mAh, and it can be changed. At average usage it takes the phone for max. 2 days, while when used more heavily it possibly has to be charged daily, just like most Pocket PCs.

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Summary: for a price under €475 EUR HP iPAQ 614c is a great buy. It’s a bit large, but it’s basically very well assembled, it’s usability is first class, only gamers should avoid it, as the scroll pad can be used for many things, but car driving is not one of them. The iPAQ is good in data transfer, its speed and memory size are fine for everyday usage – although the speed is backed up by the Pocket PC Mark results for some reason. It is practically recommended for anyone who’d like a reliable, smart machine and it’s no problem carrying such a device in the pocket or on a belt.

HP iPAQ 614c Business Navigator

Bocha

Translated by Szaszati

The device has been provided by www.speedshop.hu. Thanks!. Please click here to access the shop.

Specification

HP iPAQ 614c Business Navigator
	Technology	Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) +UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100 MHz)
	Operating system	Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional
	Size	60.3 x 117 x 17.5 mm
	Weight	145 grams
	CPU	520 MHz Intel XScale PXA270
	ROM/RAM	256 / 128 MB (118 / 77 MB free to use)
	Display	2.8” diagonal, 240 x 320 pixels resolution, 16 bit color depth touchscreen
	Expandability	microSD
	WiFi	802.11b/g
	Infra / Bluetooth	present / 2.0 (A2DP too)
	GPS receiver	NMEA 0183
	Audio	microphone, mono speaker
	Camera	3 megapixels, autofocus
	Battery	1590 mAh changeable Li-Ion
	Other	HP Smart Touch Wheel