Lukas Beeler's IT Blog

A few weeks ago, my HTC MTeoR died suddenly, when the upper half of it’s keyboard became unresponsive. I decided to replace it, and have seen a good offer for HP’s iPAQ 510 Voice Messenger.

This isn’t a full features review, more a few notes about my thought about this device. I had only one SmartPhone before it, the MTeoR mentioned just before, so most of my comparisons will reference that device.

This device comes from a different price range than the HTC MTeoR i had before – while the HTC retailed at about 800 CHF without contract, the iPAQ 510 started at much lower prices, it can be had from 350 CHF without a contract. As such, i didn’t really expect much from this device.

My attitude changed slightly when i opened the packaging – while the HTC came in a bleak and unnamed Swisscom package, the HP device was in a much better wrapping. It contained a handy quickstart guide, a manual, and the phone hat protection labels all over it.

The display of the HP has a resolution of 172×220 pixels, while the MTeoR had a 240×320 resolution. While the HP display isn’t as crisp and detailed, and displays bigger fonts the MTeoR, it’s not actually that much worse. And of course there’s the price difference between the two devices.

The HTC device had UMTS, which i always have disabled in order to save power. The HP device doesn’t have UMTS, but it does have WiFI. Because my company is still in the 90ies when it comes to telephony, i couldn’t play with the VoIP features.

An interesting twist is that WM6 no longer requires registry hacks to import self signed certificates. This is good for small businesses which use self signed certificates with Exchange Active Sync.

The making of the device seems to be better than the MTeoR, the latter had the problem that the back cover never really held, and seemed to lose its grip more than once a week. The HP device looks sturdier, and is also a tiny bit thicker than the MTeoR, but it’s also a bit lighter. They keys on the HP are much better suited for my hands (they’re bigger).

I like the new enhancements that come with Windows Mobile 6, but you’ll find much better sources on the Web when talking about WM6.

I think this device is worth it’s money. It’s not a top of the line smartphone like the Motorola Q9, and it’s screen is it’s biggest disadvantage. It’s sturdily made, and will probably last a year on the field (SmartPhones always seem to be made with PHBs in mind, but they’re quite useful for field technicians too).