HP iPaq 212 Enterprise Handheld

First off, we have to say that not many people will even consider buying the HP iPaq 212 Enterprise Handheld. This is because of the proliferation of PDA-phones, which has almost obliterated the need for a dedicated PDA. Regardless, there is still a small market for the non-cellular PDA, especially in companies which use them for specific tasks such as inventory management in a warehouse. Though the full name of the iPaq 212 suggests that it's mainly used by corporations in their business workflow, there's good reason consumers looking for a PDA with some entertainment functions thrown in should consider it, too.

Design

The black and matte-silver colors of the 212 fit in perfectly with its business image. Nothing flashy here, just a functional design that will sit well with most tastes. The size of the 212 will be the barrier to entry for most, measuring in at a hefty 126 x 76 x 16mm and tipping the scales at 192g. That's heavier than most handhelds, even those with phone capabilities.

One of the main reasons the 212 is so large is because of its enormous display--one that measures 4 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 640 x 480 (VGA). Text displayed on this screen appears sharp, and the increased real estate makes sure you never have to squint when reading off the 212. A tradeoff we noticed is that colors don't appear as rich as they do on smaller screens. This won't affect regular use of the device, but may irk those who want to double the 212 as a media player or for showing off photos.

Below the screen are four shortcut buttons and a directional pad. There is one more shortcut on the left side of the device, while the right side is bare except for a small reset button. The lack of a volume button disappointed us somewhat, but considering it was built not with entertainment as its primary purpose, it's forgivable. The top of the 212 will be quite surprising for most--it comes with two media card slots. While there have been PDAs with such a feature, they have become almost extinct in the past few years. What's more, these two slots are for the SD and CF formats, both of which have the least expensive memory cards in the market. Another important reason is that addon peripherals which go into memory card slots are usually in these two formats, which would make deploying the 212 in companies with custom peripheral needs possible. For the regular consumer, it means you can throw in a mother load of memory cheaply for MP3s and videos.

On the base of the 212 are three ports--a 24-pin connector, a mini-USB one and a 3.5mm audio jack. The cables provided in the box for charging and syncing make use of the 24-pin connector. We tried using our own standard mini-USB cables and charger, and as far as we could observe, the two different connectors serve exactly the same purpose. But if you were to purchase an original accessory from HP, we'd expect that it'll use the larger 24-pin connector instead of the mini-USB one.

Features

While it does not have a GSM radio, the 212 comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. These connectivity features allow it to connect to the Internet for surfing and email wirelessly and also give it the ability to use a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone as a modem if you need connectivity on-the-go.

Like all other HP iPaqs, the 212 comes with a slightly modified Home screen which gives you quick access to settings like brightness and power management. Wireless radios can also be conveniently toggled from the Home screen, thanks to the iPaqWireless row. Aside from, there are only a few other HP-specific applications added to the default batch of Windows Mobile 6 Classic programs.

Performance

This iPaq is equipped with a 624MHz Marvell processor and 128MB of RAM. This made it more nimble than a gazelle escaping from a hungry lion. We felt no slowdowns at all in our few days of use. In our video playback test, we successfully ran a video encoded at VGA resolution. Though, as mentioned earlier, the colors could have been richer, the smoothness of playback was undeniable.

The 212 has a huge 2200mAh battery, necessary for its power-guzzling display. In our MP3 battery test, it went on for 10.5 hours on a single charge with the screen backlight turned off. Note that while audio playback sounded good with headphones and was sufficiently loud, the speakers at the rear were quite soft. So don't expect to share your music with more than one or two people with it.

Closing thoughts

If you are one of those who use your PDA as a media player, the 212 might just turn out to be a good choice. The 4-inch display may not be the best out there (especially compared to dedicated personal video players), but is good enough considering you get a Windows Mobile PDA thrown in, too. That means it can do a whole range of tasks including syncing to get your email, contacts and calendar, jobs that PVPs don't normally excel in. At $599, it isn't all that expensive, either. You do need to buy your own memory, but SD/CF cards go for chump change these days, so that's a non-issue.

We can't recommend it to everyone who wants a PVP alternative, but for those who like a dedicated PDA with some entertainment value, this is a safe bet. If you are an IT professional looking for something to deploy in your company, contact HP to find out what other customizations can be applied to the 212. With the 24-pin connector and the two memory slots, we expect the options will be quite varied.