HP iPaq 212 Enterprise Handheld

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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.

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