HP iPaq 510 Voice Messenger

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Features
As the name would imply, the HP iPaq 510 Voice Messenger is all about delivering voice features. The iPaq 510 is a quadband world phone so you can use it overseas. The address book is only limited by the available memory (the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts), and you can store up to 12 numbers for a single entry as well as home and work addresses, e-mail, IM screen name, birthday, spouse's name, and more. For caller ID purposes, you can pair a contact with a photo, a caller group, or one of 28 ringtones.

A new contact function that comes with the arrival of Windows Mobile 6 is that call history is now sorted to the appropriate contact page, so you can easily see when you received and made calls to that specific person, time of call, duration, and so forth. (There is a traditional call history list as well.) Also, the new OS provides a quick Send text message shortcut so with one click, you can be on your way to text message heaven rather than having to go through several steps. Other phone highlights of the iPaq 510 include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, speed dialing, conference calling, and VoIP support.

We're not done with the voice features quite yet. One of the coolest things about this smart phone is its advanced voice-command functions. The iPaq 510's Voice Commander is one of the best voice-command systems we've seen to date. It's easy to use with no training required and more importantly, it actually works. Plus, you can use it to perform a number of tasks, such as making calls, opening applications, and playing music. You even can compose and send an e-mail, and then your recipient will receive an audio file (no speech-to-text functionality yet) in his or her in-box with your message. There are just more than 20 commands in total. We tested a variety of them, and rarely did we have to repeat ourselves to get the right command. Speaking at your phone might seem geeky, but we can't deny the ease and convenience of calling up tasks by barking out a quick command, rather than going through several layers of menus.

	The Voice Commander program on the HP iPaq 510 is top-notch.

Moving on to regular ol' messaging, the e-mail experience on the iPaq 510 is much more enhanced, thanks to Windows Mobile 6. First, it ships with Microsoft's Direct Push technology so you get real-time e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization with your Outlook calendar, tasks, and contacts via the Exchange Server. Microsoft has also added nine new one-click shortcuts; plus, you get more of the true Outlook experience as your Inbox view shows messages that are flagged, marked as high importance, and so forth, and you don't have to comb through all your messages just to find that one e-mail you need. A new search function allows you to simply start typing in a word while in your Inbox, and it will automatically pull up messages with that term. There is, of course, continued support for POP3 and IMAP accounts, but now you can view e-mails in their original HTML format, regardless of account type. If there happens to be a hyperlink within a message, you can select to go to that page or if a phone number is listed, you can dial out directly from that message as well.

The integration of Windows Live for Mobile brings not only your Hotmail and Windows Live e-mail accounts to the device, but the Messenger client and search capabilities as well. Of the former, we wish we weren't restricted to only that instant-messaging client. The search function is extremely useful, however, for quick Web results, and you have the option of installing a Live search toolbar on the Today screen for even easier access.

To do all that Web browsing, you, of course, need wireless options, and the HP iPaq 510 Voice Messenger has integrated Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) as well as Bluetooth 1.2 for connecting to wireless headsets, car kits, and other peripherals. There also is a new Internet Sharing utility, courtesy of Windows Mobile 6, that allows you to easily set up your phone as a wireless modem for your laptop via Bluetooth, or you can use a USB connection as well. Sadly, there is no 3G support for this smart phone.

The HP iPaq 510 Voice Messenger was designed to help mobile professionals, and now they can be even more productive on the go with the addition of the Mobile Office Suite. Whereas Windows Mobile 5 smart phones typically came installed with the Picsel Viewer Suite opening and viewing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, Windows Mobile 6 brings the real deal to the iPaq 510 so you can not only see said files but also edit them. Of note, the PowerPoint edit capabilities are pretty much limited to changing playback options. We were able to transfer all three document types using ActiveSync 4.5 and had no problems viewing them. Admittedly, trying to edit manuscripts and spreadsheets without a touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard was a bit challenging. Business users might be interested to know that Windows Mobile 6 includes new mobile versions of the .NET Compact Framework and SQL Server so you can access sales tools and other relevant apps.

	Picture quality of the iPaq 510's 1.3-megapixel camera was just OK.

Windows Mobile 6 didn't bring any major changes in the multimedia department, so your experience will be much of the same as it would be on a Windows Mobile 5 device. The HP iPaq 510 has a 1.3-megapixel camera with video-recording capabilities and a 6x digital zoom. All the standard options are there, including brightness and white balance settings, five resolutions, and three shooting modes for still images. Your choices are drastically reduced, however, when recording video. Picture quality was mediocre. There was a grainy look to images, but colors were relatively bright.

Finally, the HP iPaq 510 Voice Messenger offers a number of other useful utilities, PIM tools, and games. The Resource Manager and Space Manager found in the Accessories folder are particularly handy as they show you your battery strength and how much memory you have available. The Space Manager also has a menu where you can erase such items as call history and voice notes to free up device storage. Overall, the iPaq 510 has 128MB flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM with about 65MB available for storage and 44MB for program memory.

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