[General Topics] Menneisyys:
(HP’s booth)

(on HP’s booth, probably the F1 simulator was the most popular – people lined up to play it)

Firs, make sure you check out Brighthand’s review HERE. You might also want to look around in the dedicated forums HERE (BH), HERE (PPCT) and HERE (Mobility/AximSite).

I had the chance to play a bit with the new HP 214 and, to tell the truth, was a bit disappointed. It seems to be worse than its predecessor in the following ways:

it doesn't have the same screen than the hx4700 (this has also been confirmed by the HP rep there). I didn’t have the chance to directly compare its color reproduction to that of the hx4700. (You might remember that the hx4700, along with similar models that had screens manufactured with the same technology but at slightly different sizes – that is, the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox VGA devices [for example, the 718/720] and the HTC Universal) However, it has definitely worse viewing angle – when not viewed exactly from 90%, the colors become much paler than with the hx4700. I’d also say the colors themselves are less vibrant than on the hx4700, but this is still not confirmed – unless some people post some comparative pictures to THIS thread.

HP 210 users / reviews also report that operating the touchscreen requires a bit more strength than with other touchscreen devices. If you do apply a screen protector, the situation may become even worse.

Fortunately, at least it seems not to have problems with the landscape polarization (unlike with the x50v / x51v). In this regard, it’s way better than the Dell. (Too bad it doesn’t have the 2700G or, for that matter, any kind of a 3D hardware acceleration.)

it feels really cheap (pasticy) in the hand - FAR worse than the magnesium-cased, really-really nice hx4700.

it's considerably thicker 2.5 mm’s (0.1 inch) (77 x 131 x 14.9 millimetres vs. 75.4 x 133.8 x 17.4 millimetres) and, despite the plastic housing (as opposed to the magnesium housing of the hx4700), heavier (186.7 vs. 192).

there’s no infrared support

it doesn’t have the Credent security software suite, unlike its predecessor (should you ever need it)

its speaker isn’t loud at all (which has both been mentioned in the BrightHand review and HERE) – actually, it’s even weaker than that of the hx4700.

All in all, it was a bit of a disappointment for me. I hoped for something that is considerably better than the hx4700 not only internally, but also externally (and have a screen of at least the same quality & contrast & color reproduction). I think I’ll stick with the hx4700 and wait for something better than the 210. Sorry guys.

Some other, related threads:

You can use the hx4700 battery with the 210

PDAdb.net’s one-by-one spec chart with the hx4700.

Other direct comparison threads:

AximSite

BH

Yes, you must surely have noticed I couldn’t like 100% any of the above-introduced devices. Yes, I know, I’m very hard to please and pretty much critical – but, if one speaks about his or her hard-earned dollars, criticism is OK. I really hope the Sony-Ericsson XPERIA X1 indeed turns out to be better than any of them – or, one of the following high-end, VGA devices also recently announced (with the MDA Compact IV, right at MWC): the MDA Compact IV, the E-Ten V900, MSM808:

MDA Compact IV

The MDA Compact IV, which is a custom device for T-Mobile sporting a 2.8” VGA (!) screen. Currently, almost nothing is known of it. There are some threads on it; for example, THIS, THIS and THIS.

It wasn’t showcased at all. As it was only very (!) briefly shown in the T-Mobile press conference, I don’t know any high-res, non-blurred close-ups of the device – or, for that matter, any video recording of the event.

E-Ten V900

I’ve already mentioned this high-spec’ed (Samsung S3C6400, 128M RAM, digital TV receiver) device.

Interestingly, their homepage doesn’t contain any information on the V900 (direct link to their Products page HERE; their MWC-related press release doesn’t contain anything either; it’s only the CeBIT one that mentions the device. Note that, here, they speak of a H2 2008 release date. In there, no specs are given; the flyer available at MWC, however, has some kind of a specs. My shot follows (as with genuine MWC flyer shots, to my knowledge, I’m the first to publish this in the WinMo world – as with the Samsung S3C6410 and the cracked Skype flyers):

As you can see, it’s indeed a very powerful device.

If you compare the technical data in the flyer to that of PDAdb, you’ll realize that the flyer only lists the S3C 6400 running at 533 MHz, while PDAdb.net states it’ll run at 666 MHz. Hope the “slow” 533 MHz is just a misprint in the flyer (as is, for example, the correct spelling of SiRFstar III, which is written as Sirf Start III in here.)

BTW, here’s the full flyer, should be interested in the entire stuff: