[General Topics] Menneisyys:
Speaking of the fast HSDPA, you need to be aware of the fact that the iPAQ 210 supports Bluetooth EDR, which allows for far faster data transfer between the phone and the iPAQ. However, to make use of this feature, the phone itself must support EDR. Fortunately, most (if not all) HSDPA-enabled phones come with an already EDR-compatible BT. Note that, with lower Internet access speeds (UMTS at most), the restricted speed of a non-EDR phone won’t be the bottleneck.

Note that as the iPAQ 210 (fortunately - albeit it sometimes still exhibits the driver memory problem so common with WM2003SE and the Widcomm BT stack) still has the Widcomm / Broadcom Bluetooth stack, it's compatible with both traditional DUN and non-traditional PAN phones. That is, if you want to access the Internet via GPRS (EDGE, UMTS, HSPA etc.), you can use both DUN (which is, incidentally, far easier to use) and PAN. This means that, should you want to use a recent (at least WM5 AKU3) Windows Mobile phone as a modem for the 210, you can do this even without deploying the well-known DUN hack co-developed by me to avoid having to rely on PAN. (Having support for PAN also means you can also use Bluetooth access points like the just-released Bluegiga Access Server 229x. And, of course, you can also use Wi-Fi.)

Also, when shopping for an additional phone and you have enough money, you might want to go for a phone that is diametrically opposed (!) to the feature set of the 210 – and in no way similar to it. That is, it’s strong at what the iPAQ is weak at and vice versa. Just some examples of what I mean by this:

The 210 has a very bad speaker – therefore, try to get a phone with (a) decent speaker(s), particularly if you often listen to, say, music or (GPS) navigation directions via the speakers. For example, the Nokia N95 has freaking good speakers.

The 210 can’t really be used to access MS Exchange or RIM BlackBerry push mail for more than, say, 10-12 hours (because it’d require it constantly be switched on and, via BT, connected to an external phone or, even worse, via Wi-Fi to an access point, which would mean you would end up having to recharge it, say, every day – even if you keep the screen shut down). Therefore, should you need push mail, go for a phone that supports these itself. Most smartphones (not to be mistaken for “dumb” feature phones!) out there support these technologies, let them be either based on Windows Mobile, Symbian or BlackBerry* – but, again, NOT only Java MIDlet-only feature phones. (*: note that BlackBerry phones don’t support MS Exchange natively or via third-party programs.)

The 210 doesn’t have GPS built-in; therefore, go for a phone that does so that you don’t end up having to purchase a third device (a sole GPS receiver) to keep with you (and/or leave at home / lose).

The lack of the built-in keyboard (thumbboard) isn’t that big a problem, in my opinion, with a 4” device, particularly if you use a full-screen keyboard like that of Spb (Spb Full Screen Keyboard). Should you still REALLY need a phone with a thumbboard, make sure you shop for one that has it. (But, again, you may find a full-screen keyboard far faster to operate than a tiny thumbboard – it’s just bigger, albeit, generally, lacks the tactile feedback. And, you can use an SMS / mailer client on your iPAQ, should you want to quickly enter SMS messages on your iPAQ, as opposed to your thumbboard-less phone. See THIS for a complete elaboration on these external SMS handler apps.)

The 210 doesn’t have a 3D hardware graphics accelerator. If you would like to play 3D games / Java MIDlets, go for a phone that has it.

There’s no FM radio in the 210: therefore, you might want to go for a device that has one.

In my opinion, if you have the necessary money, go for the Nokia N95 (or, if you’re in the U.S., the N95-3 so that you can have 3G in there) as a separate phone. It’s an almost exact opposite (complementer) of the 210:

it has great, loud and stereo sound – actually, I don’t know of a better phone with better, louder speakers. Particularly phenomenal is the stereo widening effect, which you’ll love if you often listen to music through the speakers while, say, doing another thing in another task (for example, browsing the Net with Opera Mini)

has both MS Exchange or RIM BlackBerry access (both with third-party apps, of course) – no need to continuously run a client on the 210 and, consequently, have a very bad battery life

has a GPS - albeit it can’t be used from the iPAQ; nevertheless, the (if you don’t need vehicle / pedestrian navigation, free) Nokia Maps and the (commercial) Garmin XT, which both support the GPS in the N95, aren’t bad at all – on the contrary, sometimes they turned out to be even better and more up-to-date than Nav’N’Go’s iGo.

it has an FM radio

it’s 3.5G (HSDPA); that is, if you REALLY need speed (on the expense of much lower battery life – as is the case with all 3G phones), you can have it – unlike, say, any of the newer (post-8700) BlackBerry phones.

has a GREAT camera – much better than in any other smartphone (but NOT necessarily feature/dumbphones like Sony-Ericsson’s CyberShot camera phone series or LG’s new Viewty. But, again, these are dumb feature phones without any advanced features or not-just-Java third party apps.)

if you’re a gamer, you’ll particularly like the 3D hardware acceleration, which, currently, isn’t supported by any Windows Mobile, let alone BlackBerry (and most feature – except for some Sony-Ericsson models - phones). Also, Symbian has some games not available at Windows Mobile and its MIDlet support is, in general, way better than that of either Windows Mobile or BlackBerry. The N95 is also part of a dedicated gaming platform, Next-Gen N-Gage, which has (or, at the time of writing, will have) several high-quality titles. This means you’ll have access to both worlds: games on both Windows Mobile and Symbian (including Next-Gen N-Gage and 3D hardware accelerated Java MIDlet games).

Still speaking of gaming, you can ask whether you’d better going for a QVGA Pocket PC phone for games because several games run faster / better on QVGA devices than on VGA ones. In my opinion, better (!!), well-optimized titles don’t exhibit (much) difference (if at all) in speed between QVGA and VGA devices. Of course, lower-quality, badly optimized games like, for example, those of Beijing Huike Technology (see THIS) will always be worse. But, in general, these games are simply not worth playing at all – not even at QVGA devices. In general, there’re much better and much more VGA-friendly alternatives to all titles that run slowly on VGA Windows Mobile Pocket PC’s.

Finally, I haven’t even mentioned the