[General Topics] edenc:
I imagine in a similar way to many people in these forums I had hit a brick wall on PDA functionality. I was was waiting for Kaiser to be THE all in one and just as I was about to buy one I discovered the shortcomings. So, having sold my TyTn and bluetooth, solar GPS receiver I brought an Athena. Wonderful piece of kit but in the end it had to go as it was just too bulky.

Having heard that the 9502 was imminent I brought an HP 9515 to see me through to it's realease.

Two weeks ago I placed a pre-order for the 9502 with Powerupmobile as stock was due on the 24th and to my surprise (and slightly disturbing swelling in my manhood) it arrived last Friday (18th April) so I have had a weekend to play.

Out of the box the overriding feeling was 'heavy'. TyTn was ABS plastic but this is (and I stand corrected) magnesium alloy encased. Personally I find that comforting...remember when B&O put lead weights in their remotes to make the quality more tactile?

Runinng WM6 which we are all familiar with there are no real surprises except to say that the 640x480 screen IS beautiful!

Down the left hand side you have JOG Wheel and 'OK' button (very blackberry and very friendly) as well as a shortcut button to the wireless comms. The charging/hardwire comms facility (mini USB) is also present this side rather than on the southern aspect.

Down The right hand side is a '+' and '-' rocker switch for volume etc, voice memo and camera activation buttons as well as a 2.5mm stereo jack.

The stainless steel telescopic pointer is housed to the top right whilst the power button is on the top, horizontal face of the unit.

The face of the unit has buttons for MESSAGING, INTERNET, START, OK, RECEIVER UP AND DOWN and a FOUR WAY THUMB PAD + SELECTOR BUTTON. To access the MicroSD HC slot you have to remove the rear battery case, but not the battery itself.

Right

Left Back

Top

Bottom

Screen up

Battery exposed

On arrival I loaded all my usual software and all has worked fine with one exception...it seems that after using TomTom6, quitting the application and letting the unit timeout, it will not reactivate on the standard power depress. I have had to soft reset. I will make I-Mate aware of this.

-------I have subsequently discovered that this is a one off and the unit is being swapped out- 22-04-08-----------

All comms functions are manually startable so you have to remember to enable the GPS radio prior to starting your satnav software.

In much the way as TyTn an Kaiser the screen can be pushed to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard (though the numerics are still FN dependant) and the keyboard is backlit depending on the ambient lighting conditions.

The screen behaves more like a Samsung phone inasmuch as it 'flicks' up and down.

The reason I didn't buy Kaiser was because of the video playback problems dirctly attributable to the drivers for the Qualcomm hardware. What is ironic with the 9502 is that it is Qualcomm based but at 320x240 video plays back just fine. Using TCPMP to watch Star Wars Episode III with TCPMP in 'Raw Frame buffer mode' the movie was totally watchable. I will test 640x480 when I get time.

The GPS is easy to set up (on COM9 at either 5,400 or 115,000 baud) with more channels (and therefore more accuracy) than any other PDA I have used with an inbuilt receiver. The cold start time is between 15 secs and one minute depending on the normal constraints. There is no 'Quick GPS' facility.

I haven't been able to test HSDPA yet but all the radio's seem to give good reception so there's no reason to assume that throughput will be anything other than expected.

So, Kaiser Killer? For me, yes without doubt but don't forget this luurvely piece of kit hast only just been released. It WILL get better.

Now, who makes it?

PS if anyone wants me to test it anyway or wants more info, let me know.