The thin and lightweight iPAQ hw6500 is the first Phone Edition device with a built-in GPS receiver and square screen display.
When I first read about HP's new square-screen Pocket PC with a built-in QWERTY keyboard, I had visions of a Phone Edition device in a Treo 650 case. Not being a huge fan of the Treo's square-screen form factor, I was less than excited about this next evolution of the HP iPAQ. My opinion quickly changed once I was able to get my hands on one and put it through its paces.
Small, thin, and lightweight device with QWERTY thumb keyboard
The HP iPAQ hw6500 Mobile Messenger is a full-featured Pocket PC Phone Edition device based on the Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software. It has nearly every feature one could ask for in a convergent device, and even includes some unexpected surprises, like a built-in GPS receiver (see details below). The iPAQ hw6500 dimensions are 4.6 x 2.8 x 0.8, almost identical to that of a BlackBerry 7780. It weighs 5.8 oz (165g), so it easy to handle.
The Mobile Messenger is the first Windows Mobile device to incorporate a 240x240 pixel square screen display, instead of the 240x320 (QVGA) screen found on most Pocket PCs, or the newer 640x480 (VGA) screens. The Mobile Messengers 2.4-inch diagonal touch screen displays 64 K colors and uses TFT display technology. It has the same apparent resolution as the QVGA screens, but shows less of the screen (see image at beginning of the article). However, it is bright, easy to read, and proved more than adequate for my mobile computing needs. HP used it because it allowed them to include a built-in QWERTY keyboard and still keep the size of the device reasonable.
Fig. 1: The full QWERTY thumb keyboard, call and end buttons, application launch and navigation buttons are located below the display on the front of the Mobile Messenger.
The QWERTY thumb keyboard is similar to those found on other HP devices, with small, round, backlit keys (Fig. 1). I find the keys a bit too close together for extended use. In addition (and similar to the Treo600/650), the letters on the keys are a bit difficult to read, even with the bright blue backlighting. That said, I am still glad its there for occasional data entry. The right fourth of the keyboard contains a separate number pad that can be used for dialing phone numbers or entering numeric data.
Above the keyboard is a wing-like row of buttons that let you initiate a phone call (extreme left), end a phone call (extreme right), view your contacts (left), and access your mobile messaging options (right). In the center of this arrangement is a navigation button that lets you move through applications and select options. The Contacts and Messaging buttons can be re-programmed by the user to launch any application.
Located on the left edge of the device is the infrared port, a volume adjustment button, and a third programmable button, which by default activates the camera shutter. If that button is held down for three seconds, it functions as the voice memo record button.
The right edge of the device holds the stylus as well as an SDIO card slot and a smaller slot that accepts miniSD cards. The latter can only be used to add file storage; the SDIO slot can be used to add file storage or I/O functions, including Wi-Fi.
The Mobile Messenger comes with 64 MB of SDRAM and 64 MB of flash ROM built in. A portion of the flash ROM is used to store the OS and built-in applications, and a portion of the SDRAM is used run programs. A total of 55 MB of internal file storage is available to the user: 12 MB of flash ROM and 43 MB of SDRAM. The user accessible flash ROM, referred to by HP as the File Store, is non-volatile - if you run completely out of battery power or have to do a hard reset, data stored there is safe.
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