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MWC Report: i-mate’s new devices

Now, let’s see what new i-mate devices there are.
First and foremost: much as you may already have read it in my first MWC report, but it’s still worth repeating: i-mate is NOT returning to HTC but keeps on bringing out their own handsets, as opposed to the previous rumors. This is, in my opinion, VERY good news, considering that HTC’s current product lineup is pretty much unimaginative and straight boring (read: no VGA, no multimedia, no gaming).
(i-mate’s booth at MWC)
Now, let’s take a closer look at the four new devices they’ve brought out: the Xscale-based, high-end 8150 and the 6150 (the latter, having a VGA screen, also being high-end) and the Qualcomm-based, high-end 9502 and the lower-spec’ed (QVGA) 8502.
Dale Coffing and the VGA output demo
Windows Mobile (Pocket PC / WindowsCE) longtimers surely remember Dale Coffing and his PocketPCPassion, which, back in 2000...2002, was one of the most lively Pocket PC discussion board. During MWC, he mostly ran a demo of the built-in digital (as opposed to analogue) XGA (1024*768) output capabilities of the i-mate 8150 / 6150, thanks to the GoForce 5500 graphics chip inside. Dale has indeed been really energetic – he kept attracting a lot of people to watch his show.
(in his demo, he presented logging into a Vista laptop via the, in the 6150/8150, built-in Remote Desktop Client [see the Remote Desktop Control Bible for more info on it], displaying the remote desktop on an external screen and controlling it via a Bluetooth (ThinkOutside) keyboard and mouse)
He has emphasized these two models are the first phones with a built-in XGA output. He’s right – for example, HTC (unlike i-mate) didn’t really bother enabling the (analogue, VGA) TV output on the Kaiser (aka AT&T Tilt), even though the Qualcomm chipset does support it (more on the (vast) differences of the analogue VGA and the digital XGA output later). The two other phones with the GoForce 5500 built-in, the O2 XDA Flame and the Toshiba Portégé G900, didn’t have XGA output either. (The Flame only supports VGA-resolution, analogue TV output but not XGA digital. In this respect, it’s way worse than i-mate’s new 6150 and 8150).
Of course, you can still make other models display their contents on an external screen - for example, via Spectec’s new SDV-842 microSD card, which will also be elaborated on in Dale Daniels' article Can a Smartphone Replace a Laptop? in the forthcoming (April 2008) Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine article (also see THIS for a generic overview of all similar solutions). But that’s an external, additional solution, with all its problems:
the SDV-842 isn’t particularly cheap (albeit still much cheaper than the old and no longer supported iGo Pitch Duo -Presentation Device): at Expansys-USA, it costs some $125
it doesn’t contain built-in memory, which may become a major pain in the back, particularly if you only have a device with 128M ROM.
it can’t be used with the (now, very few and low-end) phones that have their memory card under the battery (for example, the HTC Oxygen / s310).
storage card-based solutions are inherently more fragile than solutions based on built-in sockets
These problems aren’t present with the, so far, only Windows Mobile-based solution, the Dell Axim x50v / x51v, also having these.
And, of course, if you don’t mind it lacking a phone (because, for example, you use a Bluetooth external phone instead), you can still use the Dell Axim x50v / x51v as an excellent, digital XGA output without having to pay for anything else. I’ve elaborated on the Axim VGA output cables HERE.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the four models: the 9502, 8502, 8150 and the 6150. These are all pretty much different. While three of them have VGA screens, the underlying hardware is vastly different, making it very hard to choose the right model. I’ve exported (with a lot of manual work) PDAdb.net’s databases into one chart so that you can avoid having to compare these devices in pairs only at PDAdb.net. Incidentally, I really wish the excellent PDAdb.net folks added the ability to compare more than two devices at the same time.
The chart is HERE - DO check it out!
It’s really hard to select the right device. All of them have some disadvantages, while still boasting some really unique advantages.
Let’s start with the 9502, which is, unless you don’t need the built-in thumb board and/or absolutely need the XGA output and/or the FM radio, the, in my opinion, best of the bunch (apart from the major slider and screen design problems, which I'll elaborate later on): the 9502.
The 9502
First and foremost, let me elaborate on the (compared to all the other models except the non-high-end 8502) unique feature of this phone: the built-in thumbboard and my personal experience.
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As you can see in the following comparative screenshot (comparing the 9502 to the HTC Universal / i-mate JasJar), the thumbboard (just like the device itself) is way smaller – I’d say the button pitch is about the half than that of the Universal.
This, unfortunately, means it’s far harder to type on the i-mate. While it’s still impossible to touch-type on the Universal, its thumbboard is, otherwise, excellent and allows for moderately fast text input. Not so with the 9502: with it, the buttons are unpleasantly small.
Compared to the BlackBerry 8800 (which I frequently use for entering e-mails and quick forum posts), I’d say the thumbboard on the 8800 can be used faster and more reliably than on the 9502. (Interestingly, while most BlackBerry fans state it’s the 8800 series that has the worst thumbboard of all BB models, I still find its keyboard speed good).

Another comparative screenshot, now, with the Nokia N95:
As you can see, it’s (only) slightly larger than the Nokia. (Unfortunately, it weighs a LOT more: 200 gramms as opposed to 120).
Let’s go further. The device is based on the 400 MHz Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset. It could be a little bit faster – some of the almost-already (they’re supposed to be released in March) devices like the Toshi G910 and G920 are both clocked at 528 MHz; so is the Sony-Ericsson XPERIA X1; of course, the latter will only be released later), but it’s still OK. I, unfortunately, haven’t had the chance of testing its video / multimedia / gaming / 3D performance so I cannot report on whether it has much better performance than the Kaiser / AT&T Tilt (remember the driver problems with the Kaiser and all the other Qualcomm-based, HTC-manufactured models?). At least, when navigating the OS screens and Internet Explorer Mobile, it was pretty fast – unlike with the Kaiser (without applying the very important, unofficial, IEM speedup CAB available HERE, that is). This also means it has GPS capabilities (not as excellent as with a dedicated SIRFStar III chipset, but still pretty good) and, unlike with the Kaiser, analogue TV output at VGA (640*480) resolution.
Let me a bit elaborate on the latter. Why I’ve emphasized this analogue vs. digital and VGA (640*480) vs. XGA (1024*768) stuff? It’s pretty simple. The two new i-mate devices based on the Qualcomm chipset “only” offer analogue and simple VGA-resolution output, while the two other devices, which are based on the Intel Xscale 270 + Nvidia GoForce 5500 combo, offer digital XGA-resolution output. You can rightfully guess, based on the resolution alone, that plain VGA output is much worse than XGA – unless you plan to play back movies, where VGA resolution is more than sufficient. (Actually, the current Windows Mobile hardware couldn’t even decode higher-resolution video – except for, maybe, the PXA320-based models if and only if they receive third party support from, say, CorePlayer, but 1. there are (and will be) very few of these models 2. it’s still not known what features of the PXA310/320 CorePlayer (will) support(s)).
But the resolution itself is just one side of the coin! The other, even more important difference is whether the output is digital or analogue. If the former (digital), the picture is crystal-clear without any problems. If the latter (analog), then, there will be visible artifacts on the output, which will be particularly visible on high-quality (non-CRT / non-TV-set) displays. Let me present a shot showing this:
(in this setup, the 9502 – more specifically, the TV output signal of its Qualcomm MSM7200 – was the source)
Pay special attention to the letters e, a and s. They are pretty hard to make out, aren’t they? Yes, the vertical resolution is pretty bad. Also, make sure you check out the boundaries of the uppermost, red banner. The red color heavily "blends" in the white background at the rightmost edge; as does the white background at the leftmost one. (The same effect is pretty much visible with the blue-backgrounded banner and inside the red banner with the white-red letter boundaries.) Not because the resolution is just VGA – the same text looks crystal clear on the built-in VGA screen of the 9502 but because of the analogue TV signal’s “blending” and washing consecutive rows / columns together. Now, compare this for example the XGA rendering quality of a digital video output – for example, with the shot above showing Dale Coffing - or the one below, showing the Programs in XGA resolution, via a digital output. WAY different, isn't it?
(note that, in this case, I've used a 1600*1200 image with JPEG quality=90 so that you can see there indeed isn't color blending with the digital output)
This inherent problem with the analog TV output isn’t a problem when playing back multimedia stuff (movies, for example – let me stress again that I haven’t tested playing back videos on external displays to see whether it’s quick enough [old CF/SD-based cards weren’t]), “only” when you plan to make, say, presentations. In the latter cases, you must go for digital VGA output – with as high resolution as possible.
The lack of the digital, XGA-resolution output in the 9502 (and, similarly, the, otherwise, much lower-spec’ed 8502) may be problematic in this respect. In this regard, the 6150 / 8150 are way better.
Major design problems with the 9502
Finally, something MUST be pointed out. In my opinion, the design of the sliding mechanism is VERY bad because it's only a not that large portion of the entire surface that is sliding. This is, among other things, that makes the thumbboard so tiny.
I-mate should have designed a handheld with a sliging mechanism similar to ANY other "sliders" out there. HTC (see most of their sliders: Wizard, TyTN, Kaiser, s710, s730 etc.), Nokia (N95-1 and, particularly on the N95 8GB / N96, where the slider is under the upper plate, as opposed to the N95-1), Sony-Ericsson (XPERIA X1), Toshiba (G900) etc. did manage to implement sliders that don't heavily reduce the dialpad / keyboard size; i-mate should have done the same.
Also, taking the overall size of the device into account (which isn't much smaller than the HTC Universal, which does have a 3,6" screen!), I'm not really satisfied with the screen size either. There are huge margins between the screens and the device edges. With a more clever design, they may even have managed to "stuff in" even a 3"...3.2" screen, which is way more usable on a VGA device, particularly if you're forced to look at small characters - either in true (native) VGA mode or in a program / environment that simply doesn't make it possible to enlarge the characters (for example, the Jbed MIDlet Manager + Opera Mini 4 combo.)
The 8502
Ironically, I find the 8502 much better-designed than the 9502 - except for the lack of VGA, of course. It's, as with all the other two (non-9502) devices, a non-slider device with a BlackBerry-like thumbboard on the front.
(8502)

(the 8502 and the 9502 next to each other)
The lack of the VGA screen, however, means I (an über-geek that does want VGA screens) is a dealbreaker for me. But, probably, not for you (and you may find the 8502 the best) - check out the following section on this question.
VGA vs. QVGA on a 2.8" screen?
While opinions certainly differ on whether VGA is needed in 2.8" screens, I think if you (still) have a 100% eyesight, you'll want to prefer VGA to QVGA. However, you might want to thoroughly read THIS on this subject. Note that probably the best browser today (particularly for people with a slow / non-unlimited connection), Opera Mini 4, will only be readable under the, otherwise, pretty much inferior TAO Intent MIDlet Manager on a VGA device (because you can turn up the character size to any value in there with a hack); with Esmertec Jbed or other MIDlet managers, the characters will be hopelessly small on a 2.8" VGA device, even with the extra large setting. Also, you must be aware of the fact that many games will exhibit slower operation. Not all of them, though - for example, MoreGames Entertainment's great games (Orions, Nanobotz, Enslave) run equally fast on a VGA device than on a QVGA one. Examples are, in general, the not very well written titles from for example Beijing Huike Technology (see reviews any my VGA speed-related comments HERE).
These two devices (the 9502 nd the 8502) also lack the FM radio, which is built-in in both the 6150 and the 8150. Another bad piece of news for (wired) music freaks is their audio output socket size: 2.5 mm, as opposed to the standard 3.5mm jack on the 6150 and the 8150. Finally, both of these devices lack infrared. While many consider infrared a “dead” technology, I certainly disagree. It can come very handy in some situations, particularly when you try to communicate (exchange, for example, contacts) with a lower-end dumbphone not having Bluetooth. Also, the CIR (Consumer Infrared) module in the 6150 and the 8150 can come very handy at remote controlling for example audiovisual devices from far away. I still use my almost five-year-old (and it’s still going strong, except for the loudspeaker’s being burnt down – a typical problem with many iPAQ’s – and a brand new battery) HP iPAQ h2210 as my primary quick note / voice recorder device I always carry with me and countless are the occasions I found its CIR capabilities VERY handy (for example, in the McDonalds, to (secretly) turn up / down the volume of the TV). I’m very sorry for these features not having been included in the Qualcomm-based 8502/9502.
The 6150 / 8150
(6150)
(8150)
(the two next to each other)
Speaking of the 6150 and the 8150, they too have major disadvantages compared to the Qualcomm-based ones (9502 / 8502). First, they don’t have any built-in GPS. Second, they are built on the already-outdated Intel Xscale PXA270 architecture. What is more, it’s only clocked at 520 MHz, as opposed to the maximal 624 MHz; this is definitely very bad news for multimedia and emulation fans. The Qualcomm MSM7200 in the 9502 / 8502 is way more up-to-date, battery-friendly and capable. If I were the i-mate folks, I would have gone straight for the far superior PXA3x0 series. And, of course, neither of them contains a thumbboard. Many won’t see this as a problem, however, as the built-in thumbboard in the 9502 will be too small for most people. Again, unlike the one on the Universal – or even the Kaiser. Finally,
their batteries are slightly smaller than those of the Qualcomm-based models
neither of them support HSUPA, which may be a definite disadvantage if you would upload a lot from your handheld (used it as, say, a HSPA modem). Of course, they do support the downlink HSDPA - that is, if you don't want to upload (much) and/or you don't have access to a HSUPA-capable network, this problem won't be a real one.
their scrollwheels are somewhat less functional than those of the 8502 / 9502.
The 8150 has a numeric keyboard (dialpad) on the front, while the 6150 doesn’t have anything. I would have preferred a slide-out dialpad on the 8150 to keep the size down just like on the Nokia N81/N95/N96 or the HTC Nike 200, but, based on the 6150 (which is pretty much reminiscent of the HP Jornada 52x/54x when it comes to the active percentage of the screen and the controllers on the front of the device), it seems the engineers at Arima (the ODM manufacturing i-mate's devices) just couldn’t make the non-visible electronics smaller; hence the big, unused area on the front.
Speaking of the 8150 vs. 9502 comparison (I consider this the two devices to eventually pick from – if there won’t be better models out there, that is), if you’re a frequent Opera Mobile or Mini user (currently, the two best browsers out there), you might want to go for the 8150 instead of the 9502. The reason for this is very simple: as has already been explained in several of my articles (see for example THIS), if you do learn the dialpad shortcuts of these browsers, they become quicker and easier to operate than Internet Explorer or anything else.
If weight is a concern, then, you need to be aware of the 9502’s weighing 200 grams. It’s considerably lighter than, say, the HTC Universal (the “real” VGA Windows Mobile phone up to now, weighing 285 grams - I don't count in the Toshiba G900 and the O2 XDA Flame in here because they're really-really buggy [click the links for bug reports and what people think of these models]) but is still one of the (if not THE) heaviest model of the current (!) crop of PDA phones – even the VGA ones. In this regard, the 8150 is way better: it only weighs 152 grams – that is, almost 50 grams less than the 9502. BTW, in this regard, the non-VGA 8502 is the best, “only” weighing 140 grams.

As can be seen in the following shot of the 9502,
it’s certain i-mate has gone for Aplix (Jblend) instead of Esmertec (Jbed) as far as MIDlets (like Opera Mini, the Gmail MIDlet or tons of sometimes really high-quality (like Simcity Societies) games are concerned) with the 9502. I am not particularly happy of this decision as, in general, I consider Jbed superior to Jblend. Fortunately, this can be easily fixed (if you’d also like to prefer Jbed if you’re a, say, heavy Opera Mini user or gamer) by just installing Jbed on the device. See the MIDlet Bible and my Opera Mini 4 tutorials HERE and HERE for more info. It's worth pointng out that the Xscale-based 6150 and 8150 are, on the other hand, Esmertec-based, as can also be seen in the following shot (notice the blue "e" "Java" icon.)
This is in favor of the 8150 (6150), unless you don't refuse to install Jbed on your device (or you don't plan to use Opera Mini at all - it'd be a bad decision because Opera Mini rocks, particularly if you master the dialpad shortcuts!).
Camera-wise, none of the new models excel. None of them has any decent lens (the heart of a decent camera - (mostly) NOT the amount of Mpixels the cameras have) or a Xenon flash. That is, don't expect anything comparable to the Nokia N95(-1) or, even better, the N82. I REALLY think Windows Mobile manufacturers should pay more attention to including quality (back) cameras in their models. Nokia's N95-1 is almost a year old and still, none of the new WinMo models can approach its image quality, let alone the mechanical lens protection. This is certainly an area where i-mate (too) should pay more attention to. Along with the other areas Nokia's entertainment-specific phones have always been strong at; for example, stereo, loud and quality speakers with built-in stereo widening (see my dedicated article HERE). Not "plain" SRS but something like the one in the N95 - at least when it comes to stereo widening of the built-in stereo speakers.
Finally, let me quickly elaborate on the question of the 3D hardware acceleration. It’s (still) not known whether the Qualcomm-based models (8502 / 9502) support it or not. The Xscale-based ones (6150 / 8150) (almost) surely do. This support, however, means the latter devices are only compatible with very few games / emulators out there (currently, only with Call of Duty 2 and GeoRallyEX). That is, most programs (again, mostly games and emulators) written for the earlier and much more widely supported Intel 2700G 2D / 3D accelerator (used in the Dell Axim x50v / x51v) will NOT make use the GoForce 5500 accelerator in the 6150 or 8150 – they are simply incompatible. See the current GoForce 5500 compatibility list HERE – as you can see, very few current titles support the chip. (Note that Kokak, the author of DoomGLES / HereticGLES, does promise support for the 5500 in his future DoomGLES / HereticGLES versions.) Also note that, while the Qualcomm is supported (to some degree) by the industry-leader video player CorePlayer, the GoForce 5500 isn’t and, as it seems, won’t be, at least not in the near future. (See THIS for more info on this question.) This mean you probably won't get flawless VGA playback on originally high-resolution videos, unlike with, say, the above-mentioned Axims.
Verdict
I need to admit: I have mixed feelings about i-mate’s new devices. I’m not sure whether I would at all exchange my more than two years old HTC Universal for a 9502 or an 8150 because the Universal is in no way THAT outdated (particularly if you take its EXCELLENT thumbboard into account - if you're a frequent texter and/or e-mail writer, you will just not want to get rid of the Universal, unless you use an external Bluetooth keyboard like that of iGo) and the new i-mate lineup isn't that revolutionary or considerably better than the old Universal. I think I’ll just wait for the newer and, without doubt, more exciting and, even more importantly, in most respects, more capable devices (most importantly, the E-Ten V900, the Gigabyte GSmart MS808 and the Sony-Ericsson XPERIA X1) to arrive. Also, I would keep an eye on the new Samsung SGH-i780, which isn’t a bad device unless you plan to play games (see THIS for more info on the gaming-friendliness of its touchpad) and/or need a VGA screen.
That is, I can't say I'm entirely satisfied with any of these new i-mate devices. This is why I wouldn't switch to either the 8150 or the 9502 from my current setup (Universal for heavy WinMo & touchscreen & VGA & heavy Web browsing / text entering tasks; N95 for everything multimedia, GPS and camera; HTC s310/Oxygen MS Smartphone for pure phoning (and nothing else) and the BlackBerry 8800 for IM / push mail / casual Web browsing). (BTW, just a quick note. Some of you have asked me how come a Windows Mobile fan, MS MVP etc. like me uses BB for push mail / IM. The answer is simple: I must have a BB subscription because I need to be up-to-date with Blackberry-related questions too. For example, I've just offered Microsoft a hands-on, week-long course for enterprise clients on why the Microsoft platform is better for enterprise usage than that of the BlackBerry. [I'm an experienced lecturer; I've led several hands-on, 40+-hour, mostly Java programming courses as a contractor for Sun.] This is why I need to use the BB very actively - to keep me updated about BB, the news, new products, new OS versions etc so that I know what the BB is capable of, even third-party app-wise.)
If you NOW shop for a device because you don’t have any WinMo device already or the one you have is heavily outdated and don’t want to go for HTC’s current devices (because of, for example, the generic lack of VGA screens and/or multimedia / gaming-friendliness on all their Qualcomm-based models), i-mate’s devices may be worth checking out. However, make sure you thoroughly compare the feature sets of each phone to see which fits you the best. Again, there is no clear winner: all of i-mate's phones have lacking functionalities and there simply isn’t “best” of them. You’ll have a very hard time choosing from the 9502 and the 8150 if you want to look for the highest-end models. Hope my pretty thorough comparison of the (dis)advantages of both models will help you a lot in deciding which model to go for.
What next in my MWC Report Series?
(Un)fortunately, I still have a lot to write / report about. I'll post a very thorough report on the new HP iPAQ 210, the already-mentioned Samsung SGH-i780 etc. Also, I plan to post some other, smaller tidbits too. Expect my next, huge MWC article later this week.
UPDATE (02/27/2008):
HowardForums forum member nextel1996 has pointed out PDAdb.net is able to compare more than two devices at the same time; their chart is HERE. You may visit it instead of mine because it'll be kept up-to-date, should be there any changes, as opposed to mine, which I won't update now that PDAdb.net offers a dynamically updated chart.
You might want to check out HowardForums forum member maevro's post HERE. Maevro is an authorized reseller and he reports on his experiences with i-mate.
I've expanded (and partially rewritten) the article; for example, I added the "Major design problems with the 9502" and the "VGA vs. QVGA on a 2.8" screen?" sections.
PPCT frontpage

UPDATE (02/27/2008):
HowardForums forum member nextel1996 has pointed out PDAdb.net is able to compare more than two devices at the same time; their chart is HERE. You may visit it instead of mine because it'll be kept up-to-date, should be there any changes, as opposed to mine, which I won't update now that PDAdb.net offers a dynamically updated chart.
You might want to check out HowardForums forum member maevro's post HERE. Maevro is an authorized reseller and he reports on his experiences with i-mate.
I've expanded (and partially rewritten) the article; for example, I added the "Major design problems with the 9502" and the "VGA vs. QVGA on a 2.8" screen?" sections.
PPCT frontpage

Guys, anothe rupdate. As I don't know how many updates I'll stil have, I found it better to link to the original article so that I can avoid slicing up the article again and again into postable chunks:
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2504&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

MWC: Chipset Vendors & New Chipsets - Part II

The underlying chipset in a handheld device or phone has probably the biggest impact on major properties of the device like battery life, the (in)ability to use 3G and overall performance, particularly when it comes to graphics. Even users that don’t know much of of the hardware of these devices know that, for example, at least in the Windows Mobile world (as opposed to Symbian devices), TI OMAP almost exclusively means very good battery life but reduced performance and lack of hardware acceleration of, for example, 3D or video decoding. In this installment of my MWC series, I explain and evaluate most of the remaining, announced new chipsets.
In Part I of my CPU/chipset-related MWC series, I’ve elaborated on the brand new and really-really cool MWC announcement of Samsung. I’ve also introduced the latest technology from Imagination Technologies and have also touched on Qualcomm. Let’s start with the latter.
Qualcomm
In the previous article, I’ve promised I would fill you in on their latest chipset, the QST1x0x (QST1000, QST1100 and QST1105). I’ve already linked to the official announcement in a later, generic article. Now, let me elaborate on the new chipsets a bit more thoroughly.
The new chipset, as you can check it online too, has three submodels: the cheapest and non-connected QST1000, which promises some additional niceties compared to the current MSM7200(A) chipset many Windows Mobile devices are currently based on; for example,
”It’s based on the 65 nm process technology for enhanced battery life and bill-of-materials savings” - as opposed to the 90 nm of the previous generation. 65 nm represents the highest-end technology today with all major chipset manufacturers. (Of course, the lower the number, the better). In this regard, all other major manufacturers are already using (or, have just announced switching to) the same technology: remember the just-announced / released Samsung S3C6410/ S3C6430 from the previous chipset report? They’re both 65nm, as opposed to the previous-generation, 90nm S3C6400. And, the case is the same with the semi-new TI OMAP 3 platform, which I’ll elaborate on later.
”Seventh-generation gpsOne engine with support for Standalone-GPS and Assisted-GPS modes, as well as gpsOneXTRA Assistance technology delivering enhanced Standalone-GPS performance.” - This, hopefully, also means that its performance and sensitivity will be on par with (or even better than) the, currently, most powerful SiRFstar III consumer chipset.
”Rich multimedia features, including camera, video playback at up to VGA resolution, and TV-out.” – Let’s start with the latter. Unfortunately, the pure mention of “TV-out” may show it (still) won’t support digital (VGA) output (only a subpar analogue one), let alone outputting at higher resolutions (which, incidentally, wouldn’t be of much use as analogue output is next to unreadable even at VGA, that is, 640*480 resolutions, let alone higher ones). I’ve already shown some real examples of the downsides of this approach in my i-mate article.
Also, as far as the rest of the statement is concerned, the description completely lacks a list of what video decoders are supported in hardware. (There’s another sentence in the press release, “A comprehensive range of popular audio and video codecs”, but it only refers to software en/decoding, which isn’t of much use as they can’t be accelerated.) As has been pointed out in several of my articles (see for example the H.264 Bible), hardware-accelerated video decoding may dramatically increase performance and battery life. (More on this in the next installment of my MWC device report, when I report on the Nokia N96’s built-in hardware support for video decoding supported by both the operating system and the built-in media player (both out-of-the-box), which is pretty much unmatched in the mobile world. For example, on Windows Mobile, the built-in Windows Media Player doesn’t use the video acceleration features at all on devices that do have hardware video acceleration features – for example, the 2700G-equipped Dell Axim x50v / x51v or the GoForce 5500-based models. On these devices, you can call yourself lucky if you do find a player that makes use of these features: on the Axims, there is (TCPMP / CorePlayer), but on the 5500-based models, there isn’t such an app.)
”Support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and FM radio.” - Of this, it’s mostly the FM radio that interests me the most. Currently, very few Qualcomm-based WinMo handhelds have an FM radio. Actually, if you recall, I’ve emphasized in my i-mate article that it’s only the Intel Xscale PXA270-based 6150 and 8150 that have an FM radio, not the Qualcomm-based 8502 / 9502. The situation is pretty similar with HTC’s models. Now, with the arrival of an “official” FM radio, it’ll hopefully much easier for WinMo ODM’s/OEM’s to include FM radio in their handsets.
Note the lack of the GSM / 3G support in the QST1000, which isn’t by mistake: it’s meant for, for example, phone-less navigators, multimedia devices (if and only if the QST1000 is indeed has decent video decoding support) and classic (non-phone) PDA’s. It’s the QST1100 that adds wireless WAN connectivity for voice calls and data capabilities.
Finally, the QST1105 also has a hardware-accelerated 2D/3D graphics core capable of performing up to 2.8 million triangles per second for compelling user interfaces and gaming applications. They didn’t really have a demo showing this; the gaming section of their booth,
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didn’t have any 3D demo; not even a reference design (demo) device.
These three chipsets, as with Samsung’s current (S3C6400) and just-announced (S3C6410/ S3C6430) chipsets, are pin-compatible, which mean (comparatively) easy switchability. (No need to redesign the “motherboard” of the handheld when a manufacturer want to up/downgrade to another chipset.) However, it’s not known whether it’s pin compatible with the MSM7200 (I bet it isn’t) – again, unlike with the case of the (previous generation) Samsung S3C6400 -> (new generation) S3C6410/ S3C6430 upgrade.
NVIDIA
If you’re a desktop PC gamer, you must know what NVIDIA is famous for: the 3D accelerated GeForce video card series. You may also have heard of their GoForce 5500 integrated in (very few) Windows Mobile devices.
(their booth)
(some of the mostly feature phones using Nvidia’s products)
They have, so far, had limited success on the Windows Mobile platform as vendors of stand-alone, additional 2D / 3D chips simply because the platform has been deemed a productivity and not an entertainment / gaming one. Their GoForce 5500 (and its predecessor, which completely lacked 3D acceleration) was only included in few and not very successful devices (the pretty much lackluster, buggy and not any more supported O2 XDA Flame and, now, the two new i-mate Intel Xscale-based models, the 6150 and the 8150) and had even less third-party software support than the Intel 2700G (the other, notable 2D / 3D accelerator ever used in Windows Mobile devices). For example, as has also been explained in my i-mate article, it’s (currently) only two games (!) that make use of its 3D capabilities and absolutely no video player programs. Again, unlike with the 2700G, which has considerably better support.
Their newly-announced APX 2500 (see more info & official homepage HERE), however, seems to be really groundbreaking. No, not only because its 3D and hardware video decoding acceleration capabilities, not in the least.
(their APX 2500 reference design decoding a 720p video)
Not that they would be bad – just not supported by third-party developers, and not NVIDIA themselves, who refuse to open the API to some of the devs like the CorePlayer folks.

They also demoed Quake on with the new chipset, which ran really good. None of the other 3D accelerator folks did the same (they should have done – it’s much more interesting than just some demos). In this respect, Samsung, who, otherwise, has the best-specced chipset announcement, only demoed the 3D capabilities of the S3C6410 with a simple, almost texture-less 3D GPS simulation (which can clearly be seen in the following shot I’ve taken of their tech demo:
; this demo is also visible in the picture you may have already seen). Samsung really should demo their stuff with 3D accelerated games like demos, not just plain GPS navigaton simulation, which, frankly, doesn’t look much better than, say, the 13+-year-old 3D Super FX chipset in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. At least Imagination Technologies (see PowerVR) used tech demos run on in-production, current (Nokia) models to show the difference between software and hardware acceleration, which was indeed very instructive. In my opinion, NVIDIA’s going for demoing Quake running on their processor in their high-resolution demo device was a nice move. Pretty well, I should add – the animation wasn’t at all jerky.
They have also demoed 720p video playback on both the same device and an external, HD TV:
I couldn’t help noticing the picture being sometimes jerky; however, it was still WAY better than any solely software-based decoding and the occasional stutters in the video weren’t annoying at all.
I can only hope the NVIDIA folks come up with a much more open approach to opening their API and/or making it 100% compatible with, say existing Intel 2700g code (a lot of games, emulators and TCPMP / CorePlayer) so that third-party apps can make use of these features.
Here’re two shots of their reference design device:

Sorry for their being so blurry (hence the lack of a high-res version); check out Engadget’s related article for more shots of it if this is a problem.
Of course, it’s just reference design; real-world devices will be much leaner / prettier; therefore, you won’t really be interested in just a reference design. More in real-world devices if and when they do get released.
3D and hardware video decoding acceleration aside, they seem to enter the mobile business too: their new chipset does much more than “plain” multimedia / gaming acceleration. It contains full support for communications. Again, check out the official specs for more info - its’ certainly worth it. I can only hope their entering the mobile scene as a real mobile chipset manufacturer makes for example Qualcomm spend more time on bringing out better and better products and helping their customers (like HTC) to easily (!) develop drivers that use all of their features. They have even created a VERY nice, 3D phone interface, which is much prettier than that of iPhone. (YouTube demo links below.)
Finally, you may want to check out THIS cellphonenews link collection linking to some other NVIDIA-related articles. Of course, there’re several other resources worth checking out; for example, you will DEFINITELY want to see THIS and THIS YouTube videos on their ‘iPhone buster’ user interface. THIS PPCT thread may be also of interest, particularly my comments in there.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments, of course, concentrated on showcasing their new OMAP 3 platform. What’s so special about it? you may ask.
Well, if you’ve ever seen a, say, Nokia N93(i), Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB or Nokia N82 running a 3D game, you already know the answer. TI’s CPU’s aren’t as bad as most Windows Mobile users (even geeks!) think. Not in the least. It’s just that HTC is still using the oldest CPU generations (for example, the 130 nm and, therefore, indeed pretty old TI OMAP 850) in their handhelds (other WinMo manufacturers have, in some of their models, have already switched to the 2420 – see the Motorola MOTO Q9h, the Samsung SGH-i617 BlackJack II / Jack, and the Samsung SGH-i616). The second-generation (OMAP 2; all these CPU’s start with ‘2’ as in the 2420 chipset used in most of the N-series Nokia models released in 2007) TI OMAP CPU’s are really-really capable. Their new, OMAP 3 platform and its (then) flagship chipset, the OMAP3430, which was announced just a year ago, is really worth paying attention to. It has specs that are way better than even Qualcomm’s just-announced QST1105. (Note that there’s also a OMAP3440, but I did’t really notice any difference between it and the OMAP3430, so, I don't know in what it's better).
The OMAP3430 is promised to deliver 720p high-definition video playback for mobile phones, while the QST1000 / QST1100 most surely can’t go over VGA resolution. I bet the latter doesn’t support H.264 hardware decoding either. The OMAP3 platform also supports both analog (TV) and digital video output; the latter up to XGA resolution. In contrast to the analog & VGA resolution-only QST1x0x. And the list continues: for example, upon browsing the product data sheet, I realized the OMAP 2/3 series (but, of course, not the OMAP 850 deployed in many Windows Mobile models) are also able to interface with TI’s own digital TV receiver, the Hollywood Solution DTV1000/1001, which is either DVB-H (most of the world) / ISDB-T (Japan) compatible. No such feature is known about the new Qualcomm chipset. (I'll elaborate on digital TV issues & questions in my next article.)
The flagship model, the OMAP3430, is rumored to go into production first half of this year. Hope at least Nokia puts it in the then-to-be-announced models (N97? N98?) so that we can see what it’s capable of. Speaking of Nokia, interestingly, the Nokia N96 (and N78), that is, the two, just-announced MWC models are rumored to run either on the Freecell (as has been explained in one of the post-WMC All About Symbian podcasts) or the STMicroelectronics (more precisely, the Nomadik STn8815 rumoured HERE) platform - that is, most probably not on TI OMAP.
On the TI booth, several third-party companies building on their platforms were present; for example, Ingenient Technologies with their Low Power 3D PND. As their homepage (including their related press release) doesn’t contain almost anything on what their solution is really capable of (as was the case with Samsung’s latest-and-greatest, just-announced 6410 chipset), I ended up having to take a photo of their flyer:
Of course, it’s just an example of the several companies developing system-level support & drivers & API’s for TI.
What next?
Yes, I know you've all been waiting for my article on further MWC devices. Most of the article has already been written, I will publish it tomorrow, along with a thorough explanation of digital (terrestrial / handheld) TV.

(their booth)
(The TI booth – forgot to include in the article, sorry)

UPDATE (03/17/2008): yet another quick note: the OMAP3 architecture, along with Ingenient Technologies' solution, demoed at playing back King Kong in 720p:
(note that the big image is 2500 pixels wide so that you can see a lot of details in for example the flyers)
The video playback was really smooth: I haven't noticed any kind of stuttering, as opposed to the Nvidia APX 2500 demo.

I've heard about okl 4 from open labs allows win mo to recognize omap 3 if so can one hack an omap 3 device to run windows mobile???

qjsmartphone said:
I've heard about okl 4 from open labs allows win mo to recognize omap 3 if so can one hack an omap 3 device to run windows mobile???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might want to repost your q to the dev & hacking subforum here.

Sony-Ericsson publishes XPERIA X1 white paper! Wowz!

I’ve published several articles on Sony Ericsson’s forthcoming Windows Mobile device, the XPERIA X1. Up until now, little had been known of the capabilities of the phone. Now, the S-E folks have just published a white paper, which answers several (but not all!) questions.
It is available HERE for download as a PDF document. (Just enter the anti-denial of service four characters in the input field for access.) The best news is that, according to InfoSyncWorld, it’s coming in August 2008 – that is, earlier than most have thought.
Some of the most interesting stuff the old, MWC / CEBIT leaflets / presentations didn’t provide an answer to and/or could have been improved upon the first prototypes:
- it has a TFT LCD, NOT an OLED screen (some people stated it’d have OLED)
- it seems to have a traditional D-pad in addition to the touchpad if and only if "Four way key - to navigate menus" (see page 7) is what this means. Very good news for most people (see my generic remarks on the issue in my i780 article on touchpads.)
- the camera has both auto-focus and touch focus touch focus. The latter allows for quick focusing on the object you press on the touchscreen - clearly a clever way of focusing to out-of-focus subjects as quickly as possible. However, it seems it won’t have lens protection, unlike the Nokia N95 / N82 (the current top-end Smartphone camera model) and, generally, seems to be weaker.
- as far as the video recording capabilities are concerned, the video size (resolution) and frame rate are VGA and 30 fps, respectively for the non-US model; for the US model, this is QVGA and 24 fps only. Frankly, I just don’t get the point in so severely a dumbed down US model... Did the Sony people go crazy?! Not that I would except Nokia quality shots from the camera (no lens protector and the lens itself seems to be pretty weak), but 30 fps VGA is, today, a MUST in any decent smartphone; therefore, I just don’t understand why they plan to release a device for the US market with such specs. (Nevertheless, I’m absolutely sure some hackers / ROM cookers will be able to enable the American model to operate in VGA mode – if nothing else works, by flashing an European ROM on it.)
- it supports ("Media sharing is compatible with DLNA." on page 6) DLNA (see THIS), which is the first on Windows Mobile (unless you use a DLNA-compatible client). See my UPnP Bible for more info on it.
- it, in addition to the worldwide 3G bands, also supports most (but not all, as it's only tri-band) of the US 3G bands (but, of course, not the forthcoming, absolutely incompatible T-Mobile one); that is, most people in the US will get HSDPA coverage with either bands. This is definitely good news.
- according to page 27, the US version doesn’t support H.264 playback either. (See the H.264 Bible for more info.) Interestingly, the non-US version supports the H.264 Baseline profile.
- according to Page 26, the built-in music player supports eAAC+; that is, HE-AACv2. (I REALLY hope Sony didn’t mess up with the different versions in here.) This means the music player will be something much better than the built-in WMP in Windows Mobile 6 Professional, which doesn’t support this format. (See THIS for more info on this question.) At last some good news for us HE-AACv2 fans using Windows Mobile devices – I may even stop using my N95 as a HE-AACv2 player? ;-)
Note that
- it’s still not known whether it will have 3D hardware acceleration or not. Page 4, which is almost the same as the one in the original MWC leaflet, only lists “HW 3D Graphics” and, unlike most? all? the other list elements, it’s not elaborated on later either. There's a related remark ("3D fish Panel: A cool panel which will showcase the 3D features of the phone (A fish tank with 3D fishes).") on page 6, which MIGHT mean it indeed has hardware acceleration. Again, it is still to be seen whether it's true and whether it has hardware acceleration or not.
- it’s not known whether the built-in MIDlet manager supports Java 3D or not (see “N/A” in the Java 3D row on page 27). Given that the latest, 3.1+ Esmertec Jbed versions all support Java 3D (so far, without hardware acceleration because of the lacking Qualcomm drivers on HTC’s own phones), this MIGHT mean it uses either a non-Esmertec MIDlet manager or a non-3D-capable one. (Not that it’d be hard to install the latest Jbed on it... Still, it might not have support for the 3D hardware acceleration, if any – unlike, say, the Nokia N95 / N82, where hardware accelerated 3D games work just great.) (See the MIDlet Bible for more info.)

Menneisyys said:
- as far as the video recording capabilities are concerned, the video size (resolution) and frame rate are VGA and 30 fps, respectively for the non-US model; for the US model, this is QVGA and 24 fps only. Frankly, I just don’t get the point in so severely a dumbed down US model... Did the Sony people go crazy?!
- according to page 27, the US version doesn’t support H.264 playback either. (See the H.264 Bible for more info.) Interestingly, the non-US version supports the H.264 Baseline profile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are likely patent related issues.
Surur

I cant see whether its windows 6.1 or 6.1+?

As Surur stated, it's very likely that the difference between the US and European version are related to Patent issues.
As for 3D I've seen a few videos where the SE rep talked about 3D, not to mention having a panel to show off it's 3D capabilities, add to that that HTC says they will have 3D acceleration in future models, it all points to the device most likely having 3D accelerated support.
The most upsetting thing is the touch panel, such a beautiful with an amazing 800x400. For me it's both exciting a and frustrating. The resolution makes pretty much any web site viewable without fiddling with magnification or scrolling around the page. Terminal Services will be even more useable than on a 640x480 display. It's all good as long as you can see it. I guess people will have to wait until the sun goes down
I've said this before but the more I play with an IPhone or Ipod Touch, the more I wish that the Xperia or any Windows Mobile device for that matter had a Capacitive Screen. Not only does it make finger touch cababilities much better. I was playing with an Ipod Touch outside yesterday, it was very sunny. I pulled out my HTC P3600 and compared the screen. The P3600 was unviewable, even with my hand providing some shade, I could still barely see the screen. The IPod Touch screen on the other hand, it was perfectly viewable even with the screen facing the sun.
It's frustrating as hell, I am looking forward to the Xperia, finally a device that isn't missing one feature, high resolution display, 128 megs ram, all radios, even a decent form factor. I'm not a fan of Qwerty keyboards and would like a thinner model (maybe X2) without the keyboard but it's still thinner than my P3600. Still, I'm considering switching to an IPhone. Even with all the limitations and things that I would be missing, the screen and touch goes from frustrating to enjoyable compared to my WM devices.
They should have at least had an OLED display.

The HP iPAQ 210 – an in-depth review

Without doubt, during its almost four-year lifespan, the HP iPAQ hx4700 has turned out to be the best "traditional" (phone-less) high-resolution (640 * 480, also known as VGA) Pocket PC ever released certainly filling in a very important market segment: that of the comparatively (but not too) large VGA screens. The reasons for this are well-known when you compare it to the alternatives:
Compared to the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 718 / 720, the major advantage of the hx4700 is the sheer existence of a WM5 / WM6 / WM6.1 upgrade. On top of that, the larger screen, the quality magnesium casing and the faster CPU with a graphics co-processor greatly helping in playing back MPEG4 Part 2 (a.k.a. ASP / DivX / XviD) videos, on the long run, made it the winner (while this wasn't certain back in 2004-2005; the author of this article has also chosen, back then, the Loox 720 over the hx4700). Of course, it has had major problems compared to the Loox: the touchpad, initially, the higher price, the very low speaker volume (while the Loox has been one of the loudest ever PDA’s around), the lack of a camera (even if the one in the 720 isn’t anything to write home about, quality-wise) and the lack of USB host support. These problems, however, are easily mitigated by the really excellent WM6.1 upgrades released in the last few months. As the Loox isn’t upgradable to WM5, several current software titles (like Esmertec Jbed to run MIDlets like Opera Mini) just can’t be run on it.
It’s too better than the Dell Axim x50v/x51v. The Dell has vastly inferior battery life, much-much worse screen almost useless in Landscape for many users because of the major polarization issues, the plastic, thick body and the x50v WM5 upgrade having major compaction issues (as was the case with pre-WM6.1 hx4700 upgrades, though). The only real advantage, in addition to the louder buzzer, th emore gaming-friendly D-pad controller and (at least in the U.S.) lower price of the Dell is the Intel 2700G support, offering both excellent 3D hardware acceleration and great help in playing back ASP videos.
Note that I don’t even list for example the Asus 730(w) and the Toshiba e830, which all had major problems (for example, the laughable battery life of the Asus, the washed-out screen of the Toshi and the lack of WM5+ upgrades for both models) compared to the hx4700 and are now completely forgotten.
Over the years, because of HTC’s (the major Windows Mobile manufacturer of today) reluctance to produce anything similar to the hx4700, Windows Mobile users preferring a large (and quality) VGA screen had to stick with the hx4700. That is, if you wanted a 4" VGA screen but not significantly bigger (adding serious bulk: see the HTC Advantage / x7500/x7510 or even the even bigger and really expensive, SVGA [800*600] HTC Shift) and nothing less (4" is far better on a VGA device than 3.6", particularly when used in native VGA mode or an app not supporting large characters – for example, Opera Mini run under the MIDlet managers of Esmertec like the Jbed), your only choice has been the hx4700.
Fortunately, the (software) bugs of the hx4700 have all been fixed during these years; the author of this having been one of the most widely-known "hackers" having discovered several ways of fixing the issues with the official WM5 upgrades. The major problem of compaction slowdown has also been fixed in the WM 6.1 upgrade released some months ago. Yes, you will no longer see lengthy compactions if you upgrade to WM6.1.
The huge advantages and seamless operation of the WM6.1 upgrade(s) clearly make the HP iPAQ hx4700 one of the most recommended handsets for users opting for sufficiently, but not too large (4") VGA screens. Let’s see how its successor, the brand new HP iPAQ 210 compares to it. This comparison is of extreme importance because several ex-hx4700 users consider upgrading to the new device. The - without doubt - tempting price (around $400-$450 but, if you live in Canada or don't mind buying from there, you can get it for as low as $350) of the new model (which is almost half of the, originally, really overpriced hx4700) is also very hard to resist.
Thanks to Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine publisher Hal Goldstein, I’ve been given a HP iPAQ 210. I wouldn’t have myself bought it because I already have the hx4700 – also from Hal – and just couldn’t justify the expense for such a not-that-major upgrade (I better save money for the S-E Xperia X1, the Acer/E-TEN v900 or the Gigabyte MS808 with their goodies like WVGA screen (X1) or TV receiver (the latter two models)). I never sell my past PDA’s and phones (because I want to be able to provide first-hand info on even past models), unlike most other people. This means I don’t "upgrade" but pay full price for another toy to play with. That is, you need to thank Hal for this article (and my past articles on the hx4700)
Of course, immediately after receiving the new iPAQ, I’ve started testing it. In this article, I elaborate on my experiences with my new toy. Note that this article is in no way a full review of all features of the new device. Should you want to have a more gentle introduction to the new iPAQ, read for example Brighthand’s or Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine’s review. This article mostly targets past hx4700 users who would like to know whether it’s worth selling the old iPAQ and upgrading to the new.
1.1 The screen
As has already been mentioned, the hx4700 has probably the best and, size-wise, most useful VGA screen out there. First, its color reproduction is excellent and doesn’t have polarization issues in either orientation. (It’s at this that the Dell Axim screens severely lack.) Second, its size is large enough to make the user able to use even native (high-resolution) VGA mode and/or apps that treat their standard (SE) VGA mode as native and, therefore, using small characters (again, Jeodek / Jbed + Opera Mini). 4" is just the right size – it’s considerably larger than the 3.5… 3.7 screens of the other VGA alternatives (let alone the current crop of 2.4…2.8" VGA screens like the one in the Asus P750, several Gigabyte models or the forthcoming MDA IV; the Sony X1 will too only have a 3" for a WVGA screen). At the same time, it doesn’t severely hamper the pocketability / portability of the device, unlike with the HTC Advantage (a.k.a. x7500 and its slightly upgraded version, the x7510), which has a 5" VGA screen and is indeed more like a brick.
Let’s see whether the new model sports a screen that is at least as good as the hx4700! The answer is, fortunately, yes (at least to some degree – see the touchscreen sensitivity issues).
1.1.1 Outdoor visibility
Many have complained about the bad outdoor visibility of the 210 (while the hx4700 has average outdoor visibility). This statement, to some degree, is indeed true. As we’ll see, if you try to run your iPAQ without backlight at all, it’ll behave MUCH worse than for example the iPAQ hx4700 or most other Pocket PC’s, except for the now very common 2.8" HTC QVGA devices like the Wizard, the TyTN II / Kaiser / AT&T Tilt etc.
However, as the maximal backlight of the iPAQ 210 is VERY strong (even stronger than that of the hx4700 and much-much stronger than the 2.8" QVGA screens in the Wizard, Kaiser etc.), this isn’t a problem. I daresay: not even in direct sunlight. Just remember to turn the backlight all the way up and clearing the automatic backlight checkbox when outdoors on a sunny day, as can also be seen in the following screenshots.
Example screenshots showing all this:
1.1.1.1 No direct sunlight
(devices, from top left to bottom right: HTC Wizard, Compaq iPAQ 3660, BlackBerry 8800, Nokia N95-1, HTC s710 / Vox, HTC s310 / Oxygen, [second row:] Dell Axim x51v, HP iPAQ hx4700, HTC Universal and HP iPAQ 210)
Max backlight level, strong outdoor light without direct sunshine; all backlight levels – wherever possible; that is, not the, in this respect, by far the worst and least capable MS Smartphone platform – maxed. As can clearly be seen, the iPAQ 210 has the best visibility because of its very strong maximal backlight. The other phones / PDA’s aren’t much behind, though – without direct sunlight, they’ll behave pretty well if you maximize the backlight.

No backlight at all with the Pocket PC’s. As can clearly be seen, it’s clearly the reflective screen of the iPAQ 3660 that is the best, as opposed to the transflective screen of all the other models (some even state the Wizard, Kaiser etc. have a transmissive screen. This might be true, seeing the very bad results. Just a quick recap: transmissive screens essentially have no mirror(alike) behind the LCD panel that would reflect the incoming, external right; this is why they are clearly worse outdoors than transflective and orders of magnitude weaker than the old and no longer used reflective technology). With MS Smartphones, of course, I had to stick with the default, non-settable backlight level before its timing out. With the BlackBerry and the Nokia N95, you can’t entirely shut down the backlight. I’ve, of course, minimized them, though. Nevertheless, don’t forget they are backlight and however much their screens are generally more visible outdoors than that of most Pocket PC’s, particularly Pocket PC’s equipped with 2.8" screens like the Wizard on the shot, real-world results are in a bit more favor of Pocket PC’s if you also run them on the minimal+1 backlight level – that is, not entirely shutting their backlight off. Speaking of the N95-1 and its screen visibility outdoors, it’s slightly better than that of the N95 8GB and the N82 as is also explained HERE and is generally better than that of most Pocket PC's.
1.1.1.2 Direct sunlight
In direct sunlight, with, of course, maximized backlight, the screen is just a bit worse than that of the hx4700 or any past-generation VGA devices (like the Universal, which uses a screen manufactured with exactly the same technology as the hx4700; this is why the next three shots only show a Universal in addition to the iPAQ 210). It’s way better visible than the 2.8" QVGA screens commonly used in most contemporary Windows Mobile PDA phones. I present three example screenshots showing this without backlight at all (a clear lead for the Universal) and two with maximal backlight levels, one taken from an angle. In the latter case, the superiority of the hx4700 (Universal etc.) screens, visibility-wise, isn’t as visible as with the no-backlight case.
1.1.1.3 Color screens outdoors
I love playing Orions while taking a walk or resting with my wife in the nearby park. With the Wizard, this is, during the day (especially in sunlight), entirely impossible because of the far less contrasty screen contents. (The above screenshots have all been taken by 100% contrasty – black vs. white – screen contents.) The iPAQ 210 excelled at this area: I’ve never had any problems with playing Orions outdoors with it.
1.1.2 Color reproduction, minimal backlight level
The excellent screen of the hx4700 had both out-of-this-world color reproduction and very low minimal backlight level. Let’s see how the successor fares in this respect!
Historically, several Pocket PC’s (and other handhelds / handsets) have had bad screens with, for example, very weak reds and other warm colors. A well-known example of a "washed-out" screen is the HP iPAQ 2210.
I’ve devoted several articles to the question of color reproduction; one of them can be found HERE. (Incidentally, in there, you can also find the test shots I’ve used in this very article.) In the following color reproduction screenshots, you’ll see the color reproduction and the dynamism of the backlight level of the iPAQ 210 screen are indeed very good and basically the same as with the hx4700.
Also, the minimal backlight level is very important, particularly if you plan to use your handset in nighttime to, say, read some e-books or browse the Web. In this regard, the hx4700 and the iPAQ 210 are equally excellent: they have by far the lowest backlight level (just remember to check in the auto-backlight checkbox – unlike when outdoors and maximizing the backlight).
The Nokia and the BlackBerry follows. Incidentally, in nighttime, the brightness of the BlackBerry 8800 trackball can be a real pain in the back. (With newer models like the Pearl, you can switch to another, non-white trackball backlight color from software, effectively eliminating the problem.) Therefore, if you don’t want to continuously hide it with one of your fingers, you’ll want to use a marker to really decrease the light emission as is described HERE. No such problems exist with the Nokia N95, albeit the keypad backlight level can be a little high with it too – and the backlight sometimes a little bit shimmering, which is also pointed out in the official N95 manual.
Unfortunately, the Dell Axim x50v/x51v has a pretty much unbearable minimal backlight level; the same is even more true of MS Smartphones completely lacking any kind of automatic / manual backlight level regulation. This is why the "minimal backlight level" shots will show the HTC Vox having by far the most light emission. Hence the badly "burnt in" color grade test shot showing minimal backlight levels.
Let’s start with the maximal backlight shots.
1.1.2.1 Maximal backlight shots
The four children shot:
(devices, from top left to bottom right: Nokia N95-1, HP iPAQ hx4700, HTC s710 / Vox, HTC Wizard, [second row:] BlackBerry 8800, Dell Axim x51v and HP iPAQ 210)
which is by far the most important test image to test the reproduction of warm colors, shows
excellent color reproduction with the N95, BB8800, HTC Vox
very poor color reproduction with the Dell Axim x51v and the HTC Wizard (and, similarly, all the other 2.8" QVGA HTC handsets)
the hx4700 and the iPAQ 210, which render these warm colors equally well as the N95, BB8800 and HTC Vox, are a bit washed out in this shot because the maximal backlight level of these two models are way more than those of the others. The limited dynamic range of the camera was just unable to cope with the situation. That is, don’t let the above shot misguide you: the two VGA iPAQ’s both have comparable color reproduction than the three above-mentioned devices.
(Also note that it's not possible to disable the light sensor in the BlackBerry 8800, not even as of OS version 4.5. This is why its screen seems so dark - I just couldn't turn it up to the max. Its color rendering is excellent and, as has already been seen, so is its outdoor visibility.)

The gradient shot:
clearly shows the iPAQ 210 has a strong yellowish tint / cast. This, incidentally, has always been common with the Sony screens used in the older VGA models (particularly the hx4700 – not this one! -, the HTC Universal and particularly the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 718 / 720). Incidentally, this shot also shows that the Nokia N95 indeed has a 16 million-color screen as it has absolutely no color "gradients", unlike the 16-bit MS Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones. The latter is especially visible in the white – gray – black bar on the right – or, in the second, red bar. (Note that some sources – like PDAdb.net – state the screen was advertised as 18-bit; that is, able to render color gradients considerably better. This isn’t the case, as can be seen both in the above shot, HERE and HERE).
The ostrich egg shot:
shows it’s probably the hx4700 that has the most natural colors. On the iPAQ 210, the yellowish cast makes the egg a little bit yellow and makes the hand a bit unnatural. However, I in no way consider this a fatal flaw, considering the strengths of the screen.
Finally, the grass shot clearly shows how good the rendering of the green colors on the iPAQ 210 really is. Note that, in this regard, it seems even better than the hx4700 screen. The sole reason for this is the 210 screen being a bit yellowish. This shot also shows how sub-par the Dell Axim screens are, color reproduction-wise.
Now, let’s turn to shots with the minimal backlight level.
1.1.2.2 Minimal backlight shots
The gradient shot:
shows how low the minimal backlight level of the two VGA iPAQ’s is and how unbearably bright the MS Smartphone screens are, ruling them almost entirely out of nighttime usage. The same is visible on the egg shot; this also shows the minimal backlight level of the x51v is also very high:

(Note that all these shots suffer from interference with non-VGA (that is, non-190+ dpi) screens. This is why there are pretty bad color blocks on the screens of lesser-DPI screens like the Nokia or the BB. This is an inherent problem with taking shots of screens and I didn’t want to repeat my tests just because of this. Regardless of the interference, the shots clearly show the color reproduction capabilities of each screen. Also note that some of the images have been made with -1 or even -2 exposure correction to emphasize the screen backlight difference between the different models (cameras see the world in another way than the really dynamic human eye and sometimes it's a pain to produce shots that are reminiscent of what the eye sees). Feel free to examine the EXIF data in all the shots - I haven't deleted it. Again, click the thumbnails above for a much bigger version of the shots.)
1.1.2.3 Verdict - screen quality
All in all, the iPAQ 210 screen has great colors / saturation and its minimal / maximal backlight levels are both excellent. The (when using absolutely no backlight) very bad outdoor visibility is easily fixed by using maximal backlight. The latter, of course, won’t be really battery-friendly – but, at least, you’ll see what you do.
1.2 Running games, emulators
The lack of the D-pad on the hx4700 rendered it almost useless for emulators or games requiring D-pad input – only games with entirely touchscreen input were playable. In addition, the original (NOT the cooked!! The latter don’t have any compatibility problems) WM5 hx4700 ROM’s (2.00 / 2.01) had limited compatibility with games; namely, a lot of games wouldn’t even start.
Fortunately, I encountered no problems with the iPAQ 210 except for mainly the button issues, which I’ll elaborate on in the next subsection. I’ve played SkyForce Reloaded, Orions and K-Rally (three of the best titles of all times); all worked great, without any stuttering or other problems. Note that I used the touchscreen to control the ship/car in the first and the third title. I haven't encountered problems during this because of the touchscreen's not recognizing the stylus. Some other users, however, have complained about being unable to correctly use the scrollbars and/or CalliGrapher. If you frequently use the latter (or any other kind of stylus- and recognition-based, full-screen character / text recognition), make sure you give a try to the iPAQ before purchasing it to see whether you can live with the touchscreen insensitivity problem.
Emulation-wise, SmartGear 1.0.4 (probably the best all-in-one gaming console emulator; a MUST buy) runs very fast, even in full-screen mode. I’d say it’s a bit faster than on the other two VGA Pocket PC’s (hx4700 and x51v, both running on WM6.1) I’ve tested the same version on.
However, don’t expect ALL 2D games will run flawlessly and faster on the new platform than on, say, the x51v. SuperTux, for example, is equally bad than on the hx4700: it produces between 7…10 fps. Incidentally, I’ve also re-benchmarked the x51v and the hx4700 to see whether their new, WM6.1 ROM’s have any speed difference than the previous ones. The results are pretty disappointing: the new ROM’s delivered exactly the same figures (Dell Axim x51v: 19-23 fps; HP iPAQ hx4700: 8-9 fps) as their official ROM’s (A12 and 2.00, respectively) back in July 2006.
The new iPAQ, as with all the other past Intel Xscale-based devices, has absolutely no issues with the touchscreen CPU usage either – unlike HTC’s non-Xscale-based handsets (that is, the vast majority of their models).
All in all, the new device is far better suited for gaming / emulation than the hx4700 – assuming you read the next part.
1.3 Buttons
The new iPAQ has five hardware buttons. Unfortunately, this means there’re no hardware left/right softkey buttons (just like on the pre-WM5 hx4700 or even the Dell Axim x51v). Two traditional application buttons have been changed to Start Menu and an OK button.
The latter, Button 3, has a secondary, press-and-hold function, as with Button 1 (Calendar / Contacts – the latter is accessible with a long-press of the button) and Button 4 (Messaging / Windows Media).
Button 5 (Record) doesn’t have press-and-hold functionality (no wonder: after all, if you do plan to record with Notes, you must keep the button pressed, as has also been explained in my Audio Recorder Bible).
Button 2 (Start Menu; another newly-introduced button) can only be used for this very function and in no way can be redefined (officially) – unless, of course, you use a third-party button enhancer app.
The buttons are pretty large and very easy to press, unlike on the hx4700, the x50v/x51v or, probably the worst of the bunch, the iPAQ h2210. The D-pad is much better than on, say, the iPAQ 2210. That is, they’re excellent for gaming use – apart from the button redefining problem already mentioned.
1.3.1 The button redefining / assignment problem
As has already been mentioned, Button 2 and 3 can’t be redefined at all using the built-in Buttons applet: the former can only be used to invoke the Start menu and the latter to pass an OK message to the current application. (Of course, the Button 3 long-press can be overridden, as has already been mentioned.)
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
As can clearly be seen, there’s no way of redefining Button 2 (start menu), the non-hold state of Button 3 (OK); there’s no Hold for Button 5 either.
Third-party apps for the rescue! If you’ve read my (highly recommended!) Button Enhancer Bible, you already know AE Button Plus, probably – not taking into account its inability to define app-specific button assignments and inputting direct characters / numbers – the best and, what is more, mostly free (!) – button enhancer application. With it, you can freely redefine these two buttons.
1.3.1.1 The OK button
Redefining the OK button is pretty straightforward:
With this button, long-press can’t be redefined in AEButtonPlus; you’ll need to use the system-level Button applet. (Therefore, soft-reset bound to long-press is pretty much useless in the above screenshot.) The other three functionalities can be defined, including the "OK" functionality originally associated with a single button press.
1.3.1.2 The Start Menu button
The Start Menu (Windows) button can be too redefined – all the four functionalities work. Note that you’ll always be presented a dialog telling you you may end up having to redefine your other buttons; this, fortunately, doesn’t need to be done.
(all tested with the just-released v2.6.2 Beta)
1.3.2 In-app usage of the buttons
Unfortunately, very few applications / games / emulators notice the two special buttons – not even SmartGear. Hopefully the developers of these apps add specific support for the 210. After all, it’s not impossible - AE Button Plus clearly shows this.
1.4 Video playback performance
One of the best usage areas of the hx4700 has always been watching ASP (more commonly known as DivX / XviD) movies in Landscape mode. Its built-in ImageOn graphics processor let for really reducing the CPU load resulting in much lower power consumption and, consequently, battery life. Let’s see how the brand new architecture behaves with the current, 1.2.3 CorePlayer already supporting some of the advanced WMMX features of the new architecture! (The WMMX support in the new PXA310 have been made approximately two times faster than in the old PXA270 – this is one of the major advantages of the new architecture. See THIS for more info on this question.)
The much more advanced AVC (H.264) format (see my H.264 (a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 10 and AVC) Bible for more info), so far, was pretty much a no-go on current high-res ((W)VGA) Windows Mobile devices – as long as you wanted to encode your videos in high (640+ pixels wide) resolution, that is, and wanted to refrain from transcoding (resizing to a format with a much lower CPU usage). One of the major advantages of the new, PXA 310 platform is the excellent support for decoding AVC. To a certain extent, this is already implemented and available for CorePlayer (the leading multimedia player for all major mobile platforms except Linux and BlackBerry) – and, according to the developers, in the future, making use of the H.264 support will be enhanced even more drastically, delivering even better performance. Add this to the excellent, large screen and, at least with headphones, good sound, excellent battery life and comparatively low price and you have a killer video player.

In these tests, I’ve also compared
the old, 1.1.2 version to the new, 1.2.3 on all my VGA devices
the latest WM6.1 upgrades on all my other VGA devices to the older WM version (for example, the official WM5 A12 on the Dell Axim x51v or the initial WM5 AKU 3.5.2 on the hx4700) to see whether they deliver any speed in/decrease or lack of support for the special graphics acceleration support.
The benchmark results are as follows (please consult the H.264 Bible for more info & help in interpreting the results!)
1.4.1 iPAQ 210
As you can see,
CorePlayer 1.2.3 defaults to the DirectDraw mode on the iPAQ 210. Make sure you set it to XScale to get the maximal performance!
(Non-4:3) VGA-resolution videos are played back with (almost) full frame rate (that is, over 100%). If you don’t run any CPU-intensive task in the background, you will rarely encounter any frame drops – unlike with PXA 270-based systems, which are pretty much unable to play back fully-fledged, 640-wide AVC videos at their full glory (for example, with deblocking enabled). Unfortunately, as the VGA playback is just a bit above 100%, this means using A2DP encoding will result in a lot of stuttering / dropped frames. This can only be fixed by disabling deblocking in runtime (not the best idea) or completely forgetting about A2DP and using wired headphones instead. (Or, using a lower-resolution input video –but who would want to see a lower-res video on a great, large screen like this? The other alternative is, of course, using the good ol’ ASP for encoding videos – at the expense of file size.)
I’ve also made some serious tests with 1.1.2 (the one I initially reviewed in the H.264 Bible) on the iPAQ 210 to see whether the, AVC-wise, excellent benchmark results cited above are any different with a non-PXA310-optimized player. The results are as follows:
That is, with VGA videos, version 1.2.3 indeed has some major enhancements with both AVC and ASP videos, with about 50…55% performance increase with the former and 38% with the latter. With QVGA videos, the improvement is about 35…40% (AVC) and 14% (ASP).
I’ve also run some tests with (some of) the other VGA Pocket PC’s I have to test whether
the optimizations in CorePlayer 1.2.3 (as opposed to 1.1.2) have any effect on the playback on these, older (PXA270-based) devices
the unofficial, cooked WM6.1 ROM upgrades still contain full support for the graphics chipsets with the hx4700 (ImageOn) and the x51v (2700G). (The HTC Universal doesn’t have anything like this.)
1.4.2 iPAQ hx4700 with VIET PDAV61KBD WM 6.1
The results are approximately the same with the old, 1.1.2 version. This means owners of the PDA’s or handsets based on the older, PXA270 will not really see any performance increase by switching to 1.2.3 – unlike with the PXA310-based iPAQ 210. (Of course, the new CorePlayer has a lot of cool features; most importantly, the native YouTube support I’ve elaborated on in the YouTube Bible.)
Incidentally, these figures are the same as on the WM5 3.5.2 ROM, both ASP- and AVC-wise (see Section 1.4.5.3 Other VGA Pocket PC’s in the original H.264 Bible for them). This is certainly good news for hx4700 users: the new ROMs not only excel at, for example, fighting the compaction issues, but also at supporting the special chipset in the PDA. I bet the same is true of all the other WM6.1 ROM’s discussed in the XDA-Devs hx700 ROM cooking thread.
1.4.3 Dell Axim x51v with makuu’s A06 privß06p WM6.1 ROM
The results are almost the same as with the official, very old, WM5 A12 ROM (see the old benchmark figures in section 1.4.5 Effects of en/disabling deblocking, CABAC and Bidirectional Prediction of the H.264 Bible):
ASP: 273k QVGA: 597% (with 2700G enabled)
464k VGA: 267%
AVC: 464k VGA: 83% (same with DirectDraw mode)
This, along with my earlier reports of the hardware 3D acceleration working great with makuu’s ROM is certainly great news.
1.4.4 HTC Universal with Ranju’s WM6.1 v7.6
That is, the figures are pretty much the same (except for some variation / "white noise"), showing the old PXA270 platform indeed hasn’t received any speed boost in the new CP version. Interestingly, the old WM6 AKU 0.2.0 ROM version I used on the Universal delivered somewhat better results (see section 1.4.5.3 Other VGA Pocket PC’s in the H.264 Bible) at playback even at 520 MHz (while Ranju’s ROM runs the Universal at 624 MHz by default). However, the difference isn’t big enough to warrant downgrading.
1.5 Using an external cellular handset to connect to the Internet
In my previous iPAQ 210 article, I’ve explained you’ll want to use a Bluetooth (or, if you don’t mind the higher power consumption, Wi-Fi) connection to an external handset to provide you with mobile access to Internet when you don't have access to any (working) Wi-Fi hotspot.
1.5.1 Bluetooth
1.5.1.1 Nokia N95
I’ve run some serious tests with the Nokia N95 (an excellent smartphone; an ideal companion to the iPAQ 210 as it has strengths in areas that are pretty much the opposite of the iPAQ’s strengths) as a modem and found the duo working excellent. No need for manual interaction on the Nokia (as long as you declare the iPAQ as a trusted client). The only problem I faced was the somewhat limited Bluetooth speed when using HSDPA – that is, speeds over ~700 kbps.
Unfortunately, unlike the iPAQ, the N95 doesn’t support EDR (see its PDAdb.net spec HERE), which is certainly visible in the following benchmark result. Over HSDPA, downloading a 7.25M file in IEM using the N95 as a HSDPA modem took 1:35…1:40; that is, the transfer speed is 0.0725 Mbyte/s = 72.5 kbyte/s. (Incidentally, the HP downloads the same file over ActiveSync in 25s and over 802.11g, via a Linksys Linux-based router is 14s. The latter figure on the N95, as of firmware revision v21, using the built-in Nokia Web, is 7s – an excellent result!) Downloading the same 7.25 Mbyte file to the Nokia over HSDPA only took 29s (measured in Vodafone’s network), which is an excellent result (250 kbyte/s); that is, 3.4 times more than the throughput of non-EDR Bluetooth DUN. This means EDR (or an alternate technology like Wi-Fi) is more than welcome if you want to transfer hundreds of megabytes – for example, you’re watching high-quality (H.264) YouTube videos or video streams operating at more than ~700 kbps (like those of YLE, the Finnish national broadcaster company, with their high-quality, high-resolution 1 Mbit/s WMV video streams).
1.5.1.2 Windows Mobile handsets
I had no problems using Windows Mobile handsets as clients. I’ve tested the HTC Vox with the official, upgraded ROM version (see THIS), the HTC Wizard and the HTC Universal with WM6.1 (running AMP’s 19199.1.1.0 and Ranju’s v7.6; see THIS for more info on these ROM versions).
Note that the Universal, in the default Internet Sharing mode (see THIS for more info on what Internet Sharing is and how it compares to the traditional Dial-Up Networking, DUN) seems to have DHCP problems: it just can’t hand out dynamic IP’s correctly. The other two devices, as is expected, don’t suffer from this problem. I don’t know if this bug is specific to Ranju’s v7.6 of WM6.1, or other WM6.1 Universal ROMs are also plagued by it. Note that:
if you connect the iPAQ 210 with another Windows Mobile device running Internet Sharing, you’ll receive an IP, which will be remembered upon the subsequent connection to the Universal. (You may even want to set the BT PAN local IP to a static address – I think I’ve explained this in some of my past networking articles. This way, you won’t need to connect to another PAN server to do the trick.)
Ranju’s v7.6 already contains the dial-up hack (see THIS for more info); that is, it can also be used in the traditional dial-up mode.

1.5.2 Wi-Fi connection to the handset
To overcome the problem of missing Bluetooth EDR support in your otherwise HSDPA / EV-DO handset, you may also want to go for Wi-Fi-based solutions to connect the iPAQ to your high-speed handset operating as your modem. (See THIS for more info on the why’s and how’s. Also, if your handsets run Windows Mobile, check out the free and excellent ICSControl and WMWiFiRouter [which, in the meantime, has gone commercial; pre-0.91 versions are free] – along with the, currently, really-really beta version of Walking Hotspot, on which I elaborate below).
As it’s the Nokia N95 that I want to use as a high-speed modem for my iPAQ and not a non-complementer Windows Mobile phone (as I’ve already stated, the Nokia N95 is a perfect enhancer / complementer to the iPAQ: its main strength is multimedia (for example, built-in stereo speakers with volume and stereo widening simply unmatched by any Windows Mobile device), 3D gaming (it has 3D hardware acceleration) and camera, which is completely missing from the iPAQ; in addition, it’s small, light and really sleek, unlike, say, the comparatively large, heavy and multimedia-unfriendly Kaiser / Tilt), I’ve tried very hard to make the first beta of WalkingHotspot (on which I’ve already posted HERE) run.
Unfortunately, the trial, which was released two weeks ago and is discussed HERE and HERE, just didn’t work together with my Windows Mobile clients at all. The HP iPAQ 210 just doesn’t stay connected – only for 4-5 secs and, then, just disconnects. With the HTC s710 and the Dell Axim x51v, while they keep connected, the Symbian server doesn’t even notice it being connected – unlike with the 210, where it asks for the first time (but not later). (Wi-Fi p2p, on the other hand, works flawlessly between the HP iPAQ 210 and another PPC.)
Incidentally, I’ve also installed the Windows Mobile port of Walking Hotspot on my HTC Universal. It’s even more a beta than on Symbian: it doesn’t even support VGA screens. Seeing this, I couldn’t bother testing it on a QVGA device – will return to testing and reporting on it when a somewhat better version is released.
1.6 SDHC support; CF problems
It seems the hx4700 just can’t be made SDHC (SD High Capacity) compliant. The iPAQ 210 has no problems with this format.
Note that there is a CF II slot in the 210. It seems to have severe power drain problems (I haven’t tested this myself). An except from THIS thread:
"2. Why is my battery slowly losing power, around 2-3% per hour?
Most testing done by users of this forum point to the CF card being the culprit. Even though there is an option in the control panel to disable power to the CF card when the device is in standby mode, it doesn't seem to do anything.
There have been reports that different brands of cards behave differently. Please post your results and I will update this list (most of the list below was taken from other forum posts):
Transcend 16GB 133x: 1-2%/hour drain
Sandisk 16GB "Extreme III": 1-2%/hour drain
Adata 4GB 266X Turbo: 0.6%/hour (thanks GloryQuest)"
Finally, note that David Hettel has also stated even SD cards (more specifically, Class 6 SDHC cards; I couldn't test this as I only have Class 4 ones - a 4GB Kingston and a 8GB Sandisk) are handled far faster by the x51v than the iPAQ 210.
1.7 System metric tools (acbPowerMeter); over/underclocking; power consumption
I REALLY hoped for the ability to track the power usage with acbPowerMeter or acbTaskMan (see THIS for more info on these excellent tools), particularly because I wanted to see whether the new platform indeed delivers far lower power usage under heavy CPU load. (This has been a major problem in previous Xscale generations; see for example THIS for a comparison with other platforms like previous-generation Samsung CPU’s.) Unfortunately, it’s in no way possible to inquiry for the actual current flowing from the battery with the iPAQ.
Unfortunately, Dogfood’s excellent RegTweak (also see THIS) doesn’t display the CPU speed either (a useful feature to see how much CPU usage a particular app has at a given clock rate. Unfortunately, keeping the iPAQ on external power doesn’t mean its CPU will always run at 624 MHz – unlike with most? all? prev-gen PXA270-based devices). I, along with the developer of the app, have tried very hard to make it work – so far, in vain.
The same is true of Wizcode LLC’s (ex-Anton Tomov’s) well-known Pocket Hack Master. As of the current, 4.32 version, it has no PXA310 support at all.
Finally, XCPUScalar (as of version 3.03) is completely useless for underclocking: when underclocked to 104 MHz, XCPUScalar itself consumes a LOT of CPU time (8…40%, fluctuating). Too bad, as with earlier HP iPAQ models, there is no way to set the CPU frequency from inside, say, Settings / System / Power, unlike with, say, the Dell Axim x51v or the Pocket Loox 720.
1.8 Other tidbits worth knowing
1.8.1 Updates so far
So far, only a Wi-Fi driver update (currently: 1.10) has been released. Note that the installer doesn’t seem to work under Vista; I’ve uploaded the extracted CAB file HERE so that this won’t cause you problems. Just download and click the CAB file.
1.8.2 USB recharge, particularly "kick-in" issues
While the iPAQ comes with a charger with the traditional 5V/2A "cinch" iPAQ charger (meaning it’s fully compatible with older "cinch" chargers from HP, Compaq, Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens, to name a few), it also allows for recharging (and syncing) via the miniUSB port.
The latter is strictly for recharging and synchronization only. That is, it does NOT have USB host capabilities. For the latter, you’ll need to use the special FB112AA#AC3 cable (also see THIS and THIS). As is explained for example HERE, on today’s Pocket PC’s, you need at least a 2A charger to "kick in" the recharging of a completely depleted battery (which was the case with my unit arriving from a long-long international journey). The traditional 5V/2A iPAQ chargers (or the one coming with the iPAQ 210) will work; however, USB chargers won't (necessarily) be able to "kick in" charging or charge (more) depleted batteries at all. Not even stronger ones; for example, the one coming with most HTC handsets (like the Wizard; it comes with a 1A charger). It seems the iPAQ 210 just doesn't allow for high Amperages when recharged through its USB port and this can't be helped with powerful external USB AC chargers - as opposed to charging the device from the standard sync port, using the 2A AC charger delivered with the device.
Keep this in mind when, seemingly, your (depleted) battery wouldn’t take any charge and you try to recharge it with a USB AC charger or, even worse, with a desktop computer. (This is, actually, my experience. The 1A Wizard AC wall charger just wouldn’t want to "kick in" my depleted, 0% battery. I at once thought I was in the same situation than neillm HERE. Fortunately, I soon realized the bottleneck was the USB port and, after switching to recharging via the standard charger, everything started to work.) It's very important that you keep this in mind when you leave for a journey where your battery may completely be depleted - it's always the best to keep the original sync cable & iPAQ charger with you to avoid being completely unable to charge a deeply depleted battery than trust in USB rechargers.

Also note that, as with some of the older iPAQ models, the iPAQ 210 also lets for choosing between fast and slow USB recharging (and disabling it completely). In my experience, the slow USB recharging when charged from a computer (meaning the PDA is always powered on because of ActiveSync's always keeping it alive) only results in the battery getting discharged and not charged at all. If you've ever owned a Pocket Loox 720, you already know the situation - it's exactly the same.
Of course, you should only enable fast USB recharging if you’re absolutely sure it won’t fry your PC because of the excess amperage. High-quality notebooks (like, for example, IBM / Lenovo Thinkpads) just can’t be destroyed (I’ve even short-circuited their USB port a day; except for it powering down for some minutes, nothing catastrophic happened). Lower-quality desktops / notebooks may be sensitive to this.
Also see THIS thread.
1.8.3 Changes in the synch port
As you’re most probably aware, the synch port, which has been the same in the last six years (starting with the Compaq iPAQ 3800 series released in late 2001), has been changed and the old sync cables and/or iPAQ-only, non-cinch rechargers won’t work. Keep this in mind if you have several cables you’d like to use with the new model - you'll end up having to throw them all away.
Every cloud has a silver lining, though: the separate miniUSB port (capable of both syncing and recharging) is definitely good news. This means you can use your USB rechargers (keeping in mind that, in cases, you won't be able to "kick in" deeply discharged batteries) and miniUSB cables for easy synchronization.
1.8.4 Other problem reports
Your main resource will be THIS (BH sticky; hopefully this means the thread starter post will be kept updated) thread. Some of the problems:
the problem of, from the Wireless applet, disappearing Bluetooth (also see THIS) . I’ve posted a complete tutorial on fixing this HERE (and in the Brighthand thread).
the bright blue LED problem – just like with the hx4700 (the same mistake by HP again…). The fix in a nutshell: under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\Builtin\NLed, just change the name of the entry DLL into for example xDLL, but do not delete it.
some people complain about the wired headphones’ hiss. I’ve tested it with some wired headphones (for example, the Plantronics Pulsar 590A in wired mode, the comparatively cheap RP-HT6 XBASS Panasonic headphones and the Nokia wired headphones coming with the N95) and encountered no problems at all. However, your mileage may vary if you have super-sensitive headphones requiring far less power to produce the same volume. Note that these tested headphones all delivered sufficiently loud sound to listen to even quieter audio programs even outdoors. That is, anyone that states the opposite must have used non-sensitive headphones (non-sensitive means it requires far higher power to produce the same audio volume; super-sensitive is exactly the opposite of this).
Some people state the iPAQ 210 has a four times slower CF interface. I haven’t tested the validity of this. Feel free to do the testing – I’ve published several articles on doing this; see for example THIS.
unfortunately, the 210 doesn't come with a cradle, unlike all non-entry-level (that is, not, for example, the 19xx-series), past Compaq / HP iPAQ's. There already are third-party cradles, however; see for example THIS.
1.8.5 A2DP
I've tested the iPAQ with the Plantronics Pulsar 590, Voyager 855 and the Gear4 BluPhones stereo Bluetooth headphones with the HP 210. All worked fine, except for the Gear4 BluPhones’ inability to autoconnect (a common problem with all Windows Mobile devices – as opposed to Blackberry 4.5 or Symbian).
Note that some people state the iPAQ is not compatible with the Plantronics Voyager 855. This is in no way the case.
1.8.6 No official WM6.1+ upgrade
HP have stated they wouldn’t release WM 6.1 (or any other, newer OS version like the future WM7) for the iPAQ 210. This means you’re at the mercy of the XDA-Developers’ hackers and cooked ROM’s. The lack of WM 6.1 isn’t really an issue as it has very little improvement on non-phone Windows Mobile PDA’s; WM7, on the other hand, will most probably be a must to upgrade to. I can only hope the iPAQ 210 can be hacked and its ROM can be easily upgraded with cooked ROM’s. Currently, there aren’t any hacked / cooked ROM’s. I’ll keep you posted on this issue, should you want to decide whether to go for the new iPAQ. You may also want to keep an eye on the discussions HERE, in the Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking forum of XDA-Devs and, of course, the traditional Axim/MobilitySite and BrightHand fora.
1.8.7 Plastic body
While, at first, I didn’t particularly like the not-that-professional feel of the plastic back of the new iPAQ (compared to the magnesium-alloy body of the hx4700), I came to accept it. If you use it in a third-party leather case like that of PDAir (thanks, Hal, for the additional case!), you won’t really notice it having a plastic back. Also, its being a bit thicker than the hx4700 won’t be that big an issue either when used in a case.
1.8.8 Battery life
I can't really comment on the battery life yet. Many have reported around seven hours of battery life with moderate backlight usage and Wi-Fi on all the time. I had definitely worse battery life in my YouTube Wi-Fi playback tests with higher backlight levels. This may also be caused by the fact that the battery, on its long journey to Europe, had been completely depleted, which may have caused it to be permanently damaged and its capacity lowered. Also, the high (about 60...80% at 624 MHz) CPU usage of playing back 480*320 AVC videos (as of CorePlayer 1.2.3) may have also resulted in having much worse battery life than the above-cited seven hours.
1.8.9 Bluetooth GPS problems(?)
Some people (see for example THIS) have reported on GPS problems; for example, the inability to work together with the Nokia LD-4W (which works just great with some other WM handsets / PDA's like the Mitac Mio A702). Other, tested (and working) BT GPS sets include the BTGPS74R and iBT-GPS.
1.8.10 Low speaker volume
Unfortunately, the volume of the iPAQ 210 speaker is pretty low – about the same as the iPAQ 2210 or the iPAQ hx4700. As with the iPAQ 2210, the speaker is on the back of the PDA. Unfortunately, the PDAir case further decreases the already-low volume of the iPAQ 210. HP state the device has two speakers, one in the front; the latter might be for Skype only (not confirmed). (BTW, as with early versions of Skype, the dual-speaker Fujitsu-Siemens 720 wasn’t supported either and Skype, as of now, only uses the back speaker, also resulting in annoying acoustic feedback.) It’s not known whether the HP engineers will be able to raise the speaker (buzzer) volume from software or do we have, as with the 2210 and the hx4700, live with an inherently quiet speaker not fixable (and easy to even burn down, as was the case with both the 2210 and the hx4700). This means you’ll end up having to use headphones or external amplifiers for the time being. Certainly bad news for YouTube / video freaks.
Also note that the alarms are similarly low-volume and, therefore, pretty much useless if you plan to use your iPAQ as a clock to wake you up. There is a workaround HERE (with artificially increased volume levels in the reprocessed alarm tunes) you will definitely want to check out.

2. Verdict
While certainly not without problems (touchscreen insensitivity, low-volume speaker, button reassignment problems, no official operating system upgrades, slightly worse outdoor visibility of the screen without backlight), I pretty much like the new iPAQ and I think it’s a decent upgrade from the hx4700 adding painfully missing features (SDHC, for example). Particularly if you’re a multimedia geek and would like to play back AVC videos (where the new PXA310 already excels when used together with the latest CorePlayer; and, according to the CoreCodec folks, this is just the beginning!), you’ll certainly love the new device. While the "cooked" 6.1 HP iPAQ hx4700 Windows Mobile ROM’s are in no way bad (just the contrary – they’re EXCELLENT and, finally, take away entirely the compaction issues), the new PDA is indeed better in many respects.
If you need a device with a large, 4" VGA screen with stunning properties like the best minimal and maximal backlight levels and best color reproduction ever, the HP 210 is more than recommended. The only device that comes closer is, obviously, the hx4700, which has exactly the same color reproduction, (great) polarization evenness and minimal / maximal backlight level. Its touchpad, on the other hand, is a real pain in the back and in itself may worth the upgrade. Also, if you don’t want to use unofficial, "cooked" ROM’s, either the lack of WM5+ (if you stick with WM2003SE) with its vast arsenal of WM5-only apps like the Esmertec Jbed MIDlet manager or, if you do use the official 2.01 / 2.02 ROM, the heavy compaction issues will drive you mad. In these cases, the upgrade is more than necessary. But, even if you have WM 6.1 on your hx4700 (taking away the compaction issues and providing compatibility with the latest, WM5+-only batch of applications and games), the upgrade is well worth considering – particularly if you’re a gamer. Finally, don’t forget that, if you plan to stick with the Windows Mobile platform (and don’t go for full-size book readers like the iRex iLiad – see THIS for more info on this), you’ll want to go for a large-screen device like the 4" VGA iPAQ’s – if you don’t plan getting the (ridiculously priced, super-expensive – it costs about four times (!) more than the iPAQ 210) 5" HTC Advantage / Ameo / x7510, that is. The excellent book / document reading capabilities are greatly supported by the new D-pad (you no longer need to assign the "Page down" function to the Record button to avoid having to scroll back and forth horizontally because of a stale tap on the left/right arrows), the minimal backlight level (again, this model, along with the hx4700, the best for nighttime reading) and the lack of landscape polarization issues (you don’t need to stick with the Portrait mode, only offering 480 pixels horizontally, which is just insufficient for reading non-reflowed PDF files). Models like the Dell Axim x50v/x51v severely lack in the latter two respects, and they have a considerably smaller screen. Not to mention the just-announced 2.8…3" (W)VGA models from Gigabyte, HTC, Acer / E-TEN or Sony-Ericsson: they’re far worse suited for high-resolution e-book / PDF reading than these PDA’s even because of their much smaller screen.
Note that, as has also been explained HERE, I've painted a comparatively rosy picture for the iPAQ 210 for the following reason: there are only two VGA devices out there with quality (let's forget about the outdated, WM2003SE-only and washed-out Toshi e830) 4" screens. VGA on a 2.8" (MDA Compact IV, E-Ten, Gigabyte etc.) are more of a joke and in practice is pretty much useless; so is WVGA on a 3" screen (S-E X1). This is why my review is rosier than it would be if there were some decent (!) 4" VGA alternatives - apart from the hx4700, of course. (And the HTC x7510 isn't an alternative at all, particularly size- and price-wise.) The same stands for the PXA310 architecture, which already is FAR better at playing back AVC content than the lousy, heavily outdated PXA270 in the hx4700 (or, for that matter, the brand-new x7510).
This is also mentioned in the Verdict (and the intro) above, but I stress it once more. The reason for my recommending the 210 is simply because there aren't better 4" VGA devices out there and, therefore, one needs to learn to live with its problems. If you do not need a 4" VGA device and can live with even a 2.8" model, you have a lot more models to choose from. If you do need 4" because you want to use it as a high-resolution PDF reader, Opera Mini rendered by Jbed with readable fonts etc., your best choice, today, is definitely the iPAQ 210 and it simply has no alternatives. (Except for the predecessor, the HP iPAQ hx4700, upgraded to WM6.1 if you don't mind the touchpad, the inferior PXA270-based architecture, the lack of SDHC and the other disadvantages it has. Of course, as has also been explained, it has advantages over the iPAQ 210 too: most importantly, the touchscreen sensitivity and the non-plastic, much thinner body.)

(reserved for future use / additions / updates)

best review on the web for the ipaq 210 series

That's a fantastic review, full of the sort of detail that users actually want to know. Great job!

akyriak said:
best review on the web for the ipaq 210 series
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Just published a somewhat extended version.

A revised, updated version posted.

UPDATE (05/05/2008):
1. There’re some additional speed comparisons HERE stating the 210 is faster than the hx4700 in everyday situations.
2. I also need to emphasize the 210 has 128Mbytes of RAM, unlike the hx4700. If you’re a power user, this may be advantageous – you can keep many apps open at the same time without having to close any of them (or let the system shut down some arbitrarily).
3. To see how usable a connection to an external cellular phone is, I’ve made some long-time HSDPA tests with the v21 Nokia N95. It worked just great; after downloading 300 Mbytes (and uploading about 40), the charge meter still showed about 4 bars on the Nokia, meaning it still retained about 20-40% of its charge. This means you can download about 500 Mbytes with one charge over HSDPA if you use the 210 with the Nokia N95 with its latest firmware. (Note that the figures may wildly vary with UMTS or, even worse, GPRS / EDGE only. With them, you will most probably encounter far worse battery life – after all, UMTS and HSDPA streaming / download consumes approximately the same power but the net throughput of HSDPA is, of course, much higher – even over a non-EDR Bluetooth modem connection, where it’s restricted to 72 kbytes/s, while the N95, at least in Vodafone’s network, is currently capable of downloading at about 250 kbytes/s over HSDPA.) The network conditions through this were excellent, with strong signal and, at most, walking speeds (some of the tests have been conducted while taking a walk).
4. I’ve continued making some serious power usage tests to find out both the power consumption of the wireless units and the PXA310 CPU. (After all, the major selling point of the new PXA310 architecture is the allegedly much lower power consumption.)
The results are acceptable but in no way stellar. All the tests have been measured under exactly the same circumstances: no CF / SD cards; minimal backlight WITHOUT enabling auto-brightness (which would have further decreased the backlight) etc. and are, consequently, usable for at least relative ratio computation. I’ve tried to make at least two tests of all tests, each lasting at least one hour long (with some tests, I’ve waited for three hours). All percentages are given in the voltage level decrease in an hour.
~0% CPU usage, no wireless activity: 8% / hour
100% CPU usage (Orions), no speaker, just idling (but still consuming 100% CPU time): 18% / hour
100% CPU usage (Orions), A2DP sound & actively playing: 24% / hour
YouTube & CorePlayer, HSDPA via non-EDR BT: 18 (with A2DP)…22% (with headphones at 50% volume) / hour
YouTube, Wi-Fi (with built-in speaker at max volume): 28 % / hour
The latter figure, incidentally, is pretty much in correspondence with the 3:28 total runtime with the Wi-Fi multimedia streaming test in Adama D. Brown’s review (see section “High Drain Test” HERE)
The Wi-Fi-less (Bluetooth only) YouTube figures are somewhat lower than the Orions figures. The reason for this is simple: when playing back YouTube, the CPU usage generally isn’t at 100%, unlike with Orions, but at 80%. This is even lower when YouTube is buffering (but NOT during every single buffering!); see the low valleys in the following acbTaskMan shot (look for the red line!):
All in all, efficiency- and power saving-wise, I’ve expected far-far more of the new PXA310 platform. (This is in no way HP’s fault!) Remember my previous power usage tests: there, I’ve measured (see section 1.3.2 Stream formats HERE) about 70% more net power usage with high CPU usage. These tests clearly show the PXA310 still consumes way more power with high CPU loads than running under light load. In this respect, even the old and otherwise heavily outdated Samsung SC32442 architecture is far better (again, see my power measurement results HERE, in the second part of UPDATE (01/03/2008) at the bottom).
5. Finally, I’ve made some serious recharging measurements too (making several tests with radically different starting charge level to be absolutely sure the results aren’t dependent on the initial charge level). The main reason for this was my wanting to see how different USB rechargers compare to the 2A wall charger coming with the 210. I’ve tested two USB rechargers: a 0.5A (coming with the BlackBerry 8800) and a 1A one (coming with the HTC Wizard).
USB recharging:
Fast:
1A Wizard charger: 24% / hour
0.5A BB: 24% / hour
As can be seen, there’s absolutely no difference between the 0.5A BB and the 1A Wizard charger. Given that recharging a 2200 mAh battery takes definitely more than 0.5A (but in no way close to 1A) to be finished in 4.16 hours, this shows the BB charger is able to provide more than 0.5 Ampers. The results, on the other hand, also show that there isn’t much point in using USB chargers capable of providing more than 1A because it simply won’t be made advantage of.
Slow:
0.5A BB: 4% / hour
Yes, the slow recharging rate is indeed very slow: one-sixth of the fast charging. Assuming the latter uses (up to) 600 mA, this means slow recharging restricts the current to around 100 mA. This will, on the other hand, surely be compatible with every USB port out there – even those of other PDA’s like the Pocket Loox 720
Wall charger test
Finally, the 2A wall charger test, ~38% / hour, clearly shows the factory iPAQ charger will always be 60% faster than any USB wall charger. This is really-really useful to know. Now, I only hope HP does release a cinch -> 24-pin synch slot power converter to greatly speed up the recharging with traditional 2A iPAQ chargers. These came as a factory accessory with all past models (or, at least, the iPAQ h2210 and the hx4700) – it’s probably because of the lack of the cradle that HP has left it out from the factory pack.

UPDATE (05/05/2008, later the same day):
1. In THIS MoDaCo thread, I further explain in which cases preferring a non-converged solution (in this case, the iPAQ 210 used together with a Nokia N-series phone for their excellent multimedia / GPS / camera / HSDPA features and lightweight, sleek body) can be a much better solution than going for a converged device like the i-mate 9502.
2. HERE and HERE, BrightHand forum members emilb and David Hettel have posted some additional information on the recharging situation. Emilb’s measurements and David Hettel’s experience state the same as me: if you really want to quickly (!) recharge your iPAQ, forget using USB wall chargers, regardless of their performance.
3. In THIS thread, some of us asked whether the round barrel plug to 24 pin dock plug to speed up recharging (avoiding the use of slow USB even wall chargers) is available from anywhere. You may want to keep an eye on it (but I’ll too announce when there’s any way of obtaining them).
4. AximSite forum member rush214 explained there is a round barrel plug to 24 pin dock plug converter in the box coming with the 210. (Sorry, didn't know about that as I've received the 210 without a box.)

Cube i7 CM hands-on review: a cost-efficient convertible tablet powered by Core M

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Earlier this year, Cube astonished us all with the i7, also known as the first Core M powered tablet from a Chinese brand. The tablet itself enjoyed great amount of success in the domestic market, winning numerous awards and receiving more than 99% of positive customer feedback on JD.com (higher than the iPad Air 2). However, the RMB3,599 ($565) original price was a little bit uninviting for consumers with a lower budget. Trying to attract more buyers, Cube released two more Core-M powered Windows tablets - the i7 Stylus and the i7 CM, and priced them at RMB1,999 ($314) and RMB2,499 ($392) respectively.
As Cube has a tendency to confuse the buyers with their product naming, we feel that we need to help our readers distinguish the many Cube tablets with “i7” in their names.
The Cube i7 CM is considered as a lite version of the flagship Cube i7. It is powered by the same Core M 5Y10c processor and 4GB RAM, and has the same 11.6-inch Full HD IPS display and Windows 8 professional, only the SSD has been downsized to 64GB, and the dual 4G LTE support (TDD and FDD) has been downgraded to dual 3G (WCDMA and TD-SCDMA) support. Compared to the only slightly shrunk specs, the price drop seems quite enormous.
Cube i7 CM specs:
• OS: Windows 10 Professional
• Screen: 11.6-inch IPS, 10-point multi-touch, IGZO
• Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (16:9)
• CPU: Intel Broadwell Core-M 5Y10c
• CPU Frequency: 0.8GHz (Base clock) – 2.0GHZ (Turbo clock)
• GPU: Intel HD Graphics 5300
• RAM / Storage: 4GB DDR3L / 64GB SSD
• Function: WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, 4G, USB Host, HDMI
• WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot
• GSM: band2, band3, band5, band8
• TDS: band34, band39
• WCDMA: band1, band5
• Camera: 5MP back camera, 2MP front camera
• Battery: 7.4V – 5,000mAh
• Ports: Micro SD Card Slot, Micro USB 3.0 Port, Micro SIM Card Slot, 3.5mm Headphone Jack, DC Charging Port
• Size: 297*180*9.1mm, Weight: 840g
Retail Package
All the high-end Windows tablets from Cube have very beautiful and premium packaging, the i7 CM is no different. Inside the box we found an i7 CM tablet, a DC charger of 12V-2.5A, an OTG adapter, a user manual, a warranty card, a VIP card, and a quality certificate.
My test unit comes with a keyboard base, which is sold separately.
Design and build
The i7 CM doesn’t bring anything new in its design, instead it has the exact same chassis as the original Cube i7. The front is dominated by an 11.6-inch IPS capacitive screen, you can find the touch-sensitive Windows Key below and a 2MP front-facing camera as well as the light sensor above.
All the physical buttons and ports are hosted on the sides. You can find a power/standby key and a volume rocker on the top side.
Like the i7, the i7 CM is an incredibly promising tablet when it comes to connectivity. It has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Micro SD card slot which supports cards up to 128GB, a Micro-HDMI port for an external display and – best of all – a micro USB 3.0 port as well as a Micro SIM card slot. With these two, it can connect to any USB 2.0 or 3.0 device that will run on Windows and access the internet almost anywhere. Fortunately, the i7 is charging through an independent DC port, and I personally prefer this design rather than charging through the Micro USB 3.0 port because we often need to use the USB port to connect to other USB devices such as a mouse or external storages. The only negative is that unlike the dual 4G SIM card slot on the original i7, the slot here on the i7 CM can only support 3G network (WCDMA and TD-SCDMA). But in a world where every smartphone supports mobile network sharing through Wi-Fi hotspot, it is not really an issue.
Look at the bottom of the tablet and you’ll spot a 5-contact connector which connects the keyboard base magnetically. With a keyboard base attached Cube i7 could rival the Surface 3 as a convertible ultrabook-style device.
The rear side of the i7 CM is a magnalium plate painted in matte blue, which gives the tablet a premium and expensive look. Unfortunately, the coat proves to have very little resistance to scratches, the unit that I am testing has already got 2 scratches on it back. The bottom side is also very easy to scratch when you try to insert the keyboard base into the tablet.
The build quality is extremely good, especially for a tablet from a second-tier Chinese brand. It is obviously not altogether as epic as the Surface Pro 3, which includes a flexible kickstand and a full USB 3.0 port, but it is already great.
Screen and sound
1920 x 1080 is the new baseline resolution for a high-end tablet, despite the operating system it runs. So we get a full HD 1080p 11.6-inch screen on the i7 CM. That’s tangibly larger than the screen on your average tablet, bad news for pixel density, but good news if you plan to get some work done, as that little extra bit of screen real estate makes it easier to see what you’re doing if you’re working on Office documents, browsing complex web pages or running several desktop applications on the foreground. With that said, we still prefer the 12-inch display on the Surface Pro 3, the 3:2 screen aspect ratio makes better sense for business use, which is the ultimate selling point of Windows tablets.
Quality of the i7 CM’s screen, meanwhile, is extremely good. Images appear detailed with no jagged text, and it proved very responsive to touch in our tests, and while the display isn’t the brightest we’ve seen – particularly when you compared it to the ultra-bright QHD display found on the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro– it does have wide viewing angles and an impressive richness and depth of color to compensate. It’s an excellent screen for entertainment, and a wonderful screen for productivity, as well.
We had mixed feelings about the audio performance of the i7 CM. The sound from the i7 CM’s built-in speakers (located on the left and right sides) is clearer and more detailed than you generally get from a tablet, with a wider stereo sound. Unfortunately it’s also a little thin, a little bit wearing and doesn’t offer much in the volume department, particularly if you’re playing music or watching some Action films. The Cube i7 is nowhere near what the Dolby enhanced Acer ICONIA W700 can do in terms of the volume and bass.
Plugging in a pair of high-end headphones could make a huge difference, as the Realtek ALC269 sound chip could drive the headphones at an ear-splitting level, easily blowing your average tablets and smartphones out of the water.
Keyboard Base
The keyboard base can easily be attached to the i7 CM through the 5-contact magnetic connectors, instantly turning the i7 CM into a full laptop. Sadly, the base can only make the i7 CM stand with a fixed angle, which can be uncomfortable for the users sometimes.
Here, the keys aren’t as squished as the ones on the Microsoft Surface Type Cover. The i7 CM’s keyboard is more expansive, with no shrunken or undersized keys. It didn’t take me long before I was typing at my usual brisk pace.
The keys offer decent travel, with every keystroke, I make a loud “clack,” letting anyone around me know I’m getting stuff done. Just so you know, I’m typing this sentence from the i7 CM. The thing is sitting on my lap, even. And you know what? I’m doing quite alright. This isn’t my favorite keyboard, but I do feel comfortable enough. Also, the i7 CM’s keyboard base is not as flimsy as the Surface Type Cover, Instead it is as sturdy and comfortable as most laptop keyboards.
The Cube i7 CM’s keyboard base brings a touchpad as well, and that’s a good thing, because the latest Windows 10 update made the OS much more mouse-and-keyboard friendly. Even though the touchpad is pretty precise and responsive, it’s still many steps behind the sort of glass touchpad you’d find on the MacBook Air or many Windows Ultrabooks. It sometimes takes multiple tries to get two-finger scrolling to work. Ditto for clicking and dragging windows and other objects around the screen. Other times, I accidentally navigated backward out of a web page when I was really trying to do some other sort of gesture. If you intend the i7 to be your daily driver, you are better off with a wireless or Bluetooth mouse.
Besides the standard functions a keyboard is meant to offer, the i7’s keyboard base also provides the users with two additional full-sized USB ports, making it easier to connect the i7 to a mouse and storage devices while saving you from the burden of always carrying the OTG adapter.
Software
The i7 CM ships with licensed Windows 8.1 Professional which, of course, is more adept at business tasks and networking than the Android and iOS. Fortunately, the i7 CM doesn't come pre-loaded with bloatware. Users can install the software they need right out of the box without having to spend time uninstalling unnecessary software or be left with annoying antivirus software subscription popup notices.
While most of the Atom-based Windows tablets such as the Cube i10 include one year subscription of Microsoft Office 365, the i7 CM only comes with a trial for Microsoft Office, you need to pony up to get this critical productivity software.
As we were testing this tablet, we got the official OTA upgrade to Windows 10, which is believed by many to be the best version of Windows yet, and greatly enhances the experiences of the i7 CM in both desktop and tablet modes.
Below are the top ten improvements we found in Windows 10:
1. Include 4 themes matching the following: Windows Classic, Luna, Aero, and Metro.
2. Allow customized placement of the start button.
3. Add a collapse button for the Metro Tiles on the start menu.
4. Include a thorough recycle context menu option for the Recycle Bin.
5. Add the option to add and remove extra taskbars to act as program docks.
6. Include an improved version of the NTFS file system that prevents file fragmenting.
7. Implement more choices of animations for minimizing and maximizing windows.
8. Provide an option for overclocking or underclocking and controllable fan speeds if supported.
9. Include the option to make a password encrypted partition and an option to hide/show available partitions in the disk manager.
10. Improve legacy support for older hardware and older software.
Besides the improvements mentioned above, the Windows 10 also brings many new features, the most talked about are Cortana and Edge.
Cortana
Cortana brings plenty of notable features to Windows 10. While setting it up, you can choose to have Cortana always listen for your commands (enabled by saying "Hey Cortana!"). You can ask her about basic things like the current weather or what's on your schedule, or you could have her search the web using Bing. Cortana can answer some queries without even launching a web browser. If you're not a fan of voice commands, you can also type in queries into the Cortana search box on the taskbar, and you can choose to have her only activate voice commands when you hit a button.
Cortana's true strength, much like Alex on Amazon's Echo, is her ability to handle voice commands at any moment. If you're in the middle of a work document, for example, you can tell Cortana to set a quick reminder or look something up without interrupting your workflow. Siri requires manual activation, unless your iOS device is plugged in, and while Google Now has become more widely available for voice commands on Android phones, it's still not as reliable as an always-on assistant.
Inspired by actual assistants, Microsoft also gave Cortana a notebook that contains all of your personal preferences. Many of them she learns over time, but you can also hop straight into the notebook and tell Cortana things like your food preferences, and what sort of restaurant you prefer. All of that will help her return more personalized answers for future queries. Cortana is also part of Microsoft's plan to bring its services to all of your devices: Microsoft is bringing it to Android soon and iOS eventually, and in each case the app will include Cortana's notebook of your preferences.
Cortana handles voice commands about as well as Siri and Google Now. It's pretty accurate when it comes to recognizing your voice input (although that also depends heavily on the quality of your microphone), and in many cases it even fetched more useful results than Siri. It's not nearly as preemptive with information as Google's offering, though. That assistant is smart enough to warn me when I should leave for my next meeting, or when my latest Amazon orders have arrived. Those are things we'll eventually see on every virtual assistant, but at the moment Google Now remains the smartest one overall, even if it's not much of a conversationalist. Cortana is the most human-sounding assistant; so there's that.
Edge
If you ever wanted Microsoft to just give up on Internet Explorer and create a web browser from scratch, Edge may be just what you're looking for. It forgoes all of the legacy protocols, like ActiveX, that turned Internet Explorer into a slow and insecure beast. And it takes a few lessons from Google's Chrome with a minimalist style and speedy browser engine. In fact, I ended up preferring Edge to Chrome in my testing, mainly because Google's browser has become a major memory hog over the years.
Edge may be the most elegant piece of software to come from Microsoft. Its interface is simple: tabs on the top; back, forward and refresh buttons below; and an address bar. The latter is smarter than other browsers as it also features Cortana (without the voice commands). You can type in questions and often get them answered right within Edge's location bar -- no need to hit Enter to complete your search. That's something Google has been dabbling with in Chrome, but Edge takes it to another level.
You can manage your Favorites, Reading List entries (articles you save to read later), History and Downloads from Edge's Hub, which mostly stays out of the way until you need it. Microsoft also gave Edge annotating capabilities: You can highlight and mark up web pages any way you like (the Surface's stylus comes in handy for this) and send them off to Evernote with just a few clicks. Those marked-up pages also retain your notes when you visit them again.
Performance
The Cube i7 CM is powered by an Intel Core M-5Y10c CPU, which has a base clock of 0.8GHZ and a Turbo clock of 2.0GHZ, Aided by the incredibly beefy Graphics HD 5300, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 64GB Solid State Drive, it is surprisingly fleet of foot. For those who don’t know much about Intel’s Core M-5Y10c processor, it belongs to the new Broadwell architecture for high-performance Windows tablets. Its strength is the high per-MHz performance with a very low power consumption compared with the Haswell precursors. The TDP is 4.5 Watts; the comparable Core i5-4202Y forerunner still had 11.5 Watts. The integrated HD Graphics 5300 (100 to 800 MHz) now replaces the HD 4200.
Given that the Core M is a lower-powered chip designed in large part to improve battery life, it's no surprise that the performance takes a slight hit versus the fourth and fifth generation Intel Core processors you'll find in most every other Ultrabook. The truth is, though, that's only borne out in benchmark tests. Yes, there's a bit of a dip there, especially in graphics tests, but in everyday use, the i7 CM felt just as snappy as any other skinny laptops. Bootup takes just nine seconds, which is about as fast as you're going get on a notebook priced twice as much.
However, the Fritz Chess Benchmark and many other benchmark scores show that the i7 CM’s performance is superior to the Acer ICONIA W700, which is powered by a Core i5-3317U CPU.
The AS SSD benchmark returned sequential read and write speeds of 450MB/sec and 73MB/sec respectively, while the read speed is almost on par with the 504MB/sec of the original i7 and the scores of most ultra-books, the write speed is only half as high as the 139MB/sec we got on the original Cube i7. With that said, it is already much faster than the eMMc in the Microsoft Surface 3 and many other entry-level Windows tablets.
Although the i7 CM is considered as a tablet, for a more all-day experience, you’ll want to add a keyboard and touch pad or mouse. Cube makes it easy, with a snap-on keyboard base that transforms the combined system into a traditional clamshell laptop.
Unlike the entry-level Atom Bay-trail powered Windows tablets, which normally struggle with heavier desktop applications. The Cube i7 CM is built for serious tasks, most of the heavy desktop apps worked brilliantly.
The i7 CM is clearly not a system designed for heavy 3D game lovers, although it is able to run most of the 3D games in acceptable frame rates. But as it is fanless, the heat could be overwhelming if you keep running graphic-intense games for a long period of time.
But if we are talking about business and everyday use, the Cube i7 CM, when paired with the keyboard base and a mouse, is nearly the perfect choice. After receiving the i7 CM, I can finally leave my 15.6-inch HP laptop, which weighs over 3KG with the battery and the charger at home during business trips. With the keyboard base connected, the i7 CM can do everything a normal laptop does, and offers a better battery life. The touchscreen can also come in handy when dealing with some special tasks.
The i7 CM might have been marketed as a business-focused tablet, but its potential in entertainment and social networking is also limitless. With countless desktop media consuming apps and traditional PC games at our disposal, we no longer need our iPads or Android tablets for tasks such as streaming TV shows and live sports, or browsing the updates on Facebook or Twitter. The large display of the i7 CM can even help you do many things simultaneously.
Battery Life
As power-efficiency is one of the greatest selling points of the Core M processors, you might expect an amazing battery life from the i7 CM. In fact, though, the runtime is not really all that exciting, especially when you compare it to those Atom-based models. With the keyboard base removed, the i7 CM held up through 7 hours and 21 minutes of continuous video playback. That's only ranked in the middle of the battery performances of today’s super-skinny laptops.
In a test which imitated the real everyday use, we opened 5-6 Google Chrome tabs, streaming high bitrate video on YouTube, with some social networking applications running in the background, we managed to run the i7 CM for 5 hours and 15 minutes. This may not look impressive for a tablet, but it’s definitely a very solid result for a system PC.
After a certain point, I suppose, you either need to make room for a bigger battery, or settle for slightly shorter runtime. That's a reasonable trade-off, but I also wouldn't want the battery life to be much shorter than this.
Cameras and Microphone
2 megapixels at the front, 5 megapixels on the rear. How do both cameras perform? The 5-megapixel primary camera just doesn’t deliver, with distorted colors and grainy snaps even in daylight. The front-facing camera is not good, either, but it should suffice for Skype chats.
Recordings with the stereo microphone are affected by a consistent noise that sounds like a subtle rustling. However, the voice is recorded with an almost consistent volume no matter whether from a distance of 30 centimeters or two meters.
We Liked
The i7 CM offers a lot of power in a compact and portable form factor. The 11.6-inch IPS screen with full HD resolution is quite good, and on maximum brightness it is even usable outdoors.
The keyboard base of the i7 CM is probably the one of the best tablet keyboard docks out there, with comfortable key size and decent key travel, and also two extra USB 2.0 ports to enhance connectivity.
In daily use, the i7 CM could become a relatively affordable tablet that replaces a laptop, tablet, and desktop and allows enterprises to focus on the task at hand rather than having to manage files, synchronize documents, and track changes to files if they were to use different computing devices.
We disliked
While the i7 CM delivers great performance in both tablet and laptop mode, usage as a tablet, especially when it is held in portrait orientation is a little awkward. Because of the 16:9 aspect ratio, portrait orientation made the tablet a little too long to be comfortable. In this view, reading letter-sized PDFs, digital magazines, and ebooks left a huge amount of black letterboxing at the top and bottom of the screen.
Additionally, the 11.6-inch widescreen display feels a lot more cramped than the 12.2-inch 3:2 aspect ratio of the newer Surface Pro 3. Personally, I wish Dell had gone with a screen with 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratio, which feels more comfortable to deal with business tasks.
The keyboard base, as heavy as it is, doesn’t have a battery in it, so it has to rely on the power output from the tablet, thus shortens the battery life of the i7 CM.
Final verdict
The i7 CM offers a nice balance of performance and portability in a travel-friendly size. It allows you to access CPU and GPU taxing apps which the Atom-based tablets or convertibles just couldn’t handle, and also gives you the kind of portability you can’t find in business laptops. With a $392 price tag (the keyboard base is sold separately for $62.6), it is definitely much more cost-efficient than similar products from more celebrated brands. The Lenovo Yoga 3 11, which also features a Core M 5Y10c processor and 11.6-inch display, costs $799. The Microsoft Surface 3 (64GB model), with a weakerl Atom Z Cherry-trail processor, a slower eMMc drive and only 2GB RAM, is priced at $499, and you need to spend $129 for the Type Cover.
For those who relies heavily on horsepower and performance, the confines of an 11.6-inch display may be a little too rigid to maximize productivity. Opening more than a few windows on the small display will trigger claustrophobia. If you need to be more productive, there are bigger ultrabooks with touchscreen, such as the Lenovo Yoga 13 and the Dell XPS 13, but they all require you to dig a lot deeper into your pocket.

Thanks For review
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