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PDA Reviews HP iPAQ hx4700 & iPAQ hx4705 Pocket PC
Review posted September 30, 2004 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief The iPAQ hx4700 has been one of the most anticipated Pocket PCs of 2004. What's the big deal about this model? It's one of the few that offers a VGA display and it's an iPAQ, the most popular Pocket PC brand. Beyond its gorgeous screen, the iPAQ has the fastest processor currently available on a PDA and features both Bluetooth and WiFi. The hx4700 runs the Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition OS with native support for VGA resolution and both portrait and landscape orientations. While larger than most PDAs, it's by no means a behemoth and is quite portable. It's a tad smaller than the Toshiba e805 and e830, but larger than the compact ASUS A730, ASUS A730W, and Dell Axim X50v VGA Pocket PCs. However, the iPAQ has a 4" LCD while the ASUS and Dell have a 3.7" LCD, so the iPAQ must be larger to house that display. In the US there are three VGA Pocket PCs on the market: the iPAQ hx4700 line, the Dell Axim X50v (should be available 11/2004) and the ASUS A730. What about others? the Toshiba e830 is available only in Canada and certain European countries and the Pocket LOOX VGA unit isn't sold in the US. The iPAQ hx4705 is the same as the hx4700. Though HP's web site lists one more application on the hx4700 (WorldMate), it wasn't on our hx4700. HP uses different ending numbers to denote whether the unit was sold in the consumer vs. corporate channel. We received the hx4700 model for review and will use those model numbers interchangeably.
Features at a Glance This iPAQ Pocket PC is chock full of features and impressive specs. It has a 624MHz Intel processor, 64 megs of RAM, 128 megs of flash memory with 80 available to the user as the iPAQ File Store, a 4" VGA display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11b wireless networking, an SD slot and a Compact Flash card slot. It's the first Pocket PC to have a trackpad rather than a directional pad for navigation. The iPAQ hx4700 uses what HP now calls the "universal connector", not to be confused with Palm's universal connector. It's the same connector used on the older iPAQ 3900 series models, as well as the iPAQ 5455, 5555, rx3115, rx3715, rz1715 and iPAQ 6315 Pocket PC phone. This means you can use chargers and accessories designed for those units' sync ports with the hx4700 models as long as drivers are available. In the Box The iPAQ comes with a USB sync cradle, world charger, snap on translucent screen cover, software CD, manual and stylus. HP had redesigned their cradle and the section that sits directly below the PDA is removable, so you need only switch that part to use cradle with a different iPAQ sporting the universal connector. It doesn't have a slot to charge a spare battery, but if you buy a spare standard or extended battery it comes with its own charging base.
Above: the included iPAQ cradle. Design and Ergonomics Like other iPAQs released for the Fall of 2004, the iPAQ hx4700 has a rectangular design that's more business like than eye catching or sexy. It does look very modern, and with its dark slate-like design, would fit in well in a Star Trek episode. It's finished in metallic charcoal and has black accents on the sides, top and bottom. The unit feels OK in hand, though the straight lines and width aren't the most comfy for even my large hands. The unit has an integrated translucent gray plastic flip cover that protects the screen. It mounts on the left and is removable. The iPAQ's body is made of magnesium-alloy, so it should be durable. |
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The most novel thing about the iPAQ's industrial design is its trackpad, which replaces the traditional PDA directional pad. The trackpad is made by Synaptics, who makes many of the trackpads used in notebooks. In fact, the trackpad has two modes, one of which mimics the behavior of a notebook trackpad. This is called "cursor mode" and you can move the pointer arrow around on-screen using your finger. When in cursor mode you can double-tap on an icon to launch a program, tap and hold to drag items or double-tap to open a folder. If you don't like cursor mode, you can use the Synaptics touchpad app (or press and hold the address book button) to switch to "navigation mode" which is the default. Navigation mode makes the trackpad behave like a traditional d-pad, minus tactile feedback. You can tap on one of the four raised points to move up, down, left and right. It doesn't support diagonal movement which won't thrill action gamers, nor will the lack of tactile feedback. While the trackpad is interesting, it is in some ways redundant since the display itself is touch sensitive and navigating with the stylus or finger on screen is more efficient. The good part about the touch pad is that it won't suffer mechanical wear as do some PDA touch pads that get soft after many months or suffer paint wear. Also, particularly when the touch pad is in cursor mode. you can easily navigate on-screen without having to whip out the stylus or open the flip cover.
The four standard application buttons are designed a bit differently too: rather than being actual raised buttons, they're flush with the trackpad area. There are switches underneath each of these buttons, and you will feel them click as you press down, so you do get tactile feedback. The flush buttons may not be a gamer's first choice but they do handily solve the problem of accidental button presses turning on the unit or launching an app unintentionally. Speaking of this, HP has a button lock control panel that prevents anything other than the power button from turning on the unit when enabled.
The iPAQ is fairly thin, as you can see from this right side view. |
The iPAQ hx4700 and the ASUS A730 VGA Pocket PC. |
The CF and SD slots are located on the top edge of the iPAQ, as are the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, stylus silo and the power switch. The power switch is narrow and is flush with the body, so you won't accidentally turn on the unit. On the left you'll find the record button and the removable flip cover attachment point. There are no controls or ports on the right side, and the sync port and battery release latches are located on the bottom edge. The removable battery lives under a door on the rear, while the speaker is located in the black plastic cap above the screen and the mic is located on the front right face below the screen. Oddly, the IR port is located on the bottom edge. The three LEDs on the top left indicate wireless radio status, charging status and alarm reminders.
VGA Display and Sound
The iPAQ has a VGA 640 x 480 resolution display, while standard QVGA Pocket PCs have QVGA (quarter VGA) 240 x 320 resolution displays. That means you'll see more on screen, but not four times more, even though VGA is four times higher resolution that QVGA. Why? Microsoft's implementation of VGA is designed to make the display very attractive and readable rather than cram true VGA into a small screen. That means those with good or poor eyes can use a VGA Pocket PC, but if you were hoping to see four times more on your screen, you'll be disappointed. Note that this is true of all VGA Pocket PCs running Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, and is not hx4700 specific. If you do have a hankering for true VGA and have excellent eyes, you can download the free SE_VGA utility which allows you to run a VGA Pocket PC in standard Microsoft VGA mode, true VGA or QVGA. However, unless you have excellent eyes, you'll discover why Microsoft didn't go with a true VGA experience: even on a 4" display, it's not easy to see things or read text. Do check out Tweaks2K and the hack listed on their site to get individual apps running in true VGA mode. That way you can run the device in normal (and readable) standard MS VGA mode, but have certain apps such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, NetFront 3.1 and ebook readers running in true VGA mode.
Below are screen shots of Pocket Internet Explorer on the Dell X30 (QVGA), iPAQ in standard Microsoft VGA mode and the iPAQ using SE_VGA.
Dell Axim X30, QVGA display, font size set to small in IE. |
iPAQ: Standard VGA view, font size set to medium in IE. |
iPAQ running SE_VGA utility |
The display is absolutely gorgeous: color saturated, contrasty and sharp. It's one of the best and one of the most vivid I've seen on a PDA and is the most color accurate. It has an automatic brightness feature which adjusts backlight based on ambient light, and you can also set brightness manually. The display has a slight blue color bias and is bright, though not exceptionally so. Unlike the first iPAQs with auto brightness adjustment such as the 3900 models, auto brightness isn't overly twitchy and won't drive you crazy.
Microsoft's Screen control panel allows you to rotate the display on the fly from portrait to right handed landscape or left handed landscape. You can also press and hold the Calendar button to change screen orientation. There is a small delay on all VGA Pocket PCs when switching from portrait to landscape, and the iPAQ is no exception. You can also set the text to one of five sizes. Great stuff: those of us who are fond of tiny fonts and have great eyes can have our way, as can those who need larger text.
When running applications that aren't written for VGA, the OS uses pixel doubling to stretch QVGA screens to fill the entire display. Microsoft did an excellent job, and pixel doubled apps looked sharp and ran well. When it comes to games and other applications, keep in mind that you won't see more stuff on screen when gaming, but rather will see the same stuff you'd see on a QVGA device unless the developer has released a VGA version with enhanced graphics. Games will run in the orientations and resolutions they're coded to support, and the operating system's resolution and screen orientation setting won't make a game run in true VGA or landscape unless it was written to do so.
How is graphics performance? You can take a look at our benchmarks below to see the actual numbers. Note that VGA devices have to do four times the work of a QVGA model, so VGA devices don't benchmark as high in graphics tests. That doesn't mean they're slow. The iPAQ is fast at screen re-draws and does very well playing back video.
Like all Pocket PCs, the iPAQ can play MP3s and other audio through its built in speaker or through stereo headphones attached to the 3.5mm headphone jack. The jack is dual purpose offering stereo audio out and mono mic input. We tested it with a 3.5mm stereo earbud headset with mic (3 ring) and it worked for stereo playback as well as voice recording. In fact, sound recordings using the headset mic sounded much better than those recorded through the iPAQ's own mic. The iPAQ comes with the pocket version of Windows Media Player 9 which can play MP3s and Windows Media format movies (ASF and WMV). If you'd like to watch movies in other formats such as MPEG1, AVI and DivX, 3rd party apps are available. And of course there are several MP3 players, some of which are reviewed here.
Horsepower and Performance
The iPAQ runs on the Intel Bulverde PXA270 processor at 624MHz, which is currently the fastest processor found in a PDA. It has 64 megs of RAM with 55 available to the user and a huge 128 megs of flash ROM with 80 megs available as the iPAQ File Store for your use. While flash ROM is slower than RAM, it will survive a hard reset and complete battery drain, which is why it's called persistent or non-volatile storage. There's more than one kind of flash ROM too: NAND, which is about as fast as an SD card and is used on most PDAs, and Intel StrataFlash which is a bit faster than NAND but still slower than RAM (SDRAM). HP says that the iPAQ hx4700 line uses the faster StrataFlash memory. FileStore speeds are still quite good and make the perfect home for your apps and data, especially important data that need survive a hard reset.
The iPAQ hx4700 has both SD and Compact Flash (CF) slots, and CF slots are harder to come by in recent years as the price of SD media drops and PDAs get too small to house that slot. The SD slot supports SDIO and SDIO Now!, and the CF slot works with both type I and type II cards. The CF slot opens up networking options so you can use CF 56k dial up modems, cellular wireless cards like the Sprint 2031CF and wired Ethernet cards which aren't available in SD format. In addition, while SD memory cards are generally available up to 1 gig capacity, you can get CF cards up to 4 gigs.
Benchmarks We use Spb Benchmark to test PDAs. You can see that the iPAQ does very well on benchmark performance and is faster than the Dell Axim X30 also running at 624MHz on the same processor. However, the Dell gets the overall higher benchmark index score thanks to its faster graphics numbers. Why is the Dell faster at graphics? Because it's driving a lower resolution QVGA display while the iPAQ is running at VGA which requires more processing power and video memory. How does the unit feel? Very fast! Whether using PIM apps, editing a Pocket Word document, playing videos or gaming, the unit is very responsive. If you're a power user, you should be pleased with this PDA. Video Playback and Gaming Video playback is a dream on this unit. The 4" VGA display is absolutely wonderful for watching videos stretched to full screen. Once you try the iPAQ, you won't want to go back to video on a QVGA Pocket PC. We tested the unit with PocketTV Enterprise and BetaPlayer, two excellent video applications which have optimizations for the iPAQ's ATI graphics processor, as well as the built-in Pocket version of Windows Media Player 9. PocketTV
plays MPEG1 files and we threw our usual test files at it: "The
Chosen" (a
neat BMW flick with Clive Owen) which is a 4:26 minute long, 10
meg MPEG1 file recorded at 320 x 240, 308 kb/s. PocketTV played
the file at 23.98 fps with smooth video and perfectly synced audio.
We tested the Spider Man trailer file commonly found
on the web (240 x 136, 452Kb/s encoded MPEG 1 file) at 23.97 fps.
BetaPlayer is
an extremely fast open source free video player that supports MPEG1,
DivX and AVI files. It has similarities to PocketMVP, another free
open source player. But PocketMVP doesn't run well on the VGA iPAQ
and BetaPlayer did an awesome job. BetaPlayer played back "The
Chosen" with impressive benchmarks of: For the ultimate test, we tried our 700 k/bs encoded MPEG1 files on the iPAQ in full screen mode and they played back smoothly at near a perfect 24fps. These same files overwhelm many PDAs, but gave the hx4700 no problems. Excellent! It certainly equals the new Creative Zen Windows Portable Media Center in video playback while offering all the PDAs features we know and love. Both the iPAQ's gorgeous display and video benchmarks beat out the Dell Axim X50v VGA Pocket PC with Intel's 2700G graphics processor. The iPAQ has an ATI Imageon 3220 graphics chip, and these players have ATI optimizations which may help the iPAQ get the best numbers, along with HP's excellent video driver. Most recent games ran fine on the iPAQ. Again, if the games weren't designed for VGA mode, they will run in QVGA mode stretched to fill the entire screen using pixel doubling. Despite the stretching, games like most apps look quite good. We tested Bust 'Em 2, two new VGA games called Acky's XP Breakout and Meteor (a breakout game), Warfare Inc., SIM City2000, Blade of Betrayal, EverQuest and Metalion 2. They all ran well, but be sure to set Metalion 2 to slow speed because the game runs very fast on the 624MHz processor. |
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WiFi All Fall 2004 iPAQs (rx3000 series, hx4700 and the 6315) except the entry level iPAQ rz1715 have both WiFi and Bluetooth wireless networking. All use HP's new iPAQ Wireless as your one stop application for managing these wireless radios and their connections. The large round buttons turn each wireless radio on and off, and the other buttons allow you to manage each wireless connection's settings. The iPAQ hx4700 has built-in WiFi 802.11b wireless Ethernet networking. It has very good range even though it doesn't have an external antenna. The iPAQ uses the Windows Mobile Connection Manager (a part of the OS) to manage wireless connections, and the device supports 64 and 128 bit WEP encryption, WPA, 802.1x using PEAP, SmartCard or Certificates. It comes with the Windows Mobile Certificates applet for managing certificates. The connection worked reliably for us when connecting to access points (with and without WEP). Bluetooth The iPAQ has HP's Bluetooth Wizard (Widcomm 1.5.0 software) which has been our favorite for a few years since it's intuitive and easy to use. It walks you through connecting to a variety of devices, from your ActiveSync partner (if you have a USB Bluetooth adapter installed on your PC), to mobile phones to access points and GPS units. It even supports Bluetooth headsets using headset and handsfree profiles. You can ActiveSync wirelessly, connect to Bluetooth access points for Internet access, and transfer files to other Bluetooth enabled Pocket PCs and phones. The software is reliable and played nicely with a variety of Bluetooth devices. HP includes their new BT Phone Manager which makes it even easier to connect to a Bluetooth enabled cell phone for Internet access. The app walks you through getting connected to your phone and has many pre-sets for various carriers so you don't have to enter the dial string yourself. It has a window that mimics an LCD screen which tells you the connection status, call duration and amount of data transferred in a session. Nice! HP includes a desktop app that goes over the Net to find updates for new phones and carrier connection settings. These updates can be downloaded to the PDA when you sync. Note that you may have to do some tweaking: I used a Nokia N-Gage QD as my wireless modem via T-Mobile and the dialing string wasn't correct for my particular T-Mobile GPRS package. To be fair, T-Mobile has three different strings for three different GPRS Internet packages, so the software wouldn't have any idea which was right for me. |
The iPAQ Wireless application where you can turn wireless radios on/off and manage those connections. |
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Software Bundle The iPAQ comes with a nice software bundle, and much of it is in ROM so you won't use precious storage space installing software from the CD. Permanently installed in ROM are Ilium Software's Dockware ( a screen saver with calendar and photographic backgrounds), Westtek's ClearVue PowerPoint and PDF viewers, Bluetooth Phone Manager, HP Image Zone (image viewer and slide show app), HP Mobile Printing which allows you to print via network or Bluetooth to most printers, iPAQ Backup (Sprite Backup 3.02), TodayPanel Lite and Pocket Informant 5. Pocket Informant should be a big hit as a bundled item because it's one of the best and most popular PIM replacement suites on the market. PI manages your contacts, calendar, tasks and more. On the CD you'll find the ClearVue apps for viewed Word and Excel documents as well as many trial versions of other applications. Like all Pocket PCs running the Windows Mobile OS, the hx4700 models come with Pocket versions of Internet Explorer, Outlook (supporting POP3 and IMAP mail), Word, Excel, Terminal Services, MSN Messenger, Pictures, Solitaire, Jawbreaker, Voice Recorder, handwriting recognition, a calculator and clock. Battery The iPAQ comes with an 1800 mAh user replaceable Lithium Ion battery. That's a large capacity battery and the hx4700 needs it to power that fast processor, large display and wireless radios. If you need more power on the go, you can remove the battery and pop in a spare. HP sells both standard and extended batteries which come with their own charging base. The extended battery doubles power to 3600 mAh and is thicker so it will stick out the back rather than sitting flush like the standard battery. The hx4700 has very good runtimes for a Pocket PC, giving 4.5 hours of actual use with the backlight set at 66% in a mix of tasks: PIM access, working with Pocket Word and Excel documents, viewing photos, watching 30 minutes of videos, using Bluetooth with a Nokia N-Gage QD to access email over GPRS for 30 minutes, and surfing the web using WiFi for an hour. We did not turn on the WiFi and Bluetooth radios unless we needed them for this test. If you do leave WiFi on all the time, expect shorter runtimes. Bluetooth also consumes power, but not as much as WiFi. In our movie test, the iPAQ played a 1 hour 20 minute movie from a 1 gig CF card using BetaPlayer with brightness set to 66% and sound out through stereo earbud headphones and used only 35% of the battery which is quite good. Standby times were very impressive for a Pocket PC, with the iPAQ losing 4% charge per day (standby means the unit is not used at all). Battle of the Big Screens: Comparing the hx4700 and ASUS A730 These are the first two VGA Pocket PCs released in the US for Fall 2004. Those of you with a hankering for VGA will doubtless consider both models. The iPAQ is a bit faster at 624MHz vs. 520MHz (both use the Bulverde Intel PXA270 processor). While both have nearly the same amount of RAM, the iPAQ offers a great deal more flash ROM for storage. The iPAQ has a larger screen at 4" vs. 3.7", but the drawback is that the larger display uses more power and makes for a significantly larger unit. In fact, as you can see from our comparison photo above, the ASUS is small next to the iPAQ and it has a more curvy style reminiscent of the popular last generation iPAQ 4155 and 1945 models. Both models have CF and SD slots, but only the iPAQ has an audio jack that can accept a mic input. The ASUS has a 1.3 megapixel camera while the HP has no camera (you'll have to buy HP's optional SD PhotoSmart 1.2 megapixel camera separately). The ASUS has Bluetooth, but unlike the HP, it lacks WiFi. ASUS released the A730W in late Dec. 2004 which adds WiFi and has 128 megs of RAM for US $569. Dell released their Axim X50v after the iPAQ came out, and that's also a nice VGA model to consider for US $499. It has dual slots, a 624MHz processor, dual wireless and dual slots. It sports a nifty graphics processor that's unfortunately too ahead of its time, yielding poor performance with current Pocket PC apps that use GAPI but exceling in Open GL tasks (Open GL apps are hard to come by). For many shoppers, the decision will come down to size with the ASUS A730 and Dell X50v clearly winning, display size (iPAQ wins) and the strong HP brand name. Finally price is a differentiator with the ASUS A730 and Axim X50v costing $150 less in the US. Conclusion Certainly a lovely Pocket PC that will have power users, video buffs and those who want to view photos jumping for joy. At $649, this is the most expensive Pocket PC on the market, but it does bring a lot of features to the table. It has the fastest processor currently available on a PDA, a heap of memory, Bluetooth, WiFi, a large battery that's user replaceable and dual slots. Pro: Fast! Lots of memory, good software bundle, WiFi, Bluetooth that is friendly and supports many profiles, high capacity battery, gorgeous display, VGA resolution, integrated flip cover. Uses the same sync port as many prior and contemporary iPAQs, which means you have a good selection of accessories to choose from. Con: The most expensive Pocket PC, touchpad is interesting but I'm not sure it adds to usability and gamers won't like it. The largest Pocket PC on the market, means it won't tuck easily into your pants pocket. This isn't HP's fault but rather was Microsoft's decision: VGA is more like 1/2 VGA, offering something in between QVGA and true VGA. A free hack called SE_VGA will let you run the iPAQ in true VGA mode and many apps work in this mode. However, unless you have excellent eyes, you'll discover why Microsoft didn't go with a true VGA experience: even on a 4" display, it's not easy to see things or read text. Web site: www.hp.com List Price: $649 US Comparison Shopping: Where to Buy
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