Review of HP's iPAQ 910 Windows Mobile smartphone

HP iPAQ 910

HP iPAQ 910

HP iPAQ 910

While first announced over a year ago, it is obvious that HP felt the need to tweak its iPAQ 910 a bit before it finally brought it to market, as witnessed by the drastic exterior design changes seen in our review handset when compared with the photos from the original announcement. Turns out, the changes were a good thing. The new iPAQ 910 is a very cleanly styled, even good looking, smartphone running the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system that is ready for business anywhere on the planet, thanks to its tri-band HSDPA 3G data support.

Physical Aspects

The HP iPAQ 910 is a decently large QWERTY keyboard equipped smartphone. It measures up at 114.5mm x 64.5mm x 16mm (4.5" x 2.5" x .6") in size, making it slightly wider and 3mm or so thicker than Samsung's BlackJack II. As such, it is still quite pocketable. The difference is in the weight: the iPAQ 910 weighs a hefty 151g (5.3oz), which means you will notice it when it is in your pocket. But for the cost of that bulk, you get a very nice QVGA resolution touchscreen, a large battery, and an autofocus camera.

The 2.5" display, with its LED backlighting, is capable of showing up to 65,000 different colors on its touch sensitive 320x240 pixel canvas. The display's brightness can be set at any one of 5 settings that range from barely on to very bright. The 910's keyboard is tightly spaced with with 4 rows of curved, though not domed, keys that offer good tactile feedback, even if we are not too fond of their somewhat slick finish. Overall the keyboard is quite good, yet not as nice as that on the RIM BlackBerry Curve series. Above the keyboard are the call keys, a pair of softkeys, and dedicated calendar, Start menu, OK, and Messaging keys - all of which surround a very functional d-pad controller.

On the right hand edge of the phone are the 3-way scroll wheel and a secondary OK button. The scrolling action on the scroll-wheel is fine, but the select function does not seem to work consistently unless used with a great deal of pressure. As such, I tended to not use it. The remaining controls, like the dedicated camera shutter button, the voice dial button, and the volume keys worked fine. The power/standby button, which is on top, works well, but is a bit too small for a button that is used so often. The microSD and power ports have a rubber cover on them that I find to be fine for the card slot, but annoying for something used as often as the charger port.

The 3 megapixel autofocus camera sits on the back of the iPAQ 910, above the removable rear cover. It has an LED flash and a self-portrait mirror located next to it. Underneath the rear cover is a very large and flat battery with a whopping 1940mAh rating, making it likely the largest capacity standard battery we ever have seen in a conventionally sized device. The iPAQ 910 seems to be very solidly built, and I really like the overall look of the device, with its black gloss and chrome front and soft-touch black rear cover.