HP iPAQ H6315
The handheld market has been getting squeezed lately, so it is no surprise that HP has finally decided to jump on the smart phone bandwagon with the HP iPAQ H6315 PDA. Available through T-Mobile wireless service, the HP iPAQ H6315 blurs the line between phone and PDA and offers four-way wireless capabilities (GSM/GPRS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and IrDA). In addition, it sports a VGA camera and add-on keyboard. The HP iPAQ H6315 PDA is larger and heavier, and it looks much more like an overgrown PDA than a phone. Still, if you're after a PDA with everything but the kitchen sink, the HP iPAQ H6315 is the PDA for you.

The challenge with any convergence device is cramming all those multifaceted features into a design that is compact, functional, and aesthetically pleasing. The HP iPAQ H6315 handheld PDA is only partially successful. Like the Audiovox PPC4100, the Hitachi G1000, and the Samsung SPH i700, the HP iPAQ H6315 looks more like a PDA than a phone. (Microsoft refers to these as PDAs Phone Edition to distinguish them from true smart phones such as the Motorola MPx200.) At 4.7 by 2.9 by 0.7 inches and 6.7 ounces, many users will find it too bulky to use as their primary cell phone. And even without the snap-on keyboard, it is larger and heavier than the Treo 600.

The HP iPAQ H6315 aluminum case is a standard feature making it fault resistant. From a PDA standpoint, the HP iPAQ H6315 has a respectable set of features. Powered by a Texas Instrument OMAP 1510 167MHz processor, the device has 64MB of ROM and RAM (55MB of which are user accessible). The cheap HP iPAQ H6315 PDA runs Windows Mobile 2003 Phone Edition and the usual suspects - Pocket Outlook, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player - are onboard.

Call quality of HP iPAQ H6315 was found to be generally good, and callers said they could hear us clearly, even through the speakerphone and headset. Also, volume was quite loud, so you should be able to hold a conversation outdoors with no problem. This is an outstanding feature of the HP iPAQ H6315.

The HP iPAQ H6315 Battery is rated for a talk time of 4.5 hours, and standby time of 210 hours.

As noted earlier, the cheap HP iPAQ H6315 PDA features four-way wireless capabilities--Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GSM/GPRS, and IrDA--and each one works well. Web pages load with ease, and it can be paired with a Bluetooth-enabled PDA and transfer contacts.

The HP iPAQ H6315 screen displays 64,000 colors, but we often thought images looked a bit washed out. The discount iPAQ H6315 PDA offers is very attractive and should be easy on your pocket.