Hewlett-Packard has gone against the grain and released a couple of Windows Mobile devices which do not have phones! One of the new iPaq models they released a few months ago was the HP iPaq 111 Classic Handheld.

At first I had thought that HP had named their PDA “Classic” in the same way Apple labels their only hard drive based iPods as “Classic”. It is more likely that it comes from the name of the Windows Operating System it runs. This PDA runs the latest Windows Mobile 6 Operating System, called “Windows Mobile 6 Classic”.

Now, apart from being a Classic, this handheld has some impressive specifications. It features a 624 MHz processor, has 256MB Flash ROM (of which over 190 MB is available for storage) and 64 MB RAM. An interesting note about the use of ROM is that this means the data stored there will not be lost if the battery dies. While 256MB doesn’t sound like much when the iPod Touch has 16GB of Flash Memory, the HP iPaq 110 has an SDHC card slot, which means that you can add an extra 16GB of storage, with 32GB SDHC cards being on the horizon. The iPaq has a 3.5 inch touchscreen and built-in Wireless, both 802.11b and 802.11g, and Bluetooth.

On the software front, the PDA ships with Office Mobile 6.1 (consisting of Word, Excel and PowerPoint Mobile), which enables compatibility with Microsoft Office 2007. Along with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and the usual PIM applications there are Messaging, Internet Explorer Mobile, Solitaire and many more. Of course there are also numerous third-party applications available for Windows Mobile Devices.

Just to clear up some possible confusion, the HP iPaq 110, 111, 112, and 114 are all the same device, according to a review in Brighthand.com:
The 110 and 111 are available in the US, the 112 is the version for Asia/Pacific, and it’s called the 114 in Europe. They may vary slightly in terms of languages pre-loaded, and including the proper AC power adapters for their localities of sale, but the hardware itself is the same.“

Posted on December 23rd, 2007 by mervyn