Overview

The Hewlett-Packard iPAQ rw6815 Personal Messenger is a new entry by HP in the Pocket PC Phone Edition market. The HP IPAQ rw6815 is a pocket pc mobile running Windows Mobile 5.0 Phone Edition. The device includes a 2 mega pixel camera, mp3 player, built in WI-FI and Bluetooth. It runs an Intel PXA272 running at 416MHz. In terms of memory the device has 192 MB total ROM memory (128 MB ROM available for persistent storage, 64 MB SDRAM), certified up to 1 GB. The expansion slot of this IPAQ Pocket PC is a mini SD.

Design

The best characteristic of this HP IPAQ rw6815 is its compact size. The device measures only 5.8 x 1.9 x 10.2 cm and weights just 140g. These dimensions are similar (identical) to the popular i-mate JAMin and O2 Atom. It is one of the smallest Pocket PC devices in the market and besides being compact it is also elegant and stylish.

The HP IPAQ rw6815 is in the category of pocket pc phones that do not have a QWERTY keyboard on the front or a sliding QWERTY keyboard. For some this is considered an advantage because it makes the overall size of the device smaller but for others this is considered a disadvantage because the lack of a physical keyboard makes it difficult and slow while typing or during data input. Whether you consider this an advantage or disadvantage depends on the type of device you prefer. For those who prefer small, compact devices with no QWERTY keyboard the HP Ipaq rw6815 is an excellent choice. Not only it is one of the smallest pocket pc’s in the market but it has powerful set of features and specifications. Other similar (in size) devices are the i-mate JAM, i-mate JAMin, O2 XDA Atom, O2 XDA Atom Exec, O2 XDA Orbit HTC P3600 and HTC P3300.
The controls and buttons of the ipaq rw6815 include a 5-way Navigational Pad, two selection buttons, answer and end call keys and buttons for Notes, Camera and Volume Control. HP has also included a stylus which is stored in the top right hand corner.

The display of rw6815 is a 2.7” transmissive TFT, 65K colours, LED backlight with power save mode. The resolution is the “standard” 240 X 320. The display is very good with an excellent viewing angle but there are cases that it is hard to read the display especially in bright sunlight. This is not a “privilege” of this ipaq but similar problems we encountered on the O2 Atom and JAMin.
It should be noted that although the absence of a physical QWERTY keyboard makes the device smaller and lighter, when you use the virtual keyboard for data input or typing this takes up a portion of the screen leaving less space for the applications. This is the case with all devices that have no physical keyboard. For large data entry you can avoid this using an external Bluetooth keyboard.

HP iPAQ rw6815 Features

Connectivity:

The HP IPAQ rw6815 connectivity features are really good. Compared to current and upcoming pocket pc devices, this ipaq has a good set of features which includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (802.11b), Infrared and Tri-Band GPRS. The only option lacking is a GPS receiver. At the time rw6815 was released the only devices that had a similar compact design and the above connectivity features with a built-in GPS receiver were the HTC P3300 (O2 XDA Orbit). The drawback of these devices compared to ipaq rw6815 was the slow processor of 200MHZ, ipaq’s processor is Intel® PXA272 Processor 416 MHz. Having said that the fact the HTC P3300 had a built-in GPS receiver did not pose an advantage compared to HP IPAQ rw6815 because the performance of those devices with the 200MHZ processor is really bad. One of the upcoming devices that is a real competitor to the ipaq rw6815 is the ETEN X500, a device with compact design, Bluetooth, wi-fi, built-in GPS and a fast processor (Samsung 400MHZ).

Software:

The HP IPAQ rw6815 runs on Windows Mobile 5 Phone Edition with Direct Push Technology. Direct Push technology is used to deliver any new e-mail messages to the phone just like a normal SMS message. This means you are able to receive and access your e-mails whenever you want - not just when they are sent. This feature of Windows Mobile is excellent and it can be very easily set-up.

The HP IPAQ rw6815 includes all applications found on the Windows Mobile 5 platform including Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer.

Multimedia:

The rw6815 has multimedia capabilities that include an FM Radio, MP3 player and a 2.0 mega-pixel camera.
MP3: The ipaq rw6815 fearures PocketMusic, an MP3 software with a nice interface with well placed buttons. The software can be accessed directly via the standby screen and can run in landscape or portrait mode. Features of this software include an equalizer, support for playlist, bass and playback. The quality of the sound is good and it gets better if you use headphones (2.5mm headphone jack) instead of using the external speakers.

Camera: The device has a 2 mega-pixel camera powered by HP Photosmart technology. The quality of the pictures could be better but since this is not the primary function of this device we can bypass this disadvantage. Always when discussing the quality of pictures taken from a pocket pc we should have in mind that the quality of the pictures cannot match the quality of a dedicated camera device but they are improved in time.

HP iPAQ rw6815 Battery Life

The Battery life of HP IPAQ rw6815 as specified by the manufacturer is 5.5 hours talk time and 280 hours of standby time. We always suggest that a pocket pc device with the features of rw6815 needs to be charged every other day. Battery life may last a bit longer, depending of the features enabled.