Review summary of the :
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Internals
As with so many other recent Pocket PCs, the iPAQ h2210 is powered by a 400 MHz Intel PXA255 XScale processor and offers users a decent 57 MB of on-board memory as well as a 4 MB non-volatile File Store area. Unfortunately, users have no means of adjusting performance manually, and must rely entirely on the h2210 itself to select the correct operating mode for the processor to achieve maximum performance and long battery life - a task it proved well capable of.
 | Despite harbouring dual expansion slots, the h2210 remains a very thin handheld
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Despite its exchangeable battery being of a 900 mAh variety, the h2210 offers up just below 6 hours of continuous audio output from Windows Media Player with its backlight switched off. And, in addition to reasonably good battery life, users can conveniently adjust the period of time for which they would like the unit to retain data in memory after preventing access due to low power, enabling up to one hour longer battery life at the expense of data safety.
Software
Being one of the first units to hit shelves running Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC, the iPAQ h2210 has a leg up on units with similar specifications running Pocket PC 2002. Not only does the most recent version of the platform offer a slight overall speed improvement, but it also does most of what Pocket PC 2002 does better - albeit without offering a large amount of new functionality.
The h2210 is clearly snappier than its current competitors in the mid-range, and even takes on many high-end devices. This is likely to be due in part to its dedicated graphics coprocessor from MediaQ, the h2210 did however not seem particularly fast when running graphics intensive applications in general. Also, the unit exhibited no signs of underestimating the processor requirements of any given application throughout the entire review period.
Embedded applications worthy of mentioning include the excellent iPAQ Backup, which quite simply is a rebranded version of the highly acclaimed Sprite PocketBackup, and Universal Remote Control from Nevo which enables the h2210 to remote control an incredible range of home appliances through the consumer grade Infrared port of the unit. Bundled software is more scarce, but HP has seen fit to include the latest version of Microsoft Outlook with the h2210 rather than Outlook 2000, which has been the de facto standard for all Pocket PCs since the introduction of Pocket PC 2002.
Availability
The Hewlett-Packard iPAQ h2210/h2215 model is available now in North America and most European countries for $399 USD.
Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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