spherebox

Got myself a iPAQ recently and I choose not to go down the converged smart phone-PDA route. It was a tough choice between an iPAQ rx4540 and an iPAQ rx5750. I settled for the rx4540 after much deliberation comparing the trade-offs in their various shortcommings. The rx4540 was small enough (size, price and features-to-cost ratio) and capable enough to satisfy most of my needs at RM1288. (Actually it was the lack of WiFi on the rx5750 that did it in – despite being RM400 more).

Pitched as a ‘Mobile Media Companion’, HP is touting the iPAQ rx4540’s multimedia capabilities over its productivity features. The complete funky styling redesign also seems to sell its ‘lifestyle’ sales pitch. A laminated silver finish silver body (some say it feels plasticky but I appreciate it as it isn’t prone to displaying fingerprints) with maroon side panels is certainly a break away from the standard PDA designs out there, as with it’s landscape orientation as default (though the display orientation between landscape and portrait can be flipped by a hardware button on the side). Holding the rx4540 in either screen orientation feels good in your hand thanks to the rounded edges and smooth finish.

The rx4540 is small. It measures 102mm x 63.5mm x 16.75mm and weighs 127g – that roughly the same size as an iPod. Now while small is good on a portable device, inevitably it is this, that leads me to one of three grouses, I have so far about the rx4540 – the 2.8″ display. It’s smaller than the older standard PDAs display, especially on a device that calls itself a “Mobile Media Companion”. It is still however reasonably good for watching videos with it’s 320 x 240 pixel resolution and 64K color depth. The QVGA anti-glare transmissive display is considerably bright and has good color saturation with excellent viewing angles – good for videos but terrible for reading. (I’ve made this grouse known during the registration survey). Running your stylus or finger over the screen, I notice that it is very responsive and has a hard coating (non-squishy texture).

The rx4540 is powered by a 400MHz Samsung processor and operates on a Windows Mobile 5 that comes with a quite a number of productivity applications, including Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, Messaging (for push and POP email), Internet Explorer, Calendar, Pocket MSN and Notes to name a few (too bad Windows desktop OSes doesn’t).

A SD card slot supplements the rx4540’s generous 1Gb (128 MB ROM and 64 MB SDRAM, Up to 1,088 MB user available including 1 GB iPAQ file store) built-in memory is ample for storing my PDF files, documents, videos and music. Having an SD card slot also means the ability to read SD cards from digital cameras and picture-viewing is done via HP’s Photosmart Mobile which is a (emphasize: very) basic image application that has slideshow, setting-as-screensaver and sending via email or Bluetooth features but lacks any image editing features. You can, however, annotate photos with text or voice (courtesy of the built-in mono microphone).

Video and music playback is taken care of by Windows Media Player 10 Mobile which can sync with the desktop version of Windows Media Player 10. While transferring movies and videos may be a lot faster using a memory card reader, going through Windows Media Player lets you set up smart play lists, automatic synchronizing, smart shuffle and automatic conversion of formats not supported on the pocket PC. While music formats supported natively are obviously the standard MP3 and WMA, video is however limited to WMV. Transferring via WMP 10 greatly reduced a video’s file size but doesn’t retain the aspect ratio but fortunately doesn’t degrade quality noticeably during conversion.

For Internet access, the rx4540 has built-in 802.11b/g WLAN and Bluetooth 2.0, the latter of which lets you go online by connecting to a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone and GPRS/EDGE (though I don’t have a Bluetooth cell, luckily there’s a lot of hot spot available in the Klang Valley to hitch on to, when I actually need Internet access). HP’s has added a neat OEM application called iPAQ Wireless which sits on the today screen and enables you to active/deactivate either WiFi or Bluetooth or both with a tap of a button. It would have been great if it had GPS though to help the mobile traveller navigate the big city streets.

The rx4540 has a 3.5mm audio jack and bundles with a mediocre set of ear buds, but one thing the rx4540’s audio isn’t is mediocre. The audio playback sounds fantastic with the audio applet providing a customizable equalizer with six presets and a remarkable 3D surround sound setting. External speakers are drown-able by ambient sounds though, even on maximum volume.

The final grouse i have about the device is the lack of a directional pad which limits my choice of the many action games offering for Windows Mobile 5 – disappointing as its two-handed design makes it perfect for game play. Luckily though I’m a RTS and RPG centeric in my game choices so stylus control is all I need.

I think that HP would have expounded the potential of both these 2 series by combining them which would have offer a even better rx series minus the aforementioned shortcomings and the elimination of an extra production line. Scouring the net, I found that they eventually did, in this in rx5900 series – not available in M’sia as of yet. Maybe it’s the the next logical choice upgrade after a year or two? XD