PDAs aren’t dead really, they’ve just withdrawn from the scene. The reality is that the concept of a PDA has become so ingrained in our daily lives we don’t even notice them any more. Some devices take the form of one of the abilities of PDAs and refine them, like the Apple iPod or Archos’ line of PMPs. It was, however, the convergence of the mobile phone with the PDA which really struck a cord. The Handspring Treo and the early RIM Blackberry devices started the inexorable move to the smartphone. There are, however, a few standard PDAs remaining.

The HP iPAQ 110 Classic is one of those devices. Its not a phone, but it might as well be. In fact, it runs Windows Mobile 6, which behaves just like the Professional versions of the same OS for mobile phones. The only things lacking are the phone-specific functions. On the other hand, it does feature both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and 802.11b\g wireless capabilities, both of which can work at the same time. I, however, digress. I should be performing a formal review, so let that begin.

The Outside

Usually I’ll wait to start working with a new device once its charged, then I dive right in. However, in the case of the 110c, I was interested to see WinMo6, so I fired it up when I plugged it in. No harm, no foul. Since I’m describing hardware right now, I’ll refrain from OS observations. Suffice it to say, the 110c is a standard PDA format device. It has a screen on the front, there are some buttons along the bottom of the screen, and there are holes and buttons elsewhere on the device.

The display itself is a 240×320 QVGA type with 16-bit color and a touchscreen interface. In today’s hi-res display climate, the 110’s screen looks a bit pixelated, but the speed of the 624MHz CPU processes video very well, so its not terrible with video. The color is very good and the brightness is excellent. Small text sizes are also very readable, though Microsoft needs to offer more controls over how text is displayed, and it would be nice if someone (anyone?!) were to pay attention to left handed people again*

On the right side (screen facing) are the Power and Voice Recorder buttons with an inset reset button between. There is a headphone jack on the top right. The buttons work, but are maybe a tad soft. It won’t turn on, though, unless you press the power buton. The stylus is badly placed on the back of the unit next to the headphone jack and lacking sufficient notching to make it easy to locate and retrieve by touch. I’m much happier with corner mounted silos.

The case overall is two materials. The front is a smooth, smoky dark silver, shined to appear like metal. The back is a curved matte black expanse which feels slightly rubbery to the touch. I rather like it as it makes the device feel more secure in the hand, though it does scuff very easily. I LOVE the original iPAQ’s from Compaq, but they were so amazingly cool that they were slippery. The “sticky-ish” backing instills confidence. This is good, too, since the device is very, very light, even with the battery loaded.

The battery itself is user replaceable, but that’s not all. This device is USB rechargable. So much so, that you can plug it into a Kensington portable battery pack and recharge it in an hour. The interesting part is that there is a power control panel which controls whether, via USB, you charge over time or quickly. I’m sure it has something to do with quality of charge.

The Inside

It may be sufficient enough for me to say this: If you want to know what Windows Mobile 6 looks like, just use a Windows Mobile Smartphone. I have a Palm Treo 700wx and the interface, while slightly different, works almost identically. This isn’t necessarily a benefit for a PDA since people don’t use PDAs the same way they use mobile phones.

One of the issues I had with the new unified interface is the functions which, at least on a mobile phone, are performed using the contextual buttons. You know, the buttons just under the screen on your phone which do what the label on the screen says. They do that on the 111 as well, but there are no physical buttons, so you have to touch the screen to activate numerous functions or step through configuration wizards.

Otherwise, its a standard WinMo device with all of the expected applications like Office, Media Player 10, Internet Exploder, and the various tools that come part and parcel. HP decided to toss in a bunch of other stuff, too. One of the nice inclusions is a copy of ClearVue PDF. They also have a pair of utilities, two of which are Today Screen plugins. One controls wireless, both 802.11 and Bluetooth, and the other gives you quick information about the rest of the device, including a backlight control.

The Wrap Up

The PDA of 2000 is dead. The idea that you can get around without a mobile phone, a digital camera, and some kind of wireless connection to the internet is also dead. Products like the iPhone prove that. The PDA is 2008, however, is alive and is, in some small way, still a player in the overall market. HP’s iPAQ 110 Classic proves that, and its clear they now know that scads and scads of models do not sell devices. You can get yours for a mere US$299, though you may want to take a look at the more expensive iPAQ 210 Enterprise just in case.

*Not since the days of the Apple Newton MessagePad and early days of Palm were there UI elements designed to be swapped for left-handed people. You have no idea how much better a user experience can be by simply placing the scrollbar on the left side of the screen.

[Editor's Note: We made a running typo in the story which transposed the "110" for a "111". Please note that this review is of the iPAQ 110 Classic. There are no other review elements which need to be changed to correct this problem. Thanks! -Ed.]

written by Tyler Regas