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92 of 93 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Price, Great Size, and a Few Compromises, March 5, 2003
I have mixed feelings about my HP1910. Overall, I like it and I carry it with me most of the time. What I don't like about it, though, is its battery life - but I am getting a little ahead of myself.I obtained it to replace my HP Jornada 568 when it malfunctioned. The 568 was a great device that I used primarily as a phone book and a book reader, with occasional MP3 playing, gaming, and note taking. I really liked my Jornada and was upset when it died. What originally attracted me to the 1910 was its price and its size. At ... list price, it is one of the lowest cost Pocket PC's available. There may be 1 or 2 others avail for less, but I was rushing to find a replacement and this was one that I could obtain quickly. Sizewise, it is smaller than all Pocket PC's I've ever seen and even smaller than some Palms. For sure, it is smaller than the Palm 100 series, being about ½ inch shorter, about ½ inch thinner, and about the same width. It's very light and is almost unnoticable to carry. I never thought I could be able to say that about any Pocket PC. So, with the low price and the smaller size, I purchased it with the expectation of fewer features than my Jornada. One very pleasant surprise was the quality of the screen. Although the 1910 was significantly smaller than my Jornada, the 1910's screen was exactly the same size the Jornada. The best part was the 1910's brightness and vibrancy of the colors. At the lowest backlight setting of the 1910, it's screen was as bright as the Jornada at its maximum setting. Another pleasant surprise was the sound quality, both recording and playback. Although not a surprise, another good feature is the removable battery. Additional batteries are availible for purchase as well, so I can do this without having to send the device back to HP. My Jornada has this also, but the IPaq family of devices usually didn't provide replacable batteries before the HP-Compaq merger. As for the compromises, I list as many as I can . This list is kind of long, most of them are minor to me, although a couple of them do bother me. I include them so that someone who chooses this device will have a idea what they are getting themselves into: - The CPU is an xscale processor running at 200 MHz. This is supposed to have comparable performance to other pocket PC's featuring the arm processor running at 206 Mhz like the Jornada. However, the 1910 is quite noticably slower at some tasks than the Jornada, but not always. For instance, MP3 and game playing seem to be at roughly the same speed, but paging through lists of file names or through documents seems slower. Accessing files on the storage card is slower as well. Some utilities are starting to appear to allow users to change this to a faster setting.
- The total amount of RAM available to users for storage and program running space is a little less (48M instead of 64M) than with other Pocket PC's. - The ROM memory has also been reduced somewhat from other Pocket PC's. The impact of this is that the Microsoft Media Player and the Microsoft Book Reader applications do not come pre-installed like on the other Pocket PC's. To use them, they must be installed in RAM, which reduces the RAM available for other programs even more. - Although the device has a SD slot for an SD card, it cannot be used for SDIO devices, only for SD memory at present. There are rumors that a coming update will change this, but don't count on it. - Although the 1910 has great sound playback, the headphone jack is subminiature rather than miniature. This is not standard for most headphones including all headphones that I own. There are earbuds included with a matching plug, but if you would rather use your own, you will probably need to get an adapter from Radio Shack. - Due to a missing serial interface, it is unlikely that a external keyboard will ever become available for the 1910 except for one that uses the IR interface as its mode of communication. - Although a power adapter and a sync cable is included, there is no docking cradle or a case included with the device. The docking cradle must be purchased separately. Cases are just recently becoming available. I've been using a leather case designed for the Palm m100 series that seems to be working well. - The usable battery life was probably my biggest disappointment with the 1910. Perhaps I am spoiled, coming from the Jornada with lots of battery life, but I am seeing typically between 2-3 hours of usable time per charge. Because of this, I find myself not using the device as often as I might out of concern for using up the battery. This mostly hurts my note taking activities. I may try to obtain another battery to see if the battery life is better. There are some users who are claiming to get 4-5 hours of use per charge. I would be happy if I could match that. - Most 1910 screens are not completely aligned with its case, causing a very slight amount of tilting. This doesn't bother me, but there are some people that are quite annoyed by this. I've had my Jornada repaired since obtaining the 1910, but the 1910 is the pocket PC that I carry around with me. It's easier to carry in my pocket and easier to see and it's less conspicuous when I use it in public. If you are looking to use a pocket PC for networking, internet access, or using other peripherals, then this is not the device for you. However, if you are not looking to connect to other external devices and plan to use this for PIM activities, book or document reading, or light to medium gaming, this device might be just the ticket for you.
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