HP iPAQ HW6510 Review

Now, call us old fashioned but shouldn’t Pocket PCs have oblong screens? Not any more apparently. Mr Gates, in his Windows Mobile 2003 SE update, added support for different shaped displays. Oh what fun that day in the office must have been.

New screen, new software, amazing
The reason for the squeeze is the inclusion of a full array of QWERTY keys beneath the square display. It makes things a little cramped but at least it keeps the size down.

The good news is that all the bundled apps work fine in the new format – although that doesn’t mean you won’t struggle with third-party software written by some lazy programmer (ie most programmers) who hasn’t bothered to add the relevant support. Full-screen movies won’t blow you away in 240x240 either.

The keyboard is best suited to one-handed tapping with your thumb so don’t expect to be bashing out War And Peace, but at least it’s functional.

Have your credit card handy...
GPS is neatly contained, with no protruding antenna. TomTom sat-nav software is included, with a free map for one city of your choice (you’ll have to pay extra for UK-wide maps). And have a car charger handy – the battery isn’t up to much.

Oddly, GPS has been included at the cost of Wi-Fi but you can add the wonder of wireless tech yourself with an SD adaptor. If that’s too much hassle, a hush-hush replacement (the HW6710) is due out soon, which has a wireless module in place of this unit’s extra SD card slot. But don’t tell anyone.