MobileMinds' Brief Review Of iPAQ 6315

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.mobileminds.com/mods/board_news/article.php?cat=&id=214' target='_blank'>http://www.mobileminds.com/mods/boa...php?cat=&id=214</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Many reports of the new HP iPAQ h6315 are starting to pop up around the net of these devices showing up in local stores. I found one by calling my local CompUSA. These devices are T-Mobile branded. As such SIM locked to their service. My first impressions of this device are this appears to be up to the HP standard both in design and features."</i><br /><br />I'm sure we'll be seeing more extensive reviews soon, but Corey does have a useful quick look at the device, with lots of screenshots.

[danmanmayer]

I have picked up an hp 6315 and have to say that i am impressed by everything except the speaker. The max volume of the speaker is still ridiculously quite... has anyone else experienced this problem or come up with a solution?

[HeavyHands]

I just came from CompUsa in looking at the HP 6315. I would strongly suggest anyone not to buy the phone only to find that the speaker sound is very very soft. Not only it is very hard to hear while talking on the phone, but we could not hear the phone ring as well. The speaker phone is a very important option for myself and that was even unusable. I believe this is a major flaw by HP and needs to be fixed. Otherwise, the PDA functions worked great....It is very hard to justify a $500.00 phone when you can't hear the phone ring or hear the person talking....

[Agent_C]

I was really excited about the prospect of combining my phone and PDA together and got the first h6315 for sale at the Madison Avenue T-Mobile yesterday morning. I had no idea what I was in for.

Defects is order of magnitude:

* Constant Lockups - Seems every time you change a parameter, the unit locks-up and requires a soft reset. Lockups occurred randomly, all the
time.

* 3rd Party applications won't install and/or run -- Resco Audio
Recorder would install but not run. One of the complementary apps on
the CD (forgot the name) actually obliterated the thing altogether. It
installed half way and then locked-up completely. It wouldn't recover
with a soft reset, so I was forced to do a hard reset. This happened
to me twice last night.

* Slow performance -- This is not entirely unexpected, as I was aware
of the units 167 MHz processor. I had no idea however, how maddeningly
slow this unit would actually run. Very frustrating; and forget about
anything like GPS.

* Doesn't clearly distinguish between WiFi and GPRS connections --
Supposedly the highly touted Connection Manager handles this
seamlessly, but it doesn't. It kept on wanting to go out to the
Internet via GPRS while I had it set to 802.11 on my home network. AIM
would not connect at all. It just returned a message saying
"Connection Error".

* Don't Identify 802.11 wireless access points accurately, or
consistently. Sometimes it would find my home network, sometimes it
wouldn't. (BTW, not having any of these network problems with ANY of
my other devices; an iPAQ 4350, a desktop and a laptop)

* Slow 802.11 throughput.

* Buggy firmware -- Every once and a while a message would pop up
saying 'No SIM card installed" and it would lock-up momentarily. This
message is entirely erroneous and the phone worked just fine
afterward. I made sure the SIM was seated firmly, but it made no
difference.

* If you dial directly from Outlook Contacts, after the call ends, a
message box containing the T-Mobile logo pops-up saying "Message
Static". Once again, the unit locks up and required a soft reset.

Needless to say, this thing going back to T-Mobile first thing Monday
morning.

A_C