For people who rely on a smart phone or wireless PDA to do e-mail and surf the Web, the Holy Grail has been to get a device that can work on a cellphone network and on faster Wi-Fi wireless networks.
The idea is that when you are near a Wi-Fi transmitter, your device will work at high speed, and when you’re not, you still will be able to get online, albeit at slower speeds, via the much more widespread cellphone network.
The cellphone industry has been working on such combo devices, and Nokia and Motorola have announced specific models. But this week, Hewlett-Packard, the computer giant, and T-Mobile, the cellphone carrier, announced what they say will have the first combined Wi-Fi/cellphone to reach the public. A wireless PDA that can also make phone calls, rather than a traditional cellphone, it’s called the HP iPAQ h6315.
The device is a Microsoft-based Pocket PC with an antenna on top. It goes on sale Aug. 26 for $499, plus either $79.99 or $89.99 a month, depending on which T-Mobile rate plan you choose.
I tested the h6315 over the past few days. It worked very well and was smart enough to switch smoothly between the Wi-Fi and cellphone networks for Internet access with little or no input from me.
In most respects, the iPAQ h6315 looks and works like any Pocket PC. It has a large, vivid color screen, and it synchronized contacts, appointments and files with my Windows PC just fine. It comes with 64 megabytes of memory, and it can accept SD memory cards for extra storage.
Like the other Pocket PC phones I’ve tested, the h6315 isn’t great for voice calls. It’s big and bulky, and it lacks a built-in key pad for dialing, though H-P throws in a snap-on keyboard. Microsoft’s phone software is very basic.
As a combination cellphone and PDA, the h6315’s design is inferior to that of PalmOne’s hot Treo 600, which has better phone functionality and is smaller and lighter. The h6315 is best thought of as a wireless data device that also has voice capability.
The unit has a built-in low-quality camera, and it includes Bluetooth connectivity for linking to wireless headphones and some other devices. It comes with the standard suite of programs Microsoft provides on all Pocket PCs, such as a Web browser and e-mail program, as well as “pocket” versions of Microsoft Word and Excel. H-P has added a photo program, and T-Mobile has provided instant-messaging software.
To test the h6315’s combined cellphone and Wi-Fi capabilities, I carried it around to a variety of locations around Washington, D.C., surfing the Web and sending and receiving e-mail.
It worked fine everywhere. I was especially impressed with its ability to automatically switch to the fastest connection possible. It wasn’t perfectly seamless, but it was close.
For instance, I was walking down a downtown street, receiving e-mail over the slow GPRS cellphone network. Then I entered my office, and the h6315 quickly detected my Wi-Fi network and switched over to it.
Next, I left the office and went back on the street, and the device switched back to getting e-mail on the cellphone network. But when I entered a Starbucks, it detected the T-Mobile public Wi-Fi network there and switched to it.
In the suburbs, the h6315 smoothly connected to my home network after I entered my network’s security password, and it worked fine in another Starbucks near my house.
If you’re in the middle of something, such as downloading e-mail or a Web page, the device doesn’t switch networks until the current operation is done to avoid interrupting things.
There were a few small hitches. In one case, where a lot of Wi-Fi networks were available, the h6315 popped up a list that failed to include the nearest one. In Starbucks, while the h6315 was able to switch to the Wi-Fi network, I couldn’t get to the Internet until I filled out a form on a Web page. T-Mobile says that step will be eliminated next month.
The device lacks the option to behave differently depending on the speed of the connection. For instance, you might like to get e-mail attachments when you’re connected via Wi-Fi, but not on the slower cellphone network.
I have never recommended Pocket PCs for heavy e-mail users, because they typically lack built-in keyboards. But the snap-on keyboard HP includes free with the h6315 takes care of that problem. It worked well, though it makes the device even bigger and more unwieldy when it’s attached. The overall effect isn’t as good as doing e-mail on a BlackBerry or Treo, but then those devices can’t use Wi-Fi.
T-Mobile’s basic $79.99 monthly rate plan for the h6315 includes 1,000 minutes of anytime voice calling, plus unlimited data: e-mail, Web pages, instant messaging. That includes free use of T-Mobile Wi-Fi hot spots, such as those at Starbucks. The $89.99 plan adds the ability to redirect your corporate e-mail to the device.
All in all, the HP iPAQ 6315 is a winner. I wish it were a bit smaller and that the keyboard was built in. And I still prefer Palm’s software to Microsoft’s. But for mobile e-mail and Internet addicts, the ability to use Wi-Fi and the cellphone network is a big plus.
Walter Mossberg writes about personal technology for The Wall Street Journal.
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