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Notebook screen size comparison (9 vs 12 vs 14 vs 17 inch)

For those trying to decide the ‘perfect screen size’ for your next notebook, look no further – here’s a nice illustration/comparison between screen sizes of four screen sizes commonly found on notebooks/netbooks.

Starting from the bottom is HP’s Elitebook 8730w Mobile Workstation, featuring a massive 17 inch DreamColor display (1920 x 1200 pixels here!). Brilliant notebook and beautiful screen but perhaps size is the reason it sits on Mark’s desk 99% of the time.

Next is my trusty silver+black HP Pavilion dv4 notebook PC. It’s not the latest edition, as some HP fans should be able to tell “all-black” is the color scheme for the latest Pavilion dv4. It has a 14 inch screen (1280 x 800 pixels) which is a good compromise between size and portability.

The HP Pavilion dv2 has a 12 inch screen (Also with 1280 x 800 pixels)… and the reason why its screen seems to sit higher than that of the dv4 is the same reason why Trisha hates the design of this ultra portable – big bezel around the screen. But other than the design annoyance, the dv2 is a pretty good portable notebook: slim, light and it plays modern games like Call of Duty, Left4Dead and Need for Speed, and possibly Batman: Arkham Asylum for PC that I wanna get soon. In real life, other 12 inch notebooks with smaller screen bezel areas would be lower-profile, making them even more compact.

And lastly, sitting on top of all the other notebooks (good thing the Elitebook down there can support all that weight), is the HP Mini 2133. Yes, I still use it, although the 2133 has been feeling a little cranky this week – refusing to come out of sleep mode if I leave it for more than an hour. The Mini 2133 has a 8.9 inch screen, slightly smaller than the 10 inch displays that have become the staple of 90% of netbooks this year. The screen is a little small but it’s high in resolution (1280 x 768 pixels). People do ask me if I can actually see the tiny, ant-sized letters on the screen when I’m typing out a Word document at 80% magnification (so I can see two pages at one go).

That’s it for now. I’ll be talking about the HP Envy 13 and Envy 15 more later this week, so stay tuned for that!

HP Touchsmart featured in Black Eyed Peas video

The Black Eyed Peas recently featured the HP Touchsmart in their latest music video “Boom Boom Pow”. The HP Touchsmart appears three times in the music video – at the very beginning, the end and somewhere in the middle of the video. And not just ANY HP Touchsmart – it’s a HP Touchsmart with a super-sized HP logo!! (and a plus-size screen? Read on for speculation)

Compare that to this closeup taken of a ‘normal’ HP Touchsmart:

Check out the proportions of the logo and it sure makes a huge difference (no pun intended).

There are three plausible explanations:

• HP Touchsmart “product placement edition” with bigger HP logos for appearances in music videos, TV shows and movies
• HP is introducing a slight cosmetic change to normal, retail Touchsmarts this summer (because someone thought the logo was too small)… and the BEP were the first to get their hands on one
• A new HP Touchsmart all-in-one model is coming (See why below)

I put my arm/hand up to my friend’s HP Touchsmart in the same manner as in the video above and my upper arm covers almost 60-70% the length of a 25.5 inch Touchsmart. So it seems the arm/Touchsmart ratio from the Black Eyed Peas video screengrab above is larger than mine – which could either mean body part dimension variations between humans OR that Touchsmart in the video is HUGE (Possibly a 28 or 32 inch model?).

HP iPAQ Data Messenger still rocks in some ways

Sure, it may not be the best darn Pocket PC phone out there (though HP may change that with newer phones later this year), but the HP iPAQ Data Messenger still has several reasons for existing iPAQ 612 or 912 owners to drop those models for this one. Even I’ve got to admit, coming from the iPAQ h6310 and hw6515/hw6915 phones, within my first DAY of using the iPAQ 612c, I thought “the iPAQ 612 sucks compared to previous HP Pocket PCs” (but you can’t really complain much if you’re loaning a phone and don’t have to pay for it; beggars can’t be choosers). When HP announced their iPAQ Data Messenger late fall last year, it’s specifications weren’t very impressive but still, it did offer me some compelling reasons to try it out…

The Data Messenger is essentially the fusion of the hw6915′s quick typing abilities (QWERTY keyboard) and “faux music jack” (2.5 mm headphone jack, adaptable to 3.5 mm) with the 612c’s plus points; the candybar form factor, vibrate/silent mode switch and more traditional 4:3 screen (Well, versus the hw6915′s weird square screen; not good for gaming on the go).

I’ve been using the iPAQ Data Messenger for a week now (it’s a retail model) and I do not regret, at all, dumping my iPAQ 612 for this new Pocket PC. This final, retail version fixes most of the issues I had with the pre-production version I used in November; namely camera autofocus not working, the keyguard button not working and a few software incompatibilities. The only incompatibility that remains is you CAN’T use the TCPMP player with the Data Messenger… an error constantly appears when you try to start up the player (you’ll have to use Core Player instead, which offers similar functionality).

So what plus points does the iPAQ Data Messenger offer over the iPAQ 612/912 phones?

• 2.5 mm headphone jack (YEAH!) – you can use an adapter to plug in your own 3.5 mm headphones.
  Instead of the mini USB port for headphones, where you get stuck for life with those crummy in-the-box earbuds.
• Separate micro USB port; -means you can now charge/connect the phone to your PC while continuing to listen to music at the same time.
• Larger, FLUSH 2.81 inch screen (yeah, not a big deal compared to the 612′s 2.8 inch screen, but a nice difference versus the 912′s 2.6 inch screen)
• Ambient light sensor; the screen automatically adjusts its brightness based on surrounding light
• EXCELLENT outdoor/bright light screen visibility – I can actually view the display outside on a bright sunny day now (dare I say, this rivals the Apple iPhone)
• Proximity sensor – this detects when the phone is against your ear/face when making a phone call and the Data Messenger will automatically turn off the screen
• Vibrate/silent mode switch – you can activate/disable silent mode any time (versus none on the 912; on the 612, you had to turn the phone on, press the button, and turn it off)
• HP Keyguard – this isn’t the standard Windows Mobile device lock… when the phone is locked, you can turn on the screen to check for any missed calls/messages and then just stuff it back into your pocket; the phone will turn the screen back off after several seconds
• Better camera image quality – the Data Messenger is no digital SLR but the colors it produces now are much more vivid and realistic; pictures are a tad sharper too
• Louder earpiece and loudspeaker units – now I can finally be able to hear the caller when I’m in a crowded place (malls, tradeshows and conventions, etc)
• Better sound quality – with the iPAQ 612c, music and sounds were kinda “tinny” but the Data Messenger’s sound is much deeper, louder and better (one of the factors is probably the design of the battery cover over the speaker)
• QWERTY keyboard – it’s awesome, period (the 612 had none, the 912′s keyboard was tiny and slippery)
• Improved battery life – I’m loving this as well… it’s not the best out there, but for a Pocket PC phone, battery life is very good (Data Messenger lasts for 2-3 days of my standard usage, 612c only lasts for 1 day) and I tend to heavily use feature phones.
• Very stylish design – this is my personal opinion

Some of the features like the sound/music department, QWERTY keyboard and battery life of the iPAQ Data Messenger were HUGE to me… I have even tried typing a 1,000 word article using the phone’s keyboard when I was out last weekend.

The iPAQ 612 and iPAQ 912 phones were probably fluke shots by HP… but the Data Messenger goes back to the roots of HP iPAQ design and functionality (Well, sort of). For those with bad impressions or experiences with the 612/912, I would advise you to not strike HP off your “phone shopping list” forever – the new models they’re releasing, like this one, are much better already… and I can foresee more, even better things coming…

I suspect I’ll be a very happy user of the iPAQ Data Messenger for at least the next 9-12 months… until something newer and better comes along…

HP iPAQ Data Messenger Review

I recently got my hands on a retail version of HP’s iPAQ Data Messenger phone (European version).

It’s a nice, simple and stylish looking Pocket PC phone which is a tad smaller than the iPAQ 600 I have. To summarize in one sentence what the HP Data Messenger is all about, it’s actually a slightly smaller iPAQ 600 with a QWERTY keyboard and more fashion sense.

The main features of the HP iPAQ Data Messenger is a 2.8 inch QVGA (320 X 240) touchscreen, a slide-out backlit QWERTY keyboard from the side, with an optical navigation pad and touch sensitive controls on the front, 3 megapixel camera and it runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro. There’s also a 2.5 mm headphone jack for making calls/listening to music and micro USB port for charging and connectivity to your computer.

Sure, I do not doubt what people think about the iPAQ Data Messenger – even at the time of its debut, which was around October 2008, it’s specifications already looked dull, dusty and outdated compared to its competitors with similar form factors (that is, devices running WM 6.1 Pro with slide-out QWERTY keyboards). Both the Sony Xperia X1 and HTC Touch Pro offer either larger/higher resolution screens than the HP Data Messenger and come with their own Today Interface, which attempts to cover, what people brand as hideous and clunky, the Windows Mobile UI.

So what’s the point of the HP iPAQ Data Messenger, you ask? Well, it’s mainly targeted at business people who want a straight forward business Pocket PC phone (And we all know Windows and Windows Mobile mean business). It’s not meant to be a flashy or show-off phone with tons of bells and whistles. I find the Sony Xperia X1 a bit on the pricey side (which Sony product isn’t?) while the HTC Touch Pro is the true competitor of the HP Data Messenger and will probably steal quite a few sales thanks to its superior specifications.

However, what’s going for the Data Messenger, versus the Touch Pro 1, is that it has a 2.5 mm headphone jack (I can easily plug in an adapter for 3.5 mm standard headphones) and the fact that I can start out with a fresh phone and install whichever 3rd party Windows Mobile Today Interface that I want. Compared to the new Touch Pro 2 and other new phones released over the past week this month and it’s a different story; those other phones are much more appealing, sadly.

The only way HP can probably fight for now is by lowering the price of the Data Messenger so more people will go for it… and get off their butts NOW to the design room, then hopefully down the road somewhere, release more appealing and competitive iPAQs which are actually able to stand toe-to-toe against the competition!

I love HP (especially their notebooks) but I seriously think they should actually put in some effort into their Pocket PC/smart phone department!

I love this Elitebook!!

Netbook? Who needs a netbook when you can have THIS! The HP Elitebook 2530p blows away literally any netbook in the market, looking utterly stylish (sexy?) while at it. Of course, such greatness comes at a price – you could buy several netbooks with the price of just ONE Elitebook.

Still, that won’t stop me from comparing the Elitebook 2530p to my humble Mini 2133 and the 2140… (excuse the tiny wireless mouse dongle connected to the Elitebook in the picture above)

The Elitebook 2530p is wider and slightly longer than the HP Mini 2133/Mini 2140. I’d gladly carry a slightly larger bag if I owned one though! Oh, naturally the Elitebook 2530p is about 300 grams heavier than the Mini 2140 but the weight difference wasn’t too significant though.

In terms of thickness, the Elitebook 2530p is a wee bit slimmer than the Mini 2133/Mini 2140. HP says the Elitebook 2530p is 25.2 mm thin while the Mini 2140 is 26.7 mm thin. Put on the Mini 2133/2140′s 6 cell extended battery and it becomes a different story – I like the Elitebook 2530p’s 6 cell battery which sticks out the back of the notebook, as opposed to the Mini’s 6 cell battery which extends downwards so you have a thick bulge at the back that makes the notebook hard to store.

One other thing is that the Elitebook 2530p’s keyboard is about the same size as the one on the HP Mini’s except the arrow keys are larger on the Elitebook while its function keys at the top row are a tad smaller. The Elitebook 2530p also has dedicated Page Up and Page Down keys, something I appreciate a lot. Well, that’s all for today, the Elitebook 2530p is perfect for what it is and dare I say, flawless… with the exception of price and the fact I can’t keep it =( , of course.