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Several month's ago we first previewed then reviewed Hewlett-Packard's iPAQ Mobile Messenger hw6515. In spite of a few weaknesses, we found the hw6515 Pocket PC Phone to be a good choice for consumers looking for a BlackBerry-style Windows Mobile smartphone with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard.

Last week, HP introduced a follow-up to the hw6500 series. Called the hw6900, the new model has a great many similarities with its predecessor, along with several key differences (read: improvements) that should make it even more useful as a mobile business communications tool.

At first blush, the hw6900 looks like a clone of the hw6500. The unit's dimensions are unchanged at 4.65 x 2.8 x .71 inches and the weight is only slightly heavier at 6.3 ounces (up from 5.8 ounces). Rated battery life for the 1200 mAHh Lithium Ion is 4 hours talk or 7 days standby, and around 3.5 hours when using the hw6900's built in GPS (global positioning system) function. Our review unit's battery lasted a bit shy of three days with frequent - though not necessarily heavy - phone and PDA usage.

Hardware
The hw6900, which is HP's first smartphone product to use Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 OS, is powered by a 416 MHz Intel PXA270 CPU that's supported by 128 MB of Flash and 64 MB of RAM (45 MB of the unit's total memory capacity is available to the user). There's also a miniSD slot on the right side of the unit for memory expansion. While the hw6500 has both miniSD and SD slots, the latter is absent from this model, since it had to be sacrificed to make way for the built-in 802.11b Wi-Fi radio, a feature that was sorely lacking in the hw6500.

You also get Bluetooth 1.2 and the obligatory but antediluvian IrDA. The quad-band GSM hw6900 also supports GPRS/EDGE for data communication, and it comes with a modem-link utility so you can use your phone as a modem PC when a Wi-Fi hotspot isn't around.

The hw6900's display is unchanged from the hw6500; it's a bright and good-looking 3-inch square TFT with square 240 x 240 resolution and 65,000 colors. Unlike most similar smartphones, the hw6900 includes a transparent smoked plastic screen protector that pivots up and out of the way (a la Star Trek communicator) when you need to touch the display directly. We like the option of having it, but some users may find it cumbersome and choose to leave it home—fortunately, it's easy to remove.

Usability
Aside from the faster CPU and the addition of Wi-Fi, the most notable hardware changes for the hw6900 are for the keyboard, which HP says it has made improvements to based on user testing. For example, the keys are flat rather than round to make them easier to push (on the prior model there were some complaints that button presses would often fail to register).

The backlight has also been changed from blue to white and modified so that it lights keys entirely rather than just the character on it. (The numeric keypad, however, retains the old backlight scheme.) The layout is fairly standard with Send and End buttons and two soft function keys with a 5-way D-pad in between. The D-pad can be a bit sensitive, and it doesn't take much pressure to register as a button press as you're moving it.

The hw6900's speakerphone feature is handy and the audio quality is good, though we do wish it were a bit louder. Somewhat more irksome, however is that there doesn't seem to be a convenient way to turn the speakerphone on during a call.

When a call is in progress, the screen displays a speakerphone button along with a few others like Mute, Notes, and Contacts. It would be beneficial for one handed-operation to be able to use the D-Pad to select and activate one of these on-screen buttons. Instead, you turn on the speakerphone, for example, by first pressing the right softkey and then using the D-Pad to pick the option off the resulting menu. The only alternative is to press the screen button with the stylus or your finger.

The Today screen is the focal point of Windows Mobile 5.0 since it lets you get a quick handle on your unread messages, current tasks, and upcoming appointments. On the hw6900, it also lets you switch between different device profiles, (outdoor, meeting, silent, etc.) see at a glance how much memory, storage, and battery power remains, as well as adjust the screen brightness to help prolong the life of your battery.


Today Screen

You can also view the status of each of the hw6900's four radios - Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, and GPS - via icons on the Today screen, and switch each radio on and off by tapping its icon with the stylus. The one exception is the GPS radio, which automatically turns on and off when you open and close a GPS enabled application: This is to keep the GPS from draining the battery when not in use.

Although our test unit unfortunately didn't include it, the hw6900 will ship with a complete version of HP Navigation Software & Maps (based on NAVTEQ maps) on a 60-day trial basis. If you want to keep using it you can upgrade it to the registered version for $129. The hw6900 also includes Microsoft's Pocket Streets 2005 software built into ROM, and you can download individual city maps with local data from Microsoft's Web site.

Camera
An integrated camera is de rigueur in any smartphone these days, and the hw6900 obliges with a 1.3 megapixel unit that can also record video and comes with a flash and self portrait mirror (but alas, no digital zoom). There will also be a non-camera version available for security-conscious corporate buyers.

The hw6900's camera took fairly good photos for a phone, but it suffered from the same irksome characteristic that plagued our hw6500—after you press the button to take a photo there's a one or two second delay before the snapshot is actually taken, which can lead to blurry prints if you move the camera even slightly during that time.

Presumably this is an idiosyncrasy of our pre-production model that will be addressed prior to shipment. One interesting feature of the hw6900's camera is that you can tag your snapshots with GPS coordinates, and then if you're connected to the Internet, use the included Photosmart Mobile software to call up a MapQuest map of the photo's location.

Aside from the aforementioned software and the standard productivity and messaging applications that come with all Windows Mobile 5.0 devices, the hw6900 ships with Good Technology's GoodLink and GoodAccess for secure connections to corporate e-mail and applications. It is compatible with Microsoft's new push e-mail client for Exchange server as well.

The hw6900 also includes PhotoSmart Mobile and Premier applications. The latter is a PC-based application that can edit photos as well as organize, view and share them.

Conclusion
All in all, the hw6900 looks like it will offer some noteworthy improvements over its predecessor (not the least of which is the welcome addition of Wi-Fi). A specific release date for the hw6900 hasn't been set yet, nor has the carrier information been made public, but it's a good bet that pricing and availability will be similar to that of the hw6500 series models.

But will the improvements to the hw6900 be enough help the Mobile Messenger series better compete in the ever-more crowded communicator market? While competitors RIM and Palm's keyboard-based smartphones have sold in large numbers, HP's similar handset models haven't performed nearly as well. The computer and printer giant recently gave iPAQs their own division, separating them from notebooks for the first time, to enable it to focus more on what it’ll take to compete better in this increasingly market niche.