The two companies became one. Compaq, the second (while there) most popular manufacturer of handheld computers after Palm Inc., Seamlessly merged with Hewlett Packard and ceased to exist. However, not ceased to exist a series of very successful handheld Compaq iPaq. Now they will produce a unified organization under the name of HP, which on Tuesday and presented in Moscow, the first fruit of joint works - iPaq 3950 and iPaq 3970, the heirs of a popular 38th series. We have already briefly wrote about these models. The very fact that such a presentation, quite remarkable - the 39th has just appeared in the U.S. and Europe, less than a week as they are sold (and in some countries by reservation only), and Russia is already being devoted to their conference. A couple of years we can hope for simultaneous presentation with the world of new electronic assistants, and other high-tech innovations. First and, unfortunately, most of the press conference Paul Kuzmenko, manager of Hewlett Packard personal and mobile systems, dedicated new line of laptops Compaq Evo (Hewlett Packard plans to save some brand series of products, hence the name of the remaining Compaq). Evo N410c and Evo N610c prednazanacheny for the corporate sector and provide, according to Hewlett Packard, unprecedented reliability, performance. More detailed information on the insistence of the company shall not be disclosed until July 15 when laptops will be presented formally. It does not hurt, he would have liked! It is much more interesting was the computer, weighing 200 grams, submitted after the laptops.
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| Pavel Kuzmenko with HP iPaq 3970 |
So, HP iPaq 3970 (for a presentation brought an older model of the series) is made in exactly the same housing as the Pocket PC 3800 Series - metallic silver with a plastic black "blotches" on the top. Blotches on the way, painted silver the same inscription "Compaq", although Pavel Kuzmenko in Moscow and foreign representatives of Hewlett Packard is not in Moscow on several occasions emphasized that the new model is called the HP iPaq. Okay, the inscription on the case is not the most important thing, though, of course, could take care of it.
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| PDA Hewlett Packard Compaq labeled |
The most curious, of course - "Iron" better than the previous series: Processor Intel XScale PXA250 at the core clocked at 400 MHz and a new "transflective" screen. Let's start with the screen because, as shown spinning machines in the hands and poke at buttons, just the screen is the most significant improvement. Transflective screen that is translucent, or, as it is called in the press release, "transflective". It has a backlight, which allows not only from the comfort of use typewriter in the dark, but easy to read text when exposed to direct sunlight. Chance to test a new handheld in the sun we have not yet been, but even indoors, in bright artificial light could be seen as brighter lights 39th series compared with that of the iPaq 3850. If the iPaq 3800 and stars are not worse than the heart of Danko in a dark forest, the 3900 can probably be used to repel an air raid.
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| Here she displays the difference! |
In addition, five (!) Just increased the contrast of the screen (up to 70:1). This is perhaps not so obvious at first glance, but it still gives the impression that the picture has become clearer and more pleasant to the eye. Now for the "addition", provoked the most controversy.We are talking about doubling the processor speed (and generally changing the kernel). XScale is it worth your money? In the first week of sales in the U.S. 39th series costs about $ 100 more than the 38th. Just want to say that a detailed investigation of the presentation, where all the hungry journalists had only one handheld - 3970 - not be thought possible. On hand there were no suitable programs, and time was very small. So that all performance evaluation is given by eye. The system itself Pocket PC, that is, the user interface, this "eye" works the same way as on a typewriter 38th series. This means pretty quickly, but nevertheless, probably anyone would agree that one could still add. Soft reset on the 3970 takes about a second less than a 38th of the series, but most likely it is that on my 3850, which served as a benchmark for comparison, we have established a variety of programs and in particular the Dashboard, which is loaded when you turn instead Screen Today. Will almost certainly delay in loading caused by that fact. Menus, dialogs, open standard software (again by eye) with the same rate as in previous models. Well maybe for a split second faster. The only test that showed an obvious superiority of the new processor - the opening of a large volume file. Photographed until 3970, I uploaded it from my iPaq 3850 via infrared text files of just over 400 Kbytes, rebooted both machines (for the purity of the experiment) and opened the text (it was a "Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde) using Pocket Word. At the 3850 procedure took 21 seconds (up to ischeznovaniya screen indicator of employment) for 3970 to less than 6-7 seconds. Total performance gain of almost 30%. Conclusion: Overall this is so, as we mentioned in the news. By itself, the new XScale processor much more powerful than its predecessor StrongARM and where the burden falls solely on the processor is clearly visible. But running Windows CE 3.0 (with a user interface Pocket PC 2002) is completely optimized for use with this processor (it uses is different than in previous models, architecture). Therefore, when the daily work of the user is unlikely to enjoy much increased speed. But the faster the download large files and run multimedia applications.
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And two "iron" update. The model 3970 has noticeably increased the amount of iPaq File Store (Flash-memory available for user). It is 20 MB (out of 48 total). In the low-end model, as in the 38th series iPaq File Store is 6 MB. The difference in the 2 MB ROM (26 to 50 m and 28 to 70 m) is explained clearly by the presence among a set of programs older model Bluetooth Manager. In addition, the SD / MMC slot for both models 3900 series supports SDIO (Secured Digital Input / Output) and allows not only to expand the memory using the cards, but also to connect peripheral devices in an appropriate form factor. A few strokes to engineers past and the software part PDA. Most advertised "supplement" - a program Nevo, who works as a universal remote control of various home appliances: TVs, VCRs, music center, etc. Just a database of supported devices over a thousand titles in twenty different categories. Management is carried out, as with conventional remote control, an infrared port, the controller is in the 39th series has been changed to ensure stable operation up to 4.5 meters.
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| Control home appliances - the program Nevo |
Innovation, of which less information, but that still is - it's regulation of sleep mode (Standby) and built-in image viewer iPaq Image Viewer.About the second program has nothing to say popolzovavshis it was no time, and the first lets you enter iPaq in low power mode to a user-defined period - from 25 to 100 hours. Here, in my opinion very useful, showing the approximate number of hours that "handheld" will be able to work without recharging the battery. Hopefully, this figure corresponds to reality. Without a detailed "licking" a new PDA with all sides to give him an assessment difficult. Nevertheless, it is clear that the iPaq again ahead of almost all the planets (except for Toshiba e740, which appeared a few days earlier). Perhaps the best that the developers have not changed the design. Still, most users found it quite attractive. New functionality vozmodnochti certainly will add appeal of a typewriter. The main issue - the price. Today Pavel Kuzmenko said that Hewlett Packard "will try to keep prices at the iPaq 3900 at today's value iPaq 3850 and 3870 (by the way, does it mean that prices for the 38th series of the bottom?). If it really is so, the machine with a powerful processor and an improved screen will become a big hit the market. If not (and yet in practice we see that the new PDA much more expensive predecessors), the consumer is certainly thoughtful and overpay him for that extra $ 100, especially if the thought of low productivity gains. Well, wait until mid-August. It was then that the company has promised to withdraw Hewlett Packard iPaq 3950 and 3970 on rossyisky market.
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| Yes shine 39th series on our horizon, that is, market |
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