FCC Spills the Beans on the iPAQ rx3000 Series

[Ed Hardy]

The FCC has given HP permission to release in the U.S. a series of new Pocket PCs targeted at consumers.

Read more at http://www.brighthand.com/article/iP...roval?site=PPC

[jkendrick]

The most interesting thing in the user's manual for the rx3000 is what HP has called the iPAQ Mobile Media. HP is calling the rx3000 the Mobile Media Companion and there is an application preinstalled on the device that "gives you the ability to browse and play music, photos, and video collections over a wireless network from anywhere within your home. You can wirelessly stream digital content to your HP iPAQ or play your content on PCs around your Wi-Fi home network. You can view and share your media with family and firiends. And you can use the universal remote control to access your home entertainment devices." The manual goes on to say you can transfer digital media from personal computers to your HP iPAQ over your Wi-Fi network.

HP is definitely positioning the rx3000 to be a media machine. You have to wonder why they didn't go with the faster processor?

[Neutral]

The unit submitted to the FCC appears to be a 400 MHz model.

The internal photos reveal that the unit uses the Samsung S3C2440A microprocessor.

The following page lists the S3C2440A as "400MHz,2410's Feature+Camera Interface."

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Semi...y_cd=LSI090101

Since the h1940's 266 MHz already performs relatively well, this 400 MHz model should perform very well against the PXA27x.

[jkendrick]

That's what I'm hoping for. It's about time we had someone produce a good mobile media device. I haven't seen real benchmarks of the Samsung but I hear it's quite fast.

[Heda]

Samsung is the AMD of the PPC world. lower Mhz but similar performance to Intel. the 266 Samsung was often said to be "on par" with the 400 XScale. and the 206 Samsung was a little faster than the 300 XScale.

[Timothy Rapson]

I thought that the specs were just tentative and that we would find the cameras on the middle range VGA models. This confirms that they are not.

I have to wonder if HP has more plans for a high end camera model. Wouldn't a high res screen be a natural for a model that takes 1.3 MP pictures? I would prefer a CF slot for all those videos and pictures too. You can store 1 gig of stuff on a $100 CF card. It will be quite a while before SD gets there.

Nor do they particularly need bluetooth to go with a camera, but then I don't see must use for bluetooth anyway.

The battery situation sounds like HP couldn't make up their minds so they give us all an amazing breadth of choices. That is a GOOD thing. I could get the standard one for everyday use (fits in any pocket real easy) and buy that huge 3000+ MaH for trips or when I need to go 10-12 hours of intense use on a charge.

Wonder if any of the WM2003SE models will have OLED screens? It is nice to know that screens have gotten so consistently good that most users needn't dismiss any model on the basis of screen quality anymore (assuming minimum specs are met.)

[hukuju]

Sorry Guys, I am still on the "I do not like a camera PDA thingy" as it is really ban in quite a few places in my country.

I do think that the ARM processor is going to offer amazing performance however efforts to overclock the processor seems to be coming along slowly. The main attraction of the X-scale processor to me is that it can be overclocked easily. Why do I need so much speed is like the day that I got my first computer with 40MB harddisk and I thought that was plenty and I was wrong. Being able to overclock would allow me to extend the device useful life to me hence this is why I am waiting for the Hx4700 as it got a 1800mah battery and the 624mhz processor.

I do hope that the ARM 400mhz is not going to be faster than a x-scale 624mhz as HP tend to sell the ARM ppc cheaper. Well just look at the H1940.

So when is HP filing its papers for the Hx4700 to the FCC? Please hurry up HP..........

[hukuju]

Well, I was comparing information from the earlier rumors from these websites:

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/englis...=JAEN&wb_dis=2

http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/hp.html

And I am really very happy to say that there are more ram in these devices than what was earlier rumored.

However I do hope that HP price these devices competitively as Dell is coming in with their VGA PPC soon. What makes me choose HP is its nicer design, better quality and good customer service. I really hope that they keep that up on this upcoming new line of PPC. My H1910 had never failed me other than SNES/ GBA emulation. Other than that it is a wonderful device.

If HP follow the rumored pricing for H6300 at less than US$500 and priced all these devices at less than US$500 then that would be great news for me.

In the coming days, we would definitely be reading up on the specs of the Hx4700 and I do hope that it rocks..........

[Heyo]

Looks like they have taken on the styling of the 2200 series and made it even uglier.

Why not just keep the sophisticated styling of the popular 1900/4000 series?

I guess this is HP starting to exert their own design influence?

Their printers and computers are all fat and bubbly as well.


The new ASUS is the only exciting new PPC I've seen so far.

[hukuju]

I cannot agree more that the color scheme and design of this ppc is horrible. They could have done a much better job with it.

I think that A730 looks really good but it comes with a slower processor at 520mhz and it got a camera build in too.

Hence my choice would still be the Hx4700. I am choosing functionality over design now. Bigger screen.........