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Pocket PC: Hardware Reviews

HP Jornada 928 (Phone Edition)

Part 4 - Final Thoughts and Comments

Colour

Colours on the 928 appear to be very bright and clear, but also somewhat washed out. The following test was used to find out which was more accurate the iPAQ or the 928.

Click for the larger image
Reduced copy of the original picture showing accurate colour tones. The same image viewed via IA Album on the iPAQ 3870 and the Jornada 928.

The photograph of the two screens was taken using IA Album with the Gamma Adjustment set to 1.00. The iPAQ was nearer in colour to the original whereas on the 928 the image seemed brighter and slightly washed out. To achieve an image similar to the 928 picture of the iPAQ the Gamma level had to be increased to 1.70-1.80.

To achieve an image in balance with the original the iPAQ Gamma was adjusted to 0.90 and on the 928 the figure was 0.60.

This indicates indeed that the colours on the 928 are somewhat understated as lowering the Gamma adjustment value darkens the image.

The final thought on this colour issue though is whether it actually matters in real life. The screen on the 928 is at least 1.5 times the brightness of the iPAQ 3870 and has good visibility both indoors and outside. Reading eBooks and viewing pictures become much more enjoyable activities.

Battery Life

Great importance is attached to the battery life of a Pocket PC and rightly so, with the Jornada 928 acting as three devices in one; GPRS modem, PDA and Cell Phone additional loading is placed on the battery and it is essential that adequate charge exists to get through a working day.

To evaluate the charge level the UpTime Meter plugin for PocketPC by Alexander Eltsyn was installed and the level monitored at intervals during an average working day. For the tests the backlight was set to the lowest position and the auto-sensing turned off, the phone was activated during the entire period.

As you can see from the chart below the external battery was exhausted after exactly 4 hours of operation. This equates to using the 928 from 6:45am through the working day arriving home at 5:20pm. During this time the PDA functions were used extensively and a number of phone calls were made, with the longest call taking place at the 2 hours 30 minutes time point (you can see the dip on the graph).

Battery Charge Graph - Using Backlight on Low - 50% of battery used after 4 Hours 15 Minutes

 
Battery Charge Graph - Using Backlight on Auto - 50% of battery used after 2 Hours 17 Minutes

Battery Charge Graph - IPAQ Using Backlight on Auto - 30% of battery used after 2 Hours 0 Minutes

So the 928 with the battery on low (which is quite usable) is actually better than my iPAQ 3870 with backlight on Auto as the 928 used around 20% of the battery after 2 hours!

 

The external (removable) battery reaches 0% charge....
.... so a warning is generated ....
.... telling you to change batteries.

Due to the unique nature of the 928s battery system - it uses two 520 mAH batteries (internal and external) whereas the XDA uses a single 1500 mAH battery. Battery life on the 928 is reduced compared to the XDA due to the 65535 colour screen (the XDA has 4096 colours) and the greater memory on board. The XDA has 32 MB of RAM while the 928 has 64 MB of SDRAM. Though not necessarily linear, the 64 MB RAM will consume much more current (both operating and standby) than the 32 MB used on the XDA. This can be verified by checking the SDRAM specs. For such a powerful device this has to be acceptable. However a second battery or mains power charger can definitely be recommended for power users.

Benchmarks

The following results were produced using VoBenchmark with each value being an average of 5 tests run on the iPAQ 3870 and the Jornada 928.

CPU
iPAQ 3870
Jornada
928
Floating Point
8.05
4.73
Integer
15.54
8.90
Graphics
Bitmaps
BitBlt
8.22
19.36
StretchBlt
0.55
0.40
Filled
Ellipse
0.53
0.78
Rectangle
0.56
1.43
Rounded Rectangle
0.51
0.53
Memory
Allocation
8.71
4.87
Fill
0.53
0.37
Move
0.87
0.27
Storage Cards
SD
LRR
1.32
0.58
LRW
0.24
0.44
LSR
1.34
0.58
LSW
0.29
0.44
SRR
60.36
19.9
SRW
0.86
2.66
SSR
27.28
19.58
SSW
7.21
5.89
Text
2.12
2.38

The higher the figure the better. It appers that some optimisation has been carried out on the graphical elements on the system to make up for the slower Floating Point figures. In real life the speed of the system feels comparable to that of the iPAQ 3870 despite the TI OMAP 710 processor being clocked at 133Mhz (reportedly) instead of the 206MHz ARM chip in the iPAQ.

'Pros' and 'Cons'

Key

 = Poor - could be improved upon
= Annoying - but you can live with it
= Good - makes you glad you own an 928!
= Awesome - a really WOW feature!

No spare stylus provided
Build quality is superb
Good screen quality and a decent backlight system
Loud system sound volume
Rubber grip side pieces give a secure feeling when in the hand
65535 colours (unlike the XDA which has 4096)
Phone Volume could be louder when using the built in 'earpiece'
64Mb of Memory
The 928 will automatically log on via GPRS when the phone is turned on (unlike the XDA)
No File Store Memory
Power cable plugs into lead near the USB connector making it difficult to power the device directly
Cleartype works better than the iPAQ 3870, it is clear and not distorted.
The 928 appears not to be SIM-Locked to the Vodaphone network.
Customisable Secondary Infomation LCD display
Good 'Phone' integration.
You can turn on password protection remotely via a special SMS message!
Single device - no need to use a Bluetooth or IrDA enabled PDA/Phone combination.
Poor Hands-Free kit (no answer, call or volume control - so you have to use the Jornada to interact with the phone)
Flimsy arial - which could be easy to damage
The 928 appears well sealed and so far does not exhibit dust entry problems experienced by early iPAQ and Jornada machines.
Speakerphone - One feature I now love to use and would miss in the future when using a standard mobile phone
Integrated note taking linked to the call log.
Possible problems setting up Active Sync
Good quality user manuals provided in both electronic and paper formats.
Coolness - The 928 has to be awarded a bonus point for coolness factor, it draws comments when in use from a hell of a lot of people.
Good selection of additional hp 'Ring Tones' provided on the companion CD
No Bluetooth
Good positive docking when placed in the cradle - ActiveSync connects each time unlike the newer iPAQ designs.
Good selection of additional programs supplied in ROM as standard
Buttons very positive
Deferred answering and local voice mail on the Jornada
The XDA problem where it doesn't hold signal properly does not appear to effect the Jornada 928.
There is no facility to automatically backup contact or appointment data to ROM.
Removable main battery
Poor battery life compared to the XDA
The ear pieces can easily fall out of the ears - pieces of sponge foam are really needed to ensure a good fit.
hp Month View display in ROM
hp Month view can freeze on occasion
hp Home Menu system in ROM
hp Task Switcher in ROM
hp Dialler SIP
CF card slot which supports devices
hp Image Viewer included in ROM
No MMS support, it just displays a blank message when a MMS comes in, it does not even report it as an unsupported format (Pocket PC2002 PE 'feature')
Voice dialling / voice control via the Fonix application (in ROM)
On the "New" option at the bottom of the Today screen, there should be a "New SMS" option.
Selectable and editable ring profiles, such as meeting, quiet, etc. (unlike the XDA)
No 'ring again' option in the phone when you get the engaged tone on dialling out (Pocket PC2002 PE 'feature')
Doesn't match incoming / sent SMS to your contacts, it just displays the incoming mobile number (bug in Pocket PC2002 PE)
Does pause media player when a call comes in or is made (unlike the XDA)
The backspace button within the phone application should clear the display, as the name of the last person whom was talked with is displayed and you can't remove it (Pocket PC2002 PE 'feature')
Automatic backlight level control (unlike the XDA)
Java virtual Machine in ROM
Integral SMS Client
Standard size headphone jack (unlike the XDA).
The up and down buttons can not be remapped to other functions
If you use the POP3 option to check for new mail every X minutes it is ignored (bug in Pocket PC2002 PE)

Initial Operation

The only problem which occured when installing the Jornada 928 was when trying to create the Partnership with the PC within Active Sync. When using the Active Sync Connection Wizard to create the Partnership instead of the synchronisation process starting a windows alert box popped up stating 'activesync unrecoverable error' close active sync and retry. Various solutions to get round the problem were tried such as removing all USB devices and the Windows System USB drivers (forcing WindowsXP to recreate them), with no success. The problem was only solved by completely removing Active Sync from the PC and resinstalling a fresh copy. The most annoying side effect of this is that the Partnerships with my other Pocket PCs were all deleted.

Daily Operation

The problems found so far while using the 928 on a daily basis as a phone, PDA and GRPS link are:

  • Speaker Volume: The volume of the speaker is low when using the inbuilt ear piece. This is annoying somewhat as if the 928 is used in speakerphone mode or with the headset the volume is fine. For normal use the ear piece volume is managable, but in a noisy enviroment the caller can not be heard.
  • Speakerphone: When speaking to callers and operating in Speakerphone mode you can receive reports from the caller that they can hear themselves echoed back through the microphone (feedback). This can however be resolved by lowering the volume via the UP/DOWN buttons.
  • Dial Looping: Occasionally after completing a GPRS connection when you try and dial a phone number the 928 will 'see' the number as engaged and immediately try and dial it again. This will repeat endlessly until the device is soft reset.

Other oddities have been noticed such as:

  • Charge Indication: After a days use (with the external battery exhausted) the combined charge level (undocked machine) showed 100% after 37 minutes of charge. However a further 78 minutes of charging were needed before the blue LED lit indicating a full charge.
  • GPRS indicator: After a GPRS connection has been terminated the GPRS indicator can remain lit on the LCD display.
  • AvantGo: While Syncing data with the PC the 928s AvantGo client reporting 'relevant .DLL missing', which causes ActiveSync to lock.
  • 'Guest': The 928 repeatedly being seen as a 'Guest' Pocket PC when docked when connected via a USB hub. The solution here is a soft reset.
  • Backup: When performing a backup of data on to a CF card the backup application reports that there is an estimated 39483-39493 Kb of space needed, but the backup file is only 10093 Kb in size. I am assuming that the backup file is in fact compressed after backup, but such an inconsistency could be confusing to a new user.

The good points when used on a daily basis:

  • Cursor Pad: This is one of the nicest I've used, having a very good positive action with very little sideways movement. The Action Button button being placed below the cursor pad is a great design feature - no more accidental 'actions' as with the iPAQ.
  • GPRS Connection: One problem I had with the XDA was that once it had been connected via GPRS that the connection would be lost if it was turned off. With the 928 the connection is retained. The 928 has turned itself on before now and advised me of a chat request from an MSN contact.
  • Form Factor: I have to state this yet again, the 928 feels safe and secure when in the hand. Of the four different Pocket PCs I've owned this feels the nicest in operation.

Final Conclusion

The Jornda is a powerful and fully featured Phone Edition Pocket PC which will be appreciated by many users. Features such as the LCD screen make it unique in the market place, and it's nicely styled casing will suit those style gurus. It's design and creation have been marred only by the low volume ear piece and the poor hands-free kit. The battey levels will also be on concern to some users but for those who wish power and features there is always a price to pay.

Post Script

An addendum to this review will shortly be produced which will cover in detail the workings and operation of the CF camera which was purchased as part of the package. However public pressure has been great to complete the main review so I have taken the decision to cover that in a linked article which will follow.

eGroups Logo

Post Script II (29th September 2002)

As life has progressed with the Jornada some other problems have come to life or have become really annoying . Some of which hp have commented on:

  • P: The Jornada 928 will occasionally fail to advise you that SMS messages have arrived, but if the Vodaphone SIM is placed in another phone (Nokia 6310i) the messages are there.
  • HP: Whenever switching SIM or after inserting the SIM, the user should do a soft reset (with the SIM inside and if the SIM is locked, enter the SIM lock code e.g. within 2 mins). This ensures that the Phone and SMS system are initialized properly. The issue is due to Phone/SMS initialization not taking place completely if the SIM is not in the device or SIM stays locked. During initialization, there is a need to access SIM hence if SIM is not inside, then the software cannot initialize fully hence the missing SMS messages.
  • P: Earpiece within the machine - Volume: This continues to be an annoyance and you just can't make a call in a noisey environment.
  • HP: The only solution is to use the supplied headset. We are aware of this issue that DeviceToEar volume is soft.
  • P: Screen bounce, when using the scroll bars or tapping on soft keyboards the screen seems to have a bounce effect whereby the scrolling action is broken or letters repeat on any keyboard.
  • HP: No comment as of yet.
  • P: Loose antenna mount.
  • HP: The antenna is actually robust and only feels weak, this is done especially to prevent the device from being damaged should the user drop it. In this way only the antenna will break (worst case).
  • P: As of last week the 928 started refusing to be recognised as anything other than a 'guest' machine when docked with the PC. I decided to do a hard reset and reinstall the machine from scratch. This proved not to be a good idea as ActiveSync once again insists on giving the 'irrecoverable error - you must shut down activesync' when trying to create the exchange of data part of the partnership. I'm awaiting a reply from HP on this one!

Post Script III (1st Oct 2002)

Well life with the 928 has progressed again.

  • After the ActiveSync problem above I decided to bite the bullet and remove and reinstall AS on the PC and reinstall the 928. This time round I was cautious as to which applications I installed. I still now have 44mb of memory free and this is helping to give the 928 that bit more speed. So far any failed syncs have been resolved with a soft reset of the 928 or using the HP task manager to kill AS on the PPC before docking.
  • YES!! At long last the 928 has achieved a dream situation for me....... As I now have a power supply in teh office and at home power to me is not an issue so I've disabled the power turn off features completely. Of course power is still saved when I close the case as the screen is automatically turned off so power wastage is minimised. This 928 has been set this way so that I can use the Spb GPRS monitor to connect to the net and stay online - if the 928 was set to turn off battery power the connection would be terminated. I can now go into the PPCs InBox and enter my tekguru mail account, set it to check for mail every 20 minutes, hit the connect icon, and leave it to it. So far the 928 has brought in my mail each and every time, duly sounding my new mail notification. This is what I wanted a combined device for! This is one facility I've wanted for a long time! [Now if only MS would fix the bug that stops you deleting mail on the mail server when it has been deleted on the PPC]

More comments from another anonymous source within HP:

  • 1. SMS Reception
    Question: Do you notice this lost SMS after a SIM swap? It is recommended that after you change/insert the sim, do perform a soft reset of the device. I guess you are using a Vodafone SIM. If I remember correctly, this is due to some "feature" in Microsoft PocketPC Phone Edition that causes this quirk, which is not being fixed by MS, though I may be wrong on this one. Hope this fixes your lost SMS problem. So that is twice we've had that advise given, from two widely scattered divisions of HP.
  • 2. Volume:
    Yes I am aware of the Volume problem. Guess this comes from trying to hard to pack more features. As you know, the J928 can be used as Speaker Phone, as a normal phone (i.e. held to your ear) or with the headset (ear piece). This caused a lot of problems - both hardware and software. Fixing a proper gain and a side tone value for each configuration (and switching between them on the fly) caused quite some issues. e.g. A setting that would be good for Speaker Phone might impact the headset mode, higher gain volume might imply higher noise levels etc. So after a lot of tussle between Engineers, Managers, Quality Department and Human Factors, the final configuration was fixed. The good point is that all the modes work acceptably but the bad point is what you pointed out. Under very noisy conditions it does become pretty difficult to use. A software fix is possible, but it will not be without its side effects. Whether the fix is likely - that I cannot say. For one, the HP Singapore Division that made the Jornadas has been closed down after the HP-COMPAQ merger. Most of the people in the division have left HP. A few have taken transfer to Houston to join the iPAQ team. A few others have taken transfer to other divisions of HP. All technological know how has been transferred to Houston. The fix and product support, if any, will be from HP Houston.
  • 3. Screen Bounce:
    Actually I have not encountered this before. From what you describe, there may be two possibilities - a. There is some process in the background that is consuming the CPU resources, causing the screen taps to be buffered (and appear unresponsive). When the resource is released, all the backlog of screen taps are cleared, resulting in "bounce" b. Your particular device has a noisy digitizer (touch screen). This should not be the case as such defects are screened thoroughly in the manufacturing line. I guess I am unable to help much here as this problem is not familiar. There is an "ink" utility (ink.exe or ink2.exe from MS) that measures the number of samples taken per second. IIRC, a value greater than 100 is ok. Our devices usually register in the 160-180 range (and usually are closer to 180)

Jornada 928 Index:

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