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HP Jornada 928
Price: £390

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Michael Sweeney

This review updated: 18/11/2002
Featured in magazine:
Issue 43, page 40
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: hp
Tel: 01344 360000
Web Address: www.hp.com


The Jornada 928 is an all-in-one PDA and mobile phone, in the style of Handspring's Treo or O2's XDA. It takes it all one step further though, featuring double the memory of the XDA and a handy separate LCD screen for managing phone calls.
Like the XDA, the Jornada uses Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition operating system, so it features the usual range of Microsoft applications such as Pocket Word and Internet Explorer. However, more interesting is the addition of phone features and support for high-speed GPRS mobile data. This allows the device to be connected to the internet constantly – a bit like mobile broadband but with vastly inferior bandwidth. The Jornada also has a separate, tiny LCD screen above the main PDA screen, which means you can use the device as a standard mobile phone without flipping open the main screen cover.
GPRS makes an enormous difference to the performance of the device. Web pages load much faster than over a standard GSM connection and because it's permanently connected to the web it's ideal for picking up email while on the move.
In general, the Jornada feels very responsive and is more than fast enough to play back audio or small movie files. The only disappointment is that the phone software is a touch fiddly to use.
As with any combined PDA and mobile phone there are a lot of features to get your head around initially, but having a PDA tied to a mobile phone is obviously a bit easier than trying to set up two individual devices to work with each other. Nevertheless, there is still a reasonable learning curve to go through to set this device up if you don't buy it on contract with a SIM card already installed. We felt the instructions for doing this could have been much better. However, at present the device is exclusive to Vodafone and only available on contract, so it will come pre-configured with a SIM card.
The slightly more sexy XDA has now been reduced to £399 on O2's website, so the Jornada isn't as cheap as it first appears. However, it does have double the memory of the XDA and the extra display for telephone functions. But the Jornada is rather bulky compared to other all-in-one devices and the stylus and flip-up aerial feel cheap and tacky.

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