Prada phones, diamond-encrusted phones, and fashion phones are a regular sight in the atmospheric glass-fronted shops of the average high street. Yet this glamor rarely casts its golden glow on the world of smartphones.
The iPhone was a rare bright spark, and there were the odd flares of light from HTC, E-TEN, Samsung, and Blackberry, but other than that, smartphones have largely adapted to the dull business model over the last year or two. Unfortunately, the latest handset from HP doesn’t change that.
The iPAQ 614c Business Navigator is a big and ugly phone made entirely of drab black and gray plastic, with no brushed aluminum accents or chrome trim to make it stand out. With piggy dimensions of 60 x 117 x 18mm, it’s also pretty chunky. And in other respects it’s hardly a design masterpiece – its integrated number pad has a rather cheap-looking glossy finish and is topped by a pair of “soft”, context-sensitive keys that look like a pair of malicious eyes grinning at you as you type Text or surf the web.
It at least tries to make up for its design flaws with a few clever tricks. The first of these is the touch ring controls (don’t laugh). Embossed in glossy relief at the top of the numeric keypad keys, it allows you to move a thumb or finger clockwise or counterclockwise to navigate through lists and the like. An innovative addition, for sure.
The phone supports the latest high-speed HSDPA mobile data networks with up to 7.2 Mbit/s. It also has a built-in GPS receiver… but this is no ordinary satellite receiver. It uses new Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) technology, designed to combine location information derived from the phone’s cell position with data from the satellites themselves to speed up the initial satellite connection. The phone unfortunately only comes with Google Maps – no navigation software to speak of – but it did a good job of locking on to satellites around central London, taking a fairly quick minute to lock on to five satellites and one provide position.
Inside, it has a very fast processor that uses a 520MHz Marvell part to power things along. This is one of the most responsive Windows Mobile smartphones I’ve ever used, keeping crashes, pauses, and hourglass fatigue to a merciful minimum, even with a handful of applications open at once. And it complements this with a whole range of high-quality smartphone hardware: Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and 802.11b/g wireless for data connections in Wi-Fi hotspots.
But as soon as I started using the 614c angrily, I found that these innovative, and one might say luxurious touches can’t compensate for a design that has more than just a flawed look. This touch ring control, for example, works well, but only in isolation. Once you reach the option you want, you’ll quickly realize that choosing isn’t that easy. The most natural would be to press the center button to select, but that has no effect; Instead, you have to crawl your thumb to the side of the keyboard to press Enter. It’s hardly what you would call great ergonomic design, and I found that I mostly operated the device with two hands – with my left thumb constantly resting on the OK button on the left edge of the 614c.
Another problem with the Touch Ring is that since it sits on top of the number pad, you’ll inadvertently activate it when you’re trying to type texts and emails. It’s annoying to find that when you look at the screen, after hopping onto the keyboard for a second or two, your cursor has mysteriously moved from the body of the email to the address field — and that’s where most of your text is landed . There also doesn’t seem to be any way to move the cursor left and right in text other than typing with a fingernail or the 614c’s telescopic stylus – the touch ring simply moves the cursor up and down.
Elsewhere it’s less of a disaster, but still not enough to lift the 614c out of smartphone mediocrity. The phone has a pretty decent three-megapixel rear camera with light and portrait mirror. It’s quad-band and can be used pretty much anywhere you can get a signal, although that’s nothing fancy these days. The screen is pretty standard – a 2.8-inch transflective touchscreen with 240 x 340 pixels. Battery life is unremarkable too: despite the seemingly high 1,590mAh capacity, I only managed to extract a couple of days of relatively low consumption – although that seems to be the sort of standard we’re sticking to now – at least until phones with more efficient ones 3G and HSDPA chips are built.
Even HP’s usual well thought-out range of software extras cannot fully compensate for the shortcomings. It’s nice to see that Remote Desktop is preinstalled, a decent PDF viewer is welcome, and HP’s Photosmart Mobile application is a nicer application than Microsoft’s default image and video tool. This also has the added benefit of integration with HP’s SnapFish online photo development service.
“‘Verdict”‘
The 614c is certainly a well-equipped handset. It’s not the first to pack so much into a pocket-sized body, but there are a few notable features, like A-GPS, 7.2Mbps HSDPA, and a very fast processor. Merely the non-VGA display could definitely be described as backwards.
What really leaves scoffers reeling, however, is the fact that it’s not only a rather ugly and bulky phone – especially for one without a sliding keyboard – but also one that boasts awkward ergonomics. Its innovative touch ring control simply does not deliver what it promises and turns out to be more of an obstacle than a useful addition.
How we test phones
We put every cell phone we test through its paces. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features and we use the phone as our main device during the review period. We will always tell you what we find and we never accept money to rate a product.
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Used as our main phone during the period
Verified against respected industry benchmarks and real-world tests
Always has a SIM card installed
Tested with phone calls, games and popular apps
points in detail
draft 5
Ease of use 5
value 7
functions 8