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The quest for the perfect smartphone continues. And the latest entrant in the attempt to develop the perfect mobile companion is Hewlett-Packard's newest, the hw6515 Pocket PC phone.

Our evaluation unit was a pre-production sample that lacked a SIM card making several of the features inoperative, but it did provide a good look at the phone's overall design and capabilities.

Physically, the hw6515 is HP's smallest iPAQ yet and the one that most closely resembles a phone. The unit's dimensions are 4.65 x 2.80 x .83 (HWD, in inches) and it weighs a scant 5.82 ounces, which makes it almost an inch shorter and an ounce lighter than the PDA-sized h6300 series.

The hw6515 smartphone eschews the 6300's snap-on external keyboard and stub antenna in favor of an integrated keyboard (Treo anyone?) and an antenna that's completely internal to the device.


hw6515 on the Move

Display
Shrinking the PDA form factor while adding a keyboard necessitated a screen smaller than the standard 3.5-inch variety found on most Windows-based handhelds, but it's still a good deal larger than that on most smartphones.

The hw6515's TFT display measures a mere 3 inches diagonally and is square rather than rectangular, which results in a lower horizontal resolution of 240 x 240 pixels (with 65K colors) instead of 320 x 240 pixels. This does give you significantly less real estate and could require considerable scrolling in some applications.

A rigid plastic cover that flips up Star Trek communicator-style protects the hw6515’s display. The keyboard, while small, is responsive and brightly backlit in blue. It provides keys to invoke both the Start Menu and context menus to aid in one-handed operation.

Send and end (which are also backlit, in green and red, respectively) take the place of two of the four customary application keys, though you can get one back by programming the side-mounted voice memo/camera button for application launch. A small joystick stands in for a D-pad.


Left Side: Voice Memo/Camera Button

Internal Specs
Like all stand-alone Windows PDAs/smartphones, the hw6515 runs Windows Mobile 2003 and is powered by a version of the Intel PXA270 processor. The hw6515's processor runs at a relatively modest 312 MHz, and while the unit's responsiveness was acceptable overall, it did periodically exhibit and inordinately long delay when loading or switching between some applications.

64 MB RAM and 64MB of ROM are internal to the unit, and there's 56 MB or memory available for user storage, which includes a non-volatile 12 MB iPAQ File Store.

As is now often obligatory in even tiny phones, the hw6515 manages to pack in a few bells and whistles.

Picture Picture
Most obviously, it includes a 1.3 megapixel camera (with a flash and 8x digital zoom) that's also capable of motion video capture. Although HP bestows the camera feature with the same PhotoSmart brand name it gives its dedicated digital cameras, you won't mistake snapshots from the hw6515 for the output from a stand-alone camera.


Front/Rear (with camera) Views

Still, quality was generally acceptable, though the camera exhibited a delay when snapping a picture that required holding it still for a second or two after taking a shot- failure to do so resulted in the picture becoming mostly a blur. (Presumably this issue will be addressed before the unit hits store shelves.) HP will also offer a version of the phone sans camera at a lower price.

Where Am I?
Also built into the hw6515 is a GPS receiver that lets you use the unit as a navigation system. Unlike most other similarly equipped handhelds, the hw6515 uses a GPS antenna internal to the unit. The bad news is that HP doesn't include any GPS software with the hw6515. The good news is that leaves you free to choose your own, though it does increase the ultimate cost of the unit.

The one major feature that's notably absent in the hw6515 is built-in Wi-Fi (though you do get Bluetooth). Wi-Fi is arguably expendable in a device that can access the Internet via the mobile network, since the hw6515 supports Class 10 EDGE for data tranmission.

Storage
The presence of both miniSD and Secure Digital (SD) slots affords the opportunity to add Wi-Fi without sacrificing memory expansion, but the SD slot's location in the middle of the right side of the unit may make holding the unit with a protruding antenna somewhat awkward.


Right Side: MiniSD & SD Slots

Power
Powering the hw6515 is a 1200 mAh Lithium-Ion battery that is user- changeable. I got about 12 hours of standby time out of the battery, but that was without using it or operating the backlight for more than a few minutes at a time.


Docking Station

Given that unlike a stand-alone PDA, the hw6515 is likely to remain on constantly, you're likely to need a second battery to get you through a full day. HP does offer an optional 1800 mAh extended battery, but the included charger doesn't let you charge the phone and an additional battery at the same time.

Pricing for the hw6515 hasn't been announced yet, though it's safe to assume it will take up residence around the hw6300 series price point-around $650 or so, which is always dependent on carrier agreements. We expect it will go for around $450 with a two-year contract, for example.

Conclusion
The hw6515 manages to pack quite a lot of capability into a small, light, and easy-to-use package. It's not perfect—it could use longer battery life and a perhaps a bit faster CPU-—but it's a big step forward from HP's previous generation and it's arguably the best melding of phone and PDA on the Windows platform to date.

In an upcoming review of a fully functional hw6515, we'll offer a more comprehensive take on the performance of the Pocket PC phone's cellular and GPS capabilities.