IPAQ Rx1950: HP’s Answer to the PDA Gaming Community?
Hewlett Packard’s latest contribution to the Pocket PC field (and let’s face it, the PDA gaming community) is the iPAQ rx1950.
High-level PDA players may wish to set their sights elsewhere.
Its 300Mhz Samsung processor is touted as XScale compatible, but this unit would be drowned out by the action sequences involved in some newer games.
Worse still, the video playback on the rx1950 has been scanned by some forum viewers. They say that people who like their PDA games served with a DVD viewing side will find performance hampered on the latter.
The XScale400-Mhz on my iPAQ 4150 still serves me quite well, with virtually no DVD to Pocket PC based hiccups.
To compound the problem, games like Era of empires for Pocket PC contain full motion video footage.
A stuttering frame rate isn’t really what you want worshipers, Pocket PC geeks, or Palm audiences to witness. Personally, I find people most fascinated by PDA games or Pocket PC videos.
I choose to impress them on both fronts.
It sure beats telling people that your device is best served with reminders. It’s much more than that.
Blindly joining the MP3 craze, I bought a highly discounted Zen Micro drive recently, saving about $ 125 CDN in the process.
Then I bought a Best Buy iRiver FM transmitter that plugs into my cigarette lighter so I could have a permanent random MP3 when I head to work.
I then realized what a complete waste of money this effort was when I plugged my iPAQ into the iRiver and configured Pocket media player we shuffle.
The answer had been on my incredibly versatile Pocket PC the entire time. I had not seen it.
All I had to do was pop in a gigabyte SD card full of MP3s and let it rip.
I was blinded by too many PDA games and there was not enough MP3 playback.
As it turns out, I already have an MP3 player, as well as an arcade gaming rig, various Pocket PC emulators for game consoles, a DVD movie viewer, etc.
Everything is fine here, in my belt pouch.
I have started plugging the FM transmitter into my iPAQ and turning up the volume on my radio to hear the pins hitting Ultimate Bowling Fighter about the car audio, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife.
He always assumes an expression on his face that indicates that he would rather not be around when I resort to an embarrassing and geeky PDA activity.
Still, on the rx1950, the beloved D-pad is still in place, avoiding the weird rx4700 touchpad for some good old men.
Comfortable to crush buttons.
So on the directional control front of the Pocket PC game, everything is copasetic.
If you really want something that provides more than mediocre performance in some respects, you may want to look elsewhere for your Pocket PC game solution instead of spending the cash for the rx1950.
The rx1950 is an entry-level device, but I can’t wait for Hewlett Packard to roll up its sleeves and produce a device that is truly worthy of the PDA gaming community.
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