The HP Jornada 720

Hewlett Packard has been king of the handheld hill for years. Their original "Palmtop PCs" (the 95LX, 100LX and 200LX) are no longer being manufactured, but are still in use by a large number of very satisfied people. (In fact, one of the things Thaddeus Computing, publisher of Pocket PC magazine, does is repair and sell refurbished 100/200LX Palmtop PCs.) This tradition of happy palmtop users may be one of the reasons why HP succeeded in the small, Windows CE Handheld PC business, while everyone else dropped out.

HP pretty much owned this niche over a year ago when they released the Jornada 680 Handheld PC Pro, quickly followed by the Jornada 690 (a 680 with 32 Mb of RAM memory, both the 680 and 690 are still being sold by HP). Since then things have been pretty quiet for Handheld PCs. That is, until a few weeks ago. On September 7, 2000 Microsoft announced its update of the Handheld PC Pro, the Handheld PC 2000 series computer. On the same day, Hewlett Packard released its new H/PC 2000, the Jornada 720.

Faster, longer battery life and more

The case of HP Jornada 720 is a little darker than its predecessor, the Jornada 680. In fact, it's almost identical in appearance, size and weight. But as with all good things, it's what's inside that counts. The HP Jornada 720 is noticeably faster than its predecessors, thanks to its 206 MHz StrongARM processor (up from the Jornada 690's 133 MHz SH3). The StrongARM is designed by Intel to conserve power, consequently the 720 gets about 10% better battery life than it's predecessor. HP estimates that at 9 hours, but that's an average use estimate. HP promotes a special power management feature that lets you stay connect to the Web for extended periods of time. I did notice a checkbox in the Power Properties screen of the Systems applet that lets you automatically turn off the screen when playing music or connecting to the Internet or a PC. However good these improvements are, you'll probably get less than HP's estimates, especially if you use the stereo headphones jack to listen to music on the newly included Microsoft Media Player.

Another improvement to the hardware that speeds things up considerably is USB connectivity. You don't get a USB cable in the Jornada 720 box, but you can buy one from HP that lets you connect to your desktop PC via a fast USB connection. HP in-cludes the USB cable and another serial cable with its optional Docking Cradle ($35). But since the 720 already ships with a Docking Cradle and serial cable, it would make more sense to sell the USB cable independently.

Another major hardware improvement is the re-design of the PC and CompactFlash Card slots. The Jornada 680/690 and a very clever, but awkward piggy-back arrangement for these two slots. The CF slot was actually stored inside the PC Card slot. If you have both a PC Card and CF Card inserted into the 680/690, the CF Card bulged out the bottom. Like I said, it was clever but awkward.

The Jornada 720 has two separate card slots. The larger Type II PC Card slot on the left edge of the 720, and the smaller Type II CF Card slot in the right-hand corner of the bottom of the unit. (See Screen 1: Note that the backup coin-cell battery is visible under the CF Card slot.). Actually, the Jornada 720 has an additional Smart Card slot on the left edge, above the PC Card slot. A Smart Card is identical in size and feel to a credit card, but stores information on a chip embedded in the card. It can hold a variety of information, including secure information, user identification, e-money and more. By including a Smart Card slot, HP makes the Jornada 720 and attractive platform for enterprise users.

Screen 1: HP moved the CompactFlash slot from its awkward positioning on the Jornada 680/690 to the right-hand corner of the bottom of the unit on the Jornada 720.