Hewlett-Packard's Jornada 928, an all-in-one device, is not a new product. It was introduced in Singapore nine months ago but never came to Hong Kong, officially.
According to Eva Hui, product marketing manager at Hewlett-Packard Hong Kong, the Jornada 928 is a pre-Compaq merger product developed by the old HP, so it is the last product to retain the old HP design and Jornada brand. The Jornada 928 is officially available in two countries worldwide - Singapore and the UK.
This is the second mobile phone-PDA combination product (besides Palm's Tungsten W, reviewed opposite) to launch only in Singapore and not Hong Kong. We don't know if this more to do with the fact that both Palm and HP have their regional headquarters in Singapore than Singapore being a more tech and mobile-phone savvy market than Hong Kong.
The Jornada 928, which has been rightly described in British magazines as an xDA-beater, is selling in two Fortress shops that I visited - Times Square and Chek Lap Kok airport. The full title of this device is the Jornada 928 WDA featuring Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition. It differentiates itself from the xDA in three ways. First, HP has chosen Texas Instruments' OMAP 710 processor, which incorporates a GSM/GPRS engine and an ARM-based processor, over everyone else's favourite choice, the Intel StrongARM processor. The Jornada 928 has 64MB RAM.
Secondly, the Jornada 928 WDA has two batteries delivering an extended handheld usage of 12 hours compared to the xDA's five to six hours. One battery is integrated into the device, while the other is a removable lithium polymer cell. When the lithium polymer cell is removed, the internal cell automatically takes over, so you can swap batteries with the system still running.
Thirdly, it has two displays, the only Pocket PC I know which has this feature. The main screen is a conventional 240 by 320 pixel, 16-bit colour, reflective TFT which pales in comparison to the display on the Tungsten W but is good enough.
The second screen is a small monochrome 132 by 32 pixel unit located above the main screen and can be seen when the lid is closed. This is a clever feature as this second screen provides access to telephony features such as profiles and speed-dial numbers independently of the handheld itself.