The HTC Advantage gets some very rave reviews from people saying they can get a lot of work done it. I agree, its an excellent device but would it be as good if you took the 3G modem, keyboard, Cam and GPS out of it? How about if you could have it in stripped-down version for half the price?  If you’ve got the right mobile phone, it could be exactly what you need for mobile Internet duties.

Image via Brighthand 

In a way, the Ipaq 210/214 (214 is the EU-version) is the N800 of the Windows mobile world. It doesn’t have quite the high resolution but on the up-side, there are some pretty good browsing solutions for it. In some respects its even better than the N800. It has a more mature software set. It has a faster, 624Mhz XScale Monahans, processor. It has SD (with SDHC+SDIO) and CF slots. It has a mobile office suite. It has an unrivaled set of 3rd-party applications and accessories.

Brighthand have just reviewed the 210 and said:

Witness what the Brighthand home page–a very complex site–looks like in full VGA glory. Not only can you render complicated sites in something pretty close to their original form, but you can still read the text when you’re done.

No time-wasting zooming to read text!

If you’re like me and want your 24/7 mobile phone to be small and capable then you’re not going to want a VGA-capable mobile phone and if spending Euro 800-1000 on a UMPC doesn’t appeal but you still want Windows Mobile ‘productivity’ and a reasonable Internet experience I recon the Ipaq 210/214 is an excellent choice.

If this had an 800×480 4.5″ screen and a Cortex processor, I would have already bought one. As it is, I’m considering selling the N810 and testing out an Ipaq 214 to see how it compares to the Raon Digital Everun as my grab-it device.

• Opera Mobile 9.5 public beta on July 15th
• Another look at the current products.
• iPaq 214. A great PocketPC that makes a poor MID.