14 DAY TRIAL // At first sight, the Inventec Iris looks like your average Windows Mobile powered handheld. Well, the design does differ a little bit from what you usually see in let's say HTC's devices, but basically it still comes with a 2.8 inch touchscreen display and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well as all those goodies Win Mobile users have grown accustomed to, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Media Player.
The QWERTY keyboard is revealed and ready for use if you slide the screen to the right and a MiniSD card slot is provided for memory expansion. Up to 1GB MiniSD memory cards are supported.
The handheld also features Bluetooth with stereo headset support, IrDA and WiFi for connectivity and works on GSM networks. What makes it stand apart from other devices of this type is a feature that most users will not be interested in at all. Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that the Iris comes with a built-in barcode scanner.
Aside from that, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently approved this handheld, which means that we'll be hearing more about it pretty soon, or might get to actually see it in shops in a couple of months.
It will apparently come out under the OPTICON trademark, in two versions, the H-16A and the H-16B, although no one seems to have any clue on what the difference between the two versions is (maybe the band it works on? Just a guess.) The handheld should last for approximately 4 hours of talk time or 150 hours of standby time and will apparently work on both GSM 850 and 1900.
So those people that have waited so long for a Windows Mobile handset with an integrated barcode scanner - that others (like the HTC Hermes) have failed to provide - will just have to wait until the Iris starts shipping, whenever that is.