A great PDA - Superb character recognition, fast, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,customization

Author's Rating:

Pros: All the features you want - nothing lacking

Cons: It is a PDA - watch out for that fragile screen

The Bottom Line: 
Excellent for anyone, beginner and up. Handwriting recognition alone is worth it. Has all the must have features of a top PDA.

Author's Review
I cannot help but think that some people that wrote reviews on this unit either got a total lemon (it happens with any brand) or do not know what they are talking about, assuming they actually OWN one of these.

I have compared this PDA with a few others, especially Palm OS based ones. When it came to Palm, I was especially unhappy with the character recognition via Grafitti 2. It just did not work for me. It made using PDA painful and something to avoid. If you cannot input data easily in a PDA without a computer or an external keyboard what good is it? With Palms I tried you could not customize characters at all, you HAD to write them EXACTLY the way Palm decided it should be written. If you are used to writing them differently for the last, say, 30 years, tough..

No such problem with this HP. The transcriber feature is very customizable (the BEST), and handwriting recognition while not flawless, is miles above and beyond what I saw in comparable Palm devices. in addition to transcriber, it has onscreen keyboard, block recognition, letter recognition (imitation of palm grafitti) as well as optional hardware thumb keyboard, foldable keyboard and wireless keyboard. One of the input methods HAS to work for you, that is, if you are human :)

Now, that the most important issue of data input is out of the way, look at everything else you get:

WiFi (802.11b)
Bluetooth
Infrared
SD slot and Compact Flash slot - me guesses the person saying "can't get more memory" did not notice them slots eh
64 MB Ram and 64 MB ROm
Superfine screen
External sync via USB, Serial, Network, Infrared or just about anything else
Speaker, microphone and headphones jack - use it as MP3 player
Customization of options beyond anything I have seen Palm offer - buttons, shortcuts, screen, you-name-it
External keyboards, GPS, and other accessories
Good initial bundle of software

Clear Flip Cover on the screen is useful and practical, I like that. It makes it possible to see the screen with the cover closed (when you use it as, say, GPS) so the screen is protected. Yet it can be flipped out of the way instantly if you need to use the stylus.

Security is customizable, again, beyond what is offered in Palm devices. You can encrypt data in various ways, strengths and in various locations. You can choose what to encrypt and what not to encrypt, like notes, or emails. You can use on-screen buttons to select a PIN to unlock your device (like an ATM) which is a lot easier than having to enter a password with a stylus each time. I would not keep any super-secrets on a PDA, but if you want to encrypt love letters it will do :) You can also set it to destroy all data if someone else gets a hold of it and tries to monkey around by performing resets.

Sound recording is suprisingly not bad. Just adjust microphone gain in the settings, by default it is way too low and recordings made with default settings will be almost inaudible. Recording is accessible with a press of a button on the side of the unit, very handy. Yet the button is not so easy to press as to be accidentally activated all the time.

That's not all, but when I added up how much a comparable Palm based system would cost, this iPaq is way ahead in performance to price ratio. Not to mention, it is way more flexible. The rest is a matter of preference. It is like Mac vs PC debate. I have used both late Ipaq and Palm models (as well as Mac and PC :) and iPaq impressed me more than Palm did lately, especially for the money.

While in general iPaq has more bells and whistles, to be fair, Palm software has some features that iPaq does not. For one, appointment and task listings and calendar organization approaches in the two systems are somewhat different. Palm is more customizeable in terms of various reminders and such things when it comes to tasks and calendar.

I seriously advise you to try both systems hands on if you are trying to make a decision between the two. I did not find either a particular advantage, but your situation may be different, especially if you have a LOT of appointments all the time. I guess the impression I get from Ipaq is that it is an extremely advanced miniature computer with organizer functions added to it, while Palm products are organizers first and other features are added to it to make it more functional as a mini computer. There is subtle difference in the two design philosophies. I cannot help but think that iPaq reminds me of a mini-PC and Palm reminds me of mini-MAC. There are advantages and drawbacks to both.


I have not experienced those terrible issues others reported. Battery life is excellent, battery is removable and extended battery is available. Charging is fast, either via USB or via an adapter.

Operating system has never crashed on me, nor did any software. It worked smooth and flawless. If you keep up with latest software updates it helps you stay ahead of known problems.

Someone complained about "too many" extra programs installed on the system.. well guess what, you can remove what you do not want. I would rather start with more software than with less.

After updating to the latest Sync software, there were no syncronization problems. Outlook has had some issues, but then again, Outlook has issues with EVERYTHING, Palm included, and is not the fault of Ipaq.

The speed ? I never noticed that it was slow in any way. You press something, it responds instantly, in my experience.

The resources for Pocket PC on the internet are virtually unlimited. There are plenty of third party programs and accessories to choose from. If someone has thought of something they want to do on a Pocket PC, someone else somewhere has created a program for it, for sure. Some of it is even free.

Built in Wireless connection is a big big plus. You do NOT want a PDA without built in wireless.. Adding wireless card to an existing PDA costs big money, and it is better to buy one with WiFi to begin with.

I have had to use HP service before, and they have been excellent. if your product is under warranty, they will get your product returned to you repaired in no time, paying for shipping both ways. Short of never having something break, their repair process was painless.


So for the price, you can't beat this Ipaq. If you find it
on clearance somewhere or on the net for way under retail (they are outthere!), nothing can touch it. It has just about all the features one may want from a PDA.


How it will stand up to wear and tear remains to be seen.. I can only tell you that build quality appears as good as any other brand. If you are planning to drop your PDA regularly as some people apparently do, I suggest you stick to abacus instead, or use pen and paper :) This is a delicate electronic device, and will not stand up to abuse. A good case is a must. Warranty terms, in any case, are as good or better than other brands (none will cover carelessness, especially toward the screen)