Hewlett Packard IPAQ h2215 Pocket PC

The 2215 has solid hardware specs and a beautiful screen. The buttons look rather odd (and ugly, IMHO), but it's much easier to hold than the 191x/194x iPaqs which can easily get dropped. Real-world performance is solid: unlike with the 194x series, you can play MP3 *and* do other tasks at the same time and not notice much of a delay or hiccup.

The problem is with ActiveSync 3.7, the latest syncing software from Microsoft. It just doesn't work. It was working fine (I was using BT to wirelessly sync), until I installed Vindigo. Mind you that my significant other's Palm version of Vindigo always syncs flawlessly, and my previous PPC version on the 1910 was fine if not perfect. But after I installed Vindigo on the 2215, ActiveSync just decided to retire early. Nothing would make it sync. I ended up uninstall and reinstalling AS, and it had trouble finding the 2215 when I connected the USB port. After oh perhaps 50 restarts on both the PC and the 2215 it somehow was able to identify the latter, but ended up duplicating all my calendar items, a total nightmare as I use Outlook calendar as a diary book and have close to 10,000 appointments all told. This actually had happened to me before as well (twice, once on the Audiovox Maestro and the other on the 1910), and it took me an entire week to remove all the duplicate entries manually. Trust me, this is not something you'd ever want to do -- even if you were the most patient man in the world. Luckily this time I was ready to send back the 2215, and I did.