8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Work Horse PDA Pocket PC
Date of Review: Nov 13, 2004
The Bottom Line: I would buy another one of these but HP now has a multimedia version with a bigger and higher resolution screen.
I have owned this unit a little more than a year.
The reason I like this Pocket PC is that is truly a PC. It is more powerful than my last laptop and more powerful than my second to last desktop.
I can run Excel which is great and I use that a lot.
I can completely syncronize with Outlook with either a USB cradle or Bluetooth.
I can record audio messages, noises, music.
I can sketch and write notes.
I can store my favorite MP3 songs for listening on the go.
I can read books or use dictionaries.
I have only used 1/3 of my 128Mb and half of my 128Mb SDRAM card.
I can browse the internet and do quick shopping from my couch at home (my 802.11g wireless internet) or almost any coffee shop, library, hotel in my town through their free wireless network. I can read PDF files.
But my BIGGEST THRILL is browsing watching video streams from educational/scientific web sites while having a coffee, sitting in a boring meeting, sitting in my backyard or laying in bed. This is really cool!
I can also print to an occasional printer that has Bluetooth or 802.11 but I rarely do this.
I like the heavy feel of the unit. The backlight is bright enough for daylight but not direct sunlight due to the shiney surface of the screen.
It has been very reliable although I have to reset it quite often (soft reset) so it will sync properly. I have lost data twice due to hard resets I had to do. Resyncing with my PC has of course restored all the files but the ones I had updated since the last sync. Thank goodness I sync daily since it is a fairly mindless matter of setting the unit in it recharge cradle. The real issue is that if I am away from my PC then I am without my information until I get back. That can be pretty inconvinient when you become as accustomed to using this thing as much as I have. That's why I keep most of my working documents on the SDRAM card and not the internal memory.
I bought one for my wife I liked mine so much. Plus she was a bit jealous of it. She bought a metal case for it which is really nice (sorry forgot the brand name). I bought a plastic case from Targus that totally sucks.
The wireless networking through 802.11 and Bluetooth are hard to figure out. Once you have them set though they are pretty reliable in latching onto an available network. Also, I can be several hundred feet from my wireless ethernet and still surf the net.
The biggest disappointment for me is the lack of cool freeware to try out. Tidal programs, games, and things are hard to find because they are OS and chipset specific. So your favorite programs on a Palm or even another Pocket PC may not work on this one. I wish they would just settle on a chipset so the programmers can catch up.
DESIGN FLAW: The screen is also driving me nuts. Apparently carry this in my pants pocket causes lint and dust to get into the screen bezel and screws up the calibration. This can be frustrating and I am slowly cleaning it and getting it to work better but what pain!
