I use it every day. Love it!
Written: May 11 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful Screen, thin & light, powerful OS, FAST, great battery life, great value
Cons: Off-axis screen yellowing, no factory case, no printed manual, no bundled software
The Bottom Line: I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a powerful PDA for under $300. It's unmatched in this price range. Its few flaws are far outweighed by its benefits.
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| teleplayer75's Full Review: Hewlett Packard iPAQ H1945 Pocket PC |
A little background...I didn't think I needed a PDA. My wife had a Palm M100. When she upgraded to a Tungsten E, I inherited the M100. Well, I used that little thing until it stopped working.
So, I was in the market for a new PDA. I went to Costco, and there was a Sony Clie for $130. I said hey, color for $130? I'm all over it. Well, I hated it (see my review for the TJ-25) and returned it for the HP H1945. I've had it for just about a week now.
The first thing I did was get the Rhino Skin case for it. I highly recommend this solid aluminum case. It already protected the PDA from a drop and skitter across the linoleum. Just put a dab of Lock-Tite on the belt clip screw if you're using the belt clip. It tends to loosen up (hence the drop and skitter).
Anyway, I got it home and unpacked the box. Charger, usb sync cable, PDA, battery, some warranty docs...no instructions? There's a quick start guide, but no manual. There's also no case whatsoever, no flap, no pouch, nothing.
I had played with it in the store, but I was once again astounded at how thin and light this is. I've heard rumors that the screen is fragile, but I hope I never find out. As I said, it's hit the floor from 4' up, and it's OK.
So, not being one to read the quick start guide, I popped in the battery and walked into the office to start charging. My wife yells in to come back. Huh? It turns out HP ships it with a fully charged battery! Instant gratification. Big bonus points there.
Pressing the Power button (which is located somewhat inconveniently dead center at the top of the screen) rewarded me with one of the most beautiful PDA screens I've ever seen. My wife's Tungsten E is admittedly a bit nicer, but it's also higher resolution (320x320 vs 320x240) and a different aspect ratio.
The screen is bright and colorful. Surprisingly, it's still viewable with the backlight off - a rarity in a color screen. The only negative to the screen is it yellows when viewed off-axis. ie, if you're looking at a white Pocket Word screen and tilt the PDA away from you, the white goes yellow. In reality, I haven't noticed it unless I was specifically looking for it. Definately not a deal-breaker.
One of the sticking points for me was the Pocket Windows 2003 OS. I prefer to stay away from MS products when I can, and I was only considering Palm OS devices. However, now that I've used the Windows OS for a while, I'm convinced it's many times more powerful and flexible than the Palm OSs I've used. I like syncing with Outlook, and I like having real versions of Word and Excel to use. Also, being a computer programmer, I can natively write programs for the Pocket Windows OS.
The screens will be familiar to any Windows user. There's your Start menu in the top left, with things you may be familiar with. "Programs," "Settings," "Find." And a File Explorer! The one thing I missed most on Palm OS. I like to tinker with my files, and Windows lets me do that.
What don't I like about Pocket Windows? Like the Palm OS, programs run in the background when you switch to something else. However, on Pocket Windows, there's an 'X' button in the top right, which you might think closes the application. Wrong! In addition, there's no easy way to switch between (or close) running tasks. You have to go to Start->Settings->Memory->Running Programs, then click the program you want to switch to. Yuck! There's also no easy way to check the battery status. You need to click Start->Settings->Battery. Why can't we just have a gauge in the top of the screen like every other OS?
The good news is, there are third party software tools to remedy the situations. See below for the one I'm currently using.
This device has 64 megs built in memory, of which about 56 is usable. There's also a "File Store" which is an area of ROM to which you can write files. These files do not get erased (unless you specifically erase them) even when a hard reset is performed. Nice!
64 megs goes fast! Especially when downloading toys from Handango. I downloaded something called Battery Bar Pro, and it's the coolest thing, ever. It shows you the status of your battery, RAM, ROM, gives you task switching capability...basically everything missing from the Windows OS. It's only $20. Quick public service announcement: Please pay for your software. It takes many hundreds of hours to create a program like that. I know from experience.
This thing is fast. The 266mhz Samsung processor flies. I've used the built in Media Player for WMV playback with no slowdowns. Beautiful video and sound. I purchased a few games that are very gfx and processor intensive, and I can get full frame rates.
The battery life has astounded me. I use this thing a lot, and the batteries last and last. I'd estimate with average use, 2 days of battery life, sometimes more. The Clie's battery died after an hour or so. Speaking of battery life, the HP's battery is user replaceable, another bonus. When it finally dies, just buy a new one and pop it in. The Clie didn't have that option, either.
So what else do you get? There's a built-in voice recorder that works surprisingly well. Even in a noisy situation, you can hear what you've recorded. There's a headphone jack, but it's a non-standard size. Weird. It comes with an adapter, but it's still pretty silly. I guess they figure if you're going to be carrying around headphones, why not carry the adapter, too?
I like the feel of the joypad and center button. They have a very nice, tactile "click" when pressed. There's little nubs on them so you can feel where the right place to press is, too. More bonus points ;)
The text input methods are nice, too. There are 4 ways to enter text with the stylus:
- Keyboard. A standard QWERTY keyboard is displayed at the bottom of the screen (in the Graffiti area, for Palm users) that you can tap on. Not bad.
- Block Recognizer. A Graffiti area pops up at the bottom, and you use it just like regular Graffiti 1. The thing that makes it better is that it shows you on screen what you're drawing as you draw it. Nice feedback.
- Transcriber. I thought this was my favorite when I first started using it. You just write on the screen, and it turns your scribble into typed letters. Usually. It seems to have an easier time with cursive writing than block letters. You can also teach it your handwriting (to a point) and write at different angles for comfort. It works pretty well, and it's fast. However, it makes editing documents very difficult, and can require a lot of backspacing.
- Letter Recognizer. My personal favorite. I find I can use this a lot faster than Graffiti and Transcriber. It looks similar to Graffiti, but you've got 3 sections. Capital letters, lowercase letters, and numbers/symbols. You just draw the lowercase version of your letters, and they get translated. Very intuitive, very fast.
The software suite included is a bit lacking. In fact, if I remember correctly, it just directs you to the Microsoft download site. Ditto with documentation - you're directed to online resources. This is where I found the real product manual. Which, I must say, was more thorough than I expected. That's where I learned about the iPAQ File Store ROM memory.
For the money, I don't think there's a better PDA out there.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 269.99
Recommended for: Students - Stylish and a Best Value
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Epinions.com ID:
teleplayer75
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Member: Joe Fisher
Location: Jefferson, NJ
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
A power hobbiest who's out to try everything.
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