Sometime around the beginning of the Summer, I seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. A large part of this had to do with the impending doom created by law school, which I started last month...but now things have begun to calm down somewhat (or at least I've calmed down myself), and I'm settling into a routine once again.

One thing that has been extremely important to me in the past month or so has been my new Compaq Aero 1550 Pocket PC. I purchased this PDA on a whim, noting the extremely cheap price ($88*) and hoping that having a better PDA would inspire me to use it more often. The more important reason was actually because I was getting extremely sick of having to replace the AAA batteries in my old Palm III, and was looking for a device with a good Lithium-Ion battery. The battery life on the Aero 1550, by the way, is excellent -- I only have to recharge it once every 2-3 weeks.

Indeed it has. I had gotten to the point where I was pretty reliant on my Palm III as a personal organizer: I kept all my contacts in there, and it was a fairly handy way to do so. With the start of law school, however, has come more assignments than I could possibly keep track of through any other means I've ever successfully used, and the Aero has proven perfect for that purpose. My schedule is also somewhat complex and erratic, and the Aero has helped me immensely to keep track of it. I would, quite literally, have been lost several times without it over the past month or so. Of course, it also serves the purpose of holding my contact information quite well.

I used to think that the distinction of calling a particular handheld device or PDA a "Pocket PC" was a meaningless one. When I got my Aero, though, I quickly realized this was not so. This Windows CE device is really much closer to an actual hand-held computer than most of the others I've used (with the exception of its big brother, the iPAQ H3670). With numerous "real," recognizable programs such as Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Microsoft Money, Microsoft Reader, Windows Media Player, and a good File Explorer tool, you really can do a lot more on this device. It's not going to replace your home PC (nor is it meant to), but it's certainly a nice secondary device.

At first glance, the Aero 1550 seems to be about the same size as most other PDAs. In fact, it's actually a little bit taller than than my old Palm III. If you've ever carried one of the older PDAs around in your pocket for even a few minutes, however, you'll immediately notice the difference. The Aero 1550 is extremely lightweight (about 3 ounces), and is also somewhat thinner than many other handheld devices.

One of the coolest things about this PDA is the fact that it comes to you ready to double as an awesome mp3 player. Not only is it about as lightweight as any mp3 player out there, but it has built-in headphone jack and compact flash slot. Thus you could purchase a couple compact flash cards, put some music on them, and you'll be good to go. The headphone jack is even cleverly placed at the top of the Aero, so you can keep it in its included protective case while listening to music. If you're really wanting to go overboard (and I've seriously considered taking this route), you could buy one of the new IBM Microdrives, which fit in a compact flash slot and hold 340MB, 512MB, or 1GB each, and fill it up with mp3s. Then you'd surely have the coolest little mp3 player on the block.

Without a doubt, however, the biggest benefit of this device, as far as I'm concerned, is the excellent display. While it's monochrome rather than color, the 4" LCD is almost unbelievably crisp, clear, and easy to read. This beats the pants off of just about any PDA I've ever had occasion to use.

Overall, I would have to say that I'm extremely, totally satisfied with my Compaq Aero 1550 so far. In the month and a half or so that I've had it, I can't think of a single thing about it that I've found I disliked -- not even a small thing. I consider myself to be a pretty demanding consumer when it comes to computer hardware and devices, so that's saying a lot. Although the Aero series is ostensibly part of Compaq's business line, I would recommend it to anyone who wants a reliable, simple, all-in-one mobile computing solution.

* Yes, I know that's outrageously cheap, and no, it wasn't new or refurbished. No, I don't know exactly why it was so cheap -- it was open-box, but still essentially brand new; it even had the temporary protective covering on the screen. But sorry, the place where I got it doesn't have anymore and hasn't for some time.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 88