Better than my Palm. . .
Written: Aug 17 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compact power, easy to use, nice price
Cons: screen too hard to see outside
The Bottom Line: If you want power and functionality, get the HP 548. It has plenty to offer in a small package, for substantially less than its competition.
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| ljrunner's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Jornada 548 Pocket PC |
I was an avid Palm user for the past couple of years, but my yearnings for something more powerful led me to the PocketPC realm.
I had been considering the iPaq, but given its price, the way that compaq has not had a stellar performance record, AND the fact that it rhymes with iMac, I chose the HP Jornada 548.
When I got it, I was pleased to find that the connection software (ActiveSync v3.1) was as easy to use and set up as the software for palm. I had read reviews about how much harder it was to set up and how much less control you have, but those comments were completely unfounded. If they had just read the INSTRUCTIONS they would have found all the answers they were looking for in the manual. Go figure.
The functionality of the 548 is the same as the palm. Tap the screen to get what you want. You can pull up a keyboard or write directly on the screen. You can also buy an external Targus keyboard that fold out into a laptop-sized keyboard for quicker entries. The menus on the 540 are a little differet than the palm though. You have to hold your stylus down on an item for a little while to bring up the 'delete' menu. Once again, something that frustrated me until I read the manual. Now its easy and I actually prefer it to the palm method. you KNOW when you are deleting stuff from the HP.
The thing I like most about the HP is how closely the programs resemble their windows counterpart. Word, Excel, and Outlook are all seamless (yet smaller) versions of MS Office.
The software package that comes with the system is a little misleading and mostly useless. Stuff like. . . I was led to believe that the software that comes with it was full version, but most of the software was shareware. I can download my own shareware, don't need to have someone else do it for me. CE already comes with a media player, so why waste space with a different one? And the like. . .
I like the fact that the 548 comes with a serial cable AND USB cradle. I leave the serial at work and the crdle at home so I can sync without having to move the cradle and everything with me wherever I go. Sure, serial is a little slower, but it gets the job done while I check my e-mai lone last time before the day is done.
It even comes with an adequate case. The standard hardcover, obviously, but it also has a leather case with an ID card slot and a couple of credit card slots. I use mine all the time, and it works great. Just make sure you disable the hotkeys before you switch to the leather case or you will always be turning on your PDA unintentionally.
Another thing that is really nice is the CF card slot in the top of the HP. I just ordered a 128 MB CF card to augment the 32MB in-house memory and will be using it as a plug-and-play MP3 player. Hey, for $58 you can get 128 MB now, so you could afford to have several. Some with raw data, others with music, pictures, and programs. The expandability is limited to CF type I cards, but type I cards have everything that I need anyway.
All-in-all, I am pleased with my purchase, and am looking forward to expanding it and getting my money's worth!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 350
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Epinions.com ID:
ljrunner
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Location: Kentucky
Reviews written: 95
Trusted by: 143 members
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