Hewlett Packard IPAQ h3630 Pocket PC

Preface:
Given the large number of very thorough reviews, I will not do a formal write-up of the IPaq's features and programs. This review will be more of a 'straight-from-the-hip' discussion of my experiences.

Review Summary:
This thing kicks BOOTY!

Full Review:
I got tired of bringing my laptop back and forth from my new job to home every day and/or printing up a small forest-load of e-mails and notes to take home.

I did a lot of research into the state of the current PDA field and decided that the technology was now mature enough for real usage. Note that I had never owned a PDA before.

My main needs included the standard abilities to keep my contacts and tasklist with me. I also needed a functional electronic way to jot ideas and notes down as they came to me. I do not have a need to keep my e-mail inbox on the road as I just e-mail important messages to my web account and grab it from anywhere from there. Most importantly, I needed something I could review Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on and make notes and edits on the fly.

The Palms just didn't cut it for this second portion of my productivity needs. The resolution sucked. Ridiculous. It is the dawn of the 21st century after all, but why did I feel like I was staring at an over-glamorized Sharp Zaurus when using the Palm products? The Palm IIIc is a joke for $399.

I didn't have any first-hand experience with any PocketPCs except tinkering with HP and Casio models at retail stores, but how can one properly simulate a work day with the display model at a CompUSA for a few minutes?

I was not overly impressed with any of the offerings. When I asked for a PDA at work, my IT person stated that we are standardized on Handspring Visors. He gave me one to try out for a couple of days. Shudder. What a primitive piece of brick-brack. The only improvement this PalmOS clone had over the old Zaurus I had tried was the ability to make me learn and denegrate Grafitti. It was also useless for working with REAL documents with Microsoft office.

I ordered the IPaq on blind faith.

And I have been handsomely rewarded.

This little marvel does so many things so well:

- Superb native support/conversion of Word and Excel documents

- Its generous 32mb of Ram allows me to use it as a file transport device. The 32mb can be use to store any type of file and upload it to my home PC via the ActiveSynch link software and docking station. No need for stupid zip disks and their corresponding drives as the IPaq serves as my all-in-one PIM, mobile file cabinet, document review station and digital newsreader via AvantGo.

- The AvantGo service is great. I used it on the Visor and reading it via the lame backlight black-and-white LCD strained my eyes. The TFT display and higher resolution of the IPaq makes me look forward to gleaming the day's news.

- The ability to play MP3 and WMA files is a neat trick. I was able to encode an entire 10 track CD album at 64bps/44hz into the built-in 32mb RAM (no CF card necessary). I like to play the music on headphones while I read my AvantGo channels in the evening in bed. This is with all my bedroom lights OFF in pitch DARKNESS. The display is FLASHLIGHT BRIGHT and totally legible. The sidelight is a superb design. This thing can also play MPG movies. In fact I can preview Flash animations on it. There is a wealth of CE software for it to draw on. The multimedia ability of this thing leaves all other platforms in the dust.

- Superb style. It's light and I love the stainless steel look. Every time I go into a bar or public area with it, people just stare at it in shock and awe while I work away on it. My girlfriend exclaimed that she was getting one within fifteen minutes of me demonstrating it to her (if anyone is interested in buying her Palm III please e-mail me at thomcat_v@usa.net).

- Handwriting recognition is superb. Transcriber is the best! I have written short reports on this thing. After just a week of usage I leave the long-time Palm users in my office in the dust when jotting down notes and numbers.

Some caveats I have about this machine:

- the expansion jackets are not well designed and are too bulky. Go to Brighthand.com and do a forum search on 'Silver Slider' and you'll see what the potential for these things could be.

- no native Powerpoint support. Can someone recommend a good PocketPC application that will allow me to preview ppt slides and jot notes on them? If there was a VGA-out compact flash or PCMCIA card, that would really kick booty! Then I would get rid of my laptop for good. I know HP is developing one for their new HPC model...

- also, the lack of availability is ridiculous

- Why don't any PDA manufacturers provide a pack of free screen protectors with these things? That way the consumer is made aware that these things exist (future source of steady accessory revenue) and they prevent a significant number of customer service calls about scratched/dented screens.

Anyways, I'm running out of things to write so I'll say it again:

This thing kicks BOOTY! It's so functional that my laptop stays home most the week and only gets pulled out when I have to go do a presentation at a client site.

Cheers,
Thomas