Hewlett Packard IPAQ h3630 Pocket PC

I recieved my iPAQ in a beta-test from the company in my school and have the rescourse to see what this can do in looking at 26 others, as aposed to just one. Part of this review is from a letter I wrote to the company. The cost I wrote is what they told us it cost.

PC synchronization, which IMHO is must feature in a PDA, works beautifully, I did not have to spend more than 10 minutes installing the new synchronization software over the old Palm HotSync, and I had all my agenda items, contacts, and notes, moved to the iPAQ.

Now to the machine itself - certainly a LOT nicer than a m100 ... The screen really shines and the wealth of built in applications and add-ons is nice. email is usefull to an extent (vs. useless to my mind, in the m100). I also got myself a 'vaja' case, a class leader, it fits great, and is very convenient to use - single handed opening and closure are almost as easy as with the m100.

This is also one of the most advanced Pocket PC out and can do anything from playing MP3's and watching movies (with memory expansion) to working Microsof Word, Exell, Money, to Going on the internet. The picture is fabulous and the sound is also quite good.

MOST IMPORTANTLY:

This Product does tend to break easily with long tedios use. Even though it looks really neat and a great "toy" to have,the product is unreliable. Dust Tend to get under the screen which is a real annoyence. Other problems:

1) First of all, there needs to be more memory than the given 31.25. To add any useful applications, programs have to be rotated on and off the iPAQ to use the space. Also, the 31.25 megabytes is also muse a random access memory, which only leaves around 10 megabytes for storage space. I figure that around 100 megabytes will be adequate for our educational purposes. This way we can make the voice recorder a higher quality and not run out of space after 1 minute. This can be corrected by a Flash Memory card but those run from $100 and up.

2) Microsoft Word needs to include a spell checker. I downloaded a spell checker for the iPAQ, but it wasn't really useful because it was a different word processing program than word and wouldn't open word files. Also, it would only last for 300 days. One way to get around this problem is move the Microsoft word files of to a PC with Microsoft Word and have that spell check the pocket documents. Then you could move it back onto the iPAQ, this however is quite tedious and isn't quite practice. They need to include a spell checker that will be compatible with Microsoft word.

3) This problem is small and not really relevant, but the silver shell to the iPAQ is bad. It, like the screen collects all the grease from our hand and must be cleaned regularly like the screen and looks bad, gets sticky, and is very annoying. If it very plastic like then black sleeve it would be much better than the shinny silver.

4) The most annoying thing about this PDA is the battery deal. All of it from the hardboot option to the charging. First of all, this computer looses juice way to fast. The extra battery in the sleeve helps, but this needs to be charged way too much. Also, there should be a way to turn this off completely without hardbooting. That way if it isn't trying to run in the background, we won't loose all information 24 hours after the batteries run out. This could be disastrous if your on a trip or a place where you cannot reach and outlet. Also, the ability to hardboot should not be made as easy. It should be not as easy to access, maybe only accessible with a screwdriver. The door and push could cause disasters very easily by accident.

5) The little mouse directional roller thing on the front of the device is inaccurate. Sometimes I'll push is and something else completely will come up. This occurs numerous amounts of times. 4/19 - I have since realized that there is a ?middle button? on the directional button and that was what I have hitting by mistake. There really is no point to it; it is mainly an annoyance.

6) Lastly, about 1/3 - 1/2 of the people I know who use this have problems where the projection of the screen is either backwards or upsidedown. This problem is not fixable and the device must be send back to the company to be fixed. The stlyus still taps the screen and it registers where the projection should be, howver the picture is reversed.