HP iPAQ 5555 Pocket PC

Pros: - It feels solid and well constructed. For example, the stylus holder has an internal spring that gently pops the stylus out of the shell when you press it. The whole unit compares very favorably to something like the Toshiba e755, which both feels and looks cheap. - Performance is great. Documents and programs open instantly. - Configuring Wi-Fi is easy, and it's easy to tell when Wi-Fi is active by the green light on the face of the unit. I didn't test Bluetooth, but connecting to my 802.11b network was straightforward. - Looks great. It's one of the most stylish PPCs around, and people will definitely notice it. - The "getting started" poster that comes with the unit is useful, and while I wish it had printed docs, the online PDF is well-written and reasonably substantive. The docs weren't an afterthought. Cons: - It's expensive! - I couldn't get fingerprint recognition to work reliably. Biometrics contribute to the high price, and they didn't work well enough to justify the premium. - Wi-Fi signal frequently disconnected. Maybe that's the state of handheld Wi-Fi? I'm not sure, but for the price it should hold the connection more reliably. Overall: I returned it. There are too many units with comparable specs for substantially less, minus the biometrics. Still, if you need to have fingerprint recognition (and if you can get it working reliably), this might be the unit for you. Leaving aside the fingerprint recognition, I was very impressed by the overall quality and will probably purchase a less expensive HP.

I have owned and supported several iPaq models from the 3600 series on up but this has to be my favorite. Everything every customer wanted is already included with this great machine, well except for gps but how many of us need that every day and such. The WiFi is superb and the bluetooth is the best im-plementation I have used so far. The rest of the specs speak for themselves.. huge memory processor speed etc. The only real downfall is slightly below average battery life. I attribute much of this to heavy WiFi useage and the rather small original battery. Greater capacity batteries can be purchased from HP. I have read others "reviews" of products talking about how poor HPs service and support is. My experience has been exactly the opposite and the same can be said of every person I know who has dealt with HP. In warranty service is fantastic with on average a 3 day turn around... that includes all the ship time from me to them and back. I have occasionally gotten units back the next day after shipping. And yes it was the same unit serial number, scratches and all. They usually seem to just replace the main boards. As I write this mt personal 5555 is on its way to HP... with an unknown problem. I know this sounds a bit odd to write a positive review during this but the machine and the others have been extremely reliable( they all get extremely heavy useage... 8 to 10 hours a day of actual use). As a side note no unit sent in for repairs had ever had to be sent back again. I think they might spend a little more time testing the replacement boards than the new ones.

this thing sucked. I would never sync to anything and it fell apart in the battery area about 1 year after I bought it. he review prompt only just came up, I bought it when it first came out like 12 years ago. It sucked from day one. and the Customer service from HP was a nightmare. I still wish I'd been able to get a refund. SUCH a giant chunk of dookey. it was the scooty puff jr of handhelds.

This Pocket PC is wonderful. All of the features work well. Especially appreciated is the handwriting recognition - it simply works pretty well - the processor is strong enough so you do not have to struggle with recognition. It takes a bit of getting use to - but once done it is very handy - especially for someone who does not like a lot of paper - keep your thoughts, notes, etc electronic. The recognition software is an update to the Newton - which many Mac users loved but which Apple dropped but with a lot more processing power. If you buy this and are a Mac devotee - I would also recommend PocketMac Pro - which is a Mac front end - including a look and feel of OSX - now you do not have to sacrifice synchronization or OSX.

I can't be dissatisfied with the device. It has all you need on the go, big nice display, bluetooth, wi-fi... and Jack, it comes with Microsoft Outlook XP software - that's what you sync with, no need to "enter everything manually".