Of all the PDA devices out there, including both those from Palm and Pocket PC, none can match Compaq's iPAQ H3650 Pocket PC when it comes to audio and video.
With its eye-catching and innovative design, a media player capable of playing MP3s and video, colour TFT display, and powerful Pocket PC applications, the iPAQ Pocket PC sets the standard. It also covers the basics well, with all the tools you need to keep track of your appointments, notes, and contacts.
Microsoft's powerful handheld platform has found its hardware match in the Compaq iPAQ H3650 Pocket PC. The iPAQ Pocket PC's fast (206MHz) Intel StrongARM processor and 32MB of RAM are enough to satisfy even resource-hungry Microsoft and make this PDA a premium tool for not only the daily tasks of appointment making and note taking, but also for listening to music, viewing pictures from a digital camera or the Web, and audio dictation.
The iPAQ Pocket PC is meant to be a glamorous device, and it successfully puts Compaq far ahead of the competition in the "ooh-ahh" category. The iPAQ Pocket PC is wonderfully sleek, though slightly heavier than most Palms, and its 4,096-colour LCD has both a higher resolution and more colour bit depth than the Palm IIIc. Its colour bit depth isn't as good as that of the Casio Cassiopeia E-125 and EM-500, but the screen resolution is the same, and the iPAQ Pocket PC's stronger processor and sexy design leave Casio in the dust.(PC Mag Link Palmtop Perfection)
The iPAQ Pocket PC's shiny chrome enclosure is tapered slightly for ergonomic purposes and has four one-touch buttons for accessing commonly used applications, as well as a hot-button for voice recording just like old analog handheld dictation cassette recorders. Yet, the most striking feature of the iPAQ Pocket PC is the speaker at the unit's bottom centre, which doubles as a five-way navigation button for quick movement around the screen (particularly useful for game playing). The speaker itself is, of course, small and therefore rather thin for playing any serious music, but it's the best you'll find in a handheld.
Compaq argues what makes the iPAQ Pocket PC so unique is its expansion capabilities. Surprisingly, then, it has neither a built-in modem nor an expansion card slot. Instead, Compaq has designed the iPAQ Pocket PC to accommodate plastic sleeves -- or Expansion Packs, as Compaq calls them -- that slide over its back and two sides and add either a PC card slot or a CompactFlash card slot. With that flexibility, the iPAQ Pocket PC can use a variety of connectivity tools such as wireless modems, wireless networking cards (IEEE standard 802.11b), or CompactFlash modems.
On the other hand, Compaq's Expansion Packs are additional pieces to carry or lose. If you only need a modem, you can just leave the sleeve on the system all the time, which only increases the unit's overall size slightly. For both a PC card slot and a CompactFlash slot, however, you need to own both sleeves -- with one or both rattling around your bag or briefcase. Ultimately, since these Expansion Packs offer you the choice of connectivity, the trade-off is likely worth it.
On a slower processor, like that found in the Compaq Aero 1550 or Casio Cassiopeia, Pocket PC can be a bit of a drag. However, there's none of that with the iPAQ Pocket PC. The handwriting recognition is good, and Pocket PC's system is much more natural than Palm's Graffiti.
The downside to the iPAQ Pocket PC's lovely colour screen and its fast processor is that battery life is shorter. Compaq uses an innovative lithium-polymer battery that molds to the shape of the unit's interior. The result is a rated 12 hours between charges. However, you can expect that number to drop if you begin utilizing all of the unit's multimedia capabilities.
Compared to Palm-based organisers, the iPAQ Pocket PC is hardly a bargain, but it is the only Pocket PC-based handheld that offers 32MB RAM for AU$1,245. Add to this the fact that the Compaq iPAQ H3650 Pocket PC offers the coolest design, the fastest processors, and loads of features, and this is clearly the Pocket PC to beat.
Compaq iPAQ H3650
Company:Compaq Australia
Ph: 1300 301 234
Price: AU$1,245
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