Personal Assistance: 9 PDAs tested

By Alex Kidman
27 June 2003 01:00 PM
Tags: handheld, pdas, pocket pc, gadget, zire, axim, clie, toshiba

HP iPAQ h1910

HP iPAQ h1910 The h1910 can be summed up in one word: small.

At the other end of the specifications race from HP's iPAQ H5450 is the h1910, a compact PDA with an appealing price and small form factor. The size of the H1910 is the very first thing you'll notice about it; at 113.3x69.8x12.8mm and tipping the scales at only 120g it's the lightest and smallest PDA in our entire roundup.

The h1910 has the usual four buttons and directional pad at the base of the unit lined up in a row; those with larger fingers may find the tiny application buttons a little hard to bear with. The unit lacks a scroll wheel of any kind, primarily we suspect due to its super-thin nature. Storage is added via a single SD/MMC card slot on the top of the H1910.

The h1910's screen stretches to within 5mm of its external bezel, and is entirely unprotected against sharp knocks. While its size would suggest that's it's extremely pocket-friendly, anyone wanting to protect their investment would be well served to look into a third-party screen protector unless they like peering through scratches.

It's not only light in size; it's also somewhat light in features. It's the only Pocket-PC based PDA in our roundup to utilise a 200MHz XScale processor (the similar Sony CLIE PEG-TG50 also uses this processor, but with the Palm OS rather than Pocket PC). That's still something of a moot point at this time, however, as the Pocket PC OS doesn't often strain the resources of better processors, unless you like playing heavy-duty multimedia files on your system.

PDAs
Introduction
1. Dell Axim X5
2. HP iPAQ h1910
3. HP iPAQ h5450
4. Palm Tungsten C
5. Palm Zire 71
6. Sony CLIE PEG-SJ22
7. Sony CLIE PEG-TG50
8. Toshiba e350
9. Toshiba e750
Editor's choice
In order to keep costs down HP omits the inclusion of a dock, although one is available at additional cost. Instead, you'll have to make do with a somewhat clumsy USB cable that can also have a power cable "piggybacked" onto it.

In software terms you're given a bunch of demo software and the usual Pocket PC 2002 applications; while the Pocket PC platform still lags solidly behind that of Palm OS in terms of application numbers, there's still plenty of applications available at ZDNet Australia's handheld downloads page.

The h1910 is a solid, no-frills PDA; it's cheaper than the Zire 71 but solidly beaten by the Sony CLIE PEG-SJ22G in price terms. If you're looking for one of the slimmest PDAs on the market today, though, it's hard to overlook the h1910.

HP iPAQ h1910
Company: HP Australia
Price: AU$549
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 13 13 47

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Talkback 3 comments

    I am interested only in limite ...Anonymous -- 23/01/04

    I am interested only in limited features in a PDA like the Phonebook, Birthday or Anniversary date storages etc. etc.
    So which pDA do you recommend me to have that should have some high Battery backup and long-life warranty?

    I was very interested in your ...Anonymous -- 12/02/04

    I was very interested in your reviews of pdas and would like your opinion of the Viewsonic range of pda,s
    the V37 in particular.
    how does it compare to the HP models with similar
    price ,power etc.
    regards

    Has anyone successfully connec ...Anonymous -- 10/09/04

    Has anyone successfully connected a web-cam to an iPaq 3970 and used it in a car as a "reversing video" system? Details of software etc please?
    Maurie Costello

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