 "Piece of junk at a very high price" | 2006-06-24 |
| - Reviewed By robertberenbaum |
My company paid for one of these units for me. I hadn't really used PDAs before but knew of some friends who used them and liked them.
To make a long story short, I barely used this unit. I bought TomTom GPS software to install on this unit and took it w/ me to England on my honeymoon (live in USA). It worked pretty well until the last day when the unit stopped working. I popped the battery out and back in again and all software was gone. It had re-instated a clean install of the operating system. Even though the GPS was on a storage card, the GPS software was gone and my Pocket PC was wiped clean.
About 6 months later, I re-installed everything for my wife's aunt and she used the unit when they visited Whales. They liked using it as well, but once again, on the last day, the same thing happened to them.
I inquired with customer service and learned about what I felt was an amazing situation. You have to constantly keep the unit charged. If it ever loses battery power, you lose everything on the unit. I can't believe something that costs about $500 with the advances in technology today could be manufactured to lose all data unless you keep it constantly charged. My cell phone battery gets completely discharged, but I don't lose all the cell phone numbers that I have programmed into it of friends and family. I don't know if all PDAs have this ridiculous feature of no permanent storage, but I just find this feature unbelievable! What the hell is the point of this unit?! At least I can't erase a day planner in paper form and I don't have to worry about dropping and breaking it either.
The last time I tried to use the unit, I went again through the long process of re-installing my GPS software. This time, however, the unit didn't seem to charge at all and didn't turn on at all. It basically seemed broken or perhaps the battery was fried. I called customer service and they could not offer any free customer service since it had been just over 1 year and the warranty was finished. I barely used the unit during the year and the unit cost over $500!!!!!!
I am amazed that what I thought was a reputable company, like HP, could manufacture such shoddy crap and not stand behind their products even though this unit seems to be very obviously defective and poorly designed. From what others have been saying about it, I guess I'm not alone. HP owes me a refund and an apology. I won't be buying from HP again any time soon or perhaps ever. |
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 "AMAZING!" | 2006-04-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3FNK7LE185JQM |
Okay now, here's the background:
I used to have a PalmIIIxe. Then my uncle came over and gave me his old iPAQ. He did that because "It had been sitting on my desk for like three months and I hadn't touched it." When he gave it to me it didn't work. I found the reset button and voila! He showed me how to charge it, and I could use it when it was on its charger. My uncle said that the battery must have died. Fortunately, 2 days later it was fully charged!!!!
Every aspect of it is great, the fingerprint scan is hard so I don't use that but I do use other things. Window's Media Player is GREAT! And the best part is that you can download a different media player that plays MP4s so that the movies you get on iTunes work on it too! You can have a setting so that full screen mode rotates the video to fit the ENTIRE screen! That is much bigger than the iPod video's screen.
I think it's great and a really cool thing to have. |
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 "HP Ipaq 5555" | 2005-03-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1RQAHHIEC5PN6 |
I have owned the Ipaq 5555 for a year. My review is far from positive. The unit has glitzy features but many disappointments. Battery life is not long enough for practical professional use. Handwriting recognition is about 90% at best and usually less. The unit has a slippery exterior that should be kept in a case; a poor engineering design , unless they want one to drop it.
What is most disappointing is the one year warrantee support from HP. I developed synching problems. HP support put me through a variety of time consuming phone support resets et al. Finally they agreed (reluctantly) to accept the unit for analysis. We sent it in. The J2 connector on the main board was cracked. Despite a lack of any signs or history of external abuse, they claimed the unit must have been dropped and sustained significant impact. They are not planning to honor the warrantee. I am the only one who uses this unit. HP does not honor their warrantee. I would not recommend purchasing this unit.
Other limitations are common to most PDAs. Slow compared to PCs, laptops, tablets. Poor screen size for internet.
For the price this is not worth it.
On the positive side the security features were valuable to me as a physician to protect confidential patient information. Otherwise it had little special to offer over units costing a fraction of the price.
Wireless internet was of little value due to the slowness of connecting and unreliability of auto connecting. Within my own home I could walk downstairs to use the PC to access and get internet info more expediently. The only time it helped was on the road, and that was limited. Email access from the PDA is not happening for me.
Many programs have to be purchased for PDA use that would be built in to most laptops and other PCs. Bluetooth devices are too pricey to be a good value.
I think PDAs are great for storing contact info and making notes, but should not be pushed into the realm of truer computing. They should be easily held and capable of sustaining 4 foot falls.
Again, I would specifically avoid the HP products because they are not honoring their warrantee, using flimsy evidence to shift the blame off their poor engineering of a handheld onto the user. Get a far less expensive Palm for basic contact and calendar use, a laptop or tablet for on the road computing and bypass these expensive and impractical Ipaqs.
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| "waste of time" | 2004-12-09 |
| - Reviewed By yookdan |
Total and complete data failure (and will not restore even after a full backup) 6 X in the last four months. This is after warranty replacement of the unit (based upon the old "we don't know why it does that") -
Avoid this PPC until they make one that is suitable for everyday use.
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| "Unreliable" | 2004-09-01 |
| - Reviewed By cwruppert |
This must be the most frustrating device it has ever been my misfortune to own! With some regularity, and with no apparent reason, it resets itself to factory settings. I spend more time restoring and reinstalling than I actually spend productively.
At least 5-6 times per day, I have to do a soft reset because the thing locks up. Half the time it won't connect or sync either via USB or wireless.
I've had the iPAQ for a year now, and am just getting ready to do a complete reinstall. Once again, it reset itself. Two weeks ago, same thing. This is the last time, however, there is a hammer in the iPAQ's future. I mean it.
Afterthought: who ever heard of a device that can't be turned off? What numbskull designed a computer that loses everything if it loses power? Duh. |
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| "I have used my 5555 for a year" | 2004-08-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: ARR2K6LI4OIQE |
| To get absolute use out of this machine I would recommend the SanDisk 1 gig memory (inserts in top of 5555 easily .. about 300 bucks), Pocket map navigator (absolutely wonderful about 350 bucks) Sierra wireless aircard 750 (so you can use it as a cell)and Microsoft voice recognition (works great) so you can select and play your tunes. This is a brilliantly designed machine.. more usability just keeps popping out of it every day. One fair warning.. it's hell to learn to run correctly. The documentation is terrible but tech support has been patient during my dozen or so phone calls for help. I have dropped this machine and it still works so it is durable. The 5555 makes all other PDA's look like junk once you are on top of it. Forget the expense.. just buy it, fight it and make it work to do the things you want it to do. Oh, and download the software so you can watch movies on it too (another 50 bucks). You can put about 8 movies on the san disk. Don't waste money with the double expansion pack, get the single, it will still fit in your shirt pocket and do all the above. |
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