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HP iPaq H5450 Pocket PC (Compaq-264493001)

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HP IPaq Pocket PC H5450 Review

by Yardena Arar

- WHAT'S HOT: With the IPaq H5450, Hewlett-Packard takes the handheld franchise begun by Compaq and moves it forward in style. In addition to a sophisticated redesign that makes older IPaq models look almost garish, this new, top-of-the-line Pocket PC features innovative biometric security technology via a small, unobtrusive fingerprint scanner located beneath the newly downsized central navigation button. In our tests, it took us about 20 minutes to set it up to recognize a fingertip. You'll have to do a couple of swipes of your fingerprint before the device begins to recognize it. The unit boasts built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b) and Bluetooth connectivity, plus a Secure Digital card slot for storage. The 240-by-320-pixel transflective active-matrix screen, which displays more than 65,000 colors, is absolutely first-rate.

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User Reviews for HP iPaq H5450 Pocket PC (Compaq-264493001)

Reviewed by: elawyer

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Fingerprint reader, bluetooth, and Wireless LAN work flawlessly. I could not find another PDA that compares to the features I was looking for. Hey not everyone needs Bluetooth or WLAN...

Weaknesses: Heavy, but it is made of metal which I like because it has a nice feel to it. It works to easy but I guess HP knew what they were doing.

Overall Evaluation: NO MORE PASSWORDS PLEASE (FINGERPRINT READER RULES) Being in the legal profession, I get tired of keeying in passwords galore to access various sources of data. The fingerprint reader is a fantastic alternative. I ma fortunate to have had no problems with this feature. WIRELESS LAN CONNECTIONS Linking up to our Wireless LAN at the office and home was super easy. I do not claim to be a PC guru but setup was a breeze. I guess I am fortunate to not have problems here as well. I can even leave the office and when I get home, click connect and I am back online. Heck, I can even connect to the wireless LAN at Starbucks. INFERIOR SOUNDS? Since I do not use this as an MP3 player, the sound it perfectly fine. But come on, this is a PDA not a multimedia home theater substitute. If you want great sound then go buy the SHURE E5c headphones. They are around $499 but if you want awesome sound, there you go. UNIVERSAL REMOTE The feature to use the IPAQ as a multi/universal remote for my home theater system easily saved me $200. BLUETOOTH AND GPS I have used an EMTAC bluetooth GPS when travelling and no problems there. POWER ISSUES? I personally bring a charger along just in case. Maintaining a live connection a WLAN + color screen require power. CONCLUSION If you want a mini-laptop + PDA + with a fingerprint reader, integrated bluetooth & WLAN + universal remote and more...then this is a great PDA.
Reviewed by: 1952uk

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: All the good features of the 3970, plus the fingerprint recognition is nice

Weaknesses: Sound quality is appalling. Battery life is very poor, compared to the 3970

Overall Evaluation: How come other reviewers never mention the weaknesses noted above? The sound quality is so bad that it is virtually unuseable. If you are using a GPS satellite navigation system in your car, then the sound quality is so bad that it renders the thing useless. The battery life is so bad that it will completely discharge from full charge after 7 days (without any use) and will loose all your hard-entered settings after another three or four days. So if you go on a two-week holiday, you can guarantee that you will have to go through all your set-up routine from scratch. For a corporate IT department, this will be a nighmare in terms of user support. Both these problems mean that the 5450 is a serious step backwards for the iPAQ range. HP have goofed badly on this one. The fingerprint recognition and WiFi are nice gimmicks, but that is all. My conclusion is that the 3970 is far better value for money.

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