Hewlett Packard iPAQ h5555 Pocket PC

I'm a 23 year old engineering student whose main interest is cars and PDA's, and this is the mother of all PDA's.

I began my first experience with PDA's (which I believe stands for Personal Digital Assistant) back in 1998 when the Palm III came out and it was great, but I didn't use it much since I was in it more for the wow factor than the practical use of it. I later reintroduced myself to the market by buying a Palm m505 and then later buying a Palm m515. These were both great and served me well, but I was looking for something a little more powerful and playful. I then found the then Compaq iPaq line of handhelds and bought a 3975. It was awesome but when the 5455 came out a few months later a decided to upgrade. The same thing happened when the 5555 came out and that is where I am for the time being.

First off, let me say the Hewlett Packard aquired the Compaq line of handhelds and have continued to keep these devices at the top of their game. The new h5555 sports an Intel PXA255 Processor that features a 400 MHz processor with a 200 MHz bus speed (the previous PXA250 processor only had a 100 MHz bus speed). This has caused a great improvement in the speed of the device. The h5555 has the same form factor as its predecessors which allows it to use expansion packs, which add support for extra memory and periphrials (i.e. Compact Flash Cards, PC card hard drives, microdrives, GPS systems, cameras, bar code readers, and much more). It has an awesome screen (I believe it is 3.8") which has a 240x320 display which makes it easy to watch movies on (yes, I did say movies). It contains 128MB of internal RAM which allows the user to now install all programs to the main memory instead of a storage card. It also features an SDIO slot, which can be used by SD and MMC memory cards (which are very small memory cards used in cameras and other devices). The h5555 also has built in Wi-Fi, which allows you to browse the internet wirelessly at home, work, airports, Starbucks, or anywhere else Wireless hot-spots are available. It not only has Wi-Fi, but also built-in bluetooth, which allows connection to cell phones (for internet connection or phone dialing), other PDA's, printers, and bluetooth networks. It has a headphone jack which when combined with Bose headphones makes for a great music playing device. It features a record button that can record voice notes so that you can get rid of your seperate voice recorder, and the coolest thing ever: a fingerprint reader. This is used to keep others from accessing your device.

The h5555 has the latest operating system called Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003, which looks a little different from the Pocket PC 2002 operating system, but has many new and improved features, including faster loading times, increased security, support for Wi-Fi, and much more. It has a built-in calculator, to-do list, calendar, email, and notes software, which all syncronize with Microsoft Outlook. It also has the latest Windows Media Player 9 series, which can play wav, mp3, wma, avi, and other video and music formats. It also features Microsoft Reader, which allows the user to read ebooks, and if you use Microsoft Money like I do, it allows you to sync all information to your h5555.

I currently use my iPAQ h5555 with a PC card expansion pack and 5gb PC card hard drive to hold my mp3's and DivX movies for those long trips. I also have installed some great games (Age of Empires, Tennis Addict, Baseball Addict, Soccer Addict, Lemonade Tycoon, and a few others) to my h5555 so that when I am bored at home or on the road I have something to do. I use my h5555 constantly at work to remind me of my schedule, to-do list, and my employees birthdays and anniversarys. I also use it to connect to my cell-phone to check my email over the internet and every so often to browse the web. My favorite place to use my h5555 is at home. I can lay on my bed and surf the web wirelessly using Wi-Fi and can browse my desktop computer files anywhere in the house. This allows me to stream mp3s, movies, and any other files directly to my h5555 without load times and having to wait for a file to transfer because I can start playing it. The only drawback to this device is that the Wi-Fi consumes a major amount of battery power so if you are going to use this feature then you need to prepare to charge your h5555 often.

The h5555 is considered the current top-of-the line device running Windows Mobile 2003 because it features the best processor, Wi-Fi, bluetooth, offers expansion options, and a big fantastic screen all in one device, but it comes at a hefty price of $649. I would say that if you want the power and productivity of a laptop in a smaller form factor, then this is for you.