HP iPAQ hx4705 Reviewed

Tong writes "PDA Buyer's Guide has published an in-depth review of the HP iPAQ hx4605. 'This has been the month of the iPAQ with so many new models released! The hx4705 is one of the most anticipated because it features a fantastic VGA display and a super-fast 624MHz processor. Heap on plenty of memory, Bluetooth, WiFi, both CF and SD slots and a touch pad navigator and you've got the 4705. It's one of only two Pocket PCs with a VGA display sold in the US.' Read the full review on the buyer's guide."

Comments

I don't know about all that...

[RangerRick98]

The hx4705 is one of the most anticipated because it features a fantastic VGA display and a super-fast 624MHz processor. Heap on plenty of memory, Bluetooth, WiFi, both CF and SD slots and a touch pad navigator and you've got the 4705.

I don't know about all that, but it's got a rubber ducky in its background, and that's good enough for me!

Re:I don't know about all that...

[PepsiProgrammer]

I'll stick to my Zaurus SL-6000 its only got a 400mhz processor, and no bluetooth. But I dont use bluetooth and its already running linux.

Not to mention its ruggedized (Desigined to withstand 1 meter fall to concrete) also features the best looking pda display ive ever seen, and has the trademark sliding keyboard.

Unfortunately rumour has it that Sharp is wanting to pull out of the US PDA market entirely :( the SL-6000 is not marketed towards consumers at all. But you can still pick em up at amazon.

VGA Experience

[Nuclear Elephant]

unless you have excellent eyes, you'll discover why Microsoft didn't go with a true VGA experience

I heard the same thing back in the '80s, my ANSI ASCII pr0n never looked right in MS-DOS.

hp+apple=new newton?

[boomerny]

with HP selling iPods now, wouldn't it be sweet to have one of these top-end iPaq's running some sort of stripped down OSX? PDA of my dreams...

Not for long

[lezerno]

The same battery life as my laptop!

Re:Not for long

[timeOday]

That is a bummer, but look at what they were doing for those 3 hours and 20 minutes: "PIM access, working with Pocket Word and Excel documents, viewing photos, watching 30 minutes of videos and surfing the web using WiFi for an hour."

That's a very laptop-like workload! Maybe it would have more traditional PDA battery life if it were tested on more traditional PDA tasks, like sitting in your pocket turned off most of the time until you fire it up for 10 seconds to look up an address.

Zaurus 6000

[Kent Swanson]

You can buy the Sharp Zaurus 6000 in the US. It has a VGA screen, in fact it has been around for quite a while. Snoooooze.

Where is PalmOne?

[Ryan Monster]

I love Palm as much as the next guy, in fact I use a Tungsten T3, but when is Palm going to get with the times and release a comparable model? The T3 or C seems to be the cream of the crop and it's only got 320x480, not full VGA, and while you can get either bluetooth or wifi, you can't get both (without the expansion card). What's up Palm?

Re:So...

[PaintyThePirate]

Handhelds.org is where most of the Pocket PC -> Linux action is these days. They are still working on getting Familiar (the main Pocket PC linux distro) on previous generation devices, such as the Dell X3 and the Ipaq 4100, so it could be a while before there is support for the 4705.

BTW, I have Familiar Linux with the Opie GUI on my Ipaq 3650, and its actually quite good.

Beware of HP

[DrXym]

I bought an iPaq h4150 a couple of months back only to find it was end of lifed 3 weeks later. The device wasn't even selling for a year and it is already obsolete. It was still the #1 seller for HP at the time, I think that's a little raw. No new bios upgrades, no Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition. Zip.

If this is their new policy, I would think seriously before buying anything off them. One year of upgrades is your lot in life, after which you have a paper weight. Besides, it's not like HP are the only manufacter of PDAs - they're just one of the more expensive. If you don't get value for money including adequate support you may as buy from someone else.

Re:Beware of HP

[GoofyBoy]

> after which you have a paper weight.

No, you still have a PocketPC. It doesn't stop working just because a company doesn't provide upgrades to it.

Re:Beware of HP

[DrXym]

I wouldn't have a problem with it either if I knew then what I know now. I would have simply bought from someone else.

My issue is that I didn't know, and there was nothing on their site to suggest they were dropping support. In fact the site lead me to believe that their support was good. They even had an offer to update old devices to the latest Windows Mobile 2003 for a nominal fee. I thought "what great support!" and ordered one. Three weeks later and they announce end of life...

As for being a gadget - no it's not a gadget, it is my PDA. I had a Palm Vx for four years that worked just fine in that capacity but which finally went a bit wonky. I heard good things about the h4150 in reviews in PCW and elsewhere and decided to switch.

I only expected the level of support that the HP brand and their site lead me to believe I was going to get. That doesn't mean constant upgrades, but it does mean bug fixes and upgrade offers for a fee if they are feasible. For example an upgrade to Mobile 2003 Second Edition is feasible but none is forthcoming. Even bug fixes of the temperamental wireless would be nice.

I suspect that HP have pulled the rug on support to shove people onto the new models, but it won't work. If I'm shoved, I'll end up buying a Dell Axim, or maybe another Palm. I certainly won't fork out extra money for service that I don't get. I'm sure others will too.

Re:Beware of HP

[timeOday]

Releasing something newer and better, even ceasing to sell the old model is NOT the same as end-of-lifing! A decent company will continue to support products after it stops selling them for long enough to support most customers.

Imagine if Ford stopped making spare parts next week for the 2004 F150 because this year's model is all new. Nobody expects them to stop innovating, that's not the problem.

There are lots of VGA pdas coming out soon

[jomas1]

Check out this article if VGA is something you really want on your next pda:

http://www.brighthand.com/article/Which_VGA_Pocket _PC_is_Right

Forgive a curmudgeon, but...

[boredman]

I've been watching the PDA evolution from the outside for a while (ever since buying a Palm Professional back in '98) and, for the life of me, I *still* can't figure out what these things are good for. Despite the trend toward ever-more-powerful specs, I see them as a terribly expensive compromise between the convenience and communications options afforded by cell phones and the power of a modern notebook.

So, here's the question: what do you, members of the /. community, use your PDAs for, anyway? I'm genuinely curious; please don't interpret this as flamebait.

-boredman

Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but...

[jomas1]

If you are never more than 15 feet away from a computer, you will probably never understand the benefit of a pda. My current job requires me to constantly be in the field and at someone else's mercy for electricity and computer/internet access. A pda allows you to take lots of files/documents/passwords etc with you without requireing you carry a laptop with you.

Once again this means nothing if you are never too far from you computer and are immobile.

Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but...

[ch-chuck]

I use my ipqa 1945 for:

1) Listening to Internet audio about the house (wirelessly)with 802.11b and headphones
2) Listening to a shortwave radio
3) Using a web browser to control item #2
4) Running an Atari 8 bit emulator to play games like "Kennedy Approach" or Chess 2000 while in the waiting room
5) Pocket Calculator, scientific
6) Notes in the field (push putton, talk)
7) Address book, phone numbers
8) Passwords (the entire unit is passwd protected in case of loss or theft)
9) Alarms and reminders - e.g., I put lanudry in the washer and schedule an alarm 18 minutes later when I need to add fabric softener
10) Browsing slashdot and ebay (albeit awkwardly) when relaxing on the porch listening to #1 or 2
11) ssh into my machines for simple operations and log checks
12) Calendar for appointments with reminders - in fact it just went off to remind me of a radio program on in 10 minutes. Gotta go.

Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but...

[G4from128k]

I offer both agreement and an answer. I use an 4.5 year old Psion 5mx for word processing (taking notes at conferences, on airplanes, in line at the bank, etc.) spreadsheets, small databases, date & time around the globe, quickie calculations, scheduled reminders, and an occasional game. Its got a whopping 36 MHz processor, 16 MB RAM, and a 16-gray B/W half-VGA screen but that is all it really needs for these tasks. It is totally fantastic as a 12 oz. ultralite laptop because it does all the basic "office" type tasks and gets 20 to 35 hours per pair of AAs.

Like you, I don't see the need for faster/better (especially at the expense of battery life), although I can understand the attraction to wireless web access.

Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but...

[DoubleD]

Palm Tungsten T3 performs several functions a cell phone would not allow me to do as well or at all.

Current uses:

• Calender + audible reminders
  
• Contacts (instant access to anyone in the company's contact info is nice)
  
• Ebooks (great free sci fi library)
  
• freehand idea sketches
  
• Secure/portable password storage
  
• calculator (TI/HP emulators)
  
• quick excel spreadsheets.
  

Future/Dream Uses:

• remote control for my digial camera
  
• photo album
  
• wikipedia on a 1GB SD for casual reading/reference
  
• tv remote
  
• synced movie listings, tvguide
  
• mp3 player
  
• if you can get power from the airplane divx movies are a possibility.
  
• anything else a computer that fits in your pocket might be usefull for.
  

Cell phones are limited by input method and screen resolution (currently at least). Laptops take time to boot, dont fit in pockets, and cost more. For some tasks and situations the PDA ends up perfectly in between. That said PDAs are not for everyone and take some effort to make use of. They also have lots of room for improvement, and or convergence with cell phones.

Final thoughts: I had a dell axim x5 and despised it. The user interface seemed to fight me every step of the way and the size was above my convenience threshold. From my experience using Windows Mobile is like trying to give someone a fullsized piano and only letting them play it through a fist sized hole, underneath it, surrounded with barbed wire, ah well you get the point. Whereas PalmOS consistenly surprises me with well thought features and usable functionality. Also, I would be using a much cheaper pda if I did not get the Tungsten T3 for free.

Re:Forgive a curmudgeon, but...

[IronChef]

What do I use it for? What do I NOT use it for?!

reading ebooks every single day... in bed, on the couch, on the can: uBook
keeping track of miscellaneous bits of info (eg, project shopping lists): Noterrific
Listening to my MP3 collection, via earphones, over WLAN, while reading in bed: BetaPlayer
scientific calculator: Calc98
Getting online (via T-mo GSM phone & Bluetooth) anytime, anywhere. (In other words, I have Yahoo Yellow Pages in my pocket.)
All of my contacts and appointments kept in sync with home & work desktops: organizer software is built in but I bought Pocket Informant
Various games, of course
Keeping track of how much I spend on lunch: Pocket Excel
Taking notes in meetings: PhatPad
Storing every single number and password that plagues my life in a secure format: eWallet

Sure, it isn't as good as a laptop, but I can (and do) take it everywhere.

I am upgrading to one of the new VGA models shortly after they hit the streets. I have my eye on the Dell Axim X50V, which has specs similar to the HP 4700, but is less expensive.

I can't imagine not owning a nice PDA.

Revolutionary PDA?

[hklingon]

I am a clamshell nut. I must have a clamshell design, and I've been very unhappy with the US PDA market for a long, long time. Is it just me, or do PDA product lines improve at a snail's pace?

Why do I think that? I got an HP100LX about late 1993. For those who don't know, it is a 80186 DOS based palmtop. It came with a great suite of PIM software, and could do some sort of quasi-multitasking with near-dos applications. No backlight, one PCMCIA slot, ran what seemed like forever (30-40 hours+) on two AA batteries. 640x240 resolution.

By about 1998, it disintegrated. I looked for another good PDA, but found nothing. I tried the WinCE based HP 320LX, but it was a piece of garbage. I opted to just buy another 100LX.

Finally, replaced my 2nd 100LX with a Zaurus C860, but not before trying several of PalmOS and WinCE 2.0/2000/2003 handhelds. Yeah, but the C860 is only available in japan. (Technically you can find it in the states.) It runs Linux, though, so slashdot folks should be all over that. WiFi is great, it has CF and SD (SDIO soon). The 640x480 display is stunning brilliant. Oh, and its clamshell/handheld convertable. Running a linux dos emulator on it lets me run all the old apps I ran on the 100LX (including Derive), at a good speed. Battery life is about 7 hours of continuous use with judicious use of WiFi, which is not bad.

I'm not impressed, at all, with this ipaq model. 640x480? I was halfway there a *decade* ago. 640x480 has been out on handheld PCs for at least 3 years now, though maybe not in the US. The processor speed is nice, but I just have to have a clamshell.

I think the C860 is ideal for grad and undergrad college students because of the scientific apps on linux, wifi, clamshell and other reasons I've outlined. I don't want just another toy PDA or PIM system. A PamOS 3.0 device will do basic PIM stuff quite handily. There are some seriously killer linux math apps (similar to mathematica) that run quite well on the C860, too. I just don't think this ipaq is a good geek's PDA because of the native OS and other reasons I've outlined.

I want to see a new PDA here in the US that I can be as excited about as I was the 200LX and and the C860.

More about Zaurus C860

More info on the ancient 100/200lx I lament

VGA Pocket PC Comparison

[llZENll]

Here is a comparison chart of the VGA Pocket PCs coming out soon.

And the only VGA Pocket PC Game so far (a breakout game).

...but what does 'hx4705' translate to non-l33t?

[Behrooz]

HP iPAQ hx4705 Reviewed

When I saw that phrase, I spent a good 20 seconds trying to figure out what the non-l33t translation for 'hx4705' was.

"HP iPAQ hacks... No... Um, hat attacks? No. What the hell does that say?!?"

Sure, you can say that I spend too much time on IRC, but I blame the editors for posting an article title that wouldn't pass the lameness filter if I tried to add it as a comment. What am I supposed to think, other than 'wow, that's some seriously obfuscated l33t'?

Why Not Real Linux on a PDA?

[civilizedINTENSITY]

Well, actually... yes you can, because they did it for us:

Currently Familiar's Linux distribution supports some of the following key features:

• Entirely based on XFree86's/keithp's Tiny-X server, which includes the latest RENDER extension.
• Anti-Aliased True-Type Font support in rxvt-aa, matchbox, and fltk (this is extended to any X application using the Xft APIs).
• Dropbear sshd included by default.
• The latest releases include JFFS2 support, which enables you to have read/write access to the iPAQ's Flash.
• Integrated Python v2.3 w/ PyGtk and PyGDKImlib.
• Binary and Library compatible w/ Debian's ARM distribution. In most cases, programs (as long as their dependencies are met) can be taken from Debian and executed on the iPAQ w/out issue.
• Full package support based on ipkg.
• Many system programs are implemented using busybox, saving much space.

If thats not enough Linux in your PDA, try:

The intimate project is a fully blown debian based linux distribution for the Compaq iPAQ. Taking the work being done by the Familiar Project and combining it with fully blown debian package management, and access to the thousands of existing debian arm packages. The goal is simple. We want the best of both worlds. Sure... it won't fit in the 16MB Flash but for the lucky few with microdrives then this is the way ahead. The minimum requirements are currently around 140MB of storage for the base image.

Wrong on a few counts.

[tod_miller]

One upon a year, 624khz was far more than what we had, and VGA was state of the art.

Lets not forget 256mb smart cards come in Cereal Packets nowwadays.

So if your VGA screen is small, you have new ways of interacting, multi modal - voice recognition from mobile phone technology (voice dial) for small vocabulary recognition, shortcut buttons, hand writing recog, and stylus input.

Not to mention new inputs like Dasher. Lets not get appl eand pairs. Opie or GPE and the familar projects and other, they are real linux - and no you don't want an OS formatted for 4:3 19" screen on your 16:9 pocket screen. (google Dasher - it runs on my Axim rather well.)

So you argue against familiar being a 'full' linux, not just a different flavour, but you also state you cannot just push darwin onto a PDA.

So if you moddified it to work on a PDA, you would look at in discust, say it isn't a 'real' darwin, and if it was you wouldn't want it....

What is your point? Sorry but a lot of work is going on in this field (lots of happy hardware hacking) and I am waiting impatiently for a rebootable, power managed debianesuq distro to run on my axim - give them encouragement not misdirectd misdirection.

Hope that made sense.