HP iPAQ H5550 review

If there was a king of PDAs, this would be it. Where other Pocket PCs compromise in the name of hitting the right price, HP includes everything in the iPAQ H5550's neat chassis. Not content with 802.11b WLAN, this PDA features Bluetooth and fingerprint recognition. But most important of all - and the key difference between it and the iPAQ H5450 - the H5550 is the first PDA we've seen to include Pocket PC 2003.

Although Microsoft has introduced its own Bluetooth and WLAN interfaces with PPC 2003, HP has stuck with its existing designs. But this is understandable. HP already has the most comprehensive Bluetooth connection Wizard around, with the ability to connect to the Internet using an access point, join a Bluetooth network, wirelessly ActiveSync and connect a headset.

HP has also provided its own iPAQ WLAN software to complement the 'zero config' aspect of PPC 2003. This works well in practice, letting you switch between different access points and control their settings, while PPC 2003 detects new networks and prompts you to adjust things as necessary. The aerial - which you can see poking out of the top left of the iPAQ - is very effective too, picking up a solid signal from our office WLAN from 30m away.

This PDA is also well prepared for Microsoft's new enriched 'media experience', with no less than 128MB of RAM included. Even with an album's worth of MP3 files in place, there's room for more. Another plus is the 48MB of ROM, of which 14.9MB is siphoned off for backing up vital data. Naturally, there's an SD/MMC slot at the top for adding more memory.

Next to the expansion slot is an infrared port, while volume-up and volume-down buttons are handily located on the left (press them together and the Notes app launches). More awkwardly, the headphone jack is at the bottom of the machine, next to the connectors for the bundled USB/serial docking station and the ever-useful expansion jackets.

Head round the back of the device and you'll find the removable battery - a spare costs £51. We found the H5550 lasted for three hours, 40 minutes under general use, but this was without Bluetooth or WLAN running; when they were, the battery meter dropped down with worrying speed.

But you can also take advantage of the automatic screen backlighting. This uses a sensor to detect background light and generally works well. Fortunately, the H5550 is blessed with a superb screen anyway. Not only is it large - 3.8in diagonally - but the colours are the most accurate we've seen, and the backlight can be set at very bright levels.

When it comes to performance, the H5550 was a little disappointing. Considering that it contains a 400MHz Intel PXA255 processor, and that Microsoft has supposedly optimised performance for ARM4 chips such as the PXA255, we expected it to scream along. However, while it was certainly fast, the occasional stutter became annoying. In HP and Microsoft's defence, this was pre-release code, so hopefully these problems will be ironed out by the time the H5550 is on sale.

The bigger problem could be price. Although Dell's Axim X5 is no match for the iPAQ in terms of features or design, it has a similar specification and costs around half as much. And if you want integrated 802.11b, the Toshiba e750 WiFi is likely to drop below £400. But neither of these devices can compete with the iPAQ's all-round package, especially when you consider the huge number of expansion jackets already available.

Author: Tim Danton