Compaq iPAQ H3630

The battle for position in the palm-sized PC market is set to explode in the coming year, and Compaq is determined to lead. Apart from its sleek, metallic silver, curvaceous design, the iPAQ H3630 weighs just 170g and measures a mere 16mm from front to back.

Thanks to a 206MHz processor, the iPAQ slices through the Pocket PC OS without breaking electronic sweat, and has no problem dealing with Pocket Word or Pocket Excel. Thanks to the excellent Character Recognisor used in Pocket PC, it's easier to write notes and emails than ever - in fact, this review was written entirely on the iPAQ. This is ably helped with input devices such as the combined cursor pad/speaker and four other buttons below the screen, along with the voice recorder button on the left of the unit.

For the moment, the iPAQ must make do with the variety of apps that form part of Pocket PC, including Pocket Outlook, Internet Explorer and the ever-vital Solitaire. Compaq's own software bundle is even less inspiring, with QStart - a Palm-style listing of your favourite apps - the most notable. There's also Windows Media Player for playing MP3 and Windows Media Audio files, but it's Microsoft's ActiveSync that will find most use.

To synchronise, Compaq supplies a slightly flimsy and over-designed docking station, which doubles as a recharge unit. The one supplied was USB interfaced, although Compaq offers a serial version for NT 4 and Windows 95 users.

There's no room for any expansion media in the iPAQ itself, but for anyone who needs more memory Compaq provides its proprietary Expansion Jackets. These are currently available in Type II CompactFlash and PC Card flavours, and Compaq plans to launch digital camera, modem and GPS jackets in the future. There are problems with this approach: the connector located at the bottom of the iPAQ is vulnerable to damage; the jackets add girth to the unit; and they also add to its cost. Despite these criticisms, the iPAQ's variety of expansion possibilities make it a sensible solution.

We were slightly disappointed by the iPAQ's automatically-adjusting backlight, which uses a light sensor to gauge how bright the screen should be. The settings are rather basic and it frequently defaults to no backlight at all. That said, when lit the backlight is considerably bright and literally outshines all the opposition.

The reason why Compaq can afford to expend so much energy on lighting is the iPAQ's unusual battery. This uses lithium polymer to make maximum use of the minimal space inside the machine. The result is an estimated battery life of 15 hours, although our tests suggest an average usage figure closer to ten, and then only if you keep the backlight set to medium.

Despite this, we have no hesitation in recommending this product. The HP Jornada 545 (reviewed issue 69, p169) may include a built-in Type I CompactFlash card slot, and the Casio Cassiopeia E-115 (previewed issue 69, p170) a Type II, but neither is any match for the iPAQ's incredible processing speed. So if you want the fastest and most advanced palm-sized PC, look no further.

Author: Tim Danton