- Dazzling Transflective TFT color liquid crystal display
- Removable/rechargeable 1250 mAh Lithium Polymer battery
- Secure Digital memory card slot for transferring and storing music, picture and more
- Integrated Wireless LAN 802.11b, Bluetooth, biometric fingerprint reader
- HP iPAQ Pocket PC, Slim Removable Battery, Protective Cover Pack, Universal Cradle, Extra Stylus, AC and Charging Adapter
Well, let me begin by saying that I researched all of the PDAs on the market including Palm products and came away that this unit would be the best choice out there due to its 80211b connectivity. I primarily use Windows and as such though it would be a great tool to use to keep track of my contacts, Outlook messages, and to even sometimes use the IE browser capabilities remotely. After getting the unit, setting it up, and using it for several weeks I ended up returning it. Here's why, 1) The battery power is horrible if you use BlueTooth or the 80211b. I primarily wanted the unit to connect to my Outlook both at home and at work and I found the battery lifetime to be just short of two hours when using the 80211b (with BlueTooth turned off). This made it really tough to be able to attend a long meeting and rely on the 5455 for my email. Yes I could have carried optional battery packs, but I didn't want to do that. After all if this unit is supposed to be all encompassing then I shouldn't need to carry gear with me to support it. 2) The reliability of the wireless is not without its faults. Quite often I had to do soft resets it got to the point that somewhere between 20-30 percent of the time a soft reset was required. 3) The Pocket PC operating system, particularly the aspects related to wireless connectivity and connectivity with the AutoSynch mechanism are not flawless in their implementation you'll find problems connecting, you'll lose connections, and if you have more than one email service/account then you'll have to manually switch each time to get mail from each of the accounts. 4) I noticed the current incarnation of the Pocket PC OS have problems with slowing down in CPU speed when adding more applications to the unit. This is somewhat expected that as you add apps the OS will slow down, but adding just a handful of standard apps to the 5455 brought the peppy default speed of the unit down to almost intolerable. Again, since these were my primary reasons for purchasing the unit if the synching and wireless didn't work perfectly then there was little point in keeping the 5455. After three weeks of giving the 5455 every effort that I could make a case for keeping it I came to the conclusion that it did not meet my needs. A few weeks later I still do not in any way regret the decision of returning it. Taking into consideration the cost of the unit and the poor reliability and short battery life it just didn't make sense for me. I'll wait till HP come out with better battery technology that actually lasts with wireless and I'll wait till Microsoft come out with their next implementation of the OS which will hopefully synchronize and generally work more reliably. Perhaps by the time this happens then we'll have a version available which is built into a digital telephone this would be an even more practical and useful real-world solution.
Buy HP iPAQ 5455 Pocket PC Now
This should have been the ideal PocketPC for me. With built-in Bluetooth and Wifi, it is a networking powerhouse without the need for sleds. Unfortunately, there appear to be severe production problems with this unit.
I purchased one and had to return it due to frequent lockups. Sure, it's Windows it crashes, but this was obscene. I booted between 7 and 20 times per day! I returned the unit assuming that I had a bad unit and the other one was the same way. Another collegue bought one and it went totally dark after two weeks. We are zero for three.
The CompUSA store looked it up on the computer and noted 13 returns in 22 days. This unit is a disaster. Perhaps in a few months after a ROM pack is released this will be good, but the current (23-Feb-2003) version of 1.00.45 should never have been released.
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While an attractive package with built in wireless (Blue Tooth, 802.11B), fingerprint recognition (for enhanced security and easy login), HP has in fact delivered a mess.
The saga thus far: Upon delivery the unit was delivered with a stack of supplement manuals and addendums describing the add-on features, however there was no manual for the Pocket PC 2003 operating system. The manual is 160+ pages, and hidden on the CD as a PDF file (although my first round with tech support couldn't find it on the CD, and pointed me to the web site where he couldn't find it either!) It was explained to me that the O/S is provided by a third party vendor (Microsoft), and therefore HP isn't responsible for it! Right... (Never mind that it is essential to the unit, and is useless without it!) Further, attempts to move the PDF to the iPAQ so it can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader for the Pocket PC when needed proved useless. I personally think this is inexcusable I shouldn't have to download the file to a PC, keep the PC with me at all times, so I can have access to it when I have a problem with the Pocket PC or print out a 160 page book on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper and figure out how to carry it with me. (Kind of defeats the purpose of having a pocket PC!) The unit needs to be delivered with this basic tool.
Next: The unit filed after 2 hours of use. It turned itself on while in my briefcase, got extremely hot, and completely locked up. The 5450 would not reset. Turns out that HP will not send a replacement (unless you want to pay for an additional warranty), so it disappeared for a week and a half (vice the 3 days that were promised when I called technical support). When it was returned, I was informed that they couldn't duplicate the error, so they did nothing. I have since determined that the optional leather executive case sold by HP was designed so that it can readily touch the overly sensitive power switch turning the unit on so it will overheat and run the battery dead. If I don't use the ... leather case (sold by HP for the 5450, it is much less prone to turning itself on and overheating!
The handwriting recognition is poor and difficult to tailor. As often as not, the unit will not exit the keyboard mode without a system reset. (BTW, I find I do 7-8 resets a day at this point between this problem, memory card problems, and wireless problems.)
As for the wireless I have gottent it to work exactly once. After numerous calls to technical support, I have managed to get it to work with one of four wireless networks. According to tech support, the unit will not tolerate 802.11G in the area. They consider it a problem with the 802.11G standards, never mind that my other 802.11B devices are working with no difficulty! It gets worse! The configuration for each network involves multiple control panels that are scattered throughout the O/S, counter-intuitive and poorly documented. You won't gett any help from the FAQ's or technical support web site either. For instance, if you should manage to get the wireless to recognize a network, you then need to go through the network settings control panel, and indicate in three different drop-down boxes that you are connecting at "work" (rather than the "internet" or "home"). Use of any other setting will effectively prevent the device from using the wireless, and requires you to configure a modem (never mind that the whole point of wireless is to avoid using a modem, or you may need different wireless configuration settings at different locations)! (Why work=wireless has yet to be explained to me by technical support.) Clear yet? I thought not...
The latest saga has to do with the SD memory card. It cannot be written to or have the existing files deleted. Suspecting a corrupt file, I tried to find information on formatting the card (or any other information on the memory cards) on the HP web site. There was none. When I called technical support, they informed me that every SD card needed to be formatted before it was used. (Again, nothing in the user guide or the web site). Further, there was no utility provided by HP to do this! I needed to go to a another vendor's web site, and BUY this utility separately (even though it was REQUIRED before I could use the card even the one HP sold me with the 5450!. Despite my better judgment, I bought the utility and low and behold it doesn't work either. Again, how HP can justify not including a basic utility that is required to use the device eludes me.
Finally, this was one of two units I bought for evaluation in my laboratory. The other I gave to my network systems engineer. His story isn't any happier. In addition to the issues I have encountered, his problems have centered around that expansion pack, and the fact that they are such a poor fit, that the unit constantly sees the battery in the expansion pack as going dead (because it fits so poorly) that the unit keeps shutting down. Any devices plugged into the expansion pack are constantly seen as being removed and installed requiring numerous resets as things try to reload.
We have also bought the new Viewsonic pocket PCs and Casios for evaluation. They have been an order of magnitude more reliable that the HP iPAQ 5450, despite (because) fewer features, and further came with complete documentation. None of these have failed to date, nor have we had an issue requiring our contacting technical support.
Our conclusion: the HP iPAQ 5450 is a poorly executed design, lacking basic documentation, with poor support, and should therefore be avoided at all costs.
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I've been a long time Palm user starting with a Pro and owning 6 or 7 since, most recently an M515. The screen was what first attracted me to this unit plus the wireless network, well, it 'sort of' worked for a month, but I've had enough. This unit seems like it would be a good idea, but isn't. Installation and initial sync went very smooth, but that was only the beginning.
DAY 1: First day carrying it, it locked up solidly it wouldn't turn off or soft reset, I didn't have the CD w/the manual on it (bad idea) with me, so I didn't know how to hard reset. I tried taking the battery off, but the unit just came back on (in it's locked up state) when the battery was reinstalled so I just let it die. I spent that evening getting it running again and trying to get the wireless networking to connect to my Linksys WAP11. After fiddling way too much, I finally got my mail and MSN Messenger to work, but not the browser. Finally I called HP's support site and was warned that any help he gave me was on a 'best try only' basis no promises we couldn't get the thing to work.
DAY 2: I left the wireless networking enabled and went to work the battery was completely dead by Noon with wireless enabled the battery seems to have a painfully short life. So I spent that evening restoring it again. I went to HP's website and found an external battery ...
Perfect huh? Ordered this puppy immediately only to find it only works with the expansion pack which adds expansion slots, but also a LOT of bulk just to have a reasonable battery life? I called HP to return it and the agent sent me to the parts department for a second battery to carry. .... he assured me that I didn't have the skills to replace the battery. I told him that it just had a little latch on it and it flipped out and I was quite sure I could handle it. He replied that the case was sealed and that no one but HP was authorized to open it. I told him that tech support had asked me to remove the battery to retrieve the serial number from the label under it and didn't see the problem with removing it. He was then VERY annoyed, told me that I didn't know what I was talking about, and hung up. I figured that there will be higher capacity batteries in the aftermarket soon.
Now it's over 3 weeks later and although I haven't missed any meetings or anything because this thing failed me, I've come close, and instead of just grabbing my Palm and using it without giving it any thought, I find myself reaching for it and wondering if it's going to work. I finally decided I've had enough. I picked out one of the new [brand name] Palm OS units w/MP3 and ordered it. I then decided to call HP and see if they would consider a return for a one month old order they did so without hesitation they looked at their records and saw that I had several tech support contacts on it, appologized that it didn't work out and even sent FedEx with a pickup tag.
The Palm is by far a better platform for simple organizer tasks, but the PPC 'horsepower' is great when using spreadsheets and the like I thought I could have both.
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I purchased the iPaq 5455 one year ago, directly from HP when it first hit the market, paying $649 plus $200 for a 3 year top of the line warranty. I have had several problems with the unit. Starting with the display on the unit going out only after a month or two of receiving it. The next problem was with the battery loosing its charge. Most recently, I have been having the recurring problem of the unit locking up not powering on. And like others, I have never been able to sync my info wirelessly.
I have placed several calls to tech support. I have troubleshooted the unit while on the phone with them and even sent the unit in for repair a month ago, in which I did not get a replacement unit, although my extended warranty states that I should. I received the unit back from repair and the documentation stated that no parts were replaced. Knowing that I definitely had a problem with the unit, I called tech support to see what was repaired. I was told a big lie that the battery was changed and the ENC part was replaced. Looking at my unit now, I see that it is the same battery that I had when I sent it in for repair.
Thinking that all was fixed with my unit, I downloaded all of my information. The next day I experienced the same problem with the unit not powering on with the power button. I placed another call to tech support in which the tech and myself troubleshooted the unit. The tech told me to hard boot my unit which erased all of my data. I was told not to install the one 3rd party software that I had installed to monitor the situation. I once again reinstalled my information without the 3rd party software. Again, my unit would not power on. Again, I called tech support and angrily described my situation.
Finally, the tech tells me that I will be sent a REFURBISHED unit. I received the refurbished unit two days ago and encountered the same problem once I loaded all of my data on to it. HP tech support has you to hard reset the unit to erase all data, which appears to make the unit work properly, but once the data is loaded, the problems begin. Today I called tech support and told them I am returning the refurbished replacement unit and keeping my original to see what their customer care department does to satisfy me.
I purchased the unit because I felt it would be an asset to my busy professional life, but it has been nothing but a hassle. I have sent several email complaints to HP customer support and finally to the CEO Carly Fiorina. I got a reply email from her address stating that someone would be in contact with me.
Each call and every email, I have gotten the same script of "we apologize for your inconvenience". The tech support department located in India is very unhelpful and they speak to you as if you were an idiot.
The unit has some slick features, but right now I am very dissatisfied and frustrated.
I ordered this battery and what I got was different from what was pictured! It would not fit into my Nook at all and now I have to return it and wait up to four weeks for a refund! Watch out when trying to buy this item as you may not get what you are paying for.
