HP iPAQ H545530 December 2002 At a list price of $699 - more than many desktop PCs - the new top-of-the-line iPAQ sets high expectations. Does it deliver? The new flagship iPAQ looks vaguely familiar. While the plastic "black hat" on the H5455 is smaller than the one on the H3800/H3900 series, the overall size is identical, allowing the H5455 to use all the sleeves designed for the other non-H1910 iPAQs. As the screen was moved up between the H3600/H3700 series and the H3800/H3900 series, so it's moved further up the screen again for the H5455. This means form-fitting "play through" cases designed for earlier iPAQs won't work for the H5455 since the cutout for the screen will be in the wrong place. The button layout is also different from previous iPAQs, with two buttons arranged almost vertically on either side of the tiny circular directional pad. While the buttons have good tactile feedback, the d-pad is on the stiff side and tends not to recognize page-ups and page-downs about half the time. Under the d-pad is the new fingerprint scanner. This is a thin electrostatic bar that reads the ridges and whorls of your fingerprint as you slowly move your finger from first knuckle to tip across the scanner. Training and enrollment is remarkably easy, and once a fingerprint is enrolled the scanner works as advertised. While all Pocket PCs support power-on password protection, few users actually use it; it's generally too much of a pain to enter the password every time you want to look something up. The fingerprint scanner on the H5455 changes this considerably as it takes about one second to scan a fingerprint, and does not require reaching for the stylus. The fingerprint scanner will be particularly popular with enterprise customers concerned about having sensitive corporate information on mobile devices. After a configurable number of failed logon attempts, the iPAQ locks down and can't be used again without a data-zapping hard reset. Another new feature is the removable battery on the back of the device. Like the late, lamented Jornada, the H5455 sports a squarish lithium-polymer battery. The ability to replace the battery is almost a necessity on the H5455 as the battery life is somewhat less than stellar. The H5455 gets a bit less than four hours of on-time out of a charge at full brightness, roughly two thirds of what you'd get out of the iPAQ H3950 or most other Pocket PCs. With both Bluetooth and WiFi turned on, the battery lasts roughly 100 minutes. This can be extended a bit by shortening the standby time - more on that later - but the H5455 is clearly a sprinter, not a marathoner. When you remove the battery, you'll notice a slot for a SIM card. Many, including myself, have speculated that this card - and the fact that the H5455 runs Pocket PC Phone Edition rather than Pocket PC 2002 - may mean that full phone capabilities could be added to the device, perhaps by a sleeve. While this can't be ruled out, a more likely explanation is that the phone-like hardware changes (volume rocker integrated into the record button on the side, microphone on the bottom, etc.) exist to make the true Phone Edition iPAQ H5600 cheaper to produce since it will share so many parts with the H5400. The fully-functional SIM socket isn't useless even though the H5455 lacks a GSM radio. SIM cards can also be used as ID to authenticate onto private WiFi networks. HP may just be planning ahead. I noticed something else about the H5455 battery. It runs hot, especially if you keep the device cradled a lot (a wise idea given the substandard battery life). The H5455 is frequently uncomfortably warm when pulled from the cradle, making me wonder if heat dissipation is finally becoming a problem on handheld computers. The screen on the H5455 is a 3.8" transflective TFT. While it is brighter than the screen on the H3950, it's also lower-contrast, looking noticeably "washed out" when compared to an H3950 side by side. Sources tell me that the H5455 is the first iPAQ not made by HTC in Taiwan, but is instead manufactured by Goldstar in Korea. If Goldstar has a different source for transflective screens - the HTC devices use screens made by Sony - then that would account for the variation. I should note that the screen looks fine on its own and only really looks washed out when compared to another transflective iPAQ. Sources also tell me that it looks markedly better than the H3950 outdoors, so the screen probably has a different balance between transmission and reflection of light and acts more like a reflective screen outdoors. ClearType can be enabled systemwide, which looks black and crisp, unlike older iPAQs. The H5455 is the first iPAQ to include built-in WiFi. HP has added a little wizard to aid in setting up a WiFi connection, but I'm not sure it helps. WiFi was harder for me to set up on the H5455 than on the Toshiba e470, mostly because I was roaming and didn't know the SSID of the access point I needed to connect to. On the Toshiba, I was able to set the SSID to "ANY" and it took care of the rest. If there's a way to do this with the H5455 I was unable to find it. I finally had to resort to manually typing in the SSID after the Toshiba figured out what it was. Once I was connected it worked great, and I was able to surf via Pocket Internet Explorer at roughly the same speed I'm used to from my cable modem. I can see WiFi being a boon for home and office networks where the network setting are well known, but the H5455 will be tough to use to bounce freely from access point to access point in unfamiliar parts of town (unless I'm missing something obvious, which I suppose is entirely possible). Bluetooth is another story. I didn't have a Bluetooth phone to use for testing, so my observations are based mostly on trying to get an H5455 and a Palm Tungsten T to talk to each other. This was problematic, but I really don't know which device was the troublemaker. I was eventually able to exchange business cards via Bluetooth. The HP wizard for partnering with phones seemed pretty straightforward, so if you have a Bluetooth phone this should be a good way to stay connected to the net when you're out of WiFi range. HP has added a number of nifty software tweaks. For the first time, you can adjust the "standby" power the system reserves, from 12-72 hours. This is the the amount of time between when a low battery causes the iPAQ not to turn on and when it actually looses data because there isn't enough power to keep the memory refreshed. So now you can maximize runtime while you're at home or the office - places where you know you'll be able to recharge often, but have up to three days of power-free data safety when you're on the road. You can also set a baseline setting for the automatic backlight control. Being able to have the backlight automatically turn off and on based on whether it's needed given the ambient light has always been one of the iPAQ's best battery-saving features, but it seems no two people can agree on exactly when it should turn on and off. It's a safe bet that you won't agree with the cutoffs set by the engineers at HP, but now you don't have to. With a little experimentation, you can be assured that you'll have the backlight when you need it, and save power when you don't. Keeping up the iPAQ tradition of great audio performance, the H5455 provides variable bass-boost for headphone audio. Along with the much-improved performance of Windows Media Player 8.5, this should keep the iPAQ at the top of the list of audiophile's favorite PDAs. The iPAQ now provides the ability to charge the device directly via USB, avoiding the need to take both a charging cable and a travel charger with you on trips (assuming, of course, that you take a laptop and don't do everything on a PDA). You can set the charge to fast or slow, though I'm not entirely sure why you'd pick slow. Overall, is the H5455 worth it? Tough question. $699 will buy you a decent desktop system. Why spend that much for a PDA? Well, the H5455 is the most connected, most connectable PDA on the market. Because it's an iPAQ, it's got accessories available for nearly any need imaginable. If you can actually use the wireless networking features, and already have a pile of accessories for iPAQs, then it's really a great investment. The H5455 isn't for everyone, but for the power user that needs maximum connectivity, it's the only game in town. Jeff Kirvin
Jeff Kirvin is available for consulting on mobile technology. Email me today! |