A powerful device in the palm of your hand (HP iPaq Pocket PC H5550)

Member Name: ff2k

Product:	HP iPaq Pocket PC H5550
Date:	10/06/05 (239 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent features, Great expandability

Disadvantages: Bigger than a regular PDA, Battery life could be a bit better

I bought an HP iPAQ h5550 about a year and a half ago from eBay USA, costing me about £250. Back then, the h5550 cost about £500 in the shops, so this was a great discount. However, when I received the item, I was charged £70 duty tax which brought the cost up to about £330. Still, it was much cheaper on eBay than in the high street stores.

[FEATURES]
The h5550 boasts some features not found on a lot of PDA's, most notably the Biometric Fingerprint reader. More suited to company use rather than personal use, the fingerprint reader provides very high-level security, however I have found that it can be rather innaccurate. Also, I have found that the PIN security suits me well enough, and the Fingerprint reader could be a bit of a waste of money.
Other features include an IrDA port on the top, which can come in useful, a port for an expansion jacket is included, a small aerial (can be seen in the picture) for improving wireless signal, and WLAN and Bluetooth are the two wireless interfaces used by the h5550. There is also an audio-out port for outputting audio to earphones or a Hi-Fi system, an iPAQ slot for connecting it to the cradle (which enables access by the computer - to install software and for charging). There is also a volume control on the side, and a speaker on the top. The stylus provided is black plastic. The h5550 also has a 3.8" screen which is larger than most standard PDA's. It comes with Windows 2003 for Pocket PC Premium.
The CPU power on the h5550 is 400MHz, with xScale processor technology. The PDA on overall is fast, and applications can be run without a drop in speed noticable.

[EXPANSION]
The h5550 provides a lot of expansion possibilities, either through attaching a jacket, or through the convenient SD-card slot for SD or MMC cards to increase the h5550 memory. The h5550 features 48mb of Flash ROM and 128mb of RAM as standard. Files and programs are stored in the RAM, and are lost if the iPAQ is Hard-Resetted, or if the battery and backup-battery both lose power. There is also a 17mb 'iPAQ file store', which is a non-volatile permanent storage for files, so they do not get lost when the power is reset as explained above.

[BATTERY]
The Battery life on the h5550 is fairly standard, it can run for about 14 hours, a bit less if more strenuous tasks are being carried out by the PDA, or if overclocking the CPU. The battery can last a week or two on standby (when the PDA is off) without being recharged. Charging varies, but is easily done simply by placing the PDA onto its cradle, with the AC power lead plugged into the cradle. The h5550 also supports USB-charging, which uses power from the USB port of the computer to charge the PDA, however this is much slower.

[SOFTWARE]
By default, the h5550 comes preinstalled with an email manager, Excel and Word for Pocket PC, iPAQ image viewer, file explorer, MSN messenger, Internet explorer and a bluetooth manager, as well as some other software, such as solitaire. There is also a retail version of Outlook 2003 provided for the PC. Software can also be downloaded or purchased from one of the many PDA software sellers online, and easily installed to the PDA with the help of software called Microsoft ActiveSync.

[DESIGN]
The design of the h5550 is sleek, and smooth, but is a bit top-heavy. However, the device fits nicely in the hand, and is easily controlled. It is slightly bigger than most PDA's, but this makes it easier to control on-screen elements.

Overall I would highly recommend this PDA to any buyers looking for a high-end PDA with good security features. There are other PDAs out now that may overtake the h5550, but it still presents itself as a great PDA now.

Summary: