Nice PDA once you sort out the glitch (HP iPaq Pocket PC Hx2490)

Name: rassling

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Product:	HP iPaq Pocket PC Hx2490
Date:	19.11.07 (297 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Ease of use, ergonomics, battery life

Disadvantages: The ActiveSync/battery issue makes it almost useless until fixed

I'm rather in love with this PDA, but it wasn't without its teething problems. I bought it mainly because I wanted to try and organise my calendar, and also so I could take around professional manuals without breaking my back. It does both of these things very well, and is very nippy. The load time for all the applications I run is minimal, and it seems to cope well with doing several things at once.

The design is good, nicely weighted without being heavy. Even the stylus feels nice. The screen is responsive, and it comes with a plastic cover that protects it from damage. It runs Windows Mobile 2005, which I don't have any particular problems with. All the applications (including the WiFi and Bluetooth) are easy to use, and it links in with your desktop programs.

However, the first month I owned it was frustrating - ActiveSync, the program which makes the iPaq 'talk' to your PC, switches itself on periodically to check for links, and occasionally this can cause the battery to suddenly drain to nothing (and the device to get very hot). This occurs in your bag, so that the next time you go to turn it on, it is dead until you can charge it. This was happening to me roughly every other day. If you manage to reset it while it does this, you only lose, say, 50% of the battery, but still annoying, and rather negates the point of having a PDA.

Nevertheless, this can be fixed. ActiveSync, annoyingly, doesn't easily have an option for telling it to only switch on manually, but by tricking it with a small hack, you can set it thus. Having applied this 'trick', the battery draining problem has gone and now it works like a dream. How to do this can be found elsewhere online - Google the device and 'battery drain' or similar.

I gather this is not a universal problem, although it seems to have happened to quite a number of users.

I use mine with a 1GB SC card, and now the above glitch is fixed, the battery life is excellent (comfortably going a week between charges).

Summary: If you can sort out the glitch (or don't have it), this is a really excellent PDA.

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