HP iPaq hx2750

Pros: Size, RAM, SD+CF, responsive, solid feel, security

Cons: frequent soft-resets needed, security, power-on problem, expansion battery size, cost

Summary: I've had the 2755 (it's the 2750 but that extra '5' denotes it as consumer rather than corporate-designated) for over a month.

I had originally looked at other products, spending over a week reading up on features, 'official' reviews, and user reviews (the latter I find the most valuable and especially when many users report the same problems)... but iPaq offered the most features. For some slanderous comments made by their previous CEO, I was more than reluctant to remain a HP customer. But I did. No other brand came close in terms of functionality and solid feel. And having a solid feel is important... and as much as I want to engage in name-dropping, I shall not.

The first 2755 I got kept doing spontaneous crashes and hard resets so I got an exchange right away. No big deal, these things can happen (though not often).

But, let's get to the gritty nitty:

Pluses:
* CPU: 623MHz CPU is great for those special little games I've played. That and the entire PDA usually does not run sluggishly...
* Security. This is nice as, should it fall into the wrong hands, security can be set up to remain in effect after a HARD reset. The device becomes worthless if security is configured as such. This is very nice.
* BIOS: Mine came with the June 10, 2005 release. This was nice as updating the BIOS on PDAs can be a chore.
* While the screen is smaller than that of the 3900 series, it otherwise maintains the usual quality. (though by now I thought PocketPC would have caught up with Palm resolution and crispness, but that's reserved for the overpriced 4700 model, I guess.)
* RAM: 128MB of usable RAM is a delight. The spacious iPaq store doesn't come amiss either.
* SD and CF slots, that can be used at the same time I've read, allow for a wealth of expansion (and this 2755 also has wifi and bluetooth integrated if you need those, so both slots are open for your use). And as these were designed so they wouldn't affect the unit's size, I'm more than impressed here.
* Battery: Nice size and they sell a larger size as well, though for my needs the 1600mah one that comes with it is quite sufficient.

Here's where I'm knocking off the points:

* Battery: The larger size battery requires its own special door and as such relegates all of those nice metal/padded cases to becoming overpriced paperweights. *grr*. Surely HP could have spent a little more money on the design (or would that lead to a $700 product for the rest of us)?
* Security. Actually, it's solid with its fingerprint reader. The real problem is, when you enable security, you're going to get lots of needless "Error -100... Do a soft reset." error messages. I have to soft-reset at least once a day because of this.
* Sluggishness: If I do not do a reset after getting the -100 error, I can readily see memory leaks and there is a big performance problem. This is bad.
* Power: When plugged into the cradle, the thing turns on of its own accord - and when you power it off, it's going to turn itself on again after a few minutes. As such I've changed the backlight configuration to turn off even when connected as I don't want it prematurely burnt out thanks to another HP mistake.
* More on power, a new problem has recently surfaced: When I am holding the device and am done with it, I press the power button. It will power off, but 2 milliseconds later it will power back up directly to the Today screen (bypassing that juicy security). After re-pressing Power about 10 times, it will finally behave and power off.

Now for a related side-note: Corporations often use offshoring, saying Americans have no right to a job and that American workers are uneducated. They even say this is done to lower costs (yet have you seen any prices for computer-related items drop lately? Nope, they keep going up). The previous HP exec was scathing in some remarks. And judging by the faults of the 2755, it's safe to say that the offshored workers aren't much brighter. (anyone knows offshoring is done for executive profiteering alone. And the American worker has seen this, hence the big drop-off in attendance and even registration for IT-related education.)

But I digress. While the 2755 is a lower cost than the 3900 series, it's lower by only a factor of $100 (street price), as the 3900 series sold for $600. And most of that is due to the last 2.5 years where RAM and other component prices have dropped; so the price drop is solely peripheral.

In short, the 2755 is a POTENTIALLY great product that has a solid feel, but there are some serious bugs in its selling-point features, and other issues that should have been addressed from the start. My 3900 was far more reliable (until it died back in August...) Particularly with all the posturing and excuses the company has made regarding offshoring and other related issues.

Wait for HP to send out a BIOS fix for the aforementioned problems (not requiring the purchase of Windows Mobile 2005 OS 'upgrade' either) and possibly a price drop as well, and it will be worth the money. But, right now, it's overpriced and will be a cause of annoyance.