CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 09/23/2002
- Updated on: 10/16/2002
- Released on: 07/01/2002
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| Good news about the iPaq's size: It can use any other iPaq accessories. | Bad news about this iPaq's size: It's a bit bulky compared to newer models. |
The nicely designed, fold-over screen-cover sleeve is also onboard for another round, and most users will prefer it to the slipcover protective cases that ship with the majority of Pocket PCs. Another plus: Since the 3950 is the same shape as earlier iPaqs, this model is compatible with all existing iPaq sleeves and accessories.
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| One connector is for the cradle, and the other is for add-ons. | Optional jackets can add functionality--such as a CompactFlash slot. |
As noted, the one major external change is the screen--it's transflective, meaning that it's backlit for use indoors and in dimly lit situations but also reflects ambient light for viewing outdoors in sunlight. The 2.26-by-3.02-inch LCD is brighter, has better contrast, and boasts more vivid colors than those of previous iPaqs and Toshiba's XScale competitor, the Pocket PC e740.
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 Danger: Dangling dongles are darn easy to misplace. |
The unit comes with both a cradle and a relatively compact power adapter. We have no major complaints about either, but if you want to recharge your iPaq on the road, you'll need to attach a small, easy-to-lose dongle to the end of the power cord in order to adapt it to the PDA's port. Under the hood, you'll find Intel's new XScale processor, the 400MHz PXA250, along with 64MB of RAM and 32MB of ROM. The additional speed will eventually enable better video playback, more sophisticated gaming, and better data-security systems, but you'll need to wait for new applications that take advantage of this chip (see the Performance section for more info on the 3950's processor).
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 Protect your contacts and appointments in nonvolatile ROM. |
iPaqs generally come with a healthy set of extra software on top of the standard Pocket PC 2002 applications, which include Pocket versions of Outlook, Word, and Excel as well as Windows Media Player and Reader (for viewing e-books). iPaq Backup is a more comprehensive backup program that lets you store all kinds of data on an SD card so that if you ever run the PDA's batteries down completely or hard-reset the device by accident, you can easily restore your files. iPaq Image Viewer does just what you'd expect--it allows you to view JPEGs from digital cameras as well as create photo albums and slide shows.
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| To back up the rest of your data, use an SD card and iPaq Backup. | View, manipulate, or make slide shows with Image Viewer. |
Finally, Nevo--with a little help from the H3950's consumer-grade infrared--turns your iPaq into a universal remote control for your home-entertainment system. The 3950 is no Philips Pronto, but it's easy to use, and if you have the patience to program it, the PDA makes for a serviceable remote.
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| You can program a host of different remotes into Nevo. | Here's a typical button layout. |
HP also bundles IBM's Embedded ViaVoice Mobility Suite, which lets you dictate commands to your calendar, your contacts, and your in-box. The PDA can even read back the contact names, the numbers, and the addresses that you request. Also included on the CD-ROM are a special data-encryption package, Insignia Java Virtual Machine, and other useful software. The H3950's XScale processor is supposed to offer not only faster performance but also energy conservation. In our tests, this model fared a wee bit better than the 3800-series. Playing MP3s with the backlight set to 50 percent brightness, the H3950 warbled on for 4 hours, 34 minutes before switching off; the H3835 lasted 4 hours, 2 minutes under the same conditions. That's not bad considering the H3950's better, brighter screen.
All in all, we were very impressed with the iPaq's transflective, TFT LCD, which is capable of displaying 65,000 colors at 240x320-pixel resolution and a .24mm pixel pitch. In fact, the 3950 has the best PDA screen that we've seen to date; it's definitely superior to that of the Toshiba e740. When we played games such as Hexacto's Bounty Hunter 2009 Pinball and Tennis Addict, we noticed that the picture was sharper and the colors were more vivid. Still images also looked better. Many handhelds fail to produce really deep colors and have hazy-looking screens, but the HP's colors were deeper and more true to life.
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| The HP's screen offers generally rich colors. | The HP dropped frames in fast-action scenes of this MPEG. |
We were also pleased with the processor's performance, though it wasn't the best that we've seen to date. The games certainly played smoothly, with few or no hiccups, and MP3 playback was also fine. But while video performance was generally acceptable, the system faltered a bit when we challenged it with an MPEG encoded at a high frame rate. In scenes involving lots of action and movement, the 3950 stuttered and dropped frames. This is equivalent to the video performance of the Toshiba e740 but slightly behind that of the Razor Zayo A600.
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Where to buy
HP iPaq Pocket PC H3950:
$449.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$449.99 | Yes |
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