3.5 stars Pros: Rugged, expandable, easy to read in sunlight, great battery life
Cons: Slow to wake, volume control, subscription music problems
Summary: I have used this device for the past 2+ years daily as a medical student. It handles my medical reference software (ePocrates drug reference, SkyScape eBook titles, Mobile MerckMedicus, and a few older Palm titles using StyleTap) fairly well, but the response time when turning it on is slow compared ... Expand full review
Summary: I have used this device for the past 2+ years daily as a medical student. It handles my medical reference software (ePocrates drug reference, SkyScape eBook titles, Mobile MerckMedicus, and a few older Palm titles using StyleTap) fairly well, but the response time when turning it on is slow compared to Palm and BlackBerry. I have to manually control the memory usage to keep it running smoothly, but that seems to do the trick. Occasionally it will hang or get buggy and require a soft reset. Synchronization with Outlook 2003 is easy. The battery will last 30+ hours of frequent intermittent use on call nights with no problem (still 50% full), and while wi-fi drains the battery more quickly, there is plenty of battery to support synchronizing email and web pages on AvantGo whenever desired.
Syncing Yahoo's subscription music service to this handheld is a problem because ActiveSync keeps interrupting file transfers. Dell's Axim reportedly doesn't seem to have the same problem, but I'm not sure why. Also, the volume adjustment with headphones is very coarse (either too loud, or no sound at all). This was pretty easily fixed with an inline volume control on my headphones.
On the topic of security, I thought that I would use the fingerprint security more than I have, mainly because I found the application to be slow and cause problems with my email (strangely). Supposedly there is a software fix for that now.
Although I haven't used other Windows Mobile devices, I've been impressed with the expandability of this handheld, especially with the use of memory cards. I can install almost any application to the card and it works as quickly as if it was on the main memory.
Also, I wanted to be able to tether this device via bluetooth to the Verizon network, but after much research, I concluded that it isn't possible. It seems that HP doesn't support the type of security on Verizon's network.
Overall this is a pretty good device if you work with a lot of applications. If power-on speed is important, you may want to compare it to other platforms.
