Entered CNET Catalog: 10/15/2005
SKU: FA629A
Manufacturer: HP
Manufacturer description
Enjoy music, videos, and Internet applications on the go, with control at your fingertips! Powered by Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC, the iPAQ rx1955 has big functionality for not much money.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 User Rating:
2.0 stars
out of 9 user reviews
nice screen and controls, too bad it's slow
Pros: beautiful screen, Win Mobile 5.0, rocker button control
Cons: slow processing due to small RAM
Review: I wish I had paid more attention to the reviews reporting that the rx1955's processing speed was slow.
For example, when listening to MP3s the response latency (to advance the recording) is often more than 15 seconds. Other programs running in memory must be repeatedly stopped in order to free up RAM. This occurs while using Calendar, Contacts, Media Player -- in other words with the most common applications.
For comparison, this problem didn't occur with the 1945. And if it had, Windows Mobile 2003 SE allowed RAM to be re-allocated between storage and program memory. Why this function was left out of Windows Mobile 5.0 is difficult to understand
On the positive side, the screen is beautiful -- seems much brighter and more saturated than the 1940/5. The rocker button is responsive and allows one-handed control of Contacts and Calendar. The feel of the rx1955 is otherwise almost identical to the 1940/5
I paid $135 on eBay. I wish I'd bought a replacement 1945 or saved the money for a PDA with more RAM
For example, when listening to MP3s the response latency (to advance the recording) is often more than 15 seconds. Other programs running in memory must be repeatedly stopped in order to free up RAM. This occurs while using Calendar, Contacts, Media Player -- in other words with the most common applications.
For comparison, this problem didn't occur with the 1945. And if it had, Windows Mobile 2003 SE allowed RAM to be re-allocated between storage and program memory. Why this function was left out of Windows Mobile 5.0 is difficult to understand
On the positive side, the screen is beautiful -- seems much brighter and more saturated than the 1940/5. The rocker button is responsive and allows one-handed control of Contacts and Calendar. The feel of the rx1955 is otherwise almost identical to the 1940/5
I paid $135 on eBay. I wish I'd bought a replacement 1945 or saved the money for a PDA with more RAM
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 9 user reviews
Excellent piece of kit, does everything i would ever need.
Pros: VERY easy to use, with many useful programs.
Cons: Lacks bluetooth and has little onboard memory.
Review: I brought mine off ebay for £129 refurbished and am amazed at the build quality and overall performance of this pda. It has all of your usual windows mobile stuff like word,exel and powerpoint, and msn and so on.The internet explorer is very good and effiecient, and the desktop screen(didn't know what else to call it) has four options that are music, internet,games and photos and videos. of course you can fill it with whatever you want but i like it simple.Wifi is very simple, but when driving or walking down the street you will find it keeps popping up with available networks to connect to!It is very light and the battery life is very good with general use. you will get around 4.5-5 hours out of it with constant wifi and music blearing out which is pretty good, and with normal usage, about 3-4 days.People think that because the processor isd only 300mhz, it will be so.well you couldnt be more wrong. of course you cannot compare it with the dell machines running at 624mhz, but it is not slow by any means. infrared is quite good, and is good at transferring photo's and documents but media files take very long to download. The screen is a lovely 3.5 inch tft which is very clear and bright and brilliant for movies. All in all this is brilliant, and alot of pda for the money, but to really get the most out of it, you will need to purchase a sd card.
User Rating:
4.5 stars
out of 9 user reviews
Exactly what I needed
Pros: Great "beginner" model
Cons: ActiveSync update required
Review: To set the stage, I should mention that this is a step up for me. Up from a Palm model that still used an abacus I believe to make all of its calculations.
All kidding aside, this model is everything I need it to be:
1. a portable planner/organizer/contact list
2. wireless internet access great for in-home networking and/or surfing wi-fi cafes/hotspots as necessary
3. interacts seamlessly with ms outlook. you need to download and install ms activesync 4.2 from the microsoft website though. the software that came with my ipaq didn't sync up nicely with outlook 2003.
viewing screen is almost flawless. in bright sunlight it's difficult to view, but other than that...awesome. i've read about disappoinment in that it has no bluetooth capability, but for a basic model...it's very feature rich for a bargain basement price. got mine refurbished on ebay for $150. you just can't beat that.
All kidding aside, this model is everything I need it to be:
1. a portable planner/organizer/contact list
2. wireless internet access great for in-home networking and/or surfing wi-fi cafes/hotspots as necessary
3. interacts seamlessly with ms outlook. you need to download and install ms activesync 4.2 from the microsoft website though. the software that came with my ipaq didn't sync up nicely with outlook 2003.
viewing screen is almost flawless. in bright sunlight it's difficult to view, but other than that...awesome. i've read about disappoinment in that it has no bluetooth capability, but for a basic model...it's very feature rich for a bargain basement price. got mine refurbished on ebay for $150. you just can't beat that.
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 9 user reviews
Great! Not sure what the complaints are about
Pros: Amazing Device!
Cons: No cradle included, and I don't like the sync / power cable provided
Review: I had a Palm for 6 years and it finally died. I liked the Palm, but wanted something wireless, so I could check email while traveling. I thought about the Palm TX, but figured a windows-based device would talk to my PCs more easily (at work and home), and it would enable me to look at Office docs. So far no problems... its not a replacement for a laptop or anything, but a nice alternative. Wireless card works great. MP3 sounds great. Applications: great all around. The fact I can read Office docs with no third party applications is also nice, and my reason for defecting from Palm.
I bought this thing after reading the mixed reviews online. I just don't seem to have had the problems a few have mentioned. Its clear to me that a few negative comments came from operator error, but others (e.g. sync problems) just aren't an issue for me; but maybe they have resolved some of the problems since releasing the product. To address a few comments: 1) Only takes a 512meg SD card: False. I have use a 1 gig card with no problem, and it probably can handle more. 2) Won't sync unless using Outlook 2002. Are ya crazy? That would be a MAJOR error on Microsoft’s part... nonsense, it syncs fine with later versions of Outlook. It uses POCKET Outlook version 2002... and syncs with any version of outlook with no problems. 3) Cable falls apart. Mine hasn't yet, but I have to admit I don't like that cable. It would be better if it came with a cradle (which you can buy separately), and better still if standard USB plugged into it, so you didn't have to lug the proprietary cable around to charge it while on the road. 4) Freezes a lot and needs rebooting. I rebooted once or twice while installing a bunch of new applications; but that wasn't a big deal and didn't surprise me and, more importantly, that was before I read the instructions and realized you should occasionally shut down running applications so they don't get in the way when you are installing. I haven't lost any data from restarting the thing with the reset button, and think its minor inconvenience... just as you have to reboot your PC every now and then, so you have to reboot this device. If it happened a lot that would be problematic, but it hasn’t. I have never had to take the battery off and suspect that comment came from a person who did not know about the reset button.
So other than the cable, so far this thing rocks, and the cable isn’t a deal-breaker. I'm taking it on the road for a few weeks, including out of the country, and will amend my review if my experience changes.
I bought this thing after reading the mixed reviews online. I just don't seem to have had the problems a few have mentioned. Its clear to me that a few negative comments came from operator error, but others (e.g. sync problems) just aren't an issue for me; but maybe they have resolved some of the problems since releasing the product. To address a few comments: 1) Only takes a 512meg SD card: False. I have use a 1 gig card with no problem, and it probably can handle more. 2) Won't sync unless using Outlook 2002. Are ya crazy? That would be a MAJOR error on Microsoft’s part... nonsense, it syncs fine with later versions of Outlook. It uses POCKET Outlook version 2002... and syncs with any version of outlook with no problems. 3) Cable falls apart. Mine hasn't yet, but I have to admit I don't like that cable. It would be better if it came with a cradle (which you can buy separately), and better still if standard USB plugged into it, so you didn't have to lug the proprietary cable around to charge it while on the road. 4) Freezes a lot and needs rebooting. I rebooted once or twice while installing a bunch of new applications; but that wasn't a big deal and didn't surprise me and, more importantly, that was before I read the instructions and realized you should occasionally shut down running applications so they don't get in the way when you are installing. I haven't lost any data from restarting the thing with the reset button, and think its minor inconvenience... just as you have to reboot your PC every now and then, so you have to reboot this device. If it happened a lot that would be problematic, but it hasn’t. I have never had to take the battery off and suspect that comment came from a person who did not know about the reset button.
So other than the cable, so far this thing rocks, and the cable isn’t a deal-breaker. I'm taking it on the road for a few weeks, including out of the country, and will amend my review if my experience changes.
User Rating:
3.0 stars
out of 9 user reviews
Great for basics, but be prepared to outgrow it.
Pros: Slim size, light weight, clear screen, easy to use
Cons: Misleading statement by HP on available memory
Review: Overall, this is a great product. I have owned several HP PDA's and think this is the best one for someone to learn the operating system and general functionality. My one big complaint - and it's REAL big - the unit is sold as having 96MB of internal storage available, though I found out the hard way that over 80MB of this storage is eaten up by hard-coded programs - that's right, they CANNOT be deleted, regardless of whether you have any use for them or not. This is a very serious issue if you have any plans to add any essential programs of your own, such as a good backup program or Adobe Reader.
Other minor complaints - there is no stock backup software on the PDA (and due to the above complaint, little room to add any), not having Bluetooth can be a bit frustrating, SD cards over 512K aren't recognized, and watch out for large programs - any spreadsheet over 500K that is kept on the storage card tends to flag an error message when trying to save once modified, thereby losing any changes you have made. Your only option is to save it on the internal memory - again, if you have any room left at all. If you don't... put the PDA down and find a PC to make your changes.
Overall, this is a great product if you want a basic calendar, contact list, task list, web browser and the ability to monitor email when away from your desk. For many people, this product will suit you fine. The Transcriber feature (handwriting recognition), as on all HP PDA's, is nothing short of brilliant, and is so reliable that I will most likely never buy another company's PDA unless the recognition feature is equally capable. The ActiveSync PC/PDA synchronization software is also very impressive. But if you have any intentions of messing with spreadsheets, power point presentations, word documents or any other large files, it may be a wise move to save your pennies and step up to the x2400 series.
Other minor complaints - there is no stock backup software on the PDA (and due to the above complaint, little room to add any), not having Bluetooth can be a bit frustrating, SD cards over 512K aren't recognized, and watch out for large programs - any spreadsheet over 500K that is kept on the storage card tends to flag an error message when trying to save once modified, thereby losing any changes you have made. Your only option is to save it on the internal memory - again, if you have any room left at all. If you don't... put the PDA down and find a PC to make your changes.
Overall, this is a great product if you want a basic calendar, contact list, task list, web browser and the ability to monitor email when away from your desk. For many people, this product will suit you fine. The Transcriber feature (handwriting recognition), as on all HP PDA's, is nothing short of brilliant, and is so reliable that I will most likely never buy another company's PDA unless the recognition feature is equally capable. The ActiveSync PC/PDA synchronization software is also very impressive. But if you have any intentions of messing with spreadsheets, power point presentations, word documents or any other large files, it may be a wise move to save your pennies and step up to the x2400 series.
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 9 user reviews
Great for the price
Pros: Beautiful QVGA Screen Functional Internet Capabilities
Cons: Not enough ram to run some games and Poor VOIP support.
Review: For the cost the unit is quite impressive the battery charges in barely an hour and lasts for hours shows how HP cna learn from there mistakes by replacing useless tech. (bluetooth in the Ipaq 1945) to usefull technology like WIFI in this model. Although the surface stuff is nice and easy to use the new windows mobile 5 OS could use some polishing as this unit has seperate storage and and program ram and sometimes even after a task is terminated the ram never frees which can create slow and undesirable performance that can only be remedied by a soft reset. As with all PDA's games which would cost 5 dollars for home pc cost 20 or 30 dollars in windows mobile or ARM so thats definatly far from fruggle. I bought a 1 Gig. flash card for mine and also noticed that large files (+100 megs) transfered at almost dial up speed and at its quickest is usually 500 kbytes per second which is sorta weak specially when enjoying the units flawless video and audio capabilities that far rival most digital and audio players which do far less for the money. Landscape mode makes for better video and for a great web browsing experiance but Microsofts pocket IE still doesnt fully support flash which elliminates features on 90% of all sites and the Processor and Ram handling makes it very difficult to enjoy programs like skype. Very easily the best out there for the money the internet and multimedia capabilities alone make this worth the 300 dollars.
User Rating:
2.5 stars
out of 9 user reviews
Ok......But freezes up!!!
Pros: Great features and size
Cons: No bluetooth, constantly freezing.
Review: Ive have this for a few days now and I have had to tatke the battery out to reset it at least four times now. Great products with great potential, but definately not for everyday use!
User Rating:
4.0 stars
out of 9 user reviews
Great product for beginners like me
Pros: Beautiful display. and sleek design
Cons: storage, constant resets.
Review: This product I got as a gift and think it is great. Besides the lack of bluetooth and other features that I dont use. Its good for managing contacts, calender, and the internet via Wi Fi, which is essential for what I do. Overall I would recommend this product for beginners like me!
User Rating:
3.0 stars
out of 9 user reviews
Ok features if it turned on
Pros: Very sleek and stylish, nice display and set up.
Cons: Constant resets and bad battery.
Review: For the same price as the rx3115, this PDA is missing bluetooth and the remote ability. It needs constant resets where you need to remove the battery (which is hard to get off anyway) just to get it to turn on. This happens at least once a day, sometimes more. I work in a electronic store and have seen a few customers come in with the same problem: they just won't turn on and need constant resets. I also turn it on only a couple of times per day for a short time and in less than 2 days, the battery is at 40%. I am fairly disappointed in this PDA and wish I had stuck with the few problems of my rx3115 instead of exchanging it.
