HP iPaq Pocket PC H2210

• Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 62 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 9 stars

  Great Everyday companion

  by aadmikep on July 6, 2005

  Pros: Processing power, Battery Life, Screen, Flexability, Expansion Slots, Size and Weight

  Cons: Original side grips

  Summary: I've been carrying PDAs around with me since they were the size and weight of small bricks. And as the technology improved, I upgraded. In some cases, it was ...

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  Summary: I've been carrying PDAs around with me since they were the size and weight of small bricks. And as the technology improved, I upgraded. In some cases, it was more than annually.
  
  Of all the PDAs I?ve used, those with Microsoft operating systems have the advantage since Windows and MS Office drives more businesses than anyone else. That is beside tha fact that they probably have the largest software staff in the world. Their PDAs are usually upgradeable, or at least patchable.
  
  <b>Hardware</b>
  Before I got my H2210, I heard about the grips falling apart. This was true. It?s not anymore. The last time HP sent me grips, the problem stopped. I tested it well and the grips are nearly 10 months old now.
  
  It?s durable, has a good weight and feel to it. I don?t use a case. I?ve tried many and always end up taking it off. I can?t stand the extra bulk and weight. I just put it in my EMPTY front left pocket with the screen facing inward. This is how I?ve carried PDAs for years and have NEVER had a problem.
  
  The H2210 finally gave me what I needed. It?s powerful enough to drive most any application very well. In fact, it can run two or more power applications at the same time. With dual expansion slots, I can have the SD slot dedicated strictly to memory with the CF slot open for wi-fi, gps and other tasks. The nice thing about having the wi-fi removable is that two fold. First, you get better reception range. Second, the unit is lighter and uses less battery power.
  
  <b>Business Use</b>
  The bottom line is that this is a very stable device. It syncs well with MS Outlook. The alarms go off reliably. And it can hold a lot of data without slowing down.
  
  <b>MP3 Player</b>
  It doubles as a bulky, but very good sounding MP3 or WMA player. I bought a copy of Pocket Music since Pocket Windows Media Player really is the lowest common denominator. Using high quality ear canal headphones, you won?t be disappointed. After tweaking the Pocket Music settings, it actually sounds better than my 20 GB Rio Karma (mp3 player). Note: It?s worth it to get a memory card reader and have Desktop Windows Media Player sync music directly to your cards, then defragment a few times before placing it in the PDA.
  
  <b>GPS Unit</b>
  One amazing feat that PDAs are capable of is guiding you to addresses and places you?ve never been to. My permanent favorite GPS cradle is by Seidio (with GPS mouse). It costs a little more but does lots more than those I?ve had in the past. Further, a cradle will charge your PDA while holding it up near the windshield so you can glance at the map display, hands free. Combine the H2210 with the Seidio and ALK?s Pocket Co-Pilot and you?ve got a very potent combination.
  
  I installed the program in main memory and maps in my SD card. Using Outlook, I make contacts for al my customers and places I want to go. Then, Drop the iPAQ into the Cradle, connect the sound jack and start the program. Within a few seconds, it knows where on earth you are. A few taps later, I?ve told it where I want to go. It then guides me with real time maps that show my progress, telling me what turn is coming up next and all the details one could possibly want. It also does this VERBALLY. Yes, verbally. Pocket Co-Pilot includes a voice synthesis engine that reads to you like Hal 9000, but hey, I can?t complain. It gets me where I need to go with confidence. If I get off course, it very quickly reroutes me and instantly shows my new estimated arrival time.
  
  Know that GPS software is not 100%. It?s still evolving. I tried three brands. This one seems to be about the best right now.
  
  I got the GPS idea from renting a Hertz NeverLost equipped rental car some years ago. Now, when we go on vacation, Hal 9000 comes with us instead.
  http://www.seidioonline.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=B7AG25IP22
  http://www.alk.com/copilot/pocketpc.asp
  
  
  <b>Entertainment</b>
  With larger and larger memory cards getting cheaper and cheaper, it?s easy to really load up your PDA with lots of stuff you don?t need, but might be amusing some time, like on a super long road trip.
  
  Betaplayer and PocketTV are great free full screen movie players. Again, Windows Media will disappoint. You can get free short movies from links shown on either of the two player sites or convert your own DVDs and then send them to your SD and CF cards. My take on movies is that it?s always fun to show someone a short funny movie like www.405themovie.com. But as far as watching a feature length movie even when you?ve got nothing else to do, you?ll either need lots of batteries or a DC power supply from your car to even see them. And, there is no bookmark function so stopping or finding where you were is no slight task.
  
  Games
  Well there are all kinds of games out there. Action games really don?t work very well with most PDAs because you?re either beating the crap out of your touch screen or accidentally pushing down on your 5-way button, which pauses the game frequently or worse. There are games that actually do well: Monopoly, Slay, several card games and other multi-player or turn based games. Slay is very addictive. I have several others that truly are impressive to look at, but they don?t stay installed.
  
  <b>Utilities</b>
  I bought a few top name Today screen programs. They essentially replace or ?improve your main organizer screen. Don?t bother. They always lead you back to what it came with, Pocket Outlook.
  
  I strongly suggest installing Wisbar Advance. It?s stable, it replaces the clock display with time AND date on the taskbar (all the way up on the top right). Further, it closes, instead of hiding the program you think you closed. Wisbar fixes about the only two problems I have with the Operating System. http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/
  
  JournalBar is a nifty program that updates its info every time you dock your PDA. It downloads web snippets and a 5 day forecast that displays in a small bar on your today screen. It?s very handy although not necessary. http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=28854&view=previous
  
  
  ConverterCE is a free program that converts various units like weight, length, speed, volume, etc. It?s a small program and I use it more than I thought I would. You can get it here: http://www.freewareppc.com/calculator/converterce.shtml

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  7 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 6 stars

  High failure rate; non durable fittings

  by on January 23, 2005

  Pros: CF & SD expansions slots; reasonable display and processing power.

  Cons: rubber grips come off once in 3 months; hp recogenize and replace the part but it can become a drag. Also needed to get the unit replaced within 6 months of purchase as the hot sync stopped working !!!

  2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 6 stars

  Great except for Word keyboard

  by jdswanberg on November 25, 2005

  Pros: small, all the features, easy to navigate

  Cons: Word keyboard lacks lots, add-on keyboard tiny

  Summary: I bought this to upgrade once we upgraded to Outlook 2003 from 2000. Calendar and Contacts are no different. Neither is Word or Excel. However, typing in Word, using the ...

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  Summary: I bought this to upgrade once we upgraded to Outlook 2003 from 2000. Calendar and Contacts are no different. Neither is Word or Excel. However, typing in Word, using the keyboard on the unit or the attachable keyboard is not user friendly, and I'd rather have my older, larger iPaq back. But, bought this on Ebay for half the price of a new one, and it works great. Also, the stylus stays in much better. Worth the money.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 3 stars

  seriously flawed

  by on June 6, 2004

  Pros: works well with haicom CF GPS card and iGuidance, decent MP3 player, pretty good screen.

  Cons: $400 and the poorly designed grips come off quickly, the alarms - a primary reason many get PDAs - are not reliable, needs frequent resetting.

  1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Great device for business & recreation!

  by sheps14me on August 20, 2007

  Pros: Sat Nav; Email; Office; Photos; Video; Games machine.

  Cons: Screen brightness poor in bright light; Sound qual poor; battery goes flat when you need it most!

  Summary: Great device pre dating most MP3 /MP4 players and does far more functions. Comes into its own with Sat Nav (TomTom and Igo used, Igo good for European countries) Handwriting ...

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  Summary: Great device pre dating most MP3 /MP4 players and does far more functions. Comes into its own with Sat Nav (TomTom and Igo used, Igo good for European countries) Handwriting input great and fast, as keyboard input is very slow. A boon to readers with eBooks downloaded to either the SD or Compact flash memory. I have 100+ books, Igo and all maps on about 200Mb SD! I never go away without it. Downside maybe with Sat nav using CF slot make device bulky for walkers but great in the car, also screen too dull in bright sunlight. Never gone wrong! They are so good I just bought another!

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• 9 stars

  excellent product

  by pch6553 on September 25, 2006

  Pros: easy to use

  Cons: light weight and compact

  Summary: this is an excellent hand held device for all

  Summary: this is an excellent hand held device for all

• 9 stars

  Great PDA, excellent software

  by mlm_extra on September 13, 2006

  Pros: Easy to use, great screen.

  Cons: Price could be a little more competetive

  Summary: This is a great PDA, I upgraded from a Sony before they went bust and have been very happy. The installed software is excellent and the screen is very clear ...

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  Summary: This is a great PDA, I upgraded from a Sony before they went bust and have been very happy. The installed software is excellent and the screen is very clear and bright. I have had this for about 18 months and don't regret buying it at all.

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• 7 stars

  A truly great PDA with a couple of flaws

  by daveemtb on February 15, 2006

  Pros: Lovely design, CF and SD slots, screen, build, power/speed, backup utility

  Cons:

  Summary: I've had this PDA for about 18 months, and have been very pleased with it. It's nicely designed, slim, fast, reliable, and the screen is great. The CF ...

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  Summary: I've had this PDA for about 18 months, and have been very pleased with it. It's nicely designed, slim, fast, reliable, and the screen is great. The CF and SD slots make this PDA far more flexible - you can store all your programs *and* connect a Wifi card/GPS card/camera card full of pictures, at the same time. I don't think i would want to use a single slot PDA after this, unless it had everything built in and a massive memory.
  
  The HP ipaq backup software is excellent and allows rapid recovery from any serious crashes. (less than 5 mins and you're up and running again, even on the move!) And you can schedule backups daily, weekly or monthly to non-volatile storage.
  
  The Ipaq file store (small non volatile storage drive) is a good idea. I use it to keep word documents, so the size isn't an issue.
  
  The downsides are:
  
  The rubber grips fall apart.
  
  The joystick is poorly designed. Even when it's working you sometimes get a diagonal direction when you wanted up down, left or right. Mine cracked inside, so the joystick stopped working properly. The plastic is too thin where it failed. I expect the replacement joystick to go the same way eventually.
  
  The usual issues with Microsoft's activesync. It's buggy. Sometimes it decides not to synce one of your categories and you don't notice until you don't have an appointment/contact/email/document out on the move. A stupid bug. Also there are sometimes file synching issues. Moving all the files out of the sync folder on the desktop, synching, and putting them back seems to fix it, but you shouldn't have to.
  
  Despite the flaws, i'd by the same pda again. It seems to have fewer, less serious faults, than the competition.

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• 8 stars

  Mid-range but great

  by ph3Ar on November 14, 2005

  Pros: really sensitive tuch-screen

  Cons: the backlight sometimes turns off by itself

  Summary: This is a great Pocket pc i had it for about a year now. Its really grat for mp3s and data inputs, with its microphone taking notes in class has ...

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  Summary: This is a great Pocket pc i had it for about a year now. Its really grat for mp3s and data inputs, with its microphone taking notes in class has become primitive.

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• 9 stars

  Excellent Buy for the Money & Features

  by gadget girl on July 17, 2005

  Pros: Programs (WMP,WORD, EXCEL and NEVO) -use as MP3 & and channel changer. I like the size and the two card slots, tho I only use the SD. Have BT Keyboard which is nice!

  Cons: Someone liked it SOOooo much, my 1st was stolen. When purchased (2 yrs ago) it was best for medium/high personal use. Use as a MP3-a little large & needs extra cards. Bought MP3 finally

  Summary: The option of Compact Flash or Secure Digital Media Cards is great. NEVO has let me watch TV when changer misplaced and change formats on TVs in store when selecting ...

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  Summary: The option of Compact Flash or Secure Digital Media Cards is great. NEVO has let me watch TV when changer misplaced and change formats on TVs in store when selecting new TV...I choose not to have combination phone/PDA (sometimes I use one and not other) and still don't regret it. Extra BT keyboard is nice for input of large amounts of data.

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