Reviewed: 19/01/2001
By: Jared Raath
This is what I dreamed off!!!
I just got my HP 548 last 2 days
and I spent whole 2 days with this device. It's beyond what I want from
PDA. I used to have Palm V and very appreciated about Palm V especially
its size. When I decided to change to Pocket PC, many of my colleagues
has warned me about its unstability of Windows CE OS but it's not
crash (since I got it). There are 2 points I wanna mentioned about this
HP 548
1. Its size. This is quite big if you compare with Palm V resies from 3com. If you have Palm V series,
think about it seriouly before change to anything bigger. It will make you feel very uncomfortable. But if you own palm III series, especially Palm IIIc, you will feel only little difference about its thickness.Even there are 2 points I mentioned, there are still a lot of good points I wanna talk about.2. The expandability. This device has CF slot built in. But this is just a Type I CF Slot, it cannot carry IBM microdrive or type II CF modem. The type I CF modem is very hard to find in today market. I just found it at HP homepage, $149 very expensive.
1. Color.!!!!! It comes with color, pretty cool when comparing with my old PDA (palm V). It can display
12bit color (4XXX color which I can't remember). I've never use Palm IIIc, so I can't compare it with this PDA.Today function, it will display what you have to do today in 1 screen no matter it is in calendar or task.2. PIM software. This pocket outlook is very good and easy to use, customizable, especially can display firstname before lastname. For my old Palm V, I have to spend some money to buy software that dot this for me. Task (to do in palm) and calendar (date bok in palm) are very powerful. Another function is
***but it is quite difficult for me to change from Palm to Outlook. I think most of palm user may face thisproblem. I still beleive that palm is the winner in the "simply" way. The manual for this devices is quiteSo, I think this is not the best PDA. Just choose the one that best fits for you.bad in the ordering, they put connecting to the internet chapter before the pocket outlook chapter which makes me very confused.
3. Sound!!!! this pocket PC can play MP3 file which is very good for me. I don't have to buy another MP3 player anymore.
4. Add on software. Pocket word, excel, IE, Reader. All of these software are free. It makes my life even easier than when I use Palm V. The e-book for pocket PC is very interesting and very beautiful. Tons of them for free download. For pocket word and excel, I think I don't have to talk about it, both of them show their quality by their name.
5. Memory!!!!!!!!! This device has 32 MB RAM. 16 times my old Palm V device. And still expandable by using CF card. With this build in RAM, I can carry 4 e-books, 4 MP3 songs and still have some space for other stuffs and free for 5 MB, cool???
Conclusion
For anyone who wanna find some fun stull for your life, I recommend this machine. BUT for someone who wanna have easy-to-use and stable organizer, I recommend Palm. This is because Palm still easier to use when comparing with this PPC. I spent 3 hours for reading both of these manual. For Palm, after finished reading manual, I can do whatever I want. For PPC, I still have to do like "trial and error" to figure out may things.
Jared Raath