Rating: 
Summary: looks like a good product
Review: I was happy with this ipaq, provided by my intern program. It is small, light, yet good enough for my needs.The first problem I found is the bluetooth software. I use it with my t68i to access internet by bluetooth dial modem. It only works 1 out 10+ times. First I thought it's t68i's fault. I google the problem and found others reported it a bug of 1945's bluetooth manager. It requires a soft reset to use the bluetooth again. Well, to be fair, the bluetooth software on 1945 is developed by widcom. And once I know the solution, I can live with the bug. Today, after 2 weeks use of this ipaq, I was totally dispointed. It was dead locked today when I took it out of my pocket. Switch button and reset button couldn't turn it on. I managed to turn it on by remove and re-insert the battery; everything in memory is gone. But when I back to home. I found whenever I take it off the charging cable, it will hard reset and lost everything again. What a crap. From google, again I found I am not the first one got such problem. Our lab also has many bad experiences of hp products and services, including amazing $40k server slower than a PIII desktop (by the way, after we reported the problem to hp, they offered us $2k to buy it back. What a joke). I am definitely not a hp fan.
Rating:
Summary: Dead at 7 Weeks
Review: Do I like the product? Yes...if it would work. After seven weeks, the entire thing came to a grinding halt...poof! This would be only somewhat more amusing if the last Ipaq I owned, a 3630, had not had the screen go out when it was less than a month old. Compaq was nice enough not only to charge me $125.00 to repair it, but to erase the memory(not sure what that had to do with repairing the screen) and take nearly a month to return it to me. It took almost twenty phone calls and letter to the CEO of Compaq to get it returned. One other note. It does not come with a protective case which you MUST have. Add $25.00-$40.00 to the cost for this. It also does not come with a cradle. Add more for that. As a would-be purchaser, I would be leery of cheap manufacturing and terrible customer service.
Rating:
Summary: Beware serious hard reset problems!!!
Review: I didn't want this iPaq 1945 due to previous negative experiences with iPaq's (including the very first one that developed the infamous dust-under-screen problem within a week and and became unusable after a month), but my manager who used to work HP likes HP so he forced us to buy this model. Not a single person in my 10-person group likes it, because of sluggish performance, frequent need to soft-reset, and tons of problems syncing with Outlook 2000 and XP under Windows XP and 2000. Anyway, what's really ticking me off right now is a mysterious, random hard-reset problem. It started around Thanksgiving, when one day I was on the subway and needed to check the address of my client, so I whipped out the 1945 and to my great horror, it performed a hard reset on its own, giving me the middle-finger salute with the ugly HP welcome screen that you only see after a hard reset. I had just recharged the battery, and the unit wasn't even 3 months old, so I was totally horrified. That was just the beginning of my problems. Ever since then the unit would turn itself off without warning, and occasionally (to be fair, not all the time) it would just hard-reset on its own. I don't think this kind of behavior is acceptable at all in a PDA. You buy a PDA to store information and retrieve it whenever you need it, not to stare at a blank screen at your most critical moment. Other people in my group also have various problems with the 1945, from broke backlight on one unit to frequent syncing problems on another to inaccurate digitizer on yet another. BTW I've always had syncing problems with IPAQs in the past, and still do these days: when I hook up my iPaq to my Win XP machine, it would take almost 5 minutes for the sync to start. Every day, using the iPaq 1945 is a very frustrating experience, and sluggish performance (even in Calendar and Contacts) is only the least of it. Stay away from these poor products. It's your money and you deserve better. For Pocket PC's, Toshiba seems to be putting its act together and has come out with some very good models, including the VGA-resolution (640x480) e800/e805.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Bang For the Buck
Review: The Pros
Value- The HP 1945's price is hard to beat for the quality and features. With integrated Bluetooth, a 266Mhz CPU, 64MB RAM, 32MB ROM, and up to 14MB for the IPaq File Store; the HP 1945 is the best bang for the buck! Size- This PDA is tiny, but still has a decent size screen at 3.5". It is very slim and even with a case, it is still smaller than most of the others on the market. Performance- The HP 1945's performance is actually quite shocking. It outperforms all slower processor PDA's and outperforms several with faster processors. It opens all applications fast, and data transfer is smooth and error free. Screen- The screen is bright and brilliant. Colors are beautifully displayed with video and pictures looking crystal clear. Bluetooth- The integrated Bluetooth in a PDA under $300 is awesome. I use the Bluetooth to surf the web and check my email from my couch. I have had no problems syncing or with data transfers. This is a great feature, and I am now going to start buying more Bluetooth peripherals because of the ease of use. Software- I love Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC. It is seemlessly integrated with other Microsoft apps like Word, Outlook, Excel, and Powerpoint. This makes life alot easier for me. Another thing I like is using the Microsoft Theme editor to make my own customized desktops (Today screens). Finally, software plus is the availability of some great PocketPC freeware [] [] Audio- The MP3 playback is very nice, and the speakers sound good. I have seen some complaints about the headphone jack adaptor, but I don't see it as a big issue. They had to make the jack smaller to keep the PDA as slim as possible. The voice recorder is a great feature that allows you to instantly make voice recordings with just one click. The Cons-
No Commercial Grade IR - To make your PDA into a Remote Control. No biggie, but that would have been a nice feature.
Small center button - Makes games a bit difficult (but who really plays games, right?)
Documentation - The PDA manual is weak, and I had to search the web to figure out how to use some of the functions. Conclusion -
If you are shopping for a PDA at a great price that is packed with features and performance, look no further than the HP 1945. It has features that are comparable to PDA's priced at $400, while it is priced under $300! This is a top-notch PDA!
Rating:
Summary: Small, usefull, and fun!!!
Review: I decided to buy my first PDA only a couple of months ago and after doing some pretty extensive research I ended up with an iPAQ 1945.
My initial parameters were completely modified by the following 2 concepts:
1) If your PDA is too bulky, you will end up not carrying it along all the time and therefore it's usefullness will decrease despite all the extras that might fit in a larger unit.
2) Your PDA is not a notebook, and will never perform like one. If you want a fully functional computer then shop somewhere else.
With these 2 *new* concepts (at least they were new to me), my decision to buy a iPAQ 1945 proved to be right.
The unit is really small and fits nicely in my shirt pocket even with the added bulk of a leather protective case. (Covertec makes a very nice one that fits like a glove)
I do a lot of field work and short traveling and my PPC proved to be the perfect extension of my notebook. I carry all my important spreadsheets and text with me all the time and the addition of an SDIO WiFi card made it really easy to get connected either at work, airport, or at my local shopping mall while my wife gets in and out of every single shop.
Note that I don't make huge presentation, spreadsheets, or text documents on my PPC. That would be painfull with a small screen keyboard. I still make them on my notebook, but I'm always carrying that information in my pocket now and I can always edit the files on the road and later update them on my computer.
There is a huge selection on both freeware and shareware programs available with a little research on the web.
Overall, I'm a very satisfied customer!!
Rating: 
Summary: The good, the bad, the ugly
Review: The good:
Really snappy speed compared to my Jornada 540. Very light weight. Nice bright display. The bad:
The manual is terrible, awful, and really bad. It reads like the tech writer had never used a PocketPC before they wrote it. For instance "The Pocket PC has a small internal backup battery that allows you to change the main battery without losing RAM data(user-installed programs and data) as long as it is replaced immediately." OK. So how long does this battery last? How is it charged? Does it even charge or do you replace it at some point? The manual has nothing but 'statements of fact' and is virtually useless if you run into problems. The amazing thing is that the manual is 127 pages long. To be fair, there are a few applications hints. For instance, "To see if your Pocket PC has built-in Bluetooth technology, tap Start > Settings and tap the Asset Viewer icon." Although it's a bit silly to put this in the manual since Bluetooth is an integral feature of the 1945! The ugly:
Getting Activesync running with Bluetooth can be a real nightmare. The problem is that you're dealing with a lot of variables: the Windows operating system, Activesync on your computer, Activesync on the iPAQ, Bluetooth on the computer, and Bluetooth on the iPAQ. Error messages on the iPAQ are very uninformative (not that Windows XP is that much better). Here's the best article I found:
http://www.bluetoothnews.com/features/ActiveSync.htm Another ugly is the price of the docking station (cradle) and it doesn't even include an A/C adapter. I didn't buy one and now that I've got Bluetooth running, I probably won't The price of a spare battery is also pretty ugly. Conclusion:
Once you get the silly thing setup, it's a big improvement from what you could buy only a couple years ago. Since the documentation is only available on CD, you'd think they'd have done a better job with it. It's one thing if you're trying to save cost by not printing manuals but there's no excuse for a poor manual when it costs absolutely nothing to provide more content on a CD.
Rating: 
Summary: new update: beware of random hard reset
Review: I get this to go along with Tungsten T because TT don't do well with mulitmedia (no streaming audio support), and sound is weak over headphones
this is a nice pda, and includes Outlook 2002 (!!!), runs stable, not yet encountered suddenly reboot (reset) as TT did, since I switched platform, that everything I have to start over
audio is never been better, when I play internet radio with realone, I can feel the power of digital internet brocasting, sound is soooo good, esp with Sennheiser PX100!
the screen is readable (a little bit) when the illumination is off, which is a big plus to save power, but the whole screen is unable to turn off when music player (realone, ms media, winampaq) is active; on the other side, however, the resolution is not as good as TT, as least the same size Chinese characters, TT is 12 px, 1945 is 10 px
bt works great, but nokia 3650 users MUST be aware, I have problem to connect GPRS with 3650, but n-gage works well
the apps looks okay, and transferring files is PRETTY easy, just connect, and open My Computer, the WHOLE directory of ppc is there!!!
installing Outlook 2002 is highly recommended, or you have hard time to cross-sync with pc, n-gage, TT, ppc (they have a common spot to sync: Outlook), so includes Outlook is a clever idea
removable battery is a HUGE plus, and palm can't, because this model has intermediate battery to keep the memory when switching battery (never attempt to switch battery on palm, or you'll lose EVERYTHING!)
this ppc's slim design is nice, but the casing is plastic, never drop it!
it has no screen cover is ridiculas, that be careful when put it in your pocket, or a lot of mis-operation will happen
no sync base is okay for me, just make this unit more flexible the way to make Activesync with bt:
1. make sure you know your bt COM port, and set it to be used by Activesync
2. pairing
3. on ppc, activate bt Activesync
Setup->System->Bluetooth Manager->bt Activesync port->connect
once you seen the Activesync icon turns green, you got it!
this pda is class 2 bluetooth device, which gets up to 25m range with host with class 1 or 2 bt adaptor, just make sure a fully charged spare battery handy (it drains battery faster with class 1 or 2 bt host or access point) I give it 81/100 (95/100 if a screen cover is included, costs just a buck) update: I have experienced 3 times random hard-reset, it suddenly sounds "'ding-ding" then...align screen... make sure you have to backup your contacts and appoiments on card and IPAQ file store
one more, this model won't have WM2003SE update
Rating:
Summary: Reliable Pocket PC
Review: It is very reliable and versitile, the price is right though! I particularly like the bluetooth networking capabilities AND the infrared, adds a big advantage over bluetooth only enabled devices. Overall very good and holds its charge for about 3 days if you don't play too much music or watch video clips late at night (i do =D)
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not perfect
Review: HP has a lot going with this PDA. The first thing anyone will probably notice is how small this Pocket PC is. It's actually slightly thicker than the Toshiba e330 series, but it's so much smaller otherwise that you'd never notice. When using this PDA, you'll notice that the transflective screen is amazing; it's bright, uniform, and very clear; it's significantly better than any other manufacturer's Pocket PC screens. Performance gets a boost, too. The combination of the Samsung 266 MHz processor and Windows Mobile 2003 means that there are no longer any performance issues, as there were with Pocket PC 2002. Videos play smoothly, games run well, and there is no longer any sluggishness evident. The now SDIO-compliant slot and the built-in Bluetooth give decent expandability options. I wish HP had gone with built-in WiFi instead, but Bluetooth is better than nothing. Plus, you can always add an SD WiFi card later, if you want; that wasn't an option with older iPaqs. Considering how small the battery is, the 1945 lasts a pretty long time. I haven't done any formal tests, but 2.5-3 hours of reading and playing games, with the screen set to full brightness, brought the battery down to 30%. A huge bonus is the built-in backup battery and the fact that the main battery is also replaceable. Despite all the good stuff, the 1945 isn't without a few problems. The biggest one, which HP doesn't make immediately clear, is that they bundle Windows Mobile 2003 Professional edition, as opposed to the Premium edition. This means the loss of some features and programs, most notably Microsoft Reader. Fortunately, you can download and install this for free. Another pretty annoying problem, for anyone who wants to use headphones, is that the 1945 has a 2.5 mm jack, as opposed to the standard 3.5. They do include an adapter, but who wants to carry that around? The rest is really just nitpicking. HP includes 13 MB of non-volatile storage, which is really cool, but of the 64 MB of RAM that they advertise, only 56 is really available. I also didn't like the fact that they didn't include either a cradle or a protective cover. Lastly, the plastice battery cover feels a bit flimsy. It mounts on just fine, but when you take it off it feels really cheap and fragile.
Rating:
Summary: Stylish and Fast!
Review: I love my Ipaq 1945 it has the best futures like blutooth, mp3 player, video player, and all kinds of other neat stuff. HP is the best!!! I had a problem because i erased something i wasent suppose to erase and i thought i was f**ked so i call them up and they offer me help and i dont get that far so they say we will check if you have warranty on it and i was like "crap i forgot to buy it." Then they say i do because all their iPaq's come with 1 year of warranty so i'm "cool~!!!" and the box arrives the next day and ships the next day and comes in 3 days later... FIXED!
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