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HP iPAQ 2215 Pocket PC

HP iPAQ 2215 Pocket PC

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: HP Customer service
Review: I am sorry to hear some have had a problem with the customer service at HP. When I installed WIN2000 Pro my HP 722 printer would not preform all functions. I talked to Tech support and found that HP had not written any updated drivers for that printer. I talked to the Executive Offices explaining that I felt that their error in not updating the drivers was very poor customer relations. After all the old printer was made in 1998 and WIM 2000 was actually published in 1999 making the 722 printer only 1 year old at the time. I was told to purchase a new printer, fax them a copy of the receipt and they would send me a check for half of the cost. Within 10 days I received a check for 150.00 which was half the cost of my new HP 7550 printer. I love the printer and I only have good things to say about HP.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best PPC available
Review: I used to have a Toshiba E335, but it just stopped working one day. I had the replacement plan from Best Buy so I just brought it back and they gave me credit for a new PDA. I decided on the HP ipaq 2215 because it is packed with features. It literally has everything you could ever want in a PDA. The best part is that Active Sync does not lose it's connection to the PC with it. My old Toshiba used to always lose it's connection, so I would have to restart it but not the ipaq. This is a great PDA that features both CF and SD and you can even buy an expansion pack for wireless networking. I never thought I would say this, but this HP computer is actually great. I'm very pleasantly surprised.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Solid hardware, but save your box
Review: The 2215 has solid hardware specs and a beautiful screen. The buttons look rather odd (and ugly, IMHO), but it's much easier to hold than the 191x/194x iPaqs which can easily get dropped. Real-world performance is solid: unlike with the 194x series, you can play MP3 *and* do other tasks at the same time and not notice much of a delay or hiccup.

The problem is with ActiveSync 3.7, the latest syncing software from Microsoft. It just doesn't work. It was working fine (I was using BT to wirelessly sync), until I installed Vindigo. Mind you that my significant other's Palm version of Vindigo always syncs flawlessly, and my previous PPC version on the 1910 was fine if not perfect. But after I installed Vindigo on the 2215, ActiveSync just decided to retire early. Nothing would make it sync. I ended up uninstall and reinstalling AS, and it had trouble finding the 2215 when I connected the USB port. After oh perhaps 50 restarts on both the PC and the 2215 it somehow was able to identify the latter, but ended up duplicating all my calendar items, a total nightmare as I use Outlook calendar as a diary book and have close to 10,000 appointments all told. This actually had happened to me before as well (twice, once on the Audiovox Maestro and the other on the 1910), and it took me an entire week to remove all the duplicate entries manually. Trust me, this is not something you'd ever want to do -- even if you were the most patient man in the world. Luckily this time I was ready to send back the 2215, and I did.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: HP runs support from India
Review: The PDA is good but the support is horrible.

The bad tech support experience is all too common. India is the new sweat shop country for tech companies. The accent is the least of the problem. Those tech support people are untrained. They have little authority to do anything except picking up the phone and tell the customers to go away.

Expect no support if you buy HP. It is pretty much the same story for DELL which also runs shops from India.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Beware: Worst Customer Service in the Business!
Review: The good: This is a great device. I particularly like the processor, memory, wireless connectivity, and that it features both SD and CF slots.

The bad: HP has terrible customer support. Because in my experience PDA screens scratch and/or wear out, I made the mistake of purchasing an extended warranty, the HP Care Pack, from HP. So far my experience has been very negative. To begin with they sent me two warranties for my one device. I discovered this when I looked at the purchase confirmation so I called them for help. First they blamed me and accused me of purposely buying two warranties and then they proceeded to make the return process as inconvenient as possible. Let's just say that I still haven't gotten a refund for the warranty they "accidentally" charged me for, but that isn't why I am upset.

Unfortunately my problems actually began as soon as I opened the one warranty I had actually purchased. When I opened the warranty I found that my product, the iPAQ h2215, was not listed on the warranty as a covered product. Additionally, the warranty specifically excluded items not explicitly covered by the terms and conditions.

I then called HP for help, which is when I realized just how terrible HP customer service has become. I called the sales representative, who promptly told me that she did not know anything about the product warranties and then gave me a phone number to call.

I called the number and was greeted by a cheerful attendant who also knew little about warranties. She attempted to help me, but she seemed confused about why sales would refer me to her since she was not the warranty department and she did not have any warranty information.

So, she referred me to technical support. Of all the departments, technical support was by far the least helpful and most frustrating. This should be a warning to anyone planning to buy an HP product because even if you never purchase an extended warranty from HP you may at some point have to deal with HP tech support.

The heavily accented technician began by asking for my model and serial numbers. I provided them, but he was unable to find them on the system and so he was extremely reluctant to provide me with any kind of assistance whatsoever. I see no reason why the model number would not show up on the tech support computer. What if I needed tech support?

Anyway, he said the problem was probably that I was giving him the wrong number or that I had not registered the warranty like I should have. I told him that I was giving me the model number that appeared on the box's label and that I had purchased the item less than a week ago. He was unconvinced. I then asked him, hypothetically, if he would honor the warranty I had purchased even though my product was not specifically included in the warranty card. He said that he probably would not. This was about as much help as he was willing to provide. From the start of the conversation both he and I were confused about why I was directed to technical support in the first place and I understand that he was not trained to help me. However, he was extremely rude, difficult to understand, and had no inclination to provide even the slightest assistance without appearing to be inconvenienced. This is not understandable and not excusable. After he "helped" me, the technical support representative referred me back to sales.

After waiting on hold for a sales representative I explained my problem and asked to speak to a supervisor. The representative assured me that he was almost certain that the warranty covered my product, but he was unable to say for sure. He also said that although there is a supervisor available the supervisor cannot provide any additional help. I asked to speak with them anyway, and soon learned that the representative was more than correct. The supervisor was able to offer even less help than the representative. The supervisor basically told me that it is only logical to assume that the warranty covers the product because it is not specifically excluded like some other models. When I told him that technical support had informed me that they would probably not honor the warranty, he seemed to change his mind and he referred me to one of the phone numbers that I had already contacted.

I am now waiting for a return authorization so I can return this warranty. I am also planning to return the iPAQ, even though I really like it, because I never want to deal with HP again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Perfect Balance
Review: I have had a Palm Vx for years. I originally selected it because it was very slim and "pocketable" compared to various bulky alternatives.

The iPaq 2215 has the same slim form factor, but advancing technology has made this a vastly superior product to my old Palm. It fits just right in my hand, and the rubber pads on the side give just the right amount of no-slip grip.

The screen is superb, readable indoors or out. I also considered the Dell Axim, which has the same processor and memory, but it bulkier, has a screen that isn't as good, and has no built-in Bluetooth.

At first I didn't care about Bluetooth, but then I realized if I get a Bluetooth-capable cell phone, then I can use the phone as a modem for the 2215. Cool!

The combo of perfect size, powerful processor, superb screen, lots of memory, built-in Bluetooth, and flexible expansion (via both SD and CF slots) makes this unit a fantastic value. Sure, it cots a bit more than the Dell, but it's well worth it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Best mix of features for decent price
Review: I owned Palm Vx for 3 years and finally found a decent color PDA that is sleek withhout sacrificing any features:

PROS

- Sleek
- Great navigation button for game lovers (even sony CLIE's aren't close)
- Integrated bluetooth
- Good display and good speed
- HP support was good when I had problem setting up AvantGo
- Even though HP doesn't mention bundled software, they did infact bundle quite good collection of software which I think is around [money amount]worth.
- The synchronization software that comes with Palm is useless. You have to buy additional software and configure it to really get all the contact information mapped to the Outlook contact fields. If you are going to synchonize with Outlook, think no other than Pocket PC based PDA.

CONS

- Notes support in Pocket PC sucks. PDA device vendors should start bundling HPC Notes software along with this until Microsoft decideds to make it better. Can't even filter notes by categories.

- Carry case should be flip-open type. You have to take the PDA out before using it.

CONCLUSION

Even if money is no constraint, I would still go for this model.

I still can't understand why it takes Sony so long to come up with a good mix of features that is sleek. Inspite of being a big Sony fan, I wouldn't pay $800 for Sony PEG-UX50.

Add value to your PDA by buying Pocket Informant or Agenda Fusion.

I gave 4 star instead of 5 because:
- I want it to be as sleek as iPAQ h1910 with iPAQ h2215 feature set
- Software like HPC Notes is not bundled

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth the wait
Review: I upgraded from an 3600 series to this one.
Everything is excellent.
I really love the size and weight.
The only drawback I personally found is the way you plug it to charge it.
But otherwise, this IS the Pocket PC to have.
Worth every cent. Don't leave home without it.
Forget your heavy and expensive laptop and your useless cellphone browsing...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: One of the best PPC's!
Review: All the features you want in a small package at an affordable price. It has BT, infrared, SD/CF expansion slots and all the usual feature set you can expect from a Pocket PC.

The PDA looks dull in the plastic body. The buttons are all standard PPC type. Average weight and battery life for a PPC.

The Windoze OS is a bad idea for handhelds, why do think MSFT keeps changing the name every time they release new bloatware? Comparing raw MHz/MB or advertized feature set is not a good idea with PDA's. (8MB on Palm OS does more than 64MB on bloated Windoze.) All the cool features look great for first few weeks and then the PPC gadget might stay in your drawer!

Easy of use, reliability, battery life and intuitive software (like a Nokia) are more important than voice recording, mp3 playback and video. Check out the "Zen of Palm" if you aren't convinced that Palm OS is much better.

If you desperately want a "PC in your Pocket" buy this iPaq, its better than other PPC clones out there.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: What do you want to today?
Review: Should you get a PocketPC? Should you get the Ipaq H2215? Depends of course on what you want to do, what difference it will make in your life, is it worth the money. The price of the unit is without a memory card...and yes you will need a memory card. I have a 1GB card and it was worth the money. Was the Ipaq worth it? For me yes.

I also bought a foldable keyboard so add that to the price. I am a graduate student and I bought the Ipaq knowing it had a recording function. This is very handy for me in interview situations. I like being able to display PDFs, PowerPoints (not very usable but a nice 'toy' this since the slides are so small), word documents, EXCEL, etc. The addition of the keyboard actually allows me to create files and I really like the size of the Ipaq even with keyboard compared to a laptop.

Of course it is not all work. I had an audible.com subscription for a couple of years and can play my library on this. If you have never tried audible with a pocketpc...it is a worthwhile experience. I am an avid reader but I have found that there are times when listening to a book is just the thing. With 1GB it is not an Ipod but it gets the job done for me and the sound is very good with MP3s. Add avantgo, ebook reader, and ahem, Pocket Everquest and it is a pocket entertainment center.

It is also extemely verstile. To get an idea of what a pocket PC can do for you visit a website that had downloads of applications. I found a very nice scientific calculator with graphing functions that would be at least $70 or more dollars for $12 as a download today. I am also trying out something called pocket earth that is very interesting.

Why 4 stars? I didn't really need bluetooth and there are other products out there a bit less exsepsenive if you don't need that. But HP customer service is A1. If you ask an email question they usually reply within 24 hours although for my old Jornada it use to be within in an hour. The unit comes with a CD-ROM with multiple utlities that you will find useful. In addition to price (and it is a very fair price btw overall) I feel the battery life could be better. Granted size played into that but you will find yourself recharging quite often. In a way that is a backhanded good thing though, it means you are finding uses for it, even if they are frivolous. So if you are willing to spend the money for the unit AND the money for a memory card big enough to serve your needs AND the money for a keyboard if you plan on actually creating documents with the Ipaq and it still seems worth it, enjoy your new pocket computer and your new toy. I am.


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