Rating: 
Summary: Great Concept, but OS and Battery Not There Yet
Review: Well, let me begin by saying that I researched all of the PDAs on the market including Palm products and came away that this unit would be the best choice out there due to its 80211b connectivity. I primarily use Windows and as such though it would be a great tool to use to keep track of my contacts, Outlook messages, and to even sometimes use the IE browser capabilities remotely. After getting the unit, setting it up, and using it for several weeks I ended up returning it. Here's why, 1) The battery power is horrible if you use BlueTooth or the 80211b. I primarily wanted the unit to connect to my Outlook both at home and at work and I found the battery lifetime to be just short of two hours when using the 80211b (with BlueTooth turned off). This made it really tough to be able to attend a long meeting and rely on the 5455 for my email. Yes I could have carried optional battery packs, but I didn't want to do that. After all if this unit is supposed to be all encompassing then I shouldn't need to carry gear with me to support it. 2) The reliability of the wireless is not without its faults. Quite often I had to do soft resets - it got to the point that somewhere between 20-30 percent of the time a soft reset was required. 3) The Pocket PC operating system, particularly the aspects related to wireless connectivity and connectivity with the AutoSynch mechanism are not flawless in their implementation - you'll find problems connecting, you'll lose connections, and if you have more than one email service/account then you'll have to manually switch each time to get mail from each of the accounts. 4) I noticed the current incarnation of the Pocket PC OS have problems with slowing down in CPU speed when adding more applications to the unit. This is somewhat expected that as you add apps the OS will slow down, but adding just a handful of standard apps to the 5455 brought the peppy default speed of the unit down to almost intolerable. Again, since these were my primary reasons for purchasing the unit if the synching and wireless didn't work perfectly then there was little point in keeping the 5455. After three weeks of giving the 5455 every effort that I could make a case for keeping it I came to the conclusion that it did not meet my needs. A few weeks later I still do not in any way regret the decision of returning it. Taking into consideration the cost of the unit and the poor reliability and short battery life it just didn't make sense for me. I'll wait till HP come out with better battery technology that actually lasts with wireless and I'll wait till Microsoft come out with their next implementation of the OS which will hopefully synchronize and generally work more reliably. Perhaps by the time this happens then we'll have a version available which is built into a digital telephone - this would be an even more practical and useful real-world solution.
Rating: 
Summary: Most expensive toy I've purchased yet.
Review: For spending as much as I did on this I would have expected much more bang for my buck. Sure it can play games and looks cool but when you get to the nitty gritty of it. Browsing the web on it is extremely cumbersom. I have had more difficulties getting wireless to work and sometimes when you turn WLAN on it fails stating theres not enough memory. It fixes it self after a soft reset but none the less.. I have more then enough memory. Occasionally it freezes on me or won't boot up. I had to exchange it after only 1 week becuase the screen went all screwy on me and was flashing and going in and out etc. I have since turned on encryption on my wireless networks at home, work and my second job and can't get the encryption to work on either but can get it to work without encryption on all of them. As for the finger print system.. I spent a hour training it to my finger print etc etc only to have my buddy swip it with his on the first try and get in. I was the laughing stock of the office, everyone thinks I'm a sucker for spending that much on a PDA. I think the only reason I end up keeping it is becuase I have hope that they'll release a flash fix for all the bugs. All in all, I think this iPAQ has more bugs then a motel and if I wasn't into the "Cool" factor I would have just purchased a lower end module. I've used the wireless and bluetooth minimally since there aren't that many uses for it yet. 2 Month Update: Ok, I've owned this "toy" for about two months now and since its managed to loose all my data 3 times. The backup battery fails non-stop. To add salt to the wound, it lost all my data and upon brining it home and syncing it with my home pc hoping all my home data would transfer to the pda it decided instead to transfer all the data from the PDA to my home computer whiping my contacts clean on both etc. What a joke. I called HP hoping to be able to return it.. nope no can do. So today it decides its not going to turn on or charge. Finally after resetting it nonstop it comes on.. but now the pointer doesn't work. So I call hp sit on hold for 10 minutes with some out sourced tech support guy in india only for him to transfer me non-stop to people who keep asking me what model computer it is.. they have no clue its an iPAQ. They have NO support section online for the unit and theres allready been 4 patches released. The tech support line isn't toll free and when your on it weekly sitting on hold for 20 minutes at a time only to eventually have your call routed to the blackhole of automated voicemail systems it can be an expensive learning experience. Now I'm regretting ever touching this unit. My advice for you.. purchase the 3800 series model. My buddy has had that unit for 4 months and its never given him a single problem, thats what prompted me to purchase the 5455 from shopping.hp.com before it hit the stores.. talk about a mistake. I'm feel like I was taken advantage of. I'm not kidding when I say you purchase this unit you're going to be kicking your self in the rear. Wait a while for the next unit, this ones nothing more then a[$$$] headache. 5 Month Update Once again, its being shipped back to HP becuase the pointer is not responding and it 50% of the time it won't startup unless its in the cradle when you power it on. They said they'll replace it.. which is nice, but this is getting tiring. I wouldn't trust this with important meetings, and what not. I've missed two meetings and a dentist appointment due to it failing and loosing memory and syncing all whacky.. not only did I waste [$$$] on this unit, its now draining my pocket book even after the purchase becuase of missed important appointments.. if you can't trust your pda what good is it really..? Stay away from this unit, purchase the 3900/3800 for 1/2 the price, my buddy has still yet to have any of the problems i'm experiencing or any problems at all.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the weak of heart
Review: I got this last week (3rd week of January 2003), and had trouble getting it connected to my Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router. I have heard complains from other users on the same problem, so it is clearly not an isolated case. HP said it was due to the duality in the 802.11b + 802.11g standard. Don't know if they are still going to work on that, or leave me to get another Wireless Router (*ouch*). I don't know if anyone did manage to get theirs working. Some users seem to be having some problems hooking up to their Netgear Wireless Routers. Other than that, the Bluetooth (BT) works perfectly fine, including Internet over BT, as long as you don't have too high an expectation about speed via BT. It works fine. That's all I can say. The Universal Remote is a beauty. It can learn additional controls straight from your remote control. Seems like goodbye to all my remote controls and any other Universal Remotes. But don't take my word for it. Seems compliant to the Dual CF Sleeve (Expansion Jacket) that I had, but I heard of compatibility issues with the GSM/GPRS sleeve, and some GPS sleeve. Do obtain a HCL before you buy any sleeves. It is SDIO compliant, so it means having less bulky sleeves and CF cards when the other manufacturers kick in. Not (much) faster than the 39xx. Other than these, it's basically quite the same with other iPaqs. Others' views may differ...
Rating:
Summary: There are much better units out there.
Review: I use my pocket pc constantly. I have a Journada 568 and my recently acquired 5455. The display on the 5455 is much better than the Journada's, but otherwise the Journada is the superior product. With a processor running half the speed it operates much, much faster than the 5455. Especially when accessing expanded memeory. The 5455 is 'buggy', and you have to soft reset it after each backup operation. Getting it to work with a wireless network will probably require you to make settings changes that are completely undocumented and which the software that comes with the unit won't do. (Get the tech support number out right away if you're going to have to hook up to a wireless network.) Once set up, though, the wireless network access has actually been pretty painless. Additionally, I had to take my original unit back for replacement because one of the display's LEDs stopped working, and the autobrightness feature on the unit I currently have is broken, with the display frequently refusing to turn on even in dark rooms. Heaven help you if you try to find help on HP's website. It's not there, and you couldn't find it if you wanted to. To sum it up the only reason I can see for buying a 5455 (unless you need the wireless access features) is the display. It is glorious. But, without a doubt these are beta units that shouldn't have been released until they ran better. If you don't need the wireless feature run, don't walk, to another company's units - or find a Journada 568 for sale somewhere and feel lucky if you can buy it.
Rating:
Summary: It works some of the time, but not useful
Review: As a current RIM Blackberry user, I was looking forward to getting my IPAQ. Its a neat unit with a great screen, but I have two issues: 1. Its not reliable - requires hard resets occasionally, does not sync up occasionally, does strange things, battery life is low. Learn how to do a hard reset and try one whenever strange things occur (like the battery seems dead).
2. Its not that useful. Mail and calendar have to be synced up with corporate Outlook thru docking or bluetooth - no use of wifi or internet. Text entry via stylus or on screen keyboard is clumsy. Screen is not big enough for real web browsing. Unit is large and hard to carry on belt. Documentation is poor - you have a pile of brochures and addendums and a hardware manual on CD. Adding any communication technology, eg cellular, requires a bulky sleeve. Overall, it does not represent value for $ for me. However, I am comparing it to a RIM Blackberry that works with my company's enterprise email and calendar so your results may vary. Update: Had to return the unit. Too many resets and restores from disk, too many problems - not worth the hassle. This is not ready for prime time yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly unstable
Review: This device has a problem maintaining a WLAN connection. Memory errors while using the wireless connection require a never-ending series of soft resets. Just when you think the need for soft resets are slowing, along comes a data-losing hard-reset. I'm entirely disappointed in the iPaq. I went into it believing it would be faster and more full-featured than my Palm. This has simply not been the case. Everything runs slower and requires more resets of the device. Even when I have the WLAN hooked to my DSL connection at home the web browsing is DOG SLOW . Really huge disappointment. I cannot think of anyone but a true techy who is in love with iPaq's and has to have the latest model who would get their money's worth out of this. There are FAR FAR FAR better PDA models that are out there. Don't let the "promise" of the latest Pocket PC platform fool you. The 5455 is FAR slower and less stable than other competitors. Beware. 3 month update
Have started to use this device fairly heavily. Turned off the WLAN. That seems to resolve a substantial number of locking issues. Soft reset the device fairly regularly. Have found some great applications for calendar and that is what has kept me using it. Screen on this is nice as well.
Rating: 
Summary: One super computer.
Review: The HP 5455 is one great computer. I can barely read my own handwriting, yet the 5455 has no difficulty translating it to text in Pocket Word. I easily connected to my PC, browsed the WWW and sent & received E-mail with it. Buy one.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing product to keep everything handy !!!
Review: I got this product as I wanted to consolidate all of my data either on my desktop machine or notebook. As my notebook is equipped with bluetooth and wireless options, which is connected to the desktop via wireless. This product gave me flexibility to connect this iPAQ either thru wireless or bluetooth to either of my machines without worrying too much. I really LIKED this felxibility which is found very convenient. Nice processor speed, colors, screen resolution, remote features and above all the finger print authentication system is cool on this small wonder. Further enhanced with software package which is essential for every type of user. If the price is somewhere less or equal to $..., I am sure this product has taken the lead as SUPERSELLER in PDA market. Just use it immediatley out of the box.......you will love this small feature packed unit.
Rating:
Summary: sounds like good features but lots of problems
Review: I bought this product 2 years back. But frankly speaking I haven't used all of its features. within a few days of buying the battery was losing power for no reason at all and the customer support replaced a new battery. But later the unit started resetting on its own. during this process none of the other buttons are functional and it is a forced reset losing all the information. Now since i am out of warranty i am expected to get it repaired for a fee. we will end up spending more than its original price for the maintenance. i never even had the chance to use all of its features till now because of all the reasons. i don't think its worth spending more on the unit.
Rating:
Summary: iPAQ 5455 Review - cool features but poor battery life
Review: The iPAQ 5455 seemlessly integrates with MS Outlook on one computer but has issues with syncing up to a second PC. User selection for data overwrite is limited (handheld overwrite PC or PC overwrite handheld data). Overall features are really neat, some stuff included is kinda useless for the average electronics gizmo but the battery life is horrible. If you're planning to go out of town for a couple of days, you'll need a charger (get 2 - one for the rental car and one for the hotel room). Extended life battery is recommended as is an extended service plan if one is offered to you at time of purchase. I had to have mine sent back and 2 other people in my office also had to during their first few weeks of use. The convenience offered by the available features outweighs the annoyances of losing data due to the battery dying.
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