Rating: 
Summary: Display is a joke
Review: Must be indoors to use. Returned to store where purchased and ordered Compaq Ipaq. Hard to believe they are the same price.
Rating: 
Summary: Great capabilities, but...
Review: I really wanted to like the Jornada 548. I have a Palm V and was looking for something with more capabilities for my weekly plane flight. I look and feel of the Jornada is great, barely bigger than a Palm III and only weighing a little more. The screen looked great and the speaker worked fairly well for such a small size. The location of the stylus is not ideal, as it lies underneath the unit's flip cover.Why did I end up returning the unit? Ease of use... The menu system is horrible and awkward. You can't customize your start menu as you can a regular PC. You also can't close your programs with a quick tap or button. You have to dig down a few menu clicks to shut down programs. This is very tidious and annoying. If you have more than 2-3 programs running, the unit slows down considerably. If you plan on downloading lots of software, you will probably have to buy a Compact Flash card. And they are expensive, around $.. for 128mb card. I also had problems with the Activesync program. I copied 2 mp3s to my unit, and every time I synced up afterwards, there were conflicts with those 2 mp3 files. This quickly become annoying. Also, copying files to the unit takes a long time. A 4mb file took a few minutes. Can you imagine how long it till take to copy 10-15 mp3s? I really wanted to like this unit. I just couldn't overcome how annoying the interface is. My Palm V is so much easier to use. But if you are looking for a unit with multimedia capabilities and pocketWord and Excel, this is a good choice. Just be forewarned of the drawbacks...
Rating: 
Summary: TECHNICAL PROBLEMS GALORE - WATCH OUT!!
Review: HP evidently is having techincal problems with the Jordana series. I purchased a unit, was happy to get the product, and then one day the screen went totally blank. The service staff at HP were helpful and took the product back via FedEx. Two weeks later I received another unit which did not even turn on. I requested a third unit, and that unit worked for about 30 days until the looming black screen problem occurred again. HP may run to the rescue in defense of this review, but let it be known this product has flaws which may require the customer to endure much down time and spend hours on the phone trying to go through service calls. Custoemrs who purchase this unit are always pressed for time and typically do not want to waste their daytime hours on the phone with service people. Just to emphasize my point: I know the HP service phone number by heart, as I write this review I've been on hold over 30 minutes trying to place a pick-order order for servicing on my THIRD unit that has failed, and my business contineus to suffer my such time losses. Buy the Jordana series with caution and warning acknowledged.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Nice!
Review: I picked this up today for a project I am working on. I had every intention of returning it after a portion of the project was complete. Not going to happen! Goodbye Palm V. I had issues installing the ActiveSync software, but eventually managed to get it installed. If the install doesn't work from the CD, download the version from the site & *follow the instructions* from the pocketpc.com site to the letter. I was installing to a Windows 2000 Pro (SP1) machine, so that could have attributed to some of the problems. It wasn't documented, so I'm not sure. I still cringe at the price, but you are getting your money's worth. If you are a user of the Microsoft Office suite &/or Microsoft Money, you will love the native, and included! usability for these products with the Pocket PC. Not sure if this functionality is in Windows 9(x), but the device shows up in Windows Explorer, so you can drag & drop files to the folders. No more synching files with the Palm V! How nice is that? That, my friends, makes it worth every penny!
Rating: 
Summary: Why buy Jornada 458 instead iPaq ?
Review: I was a very difficult to make up my mind, but finally I decided for the Jornada 458 Telling the truth, I really liked most Jornada's design. It seems more elegant and sofisticated, while iPaq seems more like a very expensive novelty toy The Jornada's heavier weight gives safe feel on your hand, and the rubberized edges makes you feel confortable and in control. iPaq weight and expansion pack makes you feel that your device is going to end on your feet iPaq has a better display resolution? you must see both devices simultaneously and you'll notice no much difference. iPaq seems easier to view Outdoor but I don't have problems with my Jornada if I change the display brightness to Outdoor by holding one button and select "Outdoors" in the HP Settings What about the processor speed?. This is one of the best features of the iPaq. Jornada's 133Mhz processor sometimes its kind of slow, that considering I have multiple applications, an MP3 playing and trying to open a document in Word. Nothing to worry by the moment And finally, I got tired of waiting for Compaq to produce one simple iPaq available for me.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING TOOL BUT .......
Review: I've had my HP Jornada since December of last year. I decided to take time to use it before I write a review of the product. I'd highly recommend the product to anyone. The graphics is very very good (crisp clear and vivid), memory size (32MB) is more than enough .... for now, and the applications in it are very easy to use. I got the PC expansion pack and was able to install more games in it and that made it more fun to use. A few things I don't like about the 548 (or any Pocket PC using the Microsoft CE OS) is that they're very slow ..... I mean very slow especially if you have to many applications running at the same time. Things start to slow down if you start to have 5 appplications running at the same time. I think this is a problem with the OS and not with the HP Jornada. Also, you have to go to the memory if you wanted to stop applications running..... grrrr. Anyway, overall I'm satisfied with the product. IT'S WORTH THE MONEY ... I MEAN BIG MONEY SPENT TO BUY IT.
Rating:
Summary: High quality product
Review: The choice of a Pocket PC OS over a Palm OS has worked out well for me. The Pocket PC OS is more powerful and extremely easy to use. However, the choice between the HP Jornada and the Compaq Ipaq was more difficult. The major advantage of the Ipaq over the Jornada is speed. It is noticeably faster than the Jornada. But where the Jornada lacks in speed it more than makes up for it in quality and design. First, it has an integrated compact flash card slot so you don't have to bother with external expansion packs. The device itself feels better in your hand with the rubber gripping down the sides. The Jornada also comes with a metal flip up cover for added protection. When you compare the two devices, the Jornada looks professional, stylish, and sleek while the Ipaq looks rather cheap --- the internal stylus feature often does not work or easily breaks and the center button over the speaker does not work well. As for the color display I find the Ipaq to look better outdoors and the Jornada to look better indoors. I don't think you can go wrong with either of these Pocket PC's over a Palm OS, but I do feel the HP Jornada is a higher quality product.
Rating:
Summary: Jornada is a good value
Review: After considering both the Jornada 548 and Compaq 3600 I finally purchased the Jornada - initially because it was available and the Compaq was not. After using the Jornada for about a month I am VERY happy with the unit and recommend it to anyone who asks.
Rating:
Summary: Could be a lot better for the price.
Review: I bought the Jornada 548 and returned it within 30 days because it just didn't have the functionality it implies it has. For one, I am a heavy Outlook user and in order to synchronize subfolders or personal folders from my desktop the only solution was another [...] third party software package.....which by the way offers the same solution for my Palm III. This was the primary feature I was looking for and told the HP had. The tech support wasn't much help either. I both emailed and called to find a solution to the sychronization problem. The call in support said the feature was there, but I needed a patch from Microsoft. The email support didn't answer for 10 days. Upon checking with Microsoft, they said the feature doesn't exist with Active Sync, but referred me to the third party package Intellisync. Bottom line is I returned the Jornada, bought Intellisync for my Palm III and can now syncronize subfolders and personal folders. If you like the color display and layout (Microsoft vs Palm OS) which I admit is very nice, friendly, and easy to use, then spend the [money]. This platform has quite a bit of maturing to do before I will lay out that kind of cash.
Rating:
Summary: Fine design, but the software solutions?
Review: This is a cute toy and it does all you would expect from an organizer, but somehow I feel it's basic software is not yet up to master it to the level it could. The calculator is a joke. Obviously the design was just for the manager on the go, but any scientist who would like to throw away his old calculator for using the HP 548 would rather think twice. The fun pack holds kind of a calculator with something like sin, cos,.. but this should certainly be in the ROM. For the fact that it is recommended to close programs to save memory they don't make it very easy. Always trying to find the task switcher or going to the memory settings doesn't look sophisticated to me. I also sometimes wonder where all the MHz of the processor are. A device that doens't have to bother about hard disks or baud rate should not let you make you watch while it slowly changes between displays. The display itself is certainly better than black and white but something active, where patterns do not influence the rest of the pixels would make it better. The setup for the buttons between some software (e.g. Pac Man) and the HP setup utility itself worked out weird. And if you change the setting for the media player you have to close the program before the default is back, which is more difficult if you reprogrammed the home or today button. The sound capabilities work fine for me and I don't share negative views here. The pdf-reader coming with the fun pack could not open a single of my documents, either it did not know the format or it collapsed trying to. I wondered in the beginning why there is a reset button. Now I know why. If you don't try everything and restrict yourself to organizing - fine. Otherwise the software is not quite a triumph of programming and ergonomical thought. Maybe that will change but I would have to live with the ROM part I am chained to. A possilbe way for updating (kind of EPROM or so at least) would certainly have been wise, if you plan a real computer and not just a stylish organizer. I don't want to downgrade the whole thing. I still like that I bought it. The hardware design is as good as you would expect it to be from an HP (despite the display). It's just the software that somehow doesn't fit in that box.
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