Compaq iPAQ 3870

I am really happy with this! Very useful tool.

I just need help with it thats all!

Aside from the above, this Pocket PC is the nuts, and the recent WHICH? report were correct to make it a best buy. It's identical to the H3970, with the exception of a brighter screen, but this alone doesn't justify its extra £120 Price tag. I have owned mine for 10 Months, and apart from it landing on a weak point when I dropped it accidentally (see above), it is now my life, and I don't know what Id do without it. The expansion packs are brilliant for it - I have the Navman Sat/Nav system in the Car, and the Nexicam Jackets, which also transform it into a Digital Camera. As these are classed as "old" now, they can be picked up relatively cheaply (£320-390) on E-bay. Go get one - You'll kick yourself when they're gone!!!

Excellent

The Compaq Ipaq H3870 PDA has all the functionality you'll ever need with plenty of memory available to you, and with the 206 MHz Intel StrongARM 32 bit RISC Processor holding up the foundation like Atlas with a mountain, it's no slouch in the speed department either. As you would expect, the screen is a thin film transistor screen boasting 65,536 colours as the stylus glides over the surface with ease. This really is the most ergonomic hand held out there at the present time, and if you're entering and reading a lot of data, then eye delicate surroundings and ease of use go a long way to justifying what you'll spend on this Pocket PC.

The main criteria that may come under scrutiny is the Bluetooth compatibility. Having connected the H3870 to a T68i Ericsson with consumate ease courtesy of both manufacturers, it's easy to see where the future of wirefree communication lies. Having travelled through Europe, Asia and then parts of the United States with both devices (take an adaptor people!), the tri-band functionality of the phone handset combined with the Ipaq's stunning features made communication with Outlook, Word, Excel, Reader (books are essential on long journeys, and this Pocket PC can store plenty for you and save that suitcase space for other items) and of course, Bluetooth Manager.

One thing: The UK networks are robbing you. If you don't mind the wait (and it doesn't seem too long on this model) for a download, then avoid GPRD and HSCSD. Why? Because conventional Circuit Switched Data is cheaper by far, though it's not marketed in that way (of course - put a strip on it to make it go faster, ergo it's cheaper?!?!?).

I got error messages when installing the Compaq Ipaq 3870 PDA - could not connect via USB so had to use serial port. Most of the time it does not synchronise and gives yet more errors or there is a message saying "inbox - attention needed" but of course you cannot fix this as it requires a USB connection. So, I reinstall the software and it works for a couple of days but after a time synchronisation stops working. I reset the device, reinstall the software again... and so on. The transcriber feature is similarly unpredictable -works well for half an hour then mysteriously starts coming up with gobbledegoook. We have ordered 40 of these for our department at work. So far all of those that we have installed have had similar problems. With the addition of a keyboard it is a very expensive pocket sized word-processor - I wouldn't rely on any of its other features.

The Compaq iPAQ-3870 PDA is the BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK. A MUST BUY, very quick, only would be better with wi-fi instead of bluetooth.

The Compaq Ipaq 3870 is a good upgrade from an original Pocket PC (in my case an iPAQ 3670). I use it in conjunction with an Ericsson T39m (now very cheap from Orange), and Orange GPRS. I haven't measured the speed of the service, but it does not feel much slower than a 56k modem. When used for e-mail and low bandwidth websites (check out http://members.bellatlantic.net/~blumax/plinkit/), it is awesome. IMHO well worth the extra cash to get away from infra red or wires.