Eventually after a number of years the battery died in my old iPaq 3850 series. The internal battery can be replaced with "surgery" but in my case that failed. Time therefore to replace. After much research I opted for the much vaunted hx4700 at a cost of around £315.

What does it do:

Pretty much everything a good PDA should! It has a neat compact form, though a trifle heavy. The screen is fantastic. The highspeed USB docking cradle works well. It has both built in bluetooth and wireless (802.11b). The navigator button has been replaced with a touch pad which is a good idea but in practise I would have to say the "jury is still out." Software wise it has the standard Pocket PC applications and syncs well with Outlook.

The battery is replaceable! The extended life version however is expensive.

The Pros:

All the above plus, and this is a nice touch, the screen orientation can be changed easily e.g. to landscape. Importantly the iPaq's memory can be easily extended using either compact flash or SD cards. Put in a decent sized memory card and the iPaq will happily function as an MP3 player and you can even get half decent videos. The iPaq also has that reliable solid feel of good HP products.

The Cons:

The much beefier processor does not seem to deliver the umph that it should, probably because the extra power is diverted into graphic processing. That said it is generally adequate providing not too many applications are open. Clearing the dynamic memory out every now and again remains essential housekeeping.

My rather nice Pocetop infrared keyboard is not supported. But then HP's new bluetooth version is likely to prove superior (see review).

The battery life could probably be better. At full bore with wireless connected I would estimate the life to be a few hours. Turn down the screen and wireless off and it should last appreciably longer. Of course you could always take along a spare.

Conclusion:

Without doubt a big step forward from earlier versions. If you are a PDA fan you will like this model and given the features it is not bad value for money. Buy it if your budget stretches this far.