Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 18
 Entry level iPAQ with almost all the features of its big brothers July 15, 2007
Gaz Rendar (Chicago, IL USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This HP iPAQ is designed to be a cheap, entry level Windows Mobile PDA, but actually does almost everything its more expensive non-cell phone PDAs can do. br / br /SCREEN br /This is probably the biggest sticking point. You'll likely only pay $250-300 for the rx4240, but the reason it's cheaper is because its highly compact design only has a 2.8 inch screen. Most "normal" sized PDAs have 3.5 inch screens. The screen is noticeably smaller, but the color and picture is crisp as it still sports a 320 x 240 pixel resolution. So while it is smaller, the screen is still high quality. I recommend drawing rectangular boxes on a piece of paper with 3.5" and 2.8" diagonal lines to get an idea of the size difference. If the larger screen size is important to you, don't buy this unit. br / br /OTHER HARDWARE br /The rx4240 has built in 802.11 b/g WiFi that works great with my wireless routers. This iPAQ has a relatively speedy processor inside. It has Bluetooth 2.0, but I do not think it works with Bluetooth stereo headsets for music listening purposes (I haven't tried). The unit also has a headphone jack, USB 2.0 type B jack, and built in voice-recorder. They all work well. br / br /BUTTONS/INTERFACE br /The touchscreen's responsiveness works as expected. There's nothing special about the stylus, although it is a bit more difficult to remove compared to my Palm PDAs I've had in the past. You can input with the stylus using a virtual, on-screen touch keyboard (preferred method) or write grafiti-like handwritten letters. The rx4240 has a button on the top to activate the voice-recorder. There are also 4 buttons on the side that can be user-assigned to do anything, like lunch email, or Windows Media Player. Unfortunately, since the unit is so compact, it does not have a directional pad and instead relies on a scroll wheel. The scroll wheel is a little stiff at first, but once you break it in it works well for scrolling through internet pages. The screen also has a removable plastic cover, which gets the job done, but if you're carrying the device with you at all times I'd recommend a case. br / br /SOFTWARE br /The rx4240 comes loaded with Windows Mobile 5 OS, Mobile Word, Excel, and Power Point as well as other Microsoft staples like Internet Explorer, Media Player and MSN Messenger. It's easy to sync to your computer and move files back and forth. The Office programs work great, however, I feel that the Internet Explorer is too slow. I would instead demo Opera's web-browser for better results. The email program syncs with Microsoft Outlook easily enough. You can also check hotmail and other web-based emails. br / br /STORAGE br /After everything is preloaded, you have about 70-80 MB worth of free program storage space in the unit. There is also an expansion slot for SD cards to load up with programs, music, and video. I find that the unit is great for watching TV on it via my SlingBox Sling Media Slingbox PRO ( SB200-100 ). br / br /PROBLEMS br /The screen might be too small for some users, but for me it's fine for light office use, quick internet browsing, email checking, and watching SlingPlayer TV. I do miss having a d-pad, but the scroll wheel is actually more useful for webpages. I also wish that HP would offer a USB thumb-keypad for the device. br / br /Overall, if you're looking for a highly compact non-cell phone, non-GPS PDA for a variety of light to moderate uses, you can't beat the price/performance value of the rx4240. However, for heavy PDA users I'd instead recommend a smartphone with a built in thumb keypad.
 Best PDA ever July 9, 2007
Horacio Laprea
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've been a PDA user since mid 90's, and by far this is the best PDA I've ever had. Great size and weight, fits in my pocket, and the buttons and wheel allow one-hand use. br / br /I can easily browse the Internet and check email with Wi-Fi or using my mobile phone as a modem thru Bluetooth. br / br /I see no need to have an expensive PDA-Phone, when I can decide when to carry the Pocket PC, or when to leave it at home and carry only my mobile phone.
Well thought out PDA, Long way from the early days of Windows CE July 7, 2007
Tedd Riggs (Seattle, WA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
HP has done an excellent job with the IPAQ4200 PDA as its a well made PDA that has a great screen, fairly decent audio with the built in speaker (great audio with headphones) easy to expand via its SD memory slot and just a well thought out layout to the controls including a scroll button/control that controls volume while in Windows media and acts as a regular scroll control in programs such as Windows Explorer. br /I had no problems at all with it linking right up with ActiveSync to Outlook (Note: Outlook and not Outlook Express..) and transfer all my contacts with ease via its USB port. Also on my first try, I did not have to consult any manuals (Manuals on DVD) to log on via Wifi at the local Coffee shop and while some of the Internet takes a little getting used to seeing on a 2.8 inch screen, most sites worked fine. Also I had no problems with the Bluetooth connection to my cell phone, however I could not get the Bluetooth Activesync to connect via a Bluetooth Adapter. br /Windows Media works great, transfering directly in its native WMA format to the iPaq. Most JPEG's transfered fine and looked very well and I was surprised that the PDA was even able to open some of the large 3.3 MB JPEG's I have as test files. br /Battery Life seems pretty good. Hard to say exactly as I tend to recharge it when it gets below about 60% as I hate to have it die when I need it. But my guess is about 15 hours ? With maybe 3 hours of that using Wifi and 2 hours Audio, both of those use more battery power. I tend to keep the screen fairly bright so I am not great on conserving battery power as I like to be able to read the screen. br /The built in HP Photo Manager is a nice application that is well done for a PDA and is great for showing off your photos and doing the basics with them. br /Last but not least, even thou the Ipaq is all plastic, it is rugged. It has taken several tumbles out of my shirt pocket and survived just fine. No cracks. I would not advise that kind of treatment ! But is a good comment to the rugged nature of HP products. br /
Amazing, sleek, stylish, impressive... What a machine! June 25, 2007
Brian D. Bell (Bristol, RI)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was a little skeptical about buying a pocket PC (I desktop and a laptop aren't enough!??!!?) But my friend Bud just bought an older one, and I quickly saw how useful these things can be, so I started shopping around. After a few days of searching all the various Pocket PC's on Amazon, I quickly fell in love with this one, and it stayed at the very top of my favorites list. When it came down to the wire, after comparing it to hundreds of other mobile devices and this was the winner. It's got 802.11b AND g!!! Not many devices can operate at G levels right now. It's functional, it's stylish, and it's worth the money. br / br /You can't beat the price, either... I am thoroughly impressed and satisfied, as always, with any HP product.
Much, much better than a Franklin planner! June 16, 2007
Jill Malter (jillmalter@aol.com)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I got the black and white Compaq iPAQ when it first came out, and then graduated to a Dell Axim X3. Well, now I have the new rx4200 and I think it is an excellent device. br / br /This PDA is small, and it is easy to carry around. It is not highly advertised: I didn't see much about it in the latest "Smartphone and Pocket PC" magazine. I only found out about it from "girlsgonemobile." br / br /This PDA has no phone, no camera, no keyboard, and no GPS. You can use it to connect to the internet, but I think that with the small screen and mediocre resolution that's not the best use of the iPAQ. On the other hand, I am writing this review on my iPAQ right now, and I'm connected to Amazon (via wireless), so it does work. In addition, if all you want is, say, news, weather, stocks, and traffic, you can use Handango InHand to quickly update all of these with a brief internet connection and then read all of it at your leisure in an iPAQ-friendly format. br / br /It is great for taking notes and storing them in word documents, and it synchronizes well with my PC at home. The battery keeps it going during the day so I can recharge it at night. The handwriting recognition software works pretty well, and I can write fairly quickly, so I don't miss the keyboard. br / br /There is a plastic screen protector, so you can keep your screen from being scratched when you carry it around, but you do, of course, need to remove it to use the device. br / br /The rest of Microsoft Office is very useful as well. I can download and refer to Word, Excel, and Power Point documents. Power Point is read-only, but even that is enough to read presentations. I like keeping copies of Power Point presentations, but it is annoying that they come out upside down on my iPAQ. Adobe is available for reading pdf files. br / br /I use the Calendar quite a bit, but there is one thing I would change about it. You see, you can take notes about any appointment. It would be wonderful if you could simply keep those notes indefinitely, so you could always look at your old appointments. But the software instead keeps asking you to delete old appointments, telling that you are an hour late, a day late, a month late, a year late for them! If you do that, you will delete your record of what you did, as well as your notes. br / br /Contacts (the address book) works well, and that is another major use of any PDA. br / br /What about playing music? Well, the storage is not huge (although you can get several GB on an SD card). And the quality is mediocre as well. I haven't tried it for composing music, but again I think I'd prefer a large-screen laptop for that. One can use the iPAQ as a recording device, but I rarely do that. br / br /I use an SD card in my camera, so it is easy to use the iPAQ to look at (or even store) photos. br / br /The iPAQ is actually a fairly powerful computer. But for writing software or doing really big calculations, I prefer laptops or mainframes. I have the Lygea HP-15 calculator on my iPAQ, and this works well for minor applications. And Excel is available as well. br / br /Besides the HP-15, I have three other third-party software items. One is Spb time, which is useful as a clock, alarm clock, countdown timer, and stopwatch. Another is Pocket Stars. And the third is a game, Killer Sudoku. br / br /Killer Sudoku is definitely better on a bigger screen. But I think other games are even worse on tiny screens. Action games are much better on a laptop or desktop. And games such as bridge, chess, Go, and so forth are also much better on a big computer. br / br /Overall I like the iPAQ very much. I highly recommend it.
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