Review

Wireless Networking

The hx4700 has three types of wireless networking.

The first, Wi-Fi (802.11b), allows it to connect to the Internet trough a wireless access point. You can add one of these to your house, and there might already be a Wi-Fi network at your office. In addition, lots of hotels, restaurants, and coffee houses have wireless access points. Some of these are free, but others you have to pay for.

I checked the wireless range on the hx4700 and found it to be not very good. I'm not saying it's terrible. I can definitely connect from anywhere in my house. However, I can't get a good connection on my back deck, through the brick wall of my house. This is definitely not normal, as my Dell Axim X30 works fine in that same spot. The X30 even has a good connection all the way out to my mailbox, well beyond where the hx4700 can reach.

This Pocket PC also has Bluetooth, which I consider a requirement for all but the cheapest PDAs these days. Handheld makers have never been able to agree on a standard hardware connector (something equivalent to USB) but Bluetooth is filling the gap. I use the same collection of Bluetooth peripherals with a variety of Pocket PCs from several different manufacturers. This includes a keyboard, mouse, GPS receiver, and more.

However, I think the best use for Bluetooth is to allow a handheld to use a mobile phone as a modem, letting you connect to the Internet from wherever you are. The hx4700 uses a wizard to make setting up this connection as easy as possible.

The hx4700 also has a nice application called iPAQWireless to let you control the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functions of your handheld.

Memory Card Slots

Like all the other VGA Pocket PCs, the hx4700 has both an SD slot and a CompactFlash slot.

This is a nice feature, as it gives us maximum flexibility in both Storage and peripherals. You could, for example, have a CompactFlash GPS card in one slot, while storing all the maps on an SD card.

On the other hand, if you want massive amounts of storage, CompactFlash cards are the way to go. You can get a 4 GB Microdrive for a surprisingly small amount of money.

This iPAQ comes with a decent amount of built-in storage, but hard-core users will probably fill that up pretty quickly. Either SD cards or CompactFlash cards can be used to store additional files and applications, potentially giving you almost unlimited Storage capacity.

Software

The hx4700 isn't the sort of device that a lot of people get as their first handheld. That's why I'm going to assume that most people interested in it are already familiar with the standard software bundled with every Pocket PC. Still, I'll give a quick overview.

PIM One of the major uses for handhelds is to keep track of people's calendars and address lists. In an unusual move, the hx4700 comes with a copy of Pocket Informant 5, a third-party application that can replace the standard Contacts/Calendar/Tasks applications.

MS Office The hx4700 comes with Pocket Office, allowing you to view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files. But be careful about these; they don't support all the formatting the full desktop versions do and will remove from the file any formatting element they don't support.

This is basically the gold standard for Pocket PC PIM applications, and I applaud HP's decision to bundle it with this device.

If you prefer the standard PIM apps, they are also on this iPAQ.

Multimedia Anyone considering one of those portable video players that are so hot right now really should be considering something like the hx4700 instead. This handheld has an awesome screen, and it can do a lot more than just play video and music.

This model comes with Windows Media Player, which is nice enough for MP3s, but there are some great applications out there, like Pocket TV and BetaPlayer that let you play video in a variety of common formats. However, if you're going to be serious about playing video on your iPAQ, you should looking to one of those high-capacity microdrives I mentioned earlier -- multimedia files aren't small.

This handheld has an internal speaker which offers good performance. Nevertheless, you'll probably want to get yourself a pair of headphones to listen to music. There's a standard-sized headphone jack on the top of this model.

Battery Life

The hx4700 has a larger standard battery than any other VGA Pocket PC: 1800 mAh.

With the backlight on half power (which I find quite viewable), this iPAQ's battery lasted me almost 6 hours, which is outstanding.

For comparisons' sake, the Axim X50v lasted less than three hours with similar settings.

To come up with these figures, I used the hx4700 as my primary handheld for most of a week. I kept track of my schedule, did a good bit of Web surfing, checked my email, read an ebook, that sort of thing.

This wasn't some kind of torture test where I kept the device on until it died. I don't think figures obtained that way are very realistic.

The Accessories

The hx4700 is the first iPAQ in far too long to have a flip cover. I just wih I liked this better.

The cover itself is translucent plastic, and it attaches to the left side of the handheld.

Unortunately, the semi-soft plastic that acts as a hinge isn't as flexible as it needs to be. This makes the flipcover somewhat hard to get out of the way when you're trying use the hx4700.

The cradle that comes with this iPAQ is nice enough. It matches the looks of the hx4700 and will look fine sitting on your desk.

Sadly, the stylus is just a cheap piece of plastic. I expected something better from a handheld this expensive, especially considering how nice the styli were in other recent iPAQs.

Conclusion

The word "big" keeps coming up when I talk about this model.

In some ways, big is good. The hx4700 has the biggest handheld screen available, and the biggest battery of any of the VGA Pocket PCs.

However, big isn't always what you want. This iPAQ is physically much bigger than its nearest competitors, and it has a much bigger price, too: $650.

It's nice having what's nearly a laptop in your pocket, but it had better be a big pocket. At least that pocket won't be crowded with a lot of spare cash, as you probably won't have much left after buying the hx4700.