Refurb Ipaq 5455 - what do you think?

[Stephen Beesley]

Well it really is about time I put my faithful ol' Jornada out to pasture. It isn't so much that it is faulty or anything, but after over two years I am hankering for a change - and for built in BT and Wifi.

Now ideally I would love to upgrade to a nice shinny new WM2003SE vga wonder, but Realistically that is probably just not going to happen :cry: .

So I have been looking around at my options and one that appeals to me is a refurbed 5455 (with WM2003). I can pick one up for not much more than £250 on ebay UK (would probably be cheaper on US site but more problems getting people to ship it to Ireland!). Anyway I figure that for this price I get a nice big screen, WM2003 and dual wireless. Okay so it isn't vga and there is no WM2003SE upgrade path but it might keep me going until I can afford the uberPDA of my dreams.

Comments/advice/warnings from any current or past 5455 users would be greatly appreciated!

[Chris Spera]

The 5400 is a great PPC. I had mine, and enjoyed it a lot. I dumped it for a 2215 because of the 2003SE upgrade path. I had mine upgraded to 128MB of RAM from PPC Techs, too. Big improvement in performance... Way cool.

If you can, I would wait, though. You might find something that you'd like more in a few months, maybe even something with a phone. There are a number of different devices that are going to be released in the 2nd half of this year, and it might be worth while just hanging out until all of your options are made known and available.

This is the same advice that I am giving many people who have asked me similar questions. I keep saying, "just hang out and wait until the Fall or until the Winter... You should be able to get exactly what you want without having to settle for something different...

[Perk]

I agree. I think the H2200 series is the most versitile of the current lineup of all brands and very compact and light weight. I use the sd slot for memory and the CF for WiFi & GPS. With bluetooth built in, it's a pretty nice combo at about 5 oz.

I know that the H4xxx series has WiFi built in but I need gps and may entertain other ideas that are only available via expensive and messy bluetooth options, or Compact Flash slot.

The only thing I'm not satisied with is the absence of a dedicated Voice Record button to make a note when you don't have two hands free. The older PPCs had them. But this is a feature I seldom used and there's no indication on the Today Screen bringing that note back to your attention.

Mike

[Imageman]

get a 4150. :)

[dunneldeen]

Why get a 5455 with no upgrade path on ebay for ~£250 when you can get something like a new 2210 for ~£228 or a 4150 for ~£269.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000A98DS/qid=1088634218/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_11_2/202-4620557-9240666
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000139HAA/qid=1088634414/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_11_4/202-4620557-9240666

The 2210/2215 is a great little device. Plus, with a new device, you get a warrenty of sorts.

[milkman dan]

I have to couch for the 2200's, I love mine to death. My ONLY problem is the LCD has a really small next to invisible dot grid that when you are in direct sunlight becomes somewhat noticable, and the battery is small (but somehow still lasts pretty wel considering)

[Stephen Beesley]

Hmmm - yes the 2210 is another that I have been thinking about. I like the fact it has twin card slots. I already have a CF wifi card and I have a 256 meg CF memory card I really didn't want to loose the use of. On the other side though I hate having to switch my wifi card in and out all the time which is one reason I am looking for dual wireless. The 4150 is an option I had not thought of. I must say I seem to be one of the minority that just cannot stand the styling of the 19xx and 4xxx series Ipaqs (while I rather like the styling of the 22xx series) - but it does seem to have all the features I am after.

Maybe I will just wait and see what else comes up - although at this rate I will never actually replace my Jornada!

[epdm]

Well there's another option...GHet a Toshiba E805. This has VGA, Dual slot +bluetooth or WiFi, 128MB RAM which is great çause you probably won't use that CF ram card except for GPS maps and some 32MB NAND-storage space.

Granted it only has teh 400MHz processor but when I see that the Asus 730 with it's 520MHz is just about 10% faster in real world performance then I doubt that the other forthcoming machine will do any better.

Either way the competition might drive the price down for this E805 which would make it more affordable for many ppl. So I'd say: stick with your HP568 (which was a good design easthetically and functionally) untill midsummer and how the market evolved.

In fact new machine will drive prices down for all other machines so that 22xx WILL become cheaper too. No need to rush when you already have a machine which you are happy with. Unless you have money burning in your pocket. :-)

[Stephen Beesley]

Well there's another option...GHet a Toshiba E805. This has VGA, Dual slot +bluetooth or WiFi, 128MB RAM which is great çause you probably won't use that CF ram card except for GPS maps and some 32MB NAND-storage space....

Ahhh...

I would love to get one of these, but unfortunatley the price is still too much for me to justify. However, I hope you are right and that increased competition will result in the prices for these dropping.

[milkman dan]

the 2200's are already dirt cheap used!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38331&item=5701623779
check out that steal of a deal considering it was over 1 month ago, before the X30 came out and droped prices like mad. Coolest thing is that I got no papers or anything for it, but HP has already replaced my rubber side grips, battery pannel, and CF dummy card just becuase I asked em for it :)