Is WM2003 Essential for 5450?

[ChristopherTD]

At first I thought that the WM2003 upgrade was essential for my 5450, but now I am not certain.

The improvements in speed (from various benchmarks posted) seem to be in the region of 10-40%, which in real life wouldn't really be noticed. My experience (with laptops admittedly) is that speed improvements have to be orders of magnitude to be signficant, i.e. 2-3 times faster.

The MSReader bug that annoyed me is fixed in 2002, and the WiFi issues are also resolved.

So apart from a small improvement in speed, and PIE improvements is there any compelling reason to upgrade? If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

But the tinkerer in me remains unsatisfied. Maybe someone who has upgraded a 5450 can report whether the machine has a new lease of life, or merely a new skin?

Thanks!

[William Yeung]

I think the only thing I feel really annoyed is the alarm issue... I dont know if it happens on 2002 but 100% sure it happens on 2003!

But the speed is very significant- its just much more evenly distributed average plus that 40% increase its significant.

PIE improvement is dramatic if you ever need to read regular web page.

And the best of all is that most issues seems got somewhat cured. At least my finger print never try to ask my password in 4 digit again with the upgrade... but it does eat up memory and not releasing... I do a soft reset about 3 days each time to gain back my memory.

Overall, I think upgrade is a positive experience comparing to the original PPC2002 implementation, also I think you could expect MS will only support the new platform afterwards...

[dhettel]

I think the only thing I feel really annoyed is the alarm issue... I dont know if it happens on 2002 but 100% sure it happens on 2003!

But the speed is very significant- its just much more evenly distributed average plus that 40% increase its significant.

PIE improvement is dramatic if you ever need to read regular web page.

And the best of all is that most issues seems got somewhat cured. At least my finger print never try to ask my password in 4 digit again with the upgrade... but it does eat up memory and not releasing... I do a soft reset about 3 days each time to gain back my memory.

Overall, I think upgrade is a positive experience comparing to the original PPC2002 implementation, also I think you could expect MS will only support the new platform afterwards...

So which version of the upgrade are you talking about? What is the ROM number that you see this on.

[Chris Spera]

If you look at Jason's article on "Is Windows Mobile 2003 Really Faster?"
(http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,16788), then I'd have to say, yes, this is an important upgrade for the 5400.

There are a lot of problems with PPC 2002 and are compounded and in your face with XScale processors. Now that WM2003 is ARM optimized, I can see a MARKED difference in speed between my 400mHz 5455 and my 266mHz 1945. In some cases, the 1945 is NOTICABLY faster.

I am SEVERELY frustrated with HP right now. :twak: :frusty:
(and wouldn't you know it... as soon as I got those emoti-cons from their page, I got an e-mail from HP saying that my upgrade CD has shipped, tho my tracking number isn't showing up with FedEx just yet...)

If I were you, I'd upgrade my 5455. I will be doing that with my 5455 when I get my CD, hopefully on Monday.

Kind Regards,


Christopher Spera

[snarfo]

I upgraded my 5450 to WM2003 (2.00.21) and while I wish there were more obvious improvements (I mean, on the surface at least it's not much different than the PPC2002 OS), some of the smaller annoyances have been cleared up, like the wi-fi issues and the absurdly long time it would take to go to your 'furthest page read' in an e-book. That claimed 10-40 percent speed boost really is noticable, btw. Not huge, to be sure, but it's there. I'd say the upgrade is certainly worth 30 bucks.

OS things aside, I just hope HP replaces the practically unusable round thumbpad with a more classic thumbpad in a future model.

[ChristopherTD]

Thanks for the feedback folks, especially good to hear from people who have made the switch.

When the upgrade is able to be ordered over here I shall probably get one (you knew I couldn't resist...)

[William Yeung]

I think its already there, many ppl has already ordered... I guess you should order now.

[ChristopherTD]

I think its already there, many ppl has already ordered... I guess you should order now.

Sadly, not yet in Europe - at least not anywhere I can see. It is handled by distributors here, rather than HP directly. Should be available in a few weeks I guess...