Geekzone Review the HP rz1710

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=3541' target='_blank'>http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.a...?contentid=3541</a><br /><br /></div><i>"There has been great despair in the Palm camp as of the release of the Tungsten T5 (with good reason). Mauricio took advantage of this and threw me one of the new iPAQs to review, since I'm a Palm user for a while now - trying to convince me to change? The HP iPAQ rz1710 is the replacement for the 1900 series, a low end, basic Pocket PC with enough grunt for basic users and a price to match (~NZ$400). But can it live up to the quality of its predecessors?"</i><br /><br />J Shiell from Geekzone certainly got a mixed deal here. On the plus side he got a Pocket PC to play with, but on the negative side, it was a rz1710, which is the new HP entry level model replacing the 1940. (Power users, this isn’t the PDA you are looking for ;-)). His review seems to be a decent summing up of this device, i.e. that it’s a small, reasonable low-end device, let down by being hugely overpriced. If a model is being replaced by one that is slower and has less memory and features, you would expect it to cost less, right? Apparently not. :? Still, I would agree with Geekzone that there’s nothing wrong with this unit that a massive price cut would not fix. The more low cost PPCs out there, the better. The users will upgrade to a more powerful unit at some point and as they say, the more, the merrier. :wink:

[Darius Wey]

It's rather interesting to see HP's stance on their "replacement" devices.

The rz1710 has a somewhat lacklustre set of features, and it's definitely not one device I'd get excited about. The touting of it as being a replacement for the h1940 is, in my opinion, somewhat ludicrous. It's definitely a step back from the h1940, and there's no way in the world would I consider "upgrading" (downgrading :P) my h1940 to the rz1710.

The only new addition? Windows Mobile 2003 SE :roll:
Everything else is lacking comparatively with the h1940. And a new OS and lack of features certainly does not warrant paying more for this ghastly device. It doesn't even have Bluetooth!

Nice review though. It's ironic in the sense that the review may seem a little short and quick to read...why? In my opinion, it's because that's how much the rz1710 is lacking - there really is not much to review and talk about. ;)

[Jonathon Watkins]

Nice review though. It's ironic in the sense that the review may seem a little short and quick to read...why? In my opinion, it's because that's how much the rz1710 is lacking - there really is not much to review and talk about. ;)

That's why I said it was a decent summing up of this device. :wink:

True about the 1940. :|

[gorkon280]

I would like to see a massive price cut on this device. Only then can it fairly be evaluated. But when there are older, non SE devices out there with WiFi and more at the SAME price as this device, what on EARTH was HP thinking with the pricing of this....thing.

[daveshih]

From the Article:
here’s no Bluetooth or WiFi, the processor is a slow 203Mhz Samsung and the memory is a very lacklustre 32Mb RAM, of which 27Mb is theoretically accessible. It gets worse however - after a hard reset only 16MB remains for use. There’s also a 10Mb flash drive, but that won’t save you from having to buy an SD card.

Can someone please explain to me why after a hard reset, the available memory actually becomes less? I've read about this complaint from review sites a few times, and have never been able to figure it out...

Thanks,

Dave

[huangzhinong]

rz1715 replaced h1935, not h1945.

Considering h1935 marketprice is only $199 after $50 rebate, I didn't the reason they priced rz17xx at $279.

[PJE]

Can someone please explain to me why after a hard reset, the available memory actually becomes less? I've read about this complaint from review sites a few times, and have never been able to figure it out...

The only thing I can think of is that the OS has been configured to load a number of applications from flash by default after power up. Closing down these apps or services frees up some memory...until the next hard reset.

I feel that Microsoft should change the PocketPC specification to ensure that there is at least 32MB of usable memory AFTER all the OS and associated baggage has been loaded. As it is the rz1715 is a joke and can only do harm to the PocketPC cause.