HP Ipaq H5450

This PDA's fingerprint recognition pioneers biometric security.

Price: £649

Manufacturer: HP

Ratings

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Verdict

Pros:
Screen; fingerprint recognition; fast.

Cons:
Price; size.

Overall:
Fast and well-featured, the H5450 is an impressive beast, even if it is a bit oversized. However, we just can't see anyone other than those with a lottery win under their belts investing such a huge sum.

Mark Walsh, Personal Computer World 26 Mar 2003

HP's first Ipaq since the merger with Compaq is incredibly expensive and, to be honest, only three new features differentiate it from last year's 3900 series.

It's also heavier; considering that the old Ipaq's size and weight was one of its disadvantages, we were very disappointed not to find any improvement here.

The H5450 has retained the good looks of its predecessors, though, featuring the same stunning 3.8in screen with a resolution of 240 x 320, and the same USB and serial port cradling options, so upgraders won't need to buy a new set or upgrade their GPS jackets.

The long, sturdy stylus is also one of the best on the market. One aesthetic difference is the aerial at the top, which boasts the H5450's wireless options.

Bluetooth and 802.11b are both integrated and come with set-up wizards that are relatively easy to use, considering the nightmare that initialising Bluetooth access can often be.

The physical 'bump' of the aerial is pretty pointless, though, as it's not required for the wireless options to work.

HP seems to be the only company still incorporating this feature (its last GPRS Jornada PDA also had an aerial) and other manufacturer's now don't bother.

HP also supplies Outlook 2002 for Pocket PC to go with the wireless options.

The major disappointment is the Secure Digital (SD) slot. Although this format has recently taken off, and cards stretch up to 512MB, it's the only card slot on the device's exterior.

Even Dell's Axim has two, the other being a Compact Flash (CF) slot, and that's less than half the price of HP's offering. Given the size of the H5450, you would expect one to be fitted in somewhere.

The voice memo shortcut button seen on previous versions now has speaker volume controls on either side.

While this is welcome, as volume is used far more often, it makes the voice memo shortcut very hard to press as it's so small; we found ourselves using the on-screen option.

The headphone socket has been placed on the bottom of the device, which will come in handy when it's placed on a desk or when you're watching a video file.

An infrared port is hidden away at the top and, although we'd normally applaud sleek edges, this is one occasion where we really need to know where the port is.

All in all, though, this is a pretty impressive wireless effort.

The H5450 is the first PDA to provide biometric security, by featuring easy-to-use fingerprint recognition.

The front of the device has been curved to accommodate a finger on the five-way button on the front.

This has the sensor built in to it and the software guides you through the procedure well.

We found it to be accurate, although the usual alphanumeric password option is still there, if you're worried.

Technically very impressive, it comes with a 400MHz Intel Xscale processor, 64MB of Ram and 48MB of Flash Rom, 20MB of which can be used to store data using HP's File Store.

This is the same as the 3900 series that launched about six months ago, and keeps the Ipaq range ahead of the competition.

However, you will find that Palm-based PDAs with slower chips will run faster, purely down to the demands that the Pocket PC 2002 operating system puts on the hardware.

Battery life is pretty poor, lasting for just eight hours. This is not surprising considering the power drain wireless options have on any device.

The battery is removable, but as there is no way of recharging the battery separate from the Ipaq this is pointless, as you'd have to charge any spare batteries within the device before you could use them.

£650 is a lot for anyone to pay for a PDA. However, some businesses may feel that fingerprint recognition, the only really unique feature, is worth the extra money over excellent devices such as Palm's Tungsten T or Dell's Axim with a wireless CF card.

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