Home > Consumer Reviews > Compaq iPAQ - H3630 Pocket PC 32MB Colour

My iPAQ is amazing and i can't remember how I lived without it! The screen is beautiful and great for playing games and the whole product is light and easily fits in a shirt pocket. The Windows platform means if you have a Windows PC then you have a fully compatable extension to it, although Mac users have no such luck. Many accessories are avaliable to complement it, including a fold away keyboard. I have tried several games and pieces of third party software and they all enhance the iPAQ. Monochrome Psion 5MX or colour Compaq iPAQ with keyboard - I know which I'd take everytime!... If you are in the market for a Pocket PC, this is what to go for! It has a mini Office suite (Word, Excel and Outlook), Solitaire, Picture Viewer, Internet Explorer (very handy with a Infra-Red mobile phone) and many other useful applications. 32mb of memory ensures that you can fit many more applications on the machine.

A good go in a crowded market.

The IPaq is a really pretty, even sexy, PDA with rounded corners that put the current crop of Palm and HP stuff to shame.

Doesn't get full marks due to lack of inbuilt expansion - this makes adding ethernet capability *and* expanding the memory an extremely cumbersome process involving the bulky 2-slot PC-Card adaptor.

I would have liked to have seen bluetooth / 802.11 capability added as well, but I guess I will have to wait for the new model.

I upgraded to an iPAQ after owning a Psion Revo for 2 years. The difference of having a colour screen and proper MS compatible programs is massive. I would say the case design is not as clever as the built-in hard case the Revo uses but it makes no odds to me.
The range of software available for the Pocket PC is growing much faster than Psion's too.

The O/S is perhaps not as clever as Epoc but it is easier to get used to if you are a Windows user, which, let's face it, most of us are.

Pocket PC is not always the best choice for a PDA: if all you want is a pocket-size electronic agenda, then Palm-based devices are cheaper and generally smaller. They are easier to use, as well.
Unsurprisingly, being a Microsoft product, Pocket PC is resource-hungry, and requires more CPU, more RAM and it really shines only with colour screens: in general, it needs a more expensive and bulkier device.
But then, if you use Outlook as your desktop organiser, or if you want a versatile portable device on which you can write short memo's, make a somewhat complicated calculation using pocket excel, maybe find your way with pocket streets or listen to MP3's, then Pocket PC is your solution.
Among Pocket PC devices, the iPAQ range is, for the time being at least, the outright winner.
The need of expansion sleeves to add anything to the machine is a mixed-bag though: on one side, you may have different expansions for different purposes (and there are really a LOT of them on the market), but even to add a CF RAM card you need a sleeve which adds considerably to the device's bulk and makes the standard protective case unusable. This has been addressed in newer models, where the RAM expansion slot has been integrated in the basic device.
The 3630 is a good budget-conscious compromise choice, being the lowest-priced of the colour devices, with enough RAM to support all reasonable office-on-the-go uses.

Looking for a palmtop or pocket PC about a month ago, I was originally drawn to the more economical Palm Vx, as it seemed to be able to cope adequately with the data processing and spreadsheeting that nowadays takes up most of my time on the move. The key word being "adequately". Oh, it coped fine, and is a creditable effort by Palm, but I was still unhappy with the lack of adaptability and simple fun. I then looked as far up the range as the Jornada 6-series without finding anything that matched my criteria.

And then Compaq brought out the Ipaq H3630.

Here is a machine that will cope with everything you will want it to do and live up to your expectations in every way. Its sheer simplicity of design and of use confounds the imagination. Yet this machine will handle tasks you would normally leave to a laptop or to a desktop PC -with ease.

You would naturally expect a palmtop in this price range to be a giant of a machine, almost frightening in the range of its programs and capabilities, and you would forgive it. But the IpaQ is pure, blissful simplicity. It is more accessible and easy to use than the Palm M100, and as powerful, future-proof and capable as the Jornada 6-series. The ease with which you navigate menus, create complex spreadsheet algorithms and write novels is stunning. And you can also play Doom. Perfect.

To sum up, the IpaQ is a jack of all trades, and a master as well. It's beautiful, professional, adaptible and absolutely stunning in every area. Go on. Buy one, and make the world a happier place.