Manufacturer: Hewlett Packard Model#: H19.45 Weight: .26lbs Height: .50"     Width: 2.75" Length: 4.46" Average Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars	Retail Price: $299.99 Online Sale Price:
Features: A thin, light, and affordable Pocket PC Includes mobile versions of Microsoft Office: Pocket Outlook, Word, and Excel Integrated Bluetooth for wireless communication with other Bluetooth devices Great multimedia features What's in the box: iPaQ 1945, USB synchronization cable, AC Adapter, battery, charger adapter, audio adapter, iPAQ Pocket PC companion CD

User Submitted HP iPAQ 1945 Pocket PC Reviews (cont...)

Pluses
-Great form factor. Smaller and lighter than my Pallm V.
-Great screen, i.e. brightness, contrast, color, sharpness, etc. I don't really notice the yellowish tint that other reviews (here and on other sites) have mentioned.
-Great price. I purchased one that was refurbished by HP from a company called Pallmking, which is one of the vendors listed under 'buy new/used'. I paid $218+$8 for expedited shipping. I ordered it on a Friday and received on the following Wednesday.
-Very fast. Many of the reviews I read stated this as well and attribute it to the 266mhz processor.

Cons
-No screen protector. The ones I found in the store are twice as much as compared to other PDA's (i.e. $20 for 12 as compared to $10 for most other PDA's)
-Documentation is terrible and is basically useless.
-Blue tooth difficult to setup.
-Only one expansion slot and it is SD. There seems to be fewer devices for SD and they seem more expensive as compared to CF.
-Very limited selection of 801.11b wireless cards for SD. Only could find two (Socket Comm and ScanDisk) and they were $100+ and did not get very good reviews.

I also looked hard at the HP 1935, but it was slower (203mhz) and didn't have Bluetooth.

Bluetooth was a bear to get working, but now that I have it has been really cool. I use for it wireless web browsing, activesync, and file transfers. Some sights to help you with this are:

http://www.pc-counselor.com/How_to/bluetooth_network.htm - For setting up the wireless web browsing (this was very painful to setup)

http://www.bluetoothnews.com/features/ActiveSync.htm - For setting up activesync.

http://www.bluetooth.com/ - Official bluetooth site

I purchased a Hawking USB bluetooth device for $31 from Amazon and it has worked great (just make sure you download the most current driver). I get a good wireless connection through-out my house.

Some good general PocketPC sites are:

http://www.brighthand.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/resources/downloads/pocketpc/default.mspx - Has several good downloads.

Overall I am extremely happy and satisfied with the 1945!!

Date: 2003-11-22
Small, usefull, and fun!!!
I decided to buy my first PDA only a couple of months ago and after doing some pretty extensive research I ended up with an iPAQ 1945.
My initial parameters were completely modified by the following 2 concepts:
1) If your PDA is too bulky, you will end up not carrying it along all the time and therefore it's usefullness will decrease despite all the extras that might fit in a larger unit.
2) Your PDA is not a notebook, and will never perform like one. If you want a fully functional computer then shop somewhere else.
With these 2 *new* concepts (at least they were new to me), my decision to buy a iPAQ 1945 proved to be right.
The unit is really small and fits nicely in my shirt pocket even with the added bulk of a leather protective case. (Covertec makes a very nice one that fits like a glove)
I do a lot of field work and short traveling and my PPC proved to be the perfect extension of my notebook. I carry all my important spreadsheets and text with me all the time and the addition of an SDIO WiFi card made it really easy to get connected either at work, airport, or at my local shopping mall while my wife gets in and out of every single shop.
Note that I don't make huge presentation, spreadsheets, or text documents on my PPC. That would be painfull with a small screen keyboard. I still make them on my notebook, but I'm always carrying that information in my pocket now and I can always edit the files on the road and later update them on my computer.
There is a huge selection on both freeware and shareware programs available with a little research on the web.
Overall, I'm a very satisfied customer!!

Date: 2003-11-06
The good, the bad, the ugly
The good:
Really snappy speed compared to my Jornada 540. Very light weight. Nice bright display.

The bad:
The manual is terrible, awful, and really bad. It reads like the tech writer had never used a PocketPC before they wrote it. For instance "The Pocket PC has a small internal backup battery that allows you to change the main battery without losing RAM data(user-installed programs and data) as long as it is replaced immediately." OK. So how long does this battery last? How is it charged? Does it even charge or do you replace it at some point? The manual has nothing but 'statements of fact' and is virtually useless if you run into problems. The amazing thing is that the manual is 127 pages long.

To be fair, there are a few applications hints. For instance, "To see if your Pocket PC has built-in Bluetooth technology, tap Start > Settings and tap the Asset Viewer icon." Although it's a bit silly to put this in the manual since Bluetooth is an integral feature of the 1945!

The ugly:
Getting Activesync running with Bluetooth can be a real nightmare. The problem is that you're dealing with a lot of variables: the Windows operating system, Activesync on your computer, Activesync on the iPAQ, Bluetooth on the computer, and Bluetooth on the iPAQ. Error messages on the iPAQ are very uninformative (not that Windows XP is that much better).

Here's the best article I found:
http://www.bluetoothnews.com/features/ActiveSync.htm

Another ugly is the price of the docking station (cradle) and it doesn't even include an A/C adapter. I didn't buy one and now that I've got Bluetooth running, I probably won't

The price of a spare battery is also pretty ugly.

Conclusion:
Once you get the silly thing setup, it's a big improvement from what you could buy only a couple years ago. Since the documentation is only available on CD, you'd think they'd have done a better job with it. It's one thing if you're trying to save cost by not printing manuals but there's no excuse for a poor manual when it costs absolutely nothing to provide more content on a CD.

Date: 2003-11-03
new update: beware of random hard reset
I get this to go along with Tungsten T because TT don't do well with mulitmedia (no streaming audio support), and sound is weak over headphones
this is a nice pda, and includes Outlook 2002 (!!!), runs stable, not yet encountered suddenly reboot (reset) as TT did, since I switched platform, that everything I have to start over
audio is never been better, when I play internet radio with realone, I can feel the power of digital internet brocasting, sound is soooo good, esp with Sennheiser PX100!
the screen is readable (a little bit) when the illumination is off, which is a big plus to save power, but the whole screen is unable to turn off when music player (realone, ms media, winampaq) is active; on the other side, however, the resolution is not as good as TT, as least the same size Chinese characters, TT is 12 px, 1945 is 10 px
bt works great, but nokia 3650 users MUST be aware, I have problem to connect GPRS with 3650, but n-gage works well
the apps looks okay, and transferring files is PRETTY easy, just connect, and open My Computer, the WHOLE directory of ppc is there!!!
installing Outlook 2002 is highly recommended, or you have hard time to cross-sync with pc, n-gage, TT, ppc (they have a common spot to sync: Outlook), so includes Outlook is a clever idea
removable battery is a HUGE plus, and palm can't, because this model has intermediate battery to keep the memory when switching battery (never attempt to switch battery on palm, or you'll lose EVERYTHING!)
this ppc's slim design is nice, but the casing is plastic, never drop it!
it has no screen cover is ridiculas, that be careful when put it in your pocket, or a lot of mis-operation will happen
no sync base is okay for me, just make this unit more flexible

the way to make Activesync with bt:
1. make sure you know your bt COM port, and set it to be used by Activesync
2. pairing
3. on ppc, activate bt Activesync
Setup->System->Bluetooth Manager->bt Activesync port->connect
once you seen the Activesync icon turns green, you got it!
this pda is class 2 bluetooth device, which gets up to 25m range with host with class 1 or 2 bt adaptor, just make sure a fully charged spare battery handy (it drains battery faster with class 1 or 2 bt host or access point)

I give it 81/100 (95/100 if a screen cover is included, costs just a buck)

update: I have experienced 3 times random hard-reset, it suddenly sounds "'ding-ding" then...align screen...

make sure you have to backup your contacts and appoiments on card and IPAQ file store
one more, this model won't have WM2003SE update

Date: 2003-11-02
Reliable Pocket PC
It is very reliable and versitile, the price is right though! I particularly like the bluetooth networking capabilities AND the infrared, adds a big advantage over bluetooth only enabled devices. Overall very good and holds its charge for about 3 days if you don't play too much music or watch video clips late at night (i do =D)