Customer Reviews

Compaq iPAQ 3630 Color Pocket PC

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is one of the most innovative products on the market today. Why? Because it works exactly as advertised! I have owned one since September and have had absolutely zero problems. My IPAC worked well directly out of the box and gets daily use. I am and remain deeply impressed. I can say that I was extremely critical about this device when it first hit the streets but it is simply the best device as of date. I played with it for a day or two to become familiar with its basic operation. Although it did not come with an owner's manual, one is posted on the web page. However, it's not needed. I've heard some minor gripes such as: there is no adjustable alarms (there really is...honest!) , the recorder sound quality is poor (plug in the ear phones, there is a big difference) , the stylus jams (put it in the right way). By far, the only major drawback is the battery. I get approximately 14 hours of use, which is about a normal day for me. Then it's recharge time. I would prefer to have a local battery standby option for the times that you are not near a recharger / power supply. One expansion pack has an extra battery for card use but it transforms the device into "IPAC On Steroids" (it doubles the width). Some feel that the cost is too high. I agree to a certain extent. However, when compared to the others such as the Palm Vx, IIIc, Casio's and others, it is very competitive and beats the competition hands down. The bottom line is that this product is by far the best-engineered product for the PDA environment to date and it looks good too!

I bought the iPAQ because I wanted to upgrade from my Palm to a color screen, and the Palm color display was just terrible. Enter the iPAQ, a stylish executive gadget with a great color display, and a built-in MP3 player. Add the built-in speaker with a joypad, and this unit would be great for games too! So I ordered one, and after months of waiting, it arrived.

The first thing that struck me was that the reset door was not closing, but rattled like a rattlesnake if you moved the unit. Research on the internet showed that this was a common flaw, but it could be fixed by bending the door with a small screwdriver.

Next I found out that dust had entered the display, and due to the construction of the backlighting, dust particles shine brightly and can only be removed by fishing them out with a long hair. Apparently this too is a common problem, since Compaq forgot to seal the display of the unit, so dust can enter between the display and the touchscreen foil. Compaq does exchange the iPAQ if there is dust in the display, but the replacement unit will have the exact same problems since this is caused by an engineering flaw. So don't bother sending it in until Compaq has a real fix.

The MP3 player proved to be pretty much unusable, because the amplifier is switched off and back on between tracks, causing a deafening popping noise on the headphones. Compaq has promised a firmware update to remedy this problem, but that keeps getting postponed every two weeks, the latest announcement is sometime next year. I won't hold my breath.

Using the unit for games is also all but impossible, because the joypad/buttons are somewhat limited by the hardware design.

Don't be fooled by the metal looking case; it's really just painted plastic, and the paint comes off easily. Just slide on one of the Expansion Packs regularly and see for yourself where the scratches develop.

By now I was subscribed to a forum and found out about a myriad of other problems, including that the symbols on the buttons rub off after a few weeks of using them. Compaq thinks this is normal, so my conclusion would be: don't use them. Great. My advice to Compaq: don't print on metal unless you're certain the paint will stick! The paint on my (plastic) Palm buttons stayed on for two years, and probably will stay on for another twenty.

Would I buy it again? Yes and no. The iPAQ was a great idea, it's currently the fastest Pocket PC around, and if it didn't have the quality problems it has, I'd buy it again. But for this price I expect a unit that works as reliably as my Palm did, that I can actually use daily and not just carry around and not use it to prevent it from becoming unusable.

Unfortunately the demand is currently so great that Compaq seems to be getting away with anything, as people don't care about the problems as long as they can get their hands on an iPAQ. Personally, if I were you, I'd wait a while until either Compaq gets things done right, or the competition comes up with a similar product which doesn't have the problems the iPAQ has.

If you're waiting for the iPAQ to become available again, stop waiting and be glad you didn't spend your money on this prototype that accidentally went into production, and spend your money on something else instead.

I purchased the Compaq Ipaq not out of dire necessity, but mostly because of the many features it has:

One, it looks the best out of all of the PDA's. It has a sleek, futuristic, design, unlike the Jornada, for example, which is just plain black.

Two, the stylus can store inside of the body, so there is less of a chance of losing it and you don't have to carry it around separately.

Three, It has an Mp3 player, which is one of the main reasons I picked it over the Palm and Visor, in which an Mp3 expansion costs as much as the PDA itself.

Four, the writing area is retractable and there is an on-screen keyboard; the Palm and Visor don't have the keyboard, and the writing area takes up precious screen space.

Five, the processor is an Intel Strong ARM 206MHz; the other pocket PC's only have 133MHz or lower, and they're not Intel, which is the best and most reliable processor.

Six, it doubles as an E-book, you can read books on your iPaq with Microsoft Reader and download them from numerous websites, even a thesaurus and dictionary; the Palm doesn't have this feature and the Visor expansion is expensive and you can only choose from a selection of four books.

Seven, one of the most important factors in my buying the iPaq is the color screen; the resolution is the best out there, especially compared to the color Palm and Visor PDA's, which are expensive and have very low resolution. Not much of an improvement from a Game Boy.

I went through excruciating research on the other PDA's before I decided on the iPaq, visiting Casio, HP, Visor, Palm, and Compaq. The Palm and Visor I ruled out immediately after seeing the capability of the Pocket PC's. I looked at CNET, Epinions, and PDA Buzz, and went to my local Best Buy, CompUSA, and Circuit City. I saw that it got high praise from many electronics and technology magazines, such as Best of the Year from Popular Science.

It took me 2 weeks before my final decision. That was two weeks too late, into the middle of the Christmas shopping frenzy. Almost every retailer was out because of the popularity of the iPaq and on eBay, it cost around $600-$700. I finally snagged it at a Brandsmart USA, it was the last one.

A very useful feature is AvantGo, which is included. You can load your favorite web site onto your iPaq for viewing anywhere. Also, you can read the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USAToday, you can play Jeopardy from SonyStation, you can access Yahoo(with movies, news, sports, stocks, etc.), and thousands of other sites.

There are many games and lots of software that you can download for it, like Flight Simulator.

I am very happy with my iPaq, and I would suggest it to anyone. It's good for the music lover, disorganized person, businessman, etc.

This product is the best of its kind. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bugs so giving this a terrific recommendation comes with some hesitation.

On the plus side, everything that you read from others about this product is true. It has great features, an incredible screen, sleek design, and a super-fast processor. In addition, its easily upgradable--... you can buy the Compact Flash expansion sleeve and an IBM 1 gigabyte microdrive, which blows away the memory storage for any other device (as a standard, it has about 32 mb). The mp3's sound terrific, and it plays them LOUD. Transferring files is pretty easy--I just drag them from my desktop library into an iPaq folder, and the software does the rest. I also like being able to write notes in my own handwriting, or when I'm really lazy, just speaking into the voice recorder.

In addition, there is a lot of free software out there to support this product. I've downloaded an atlas and streetmaps to several major cities. I've also found quite a few games and eBooks online.

I have 3 principle gripes about this product, though I'm sure there are more. First, the Activesync software does not always work. I try to work around this by restarting my computer and the iPaq, but its still annoying. Sometimes it takes a few tries. Based on the other reviews, I'm not the only one with this problem.

The other gripe is that my iPaq sometimes locks up--especially if have several appointments that 'stack' up on each other, which occurs if you miss 'dismissing' them on your iPaq. The solution to this is to do a 'soft reset', by pushing in the button on the underside of the iPaq. I didn't know about this button, so I did a 'hard reset', which erased everything I had stored. Fortunately, it was all backed up on my desktop (the ActiveSync--when it works--works both ways), but it still took me a while to get everything sorted out. Since then I do the soft reset and everything is fine.

Of course, I didn't learn about this until I called technical support. This is my third gripe....>Part of this comes from the poor documentation supplied with this product. There is no hardcopy of the instructions--just a CDROM with an Adobe Acrobat file that you can print out or read from the screen (how nice of them to pass this expense on to us). Despite having over 100 pages of documentation, its troubleshooting portion was very poor.

All in all, I really like this product when it works, which is 90% of the time. But... I would expect more.

My recommendation would be to wait a few months...right now demand is so strong that people are paying ... on eBay, and I think the patches will eventually come through.

--JN

This is a great product. DUST DOES NOT ENTER THE SCREEN. People saying that is incorrect. What was behind the screen had nothing to do with dust. Compaq had a problem with a company in Taiwan that installs the screen. Do to poor work tiny glass fragments were left behind. That is what the so called "dust" is. This problem has been fixed with all the new iPaqs. Amazon.com only sells new ones, their will NOT be a problem with the screen. Microsoft activesync has a problem when other usb devices are in the computer. I found Microsoft ridiculous when you call user support. Your best bet is to call compaq where they will give a solution that works perfectly. There is a lot of softweare for the ipaq out, and much more coming. For gamers, go to PocketGamer.org for all the gaming news. You can get great emulators to play all the old Nintendo and SuperNintendo games. I recomend the IBM microdrive or if that is too expensive get the Viking cf card. This is by far the best Pocket PC on the line. The 3630 and the 3650 are the exact same product w/ ho differences what so all. I called Compaq to confirm this. The only difference w/ the new compaq 3635 is the cf card that comes w/ it. The new one costs 100 dollars more, where you can buy a cf expansion pack for 35 dollars. I recomend getting the 3635 or 3650.

I've owned this unit now for 3 months. I've got the PC Card expansion for it, allowing me to use a wireless ethernet card to surf the web when I'm at home. The included applications from contact management to excel and word are all first rate. The synchronization is fantanstic (much better than old CE devices). I actually sync via the wireless card. I read and send my email through this thing. It really is much close to a full function laptop in terms of capabilities that a contact management device such as a palm. I've also got the Pharo GPS device/software combo for it, works great, actually talks you through the directions as you drive! The Reader software is also fantastic. I've read a couple of books (the ClearType is amazingly smooth and readable) and the best part of it is I don't have to leave the light on to read! Your significant other would appreciate that!

I would strongly recommend this product.

When i first bought my ipaq in november, i hated the fact that my computer wouldnt recognize with active sync all the time. but i found a solution that has yet to fail. do the following:

1. when active states "connecting" and it doesnt connect. take your ipaq off the cradle. 2. when active sync now says "disconnected" click on file, then get connected 3. another screen pops up and on this click next or ok 4. now a screen that shows that your computer is searching for your ipaq on all ports shows up. 5. turn off your ipaq and set it on the cradle. 6. ipaq turns on and connects.

this works all the time when i have the problem and i never have to restart the computer.

email me if u have any questions: stealth123@aol.com

This Pocket PC is great.It eats Palms for breakfast.When I hold the iPAQ in my hand, I am holding a 205 MHz "computer." I say computer because it can do most things computers can do and more- it can play Media Files, such as MP3's and MPEG's, it has more organization tools, and a little bit more power than my laptop.It has so many applications and tools it is amazing...you can download many programs such as the AOL program for Pocket PC and AOL Instant Messager.Once a connection with your ISP has been set, Pocket Internet Explorer shines. Pocket Internet Explorer gives you access to the web, any web site. Just make sure your ISP supports the format- this was a problem for me. Some people say they've had problems with it, flickering screen, etc. Well, those are some unlucky people all the people I know have had no problems. The Compaq people are working on these bugs and have fixed some.And Compaq technical service is there 24 hours a day...so it really ok.The only thing to complain about is that dust accumulates rapidly on the screen.So, I suggest the buyer buy some PDA screen wipes.A definite buy if you're looking for e-mail,the internet,productivity and organization all in the palm of your hand.

I'm a technology consultant and needed a solid PDA. After my Palm shattered after 3 years of use, I decided to upgrade to the iPAQ. Par for the course, Compaq makes excellent products and this is no exception. Microsoft makes software that needs significant patches and improvements, and this is no exception to that rule either.

Meaning - the hardware is reliable, packaging and setup is easy (albeit a bit disjointed between setting up add-ons and optional software), and help documentation is useful. The USB operates flawlessly, but don't expect the same if you are trying to Sync using the infra-red.

The biggest issues I've found are with Microsoft's ActiveSync utility and Microsoft Money. Even with the latest patches and updates these programs exhibit consistent problems. Money will generally corrupt its database and find your file unreadable, which in turn usually causes a critical error in Money. Reinstalling only helps for a short while (30days tops).

ActiveSync has problems releasing resources, especially when using IR sync. When using IR to synch, ActiveSync will keep your iPAQs connection open, even after turning off your iPAQ. The only "clean" way I've found to let the resources go is to ENDTASK its key application WCESCOMM. ActiveSync also seems to get confused with Outlook2000, which at times is unable to read without shutting down all Outlook & ActiveSynch threads.

In Short: Yeah its neat, it plays MPG, and connects to Outlook - but if you spend you're time troubleshooting, is it worth it? I suggest waiting another year for the PocketPC platform to mature a little, and for the vendors to get the complaints to Microsoft addressed. Get a Palm for now.

The Compaq iPAQ H3660 is a high-end palmtop device for both personal and professional applications. With its integrated comfportably sized memory of 64MB it stands out above many of its competitors (newer models available with even more memory) and can also be easily expanded using appropriate memory cards.

The brilliant and well-lighted TFT display is easily read under any cirmcumstances (even bright daylight), and the touch screen and stylus pen make standard (short) input hassle-free. Handwriting recognition is very good, can be adapted to your personal hand. For more significant amounts of text, a fold-up keyboard should be used (but for serious word-processing, better use a full-fledged notebook instead).

Not only windows can be run on this little machine, it is also LINUX compatible and can be used for serious UNIX Systems Administration using wireless add-ons.

Special Linux version available: best of them, LISA Systems' iPAQ that comes pre-installed with mLinux 1.0 for advanced users. A highly interesting special for System Developers and IT pros. ... The free Open Source LINUX Operating System is now available to palmtop computers!

iPAQ with Windows integrates easily with MS-Outlook. The LINUX version supports synchronisation with appropriate LINUX applications. Either way, you get a highly professional palmtop computer connecting to your desktop and existing infrastructure.