HP iPAQ 4155 Pocket PC

by HP

Product Details

Product Manual [6.00mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 4.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000DBJTZ
• Item model number: FA175A#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,424 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #44 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > PDAs, Handhelds & Accessories > PDAs & Handhelds
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 13, 2003

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Early Adopters Pick, October, 2003: With both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as F-Secure FileCrypto Data Encryption, the HP iPAQ 4155 Pocket PC offers the best combination of wireless versatility and security in a Pocket PC.

Slim, sleek, and affordable with optimized performance to keep you productive while you're on the go, the HP iPAQ Pocket PC h4155 is a Microsoft Windows Mobile-powered Pocket PC packed with powerful features including integrated WLAN 802.11b, Bluetooth, and a Secure Digital (SDIO) slot.

Check out these features:

• Integrated WLAN 802.11b:
  Enables high speed wireless access to the internet, email, corporate data and solutions such as voice over IP. WLAN and Bluetooth can also be used at the same time with no interference. Connect at the office, home, or WLAN hotspots (even your local coffee shop), create personal networks using peer-to-peer communication with another WLAN-enabled device for collaboration and information sharing. Includes internal antenna.
• Integrated Bluetooth: Allows wireless communication with other Bluetooth devices, lets you access the Internet or your email via a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone, and print to a Bluetooth-equipped printer. You can also exchange business cards, calendar appointments, documents, and more with other Bluetooth devices, and wirelessly synchronize data with your Bluetooth desktop or notebook PC using ActiveSync.
• Enhanced security: Grade A protection for your device, information and connection with VPN software that provides enhanced security for wireless connection, and the 64-bit and 128-bit WEP that offers enhanced security for an authorized connection and data transfer when connected wirelessly. The F-Secure FileCrypto Data Encryption provides protection against unwanted data disclosure. There is also support for LEAP and 802.1X.
• Integrated, backlit keyboard: Enables you to stay productive by entering notes or emails into the iPAQ Pocket PC with the easy-to-use standard layout.
• Removable/rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery for continuous power. A 1000 mAh battery battery comes standard, and an optional extended 1800 mAh battery allows your iPAQ to keep running even longer.
• Secure Digital slot for greater storage and expansion, alllowing you to easily transfer and store music, multimedia files, special programs, and more onto Secure Digital memory cards (not included).

Product Description

Slim, sleek, and affordable with optimized performance to keep you productive while you're on the go, the HP iPAQ Pocket PC h4155 is a Microsoft Windows Mobile-powered Pocket PC packed with powerful features including integrated WLAN 802.11b, Bluetooth, and a Secure Digital (SDIO) slot.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

390 of 395 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably thin! And all the necessary features, October 28, 2003

By 

Christopher Coyne (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP iPAQ 4155 Pocket PC (Office Product)

As a previous owner of PDA's (palms) and specifically ipaqs (both a 3870 and a 2215), I am proud to say I've finally found a PDA that satisfies all my needs.

But first, I'd like to start with one piece of advice for any first time Pocket PC purchaser.

** If you're unsure between two models, ALWAYS choose the smaller. **

Why? Because the extra features of a large-sized PDA (like a fingerprint reader?!?!) are almost never worth the increased probability you choose to leave it behind. A PDA's usefulness scales rapidly with its vicinity to you. And a PDA is just about the size of a pocket.... You get the idea..

Okay:

THE PROS (somewhat obvious)
--------------------------
1. it is ultra thin and weighs only 5 ounces.
2. the screen is bright
3a. it has wireless 802.11b
3b. the wireless features are now very intuitive and somewhat secure, a vast improvement over pocket pc 2002.
4. it has bluetooth for syncing wirelessly or for accessing your bluetooth enabled phone. (This I haven't tested with this ipaq)
5. it comes with a cradle, unlike some of their other models

THE CONS
--------
1. HP removed the stylus holder from the cradle... which means you can't hold an extra stylus conveniently in front of a docked ipaq anymore. Which means, if you want to quickly access something on a docked ipaq, you have to remove the stylus, which you must do very carefully or you'll disconnect the 'paq.

2. the battery life is much poorer than pretty much all competitors'; most notably the Dell AXim series.

3. no compact flash, only secure digital. Although, almost all compact flash ports are typically used for these days is to hold 802.11b cards, which this device has integrated. And SD memory has gotten remarkably cheap, so it shouldn't bother most users. Still, if you have a compact flash requirement, keep that in mind.

4. the screen is slightly yellow when viewed from a skewed angle. Some people care about this... if you're one of those people, be advised. Straight-on, the colors are accurate, however.

5. the new navpad isn't so great for games

Okay, that's it:
Finally, some advice

1. about the wireless features: they drain a lot of juice, so simply turn them on and off as you need them.

2. if you use it to read eBooks, the MS reader it comes with is already outdated! (And the error message is vague about that... I had to figure out the problem by reading microsoft's knowledge base.. not fun.) You'll need to do an update.

3. Buy a protective case; the one it comes with is basically garbage.

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb PDA, January 30, 2004

By 

Carlos Santiago (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP iPAQ 4155 Pocket PC (Office Product)

I had been always curious about the Pocket PC OS and its usefulness and practicality on the PDA environment. I am now a believer and definitely prefer it over the Palm OS due to its ease of use, compatibility and similarity to the Windows PC environment. This also results in a faster learning curve.

Integrated wireless:
This was the selling factor, and it did not dissapoint me. I got it to work at home and at the office, where I connect to different wireless access points. The iPAQ allows you to create individual profiles for every connection, so there is no need to manually configure every time you switch networks.

Bluetooth:
This technology is becoming more common around airports, offices, malls and other places, although probably you'll need to incur in a connection fee. I have not tested this feature yet although my iPAQ recently came across and recognized a Bluetooth network on one of the airports I travelled to.

Synchronization:
The iPAQ supports Outlook (preferably 2002) for Calendar, e-mail, notes, file and task synching. The Active Synch software is included and required on your host PC in order to start synchronizing with your PDA. A maximum o 2 PCs (partnerships) can be established for synching. Methods of synchronization include IR(Infrared), USB(using the included cradle), WLAN (yes, you can synch wireless) or serial.
Word and Excel documents are automatically converted into Pocket PC format when they are synchronized with the iPAQ. The original document needs to be copied into the Pocket PC folder (Pocket_PC My Documents) on your host PC before performing the synch.

Internet:
In order to connect to the Internet, you are required to be connected to a network, be it WLAN or Bluetooth. There are a few interesting web links included with your iPAQ and you can add your own favorites as well. Navigations is similar to Internet Explorer although you are required to scroll up/down and left/right continously on web sites that are not mobile-friendly.

E-mails:
E-mail accounts on the iPAQ are setup in an almost exact manner as Outlook on a normal PC. By default, and in order to conserve memory, e-mail attachments are not downloaded, there's also a default limit of e-mails you can carry at a time. E-mails can be downloaded while connected to the Internet or synched using the methods mentioned previously.

What about games? Two games are included: Guess what? Solitaire is one of them! The other one is Jawbreaker, a very simple but extremely entertaining game. There are many web sites with additional programs that can be downloaded for your iPAQ.

Programs and utilities included:
MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, Pocket Excel and Word, Pocket MSN, Microsoft Reader, Calculator, Terminal Services Client among others.

Security:
Password security is optional; there are two security options, a simple 4-digit number and a more complex alphanumeric password option. Wireless connection security is obtained using 64 or 128 bit WEP encryption. Obviously your PDA is as secure as the network it is connecting to. Setting up 128 bit encryption on your iPAQ won't work if your wireless access point is unsecured.

Time settings: Up to two different time zones are available at the same time.

Display:
Very clear display, sharp, easy to read text, adjustable text size and fonts in some programs.

Battery:
The iPAQ possesses a respectable battery duration. It obviously varies according to your battery saving settings. Reducing the default screen brightness helps as well as turning off the wireless access or lowering the sound volume.

Settings:
You can monitor memory usage and power consumption, remove programs, adjust backlight settings, align the screen, sharpen the text, etc.

Other features:
Voice recording: There's a button on the upper left corner of the iPAQ to start recording short messages or reminders, very handy.
MP3 audio: MP3 files can be downloaded and played on your PDA using Windows Media Player. A headphone jack is also available for your private listening pleasure. Memory is limited though, is not like you can have a CD full of music on your iPAQ, don't confuse it with an MP3 player.
Letter Recognizer - A very cool option where the iPAQ attempts to recognize your handwriting and converts it into readable text.
Block recognizer - It's similar to the Palm's graffiti recognition
Transcriber - It recognizes words written in cursive
Notes can also be quickly handwritten as if using the iPAQ as a paper Notepad.
Images can also be viewed using your iPAQ, and as with the MP3 files, you should consider the memory limitations.

Memory:
Additional memory can be obtained with Secured Digital (SD) memory cards. These come on 128, 256 and 512MB sizes at reasonable prices.

The HP iPAQ 4155 is a complete, full-featured piece of equipment, well worth its price.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful; easy to use, except for bluetooth settings, February 26, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP iPAQ 4155 Pocket PC (Office Product)

I have owned this product for about 4 months and loaded 6-8 additional programs. I added a 256 MB SD card to handle the load. Speed and reliability have been great. The range of the 802.11b receiver is better than my laptop. I considered the Palm Tungsten T3 but bought this product for the combination of 802.11b and bluetooth. Also, I wanted a user-replaceable battery.

I previously used a Handspring Visor. Switching from Palm to Windows Mobile 2003 is easy once you realize that unlike Palm, any program or function continues to run until it is turned off in the memory control applet in system settings. Pressing the "X" in the upper right hand corner does not shut down the program, it simply removes it from view. Sometimes the system becomes slow because of the multitude of programs running. I find that among the additional programs I have loaded, only the Audible.com listener causes instability and crashes. Also, be aware that PocketPC 2002 programs will not always run on Windows Mobile 2003.

Setting up email accounts is fast and simple. Email attachments such as word or excel files must either be translated into Pocket Word or Pocket Excel format via the sync process or viewed by the Westek Clearvue software included on the installation CD. It is also useful to install the included Adobe Acrobat software to view pdf attachments. Overall, Documents to Go on the Palm platform is a better solution for viewing and altering email attachments, however.

The bluetooth settings for connecting to the internet with a GPRS phone are difficult, unless you have one of the few Sony-Ericsson phones listed. The instruction manual does not even explain that certain settings are necessary and vary from phone to phone. Luckily, I found what I needed to use for my Cingular Siemens on an obsure forum hosted by Pocket PC Magazine. I recommend a program called GPRS Manager to make it easy to connect your Ipaq to the internet through your cell phone, should you need that feature.