HP iPAQ 5555 Pocket PC Review

My company paid for one of these units for me. I hadn't really used PDAs before but knew of some friends who used them and liked them.

To make a long story short, I barely used this unit. I bought TomTom GPS software to install on this unit and took it w/ me to England on my honeymoon (live in USA). It worked pretty well until the last day when the unit stopped working. I popped the battery out and back in again and all software was gone. It had re-instated a clean install of the operating system. Even though the GPS was on a storage card, the GPS software was gone and my Pocket PC was wiped clean.

About 6 months later, I re-installed everything for my wife's aunt and she used the unit when they visited Whales. They liked using it as well, but once again, on the last day, the same thing happened to them.

I inquired with customer service and learned about what I felt was an amazing situation. You have to constantly keep the unit charged. If it ever loses battery power, you lose everything on the unit. I can't believe something that costs about $500 with the advances in technology today could be manufactured to lose all data unless you keep it constantly charged. My cell phone battery gets completely discharged, but I don't lose all the cell phone numbers that I have programmed into it of friends and family. I don't know if all PDAs have this ridiculous feature of no permanent storage, but I just find this feature unbelievable! What the hell is the point of this unit?! At least I can't erase a day planner in paper form and I don't have to worry about dropping and breaking it either.

The last time I tried to use the unit, I went again through the long process of re-installing my GPS software. This time, however, the unit didn't seem to charge at all and didn't turn on at all. It basically seemed broken or perhaps the battery was fried. I called customer service and they could not offer any free customer service since it had been just over 1 year and the warranty was finished. I barely used the unit during the year and the unit cost over $500!!!!!!

I am amazed that what I thought was a reputable company, like HP, could manufacture such shoddy crap and not stand behind their products even though this unit seems to be very obviously defective and poorly designed. From what others have been saying about it, I guess I'm not alone. HP owes me a refund and an apology. I won't be buying from HP again any time soon or perhaps ever.Get more detail about HP iPAQ 5555 Pocket PC.