Compaq iPAQ 3630 Color Pocket PC

This was a $150 dollar item that never arrived. I contacted the seller 3 times without a reply. Also I am not the only one...check the history. Do not buy from this seller! I have waited over a month and I now have to go through a 2 week refund process....

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.

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 own a Casio em-500 for a month. I'm glad that I had picked the em-500 instead of ipaq. From ipqa's user reviews, it seams there are quite a few problems about this ipaq PDA, such as activ sync is unstable, dust enters to the display. But the casio em-500(or e-125) never have such problems, They are very stable and the activesync work very well. If you go to read em-500 or e- 125's user reviews( I strongly recommend you do so), there's no those complains at all.

Both casio and ipaq have are powerful unites, here are a little differences, other then those ipaq bugs:

1. Display. Casio displayes over 65,000 colors and ipaq has 4,086. For those of you who cares of color and picture quality, you know the difference. The casio delivers better picture quality indoors. Because ipaq uses different display technology, it has much better display out doors. You can hardly see casio's screen when out door an under the sun. So you have to thing if you use your PDA out doors more or if you mostly use it in indoor environment.

2. Ipaq have a faster CPU speed according to the tech feature. I didn't acutally test them side by side for the speed. But after one month of using my em-500, I thing the casio em-500's speed is very fast, it runs all my applications very quick and smooth. So I think the ipaq should be ever faster too.

Bottom line, read both ipaq and casio e-125(orem-500)'s users review and go to the shop to compare both before you spend your money. They are not cheep.

I bought this product a few months back and was so happy, yes it's true what everybody says about it but that part I will not repeat. what you should know is that the ipaq has a few hardware bugs

for example:

1. many times (almost every time I switch the machine on) the screen is "back to front" and you must restart the machine until it comes back.

2. the screen is not sealed properly so dust can come in from the stylus hole and get between the screen and the plastic cover.

3.the joystick works in a special signal to the processor which makes it impossible to move to an angle or to use two buttons at once which takes all the fun out of games.

I heard Microsoft is working on solving this problem.

after checking out about these problems I was told that Compaq knows all about them all over the world and working to fix them and that most of them are caused from putting the ipaq in the pocket and sitting on it (which I did)..

I contacted Compaq in Israel and got great support and was told to bring the ipaq in and they will take care of all the problems, I know that in the U.S. Compaq sends you home a special box to send it in to be fixed or replaced.

My recommendation is WAIT, I heard a new model is about to come out soon with 400 and 500 mhz, and with more built in memory, and you should wait for these problems to be fixed.

If not of these problems I would have given it 5 stars...