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Small but perfectly formed
The removable battery adds a degree of flexibility
The h1940 looks tiny next to the h5450

The iPAQ range of Pocket PC based PDAs have always been a step ahead of the competition. The first colour iPAQ was such a desirable unit that Compaq found itself unable to produce enough to meet the demand. The sleek brushed aluminium design has carried through the entire life of the range and it looks as good today as it did back then.

One of the major sticking points with the original iPAQ was the lack of a flash memory slot. Instead bulky expansion jackets had to be attached to the device in order to accommodate extra storage in the form of CompactFlash modules and even PC Cards. This issue was addressed a while back with the implementation of an SD slot that could be used for both storage and peripheral use.

I’m quite a fan of the iPAQ range, so much so that I actually bought an iPAQ h5450. Now when an IT journalist actually puts his hand in his pocket and buys a device, you can’t get much more of a recommendation. The reason that I bought the h5450 is that it had every feature I wanted including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi but, it has to be said, the unit itself is quite large compared to many other PDAs.

The iPAQ h1940 is at the other end of the spectrum from my h5450. It’s absolutely tiny at 69.8 x 113.3 x 12.8mm (WxLxD) and weighs in at a svelte 124g. What’s particularly impressive is that even with a unit this small, HP has still managed to give the h1940 a solid feel. Holding the h1940 in your hand gives you an air of confidence that it will last the distance and won’t get damaged at the first knock. Unfortunately you don’t get a carrying case in the box meaning that you’ll either have to be very careful with it or you’ll have to fork out some extra cash.

Inside the h1940 is a Samsung S3C2410 processor running at 266MHz. This is a fair bit slower than the 400MHz Intel XScale CPU in my h5450, but it’s unlikely to be an issue for the target user. The processor is backed up by 64MB of memory, of which 56MB is available as main memory. There’s also 14MB of non volatile memory called iPAQ File Store. This is where you can store very important data since this memory area will remain intact even if the battery runs completely flat.

Talking of batteries, this was another issue with the early iPAQs, where the battery was sealed inside the case. This meant that the whole unit had to be sent back to the manufacturer to have the battery changed when it no longer held its charge. Thankfully, the new iPAQs including this one, now have removable batteries. Not only does this mean that you don’t have to send the device back to HP when the battery gives up the ghost, but it also means that you can have a spare battery with you for those long haul flights.

Battery life is reasonable and you can probably push around four hours of general use out of it. Obviously the battery life is dependant on what you’re doing, how long you have the backlight on and at what brightness level you have it set to. That said, PDAs aren’t like notebooks and don’t tend to be used for extended periods, instead they’re used for short periods throughout a day, so this kind of battery life should suite well enough.

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