Compaq 3850... nice design than the 3760 but still lacking.
Written: Dec 27 '01
Product Rating:
Pros: Pocket PC 2002, nice design, SD/MMC slot, reliable design
Cons: lacks features, still too much like original iPAQ design, no CF slot.
The Bottom Line: Better effort by Compaq but sticks too much to original 3100 and 3600 iPAQ designs. New users to Pocket PC2002 may want to look at HP and Toshiba first.
yusakugo's Full Review: Compaq iPAQ H3850 Pocket PC
Well, the iPAQ 3850 has alot of similarities to the 3100, 3600, and 3700 series iPAQs but has a few features that puts it above those models... but not by much. There are two basic models... the 3835 and the 3850. There is no major difference in the hardware specifications for these models. The 3870 also exists... but the only difference is the integrated Bluetooth module into the iPAQ.
So then what about the iPAQ 3850 (i.e. iPAQ 3835) unit?
What is the iPAQ 3850? A rehash of the iPAQ 3760 unit?
In most ways, the 3850 is a good redesign instead of rehashing the 3100/3600/3700 design. The 3850 retains the nice looking colors and curves of the latter series. The overall unit dimensions are the same... 5.11" x 3.28", 0.62" (HxWxD) and 6.7 oz. However, the outside look of the unit has been quite modified. The unit is still running the new Pocket PC 2002 OS (i.e. Windows CE version 4) though.
The outside look of the 3850 now has a wider lengthwise but shorter heightwise 4-directional pad... and the directional pad NO LONGER holds the speaker for the unit. So no more muffled noises when using the joypad! There are 2 sets of 2 application buttons, each set on one side of the joypad. The bottom of the unit doesn't house any new changes. You still have the reset button, USB connector, sleeve attachment port, power adapter, and battery switch (you need to turn this to on when you first get your unit). The unit still has a flare to the out to the left side of the unit which houses a headphone jack and the button to start and stop voice memo recording. The microphone hole is just right of this flare with a slight twist... but I'll get to that a little bit later. The screen is a bit lower on the unit than on the older iPAQ designs... okay, actually it is much lower. Why? To accomodate for the new charcoal grey plastic piece on the top front and top of the unit...
What the heck is this new Charcoal grey thingee? Well, the most important thing is that it houses the SD/MMC slot accessible on the top of the unit. Secondly, it now houses the speaker. Thirdly, the power button is also on it to the right of the speaker. Fourthly, the microphone and power/charging LED is on the left of the speaker. It ruins the sleek and uniform design of the iPAQ to a small degree but the unit still looks good overall.
The screen is still the same size although it is placed lower on the unit than before. You get a 16 bit 64 thousand color reflective TFT screen with 240x360 resolution... much better than the majority of Palm devices. The actual viewable screen size is 2.26" wide and 3.02" tall. The screen uses side lighting like the Palm m505, Sony CLIE N610/710/760... Text is clear and smooth. Pictures are extremely sharp as compared to the other Palm units and match well versus the Sony Palm OS color models. Screen brightness and color reproduction are excellent with this particular screen and equal to the Pocket PC 2002 models from HP and Toshiba. No complaints here!
This iPAQ still runs on a 206 MHz StrongArm 32-bit processor as per the Pocket PC 2002 specifications. 64MB of RAM and 32MB or ROM (for the OS) rounds out the unit and the ROM is still flashable for future Windows CE/Pocket PC 200x (CE 5 anyone?). You still do NOT have a slot for Compact Flash cards on the iPAQ! You still have to buy a Compact Flash sleeve if you use Compact Flash cards, which costs an additional $50! The CompactFlash Card Expansion Sleeve and the PC Card Expansion Sleeve, which adds CF cards or PC Cards for additional memory/storage/overall capabilities, you will increase the thickness of the unit by almost 50%! The dual PC Card Expansion sleeve increases the unit size by about 75%!
The 3850 unit houses an internal 1400mAh Lithium Polymer battery that lasts up to 5 1/2 - 6 hours near continuous use (so far as I've observed) with a medium backlighting setting. If you use the super brightness backlighting, don't be surprised when your battery is about to die in 3-4 hours. The low backlighting setting increases your life about an additional 2-2 1/2 hours. Automatic mode is very variable on battery life. Yes I know this is a bigger and better battery than on the 3600 and 3700 series iPAQs, but that 64 thousand color TFT has a price to pay. It sucks away a ton of battery power! Compaq rates the battery at 11 hours but that is probably with the backlight off!
Unlike the 3760, programs like Quake for the Pocket PC isn't handled rather well on the 3850. The unit allows for multiple buttons to be pressed at the same time... like moving and shooting. The rest of the iPAQs couldn't do that.
A great feature back when the iPAQ was introduced was the expansion sleeves. In a way they are still a great idea but they have also hindered the design of the 3850. The sleeves allow for a great range of expandability from PC Cards to Compact Flash cards and more. However, the sleeves add to the bulk of an already large unit. Also, offerings from Hewlett Packard and Toshiba already contain the Compact Flash slot and in Toshiba's case, a Secure Digital slot, on the unit without adding more bulk! Now, the 3850 holds a SD/MMC slot on the unit but doesn't contain the Compact Flash slot. You still have to get an expansion sleeve to use Compact Flash cards! At least, the expansion sleeves for the 3100/3600/3700 units are fully compatible with the 3850.
What is the 3870?... I already told you that it houses a Bluetooth chipset so you can use a Bluetooth network right out of the box!
Pocket PC 2002... just a few scant details
There is no changes from the 3760 unit here. Users of the older Pocket PC version (Windows CE ver. 3) will have to adjust to several changes in the interface of Pocket PC 2002. Things like the X button in the corner do NOT close files and programs but minimizes them... wasting running memory space very quickly. They did give updated/upgraded versions of Pocket Word and Pocket Excel... but still no Pocket Powerpoint (what gives?!). Another problem is that some of the older Pocket PC software isn't 100% compatible with the 2002 Operating System. Big surprise from Microsoft there! Overall, the Pocket PC 2002 system is still a bit immature and may need some patching... but it is still rather promising with its inherent flexibility over the older Pocket PC system and Palm OS 4. Don't forget that 2002 specific software is still lacking at this time.
Final Impressions
I'm not a big Microsoft lover but I have no qualms about the Pocket PC 2002 system (as well as the XBox and Office software suite). I still think it's a powerful system with a great deal of flexibility in it and more potential than the current Palm OS 4 system. The Pocket PC 2002 boasts the most powerful version of a Word and Excel editor on any handheld computers I worked with to date. Viewing pictures and MPEG as well as movie playback is superior among Pocket PC 2002 handhelds as well.
Thing is that the 3850 has some nice updates to the older iPAQ handheld design... but not enough of them. If you already own a 3100/3600 series iPAQ and accessories, the 3835/3850/3870 are a good and viable upgrade path. Cases for the 3100/3600/3700 series iPAQs will not fit the 3800 series iPAQs however... mostly because of the lower positioning of the TFT screen. You still have to pay to get the expandibility options... at least $50 more dollars for a Compact Flash sleeve that will also nearly double the size of your bleeding unit! At MSRP, you will be paying $599 for the unit. The same $599 can get you the Hewlett Packard Jornada Pocket PC 2002 unit a built in Compact Flash Type I slot... all in a much smaller unit than the Compaq with expansion sleeve! The Toshiba model adds a Secure Digital slot on top of all that for the same price in a smaller unit! The overall design doesn't stray too far from the original iPAQ handheld line. It's still a good unit but better deals do abound. Compaq's 3800 series still doesn't offer enough to crush the competition. The major desicion point here is the need for PC Cards and/or Compact Flash. If you need to use PC Cards with your Pocket PC unit, the Compaq 3800 series is likely the only choice... and you can use the SD/MMC cards for additional memory. But if Compact Flash cards are more important... then... you may want to look at the HP and the Toshiba Pocket PC 2002 units. So far, the Toshiba Pocket PC 2002 unit has been holding my interest much better than any of the other Pocket PC 2002 units... we'll see as I play with it more...
If you're wondering... I returned the 3850 unit just like I returned the 3760 unit. I won't be playing with the Hewlett Packard models however. I'll post a review on the Toshiba Pocket PC unit in about 2-3 months from now... or when epinions places the unit for review... whichever is later :)
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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