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From:Hewlett-Packard , Hewlett Packard ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#20173 |
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31 of 31 customers found the following review helpful:
Consider This Before Accepting Negative Reviews, 2006-05-09
The HP Jornada 720 (the final model of this line was the 728) is the finest, practical design mobile Handheld Computing device ever made. The Jornada rival is the NEC MobilePro 780-800 line. Both clamshell, mini-laptop looking, devices were high quality and expensive (average retail was over $1,000).
These devices are authentic handhelds and they are true mobile PCs. In comparison, PDAs are very expensive toys. Both NECs & Jornadas have practical data input technology-- a truly useable keyboard & a touch screen. Both Jornadas and NECs have built-in card slots. Being PDA type devices, handhelds have no moving parts & they are instant on - off. They come with built-in phone modems & infrared wireless ports. Neither line, the Jornada or NEC, was designed for modern radio type wireless Internet but both lines are fully capable of it.
By the way, the chief reasons laptops break down are all related to their being moved about. Damaged screens (from being dropped or handled roughly) & hard drive failure are the major problems. Own a 720 and like me you will soon consider a laptop the lug-a-bout portable desktop computer it is. Make a home made insulator envelope of bubble wrap envelope for your Jornada or NEC and they should be O.K. to take with you. A discount CD wallet can be easily found and adapted to serve as an inexpensive case. I carry my Jornadas and NECs in a hipsack. There is no hard drive to fail from chuck hole caused rough movement in a car, or from dropping.
Don't let the apparent memory limitations throw you off. Your basic productivity programs are permanently hardware loaded in ROM & Many mobile Windows CE programs can be installed and run from CF cards and both Jornada & NEC lines can handle up to one gig or bigger CF cards. Some enthusiasts report success runing CF micro drives. There are also inexpensive CF card slot adapters that allow considerable additional adaptability.
Some of the software that comes with these devices is severely outdated, especially the Microsoft syncing software, Microsoft Activesync. No problem. The best version is Activesync 3.8 anyway and it is freely available. Download and install it to your XP system and you'll have no problem syncing with a Jornada or NEC
These handhelds were never meant for the general consumer market. They are enterprise devices, which is why few consumers know about them. Had HP & NEC marketing included the handhelds I think most college students would sport one today instead of the lug-a-bouts.
I own a Jornada 680e (under $90 like-new refurbished)& a 720. I also own a NEC Mobilepro 780, 790, & the last real handheld PC, the NEC 900c. My favorite is the NEC 780 - 900c line because NECs have a larger keyboard than Jornadas do. I have big hands but I am able to two-finger touch type with the Jornada models (680 - 728). I can two hand touch type with an NEC Mobile Pro.
Among handheld enthusiasts the Jornada 720 and 728 are the clear favorites. While both Jornadas and NECs are high quality engineering and make, the Jornada is the best, provided you can get along with the keyboard. People with large hands will like the NEC case & keyboard better. The 720 & 728 has external voice record and playback buttons and they have a stereo headphone jack.
Get this: Both Handheld lines get 7 or more hours active use time per battery charge and they weigh less than 2 pounds including the Li-ion battery. The Jornadas are more energy efficient so you can be a little more sloppy about leaving a CF or wireless card plug in the off state. The NECs need to be plugged in if you leave cards plug in. No problem. I simply make sure my cards are disconnected when I am not using them.
I do about everything with a computer that computers are used for. When I leave my house, I never take a laptop. I always take either my NEC 780 or NEC 790. I connect with public access points automatically without any problem. I like the Jornada 720 better but I can type much easier and faster on the larger NEC.
There are a lot of things you can do to update a Jornada or an NEC and there is a very active, quality user support group whose members will help you as you have never before received information and assistance for a Computer. The site? HPCFactor.com... Registration is easy and free and the site is a storehouse of free software and drivers for handheld computers.
The site again for everything handheld is hpcfactor.com
I give the Jornada 4 stars because I consider the Sharp Zaurus SL 3500 the best handheld made. They are Sharp Linux devices, are not sold in USA, are cheaper than current HP and Dell PDA toys. The Zaurus line is king in Japan and Asia as they come installed with a Sharp version of Linux. The big downside is size. While the screen and keyboard is too small for most westerners, they work fine for most Asian people.
23 of 23 customers found the following review helpful:
 Excellent little machine, 2005-09-29
I bought my Jornada 720 three years ago on ebay for a fraction of the "new" price - and I love this machine. The best thing is instant startup (unlike any laptop, which takes forever to start), and of course its size and battery life (again longer than any laptop). I added a 64MB card, and use another Compact Flash card to store and transfer large files from and to my deskotop. ActiveSync works fine too, but it is slower.
I was able to find better business apps than the Microsoft inferior "pocket" products included in the package - Textmaker (from a German software designer) which is a fully functional text editor (including footnotes and embedded objects); the same manufacturer also has a fully functional spreasheet, but I recommend SpreadCE from Bye Design Ltd. in the UK - it is a fully functional spreadsheet that has virtually all desktop Excel functions and some charts too. Cash Organizer (from Inesoft, which I belive is a Russian company) is an excellent addition to manage multiple financial accounts. One Cat Doodler 3 (from the US) is a great graphics program. Mobibook has a wide selection of titles, including dictionaries.
In short, it is a great, very dependable machine with nearly full business functionality, if right third party applications are added. It also doubles as a good mp3 player. The machine clearly has limitations - processing large Excel files can be painfully slow, no external file links, not so great graphics - but it is not a substitute for a desktop. But it certainly has many advantages over a laptop and doubles as an i-pod substitute. Too bad HP discontinued the model - perhaps because it is an effective substitute for other overpriced products such as clunky laptops and even clunkier windows XP - but it is still available here and there.
10 of 31 customers found the following review helpful:
 A Major Disappointment ! !, 2005-07-27
I purchased this refurbished from TigerDirect in May 2005; the product arrived in VG condition; it was impossilbe to synchronize this PDA with my desktop PC; I tried! 2 technicians tried, all failed!! The proprietary Microsoft software, 85% of it useless, can't be changed; new software couldn't be added. This is by far the worst PDA I've ever used, of 5 - 8 over the years; Hewlett Packard & Microsoft should be ashamed to put this inferior hardware on the market. A colossal failure.
17 of 17 customers found the following review helpful:
When will Handhelds come back in style?, 2005-07-03
I've had a Jornada 720 since 2002 or before. Now its operating system (Windows CE 3.0) is starting to show its age. For someone who needs a portable writing machine and lookup machine, this one is much better than Windows or Palm PDA's. It is also much better than a full fledged laptop, with its weight, power drain and slow startup. The only currently made Windows Handheld is the NEC mobile Pro, It's big and ungainly, and lacks the connectivity, processing speed, and memory of current PDAs. Someday, a company will take advantage of this market for a small computer for people who type. I hope that day is soon.
34 of 35 customers found the following review helpful:
Perfect, 2004-07-18
I wrote an entire novel on this trusty machine - and was able to throw it in a backpack, bike to the library, pull it out and work. Loved being able to sit in my living room and write, also. ActiveSync works perfectly. Infrared works perfectly - sends documents directly to my printer AND I am able to use it to store data from my Quicklink pen. I LOVE THIS COMPUTER! I am upset that HP discontinued this line...If you're looking for a TRULY portable computer (and don't require all the extra bells and whistles of a laptop) that syncs up beautifully with your desktop - THIS IS THE COMPUTER FOR YOU!
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