I have an iPAQ hx4705 and eventually HP will offer an upgrade kit for WM5. I've looked everywhere for a comparison chart between WM5 and WM2003SE.

Is it really worth the money to upgrade my PDA?

Does ActiveSync 4 allow me to map a drive letter to my PDA? I've been asking Microsoft for that feature for several years. It can be done w/ other USB devices, so why not my PDA?

Does anyone know where I can find an OS comparison chart?

Thanks

try looking at the x51/50 threads on www.aximsite.com

seems like a few don't really like some of the features, and the slowdowns. others don't mind them.
personally, i like the idea of persistent storage and 10% more battery, but i dont want to sacrifice my performance for it.
according to mobiletech review, the benchmarks show a real big bite in performance. some say that its because wm5 isnt truly being tested. the hardware is the same, the os's way of managing performance is not. either way, its a drop in performance.

heres a link for the 2490 (wm5) vs the x50(2003se) and 51(wm5)

www.mobiletechreview.com/ipaq-hx2490.htm

and one showing a better comparison for us

www.mobiletechreview.com/Dell-Axim-X51v.htm

Thanks for the two links! They were awesome!

You are quite welcome. I tend to read that site often for info like that.

I know that I too "might" go and purchase the upgrade and try it out, but honestly the 4700 works great as it is. IMO there is no need to "fix what isn't broke" At least I'll have the origional ROM with a backup in case I don't like it. :P

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Driftless....

I agree that if it isn't broken then don't fix it. Which is why I never bothered to upgrade to the new ROM. If WM5 is going to do great things for you then great. For people like me the original ROM does it all.

Eastern Canuck

Remember, for every mile of road there's two miles of ditch.

I'm thoroughly undecided at the moment. WM5 does have some nice features (better office apps, battery life etc) but I can live with wm2003se without any pain.

So at the moment I'm lurking about., and seeing how the wm5 users are doing

This week I have been mostly listening to..... Short cummings audio

Life — In Funny, Six-Minute Slices

     

There was a thread concerning the performance of the 4700, and how it could be improved with .NET 3 if I remember correctly. ROM 1.10 does this, and includes .NET 3. I did remember getting dlightly better performance with 1.10, and I even lost a few of my memory leaks. But that was my experience. Just like downloading updates for WinXP...some are needed and some are not, and this changes from person to person.

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Driftless....

Yeah, I did the download for that but I have not noticed anything significant.

I didn't bother with the ROM upgrade simply because the problems everyone was having seemed more widespread than less. Some have not had any issues, others have had many. So, I figured why bother.....for my uses.

Anyway, I am sure that WM5 will be a good update, but for what it does and the almost $40 US price tag, I won't be bothering.

But then I'm not a power user.

Cheers,

Eastern Canuck

Remember, for every mile of road there's two miles of ditch.

Although the only power saved I've seen mentioned is about 10% with WM5 - that's when using it. My HP 2415 was discharging itself in about 4-5 days when powered off. With WM5 is seems to be completely turned off with no power loss, perhaps a benefit of persistant memory, perhaps my WM2003 wasn't set up right and something other than retaining memory was discharging it. Any ideas????

Tom
Gainesville, Mo.

Persistent storage and infinate standby time are some of the best benefits, however it isn't right for me. I am always using mine in a work environment, well, that and I tweak for speeeeeeeed. LOL

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Driftless....

I'm retired and my work environment is either on a Kubota Tractor, boat, ATV, or motorcycle.

Definately different needs - I use mine often on motorcycle trips, usually longer than a week. It is a real pain to carry the thing and never turn it on until you need an address or phone number and find it DEAD!


Tom
Gainesville, Mo.

After reading the many problems people seem to be having with the new WM5 upgrade, and the rumours running rampant about the hx4700 being discontinued soon, I doubt very much that will ever upgrade even if HP does make it available.

Eastern Canuck

Remember, for every mile of road there's two miles of ditch.

I am disappointed with many of the features of WM5. Excel Mobile for WM5 no longer handles password protection. This was a very important feature for me. Has anyone found a work around, if they need an Excel Spreadsheet password protected in WM5? I have also been disappointed with many of the web site moderators only talking about the good features of the new products and ignoring the weaknesses. Are the NDR causing them to drink the cool aid?

From what i heard abuot the drive letter thing is that WM5 does the drive letter assignin but it can not be done with any other from my knowledge.

Right now witha WM2003SE device, for drive letter assigning, check out Card Export. It'll basically turn your PPC into a pen drive, and assign individual drive letters for your memory cards and file store.