HP iPAQ rx5900 Travel Companion Review by LAPTOP Magazine

Garmin, Navman, and others have each tried their hand at making a combination PDA/navigation device, but most of these products wound up feeling like PDAs with GPS functionality thrown in as a bonus. Now HP, in partnership with TomTom, is giving it a shot, and the result is the best hybrid yet. With a 3.5-inch touchscreen, enough memory out of the box to store all the maps you need, and a friendly user interface, the iPAQ rx5900 Travel Companion feels first and foremost like a GPS device, one that delivers extra value by delivering all of the things you would expect from a top-notch Pocket PC.

Measuring less than an inch thick and weighing six ounces, the Travel Companion feels sleek but solid. With its landscape orientation, the 3.5-inch touchscreen gives you plenty of viewing real estate for maps and other navigation info. HP has gone the extra mile by overlaying the stock Today screen with its Quick Launch menu, providing easy access to that screen, as well as quick links to Navigation, Entertainment, Travel Assistant, and the Internet.

Besides the touchscreen, there are some navigation buttons on the front of the device, including a Close button and a Windows button. The right and top sides of the Travel Companion are grooved with more quick-access buttons, allowing you to launch the multimedia or GPS functions from any screen.

Running Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC, the Travel Companion was quick to power on and easy to set up. We had no problems installing the included software on our PC and synchronizing the iPAQ rx5900 with Outlook. The benefit of this functionality is that you can easily plan a trip using a contact in your address book.

Most of the device’s internal memory is dedicated to the preloaded TomTom software. The company’s much-beloved interface is here in its entirety, along with turn-by-turn spoken-word instructions that play over the speaker. As we expected, TomTom’s software worked wonderfully in combination with the powerful SiRFstar III antenna. We were able to quickly input our home location and navigate to different destinations in the Los Angeles area with very good accuracy. Our only beef was TomTom’s still slightly outdated POI database.

HP sweetens the deal for frequent travelers by bundling this iPAQ with MobiMate’s Worldmate Standard Edition software (a $34.95 value), which provides such real-time information as world clocks and weather forecasts for hundreds of cities in various time zones. Other travel-related functions of this app include a currency converter, a size and measurement conversion program, an area code database, and a packing list helper.

The iPAQ rx5900 comes with a car dock and car charger, but you can always take it with you around town, thanks to the built-in 1700 mAh battery. When on, the GPS receiver will drain your battery quickly, however; the unit lasted about 90 minutes with the backlight on (pretty much necessary in any light).

Because it runs Windows Mobile 5.0, the Travel Companion is also a full-featured Pocket PC, complete with Wi-Fi connectivity (for surfing the Web and checking e-mail) and Bluetooth 2.0 (for synchronizing wirelessly or listening to your tunes using a set of wireless stereo headphones). The device quickly recognized and connected to our wireless network, and downloaded pages fast, thanks in part to the speedy 400-MHz Samsung processor.

With the Mobile version of Microsoft’s Office suite, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, you’ll be able to get some work done between trips—albeit without the aid of a QWERTY keyboard. The device has approximately 450MB of free flash memory for other programs and files, or you can use the top-mounted SD Card slot to add more capacity.

Besides work files, you can use that extra storage space for music, photos, or videos. The iPAQ rx5900 uses Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, so the iPod interface this is not. Still, we like that you can play DRM-protected WMA files purchased from various online music stores. HP leverages its digital photography background by including HP Photosmart Mobile, which turns the device into a digital photo album and allows you to create slideshows, record voice notes for pictures, and share your pictures with family and friends via e-mail.

The iPaq rx5900 features top-of-the-line GPS software, all of the productivity and connectivity features you need, and the ability to provide a soundtrack for your trips. If you travel often and want something to replace your GPS, PDA, and MP3 player, we highly recommended this all-in-one gadget.

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HP iPAQ rx5900 Travel Companion

This HP iPAQ uses TomTom’s sleek interface for easy navigation--at an affordable price.

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