The battle for position in the palm-sized PC market is set to explode in the coming year, and Compaq is determined to lead. Apart from its sleek, metallic silver, curvaceous design, the iPAQ H3630 weighs just 170g and measures a mere 16mm from front to back.

Thanks to a 206MHz processor, the iPAQ slices through the Pocket PC OS without breaking electronic sweat, and has no problem dealing with Pocket Word or Pocket Excel. Thanks to the excellent Transcriber CE used in PocketPC, its easier to write notes and emails than ever - in fact, this review was written entirely on the iPAQ. This is ably helped with input devices such as the combined cursor pad/speaker and four other buttons below the screen, along with the voice recorder button on the left of the unit.

For the moment, the iPAQ must make do with the variety of apps that form part of PocketPC, including Pocket Outlook, Internet Explorer and the ever-vital Solitaire. Compaqs own software bundle is even less inspiring, with QStart - a Palm-style listing of your favourite apps - the most notable. Theres also Windows Media Player for playing MP3 and Windows Media Audio files, but its Microsofts ActiveSync that will find most use, synchronising with your desktop machine via the supplied docking station.

Theres no room for any expansion media in the iPAQ itself, but for anyone who needs more memory Compaq provides its proprietary Expansion ackets, currently available in Type II CompactFlash and PC Card flavours.

We were slightly disappointed by the iPAQs automatically-adjusting backlight, which uses a light sensor to gauge how bright the screen should be. The settings are rather basic and it frequently defaults to no backlight at all. That said, when lit the backlight is considerably bright and literally outshines all the opposition.
The reason why Compaq can afford to expend so much energy on lighting is the iPAQs unusual battery. This uses lithium polymer to make maximum use of the minimal space inside the machine. The result is an estimated battery life of 15 hours, although our tests suggest an average usage figure closer to ten, and then only if you keep the backlight set to medium.

Despite this, we have no hesitation in commending this product. The HP Jornada 545 (reviewed issue 33, p90) may include a built-in Type I CompactFlash card slot but is no match for the iPAQs incredible processing speed. So if you want the fastest and most advanced palm-sized PC, look no further.

Tim Danton