If there was a PDA king, this would be it. HP includes everything in the iPAQ H5550 including 802.11b, Bluetooth and fingerprint recognition. Most importantly, this is the first PDA we've seen to run Pocket PC 2003 (see page 48).

Although Microsoft has introduced its own Bluetooth and WLAN interfaces with PPC 2003, HP has understandably stuck with its existing designs. HP already has the most comprehensive Bluetooth connection Wizard around, with the ability to connect to the Internet using an access point, join a Bluetooth network, wirelessly ActiveSync and connect a headset. The aerial is very effective too, picking up a solid signal from our office WLAN from 30m away.

This PDA is also well prepared for Microsoft's new enriched "media experience", with no less than 128MB of RAM included.

Another plus is the 48MB of ROM, of which 14.9MB is siphoned off for backing up vital data, and naturally there's an SD/MMC slot for more memory.

Next to the expansion slot is an infrared port, while volume-up and down buttons are handily located on the left. More awkwardly, the headphone jack is at the bottom of the machine, next to the connectors for the bundled USB/serial docking station and the ever-useful expansion jackets.

Around the back you'll find the removable battery. We found the H5550 lasted for three hours, 40 minutes under general use, but with Bluetooth or WLAN running; the battery meter dropped with worrying speed.

You can also take advantage of the automatic screen backlighting which uses a sensor to detect background light and generally works well. Fortunately, the H5550 has a superb screen anyway. Not only is it large, 3.8in diagonally, but the colours are the most accurate we've seen.

When it comes to performance, the H5550 was a little disappointing. Considering that it contains a 400MHz Intel PXA255 processor, and that Microsoft has supposedly optimised performance for these ARM4 chips, we expected it to scream along. In HP and Microsoft's defence, this was pre-release code, so hopefully these problems will be ironed out by the time the H5550 is on sale.

The bigger problem could be price. Although Dell's Axim X5 (June 2003, page 47) is no match for the iPAQ in terms of features or design, it has a similar specification and costs around half as much. And if you want integrated 802.11b look for the Toshiba e750 WiFi (August 2003, page 49). But neither of these devices can compete with the iPAQ's all-round package, especially when you consider the huge number of expansion jackets already available.