iPAQ 3970 Review Part I
By Tony Williams, Copyright 2002
 Version 1.00  Revised 7/15/2002

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As of July 9th, 2002 I received my iPAQ 3970 from Mobile Planet  (Compaq -HP was still not shipping)...

Equipment used:

HP iPAQ 3970
Dell Insprion 8200
3Com/HP Bluetooth Adapter
iPAQ USB / Charger cable (3rd party)
Sony - Ericsson t68i GSM/GPRS Bluetooth phone
Sony - Ericsson H-15 Bluetooth Headset

I am not going to included a bunch of photos because it looks exactly like the iPAQ 3800 series (with the exception of a bigger screen) and all the accessories are the same (sleeve, power supply, docking station) BTW, It stills says Compaq on the top.

I do have to say that all the stories about the speed is true. It is no faster than the 36/37/3800 Series using the StrongARM 206mhz Processor. To do a few things, I have to wait until the hour class disappears.

After setting up the initial partnership with my Dell Notebook using the 3rd party USB cable, I ran into a few problems. 1st the ActiveSync 3.5 kept connecting and disconnecting for some unknown reason. So I switch

to using the Compaq USB docking station and that seems to work ok. But before I got that to work I ran into issues getting the iPAQ and the notebook to talk, I found the issue to be what I thought was the Bluetooth adapter in my notebook. But it turned out to be the Windows XP PCMCIA ejection client.  Once I open the client, the iPAQ and Notebook were syncing.

Now that the notebook and iPAQ were chatting, I disconnected and tried to used Bluetooth. Both PC and iPAQ found each other and I created a partnership between the two, but then I could not get them to sync. I spend about an hour trying and retrying till I came up with the idea to read the freakin manual (most of your solutions are right there, I just do not like reading manuals) and after following the instructions boom everything worked, including the activesyncing.

Now that that issue was fixed, I started installing applications and some copying files over. I found it a no faster than USB, but faster than a serial connection. But it was kinda of sweet to be installing applications wirelessly. It would have been nice if HP/ Compaq had a unit with built-in WiFi, installation would be screaming.

My favorite feature on the iPAQ was Bluetooth. Once I am sync I am able to use the Bluetooth connection and access the internet. I am suppose to be able to allow the iPAQ and the notebook to sync automatically when they come into range of each other (still working on that).

The iPAQ had no problem connecting with my Sony - Ericsson t68i Bluetooth phone. I do have install the GSM applications installed (Running Voice GSM, mPhone 2.1, and Sunnysoft GSM Manager), but have not had the chance yet to test them. I am suppose to be able to use the iPAQ to dial the handset and allow me to talk to someone using my Bluetooth headset.

iPAQ 3970 Review Part II