Devices in the HP iPAQ rz1700 series are small, attractive, and low-priced Pocket PCs—a reasonable choice for a beginning Pocket PC user or someone who wants to focus more on the basic functions of a PDA. When this review was written, two devices had been released in this series: the rz1710 and rz1715. They are physically identical devices with minor differences in the software packages.

Pocket PCs in the rz1700 series are based on the 203 MHz Samsung 2410 processor. This slower processor was probably selected to keep power consumption of the device low and to keep the cost down. Although not a blazingly fast device, its performance is reasonable.

The rz1710 and rz1715 have 32 MB of RAM and 32 MB of flash ROM. A little over 10 MB of the flash ROM is available to the user for file storage. Combined with the available RAM, that means a little over 25 MB of internal data storage, which is a little skimpy. You'll probably need to augment that with an SD storage card, especially if you want to carry a lot of video or music files with you.

The rz1700 series has an SDIO card slot, which means that in addition to file storage cards, the Pocket PC can accept cards that add Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a digital camera, and other features. They come with a 950 mAh non-removable, rechargeable battery. Again, this was probably a design decision made to keep the cost of the device down. HP did not provide battery life estimates for this device, but initial benchmark tests rated it at a little over 3 hours of continuous use. This is usually more than enough to get you through a day of intermittent use. Unfortunately, there is no spare battery option for this series. You have to live with the battery life limitation. (You might consider buying a spare AC power adapter.)

The rz1700's have a bright, color touch screen that is very viewable indoors and reasonably so outdoors. These Second Edition devices support switching between portrait and landscape viewing modes. HP makes this easy for the user by linking the function to the Home hardware button. Press and hold that button down to toggle the display between viewing modes.

HP iPAQ rz1700 Series Pocket PC

Microsoft OS and basic software pre-installed

Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition software includes the latest version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system and a number of setup and configuration utilities. You'll also find a number of productivity and entertainment applications, including Pocket Outlook (Inbox, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks), Pocket Office (Word and Excel), Pocket Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, MSN Messenger, and more.

Windows Mobile devices are “embedded systems,” which means that the OS and basic software applications are pre-installed at the factory, in the flash ROM of the device. They cannot be deleted by the end user. In addition to the Microsoft OS and applications, the following HP software was pre-installed in flash ROM:

• Experience HP—an animated demo.
• HP Task Switch—lets you switch to an open application or quickly close one or all open applications.
• HP Image Zone—electronic photo album that lets you view and edit digital images.
• HP Profiles—lets you create and switch between individual “profiles,” a collection of configuration settings.
• HP Asset Viewer—displays info about RAM or ROM size, display resolution, model number, and installed system components.
• Self Test—verifies the functioning of certain hardware features.