The HP iPAQ hx4700 Windows Mobile 5 upgrade

HP has recently released the Windows Mobile 5 upgrade for the HP iPAQ hx4700. It is very slow by default and requires heavy tweaking to run flawlessly. Fortunately, it seems if you apply the necessary tweaks, the device becomes far more responsive than the WM5-upgraded Dell Axim x50 series. For example, before applying the tweak, a soft reset takes about 75 secs. For comparison: with the Dell Axim x51v A06, it takes 42 sec; with the official i-mate 2.16.9.1 ROM upgrade on the HTC Wizard, some 60 sec - only the oldest and worst HTC Wizard ROM versions were as slow to boot in as the non-tweaked hx4700. After appying the tweak, the bootup time is reduced to 42 seconds.

Based on user reports up until now, the upgrade seems to be worth paying for - again, unlike that of the Dell Axim x50 series. The latter requires some heavy tweaking too to be usable.

In this blog post, I link all the relevant threads that explain how the necessary tweaking should be done.

Start with http://www.mobilitysite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28959 and http://www.mobilitysite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28868 in the hx4700 forum of MobilitySite. These both describe what should be done. Don't forget that you can find a full roundup of registry editors here.

You may also want to check out, in addition to the other, WM5-related threads at MobilitySite, the hx4700 forum at BrightHand. It also has several WM5-related threads; for example, this one.

Finally, if you're a newcomer to WM5, you really want to read my WM5 compatibility reports, tips and tricks here. Note that all my "big" roundups (for example, the multiplayer games roundup etc.) have all been upgraded to have extensive WM5 compliance information.