HP Jornada 540 Review- Just a Basic PDA

I have had the Jornada 540 for about a year and a half. It's a very basic PDA. The specs:

• Windows CE 3.
• 15.87 MB of memory
• 1 expansion slot for a compact flash storage card
• Weight: about 9 ounces
• Dimensions: about 5" x 3" x 0.75"
• Touch screen dimensions: 2.25" x 3"

Using the Jornada 540

There are only 8 buttons on this device. Four navigation buttons are directly beneath the screen, and the power button is below that. On the right side there is a record button and a scroll button. Finally on the top there is a lighted button, which is green when the battery is fully charged and plugged in, orange when it is charging, and off when unplugged. This button is useful for turning off the screen while listening to the windows media player.

You can turn it on by pressing the power button or just tapping the screen with the stylus. You will be asked to provide your password, which is a 4 digit number.

You are greeted with the "today" screen which shows the date, owner name, appointments, messages, and tasks. At the top of the screen you will find the Start menu and a clock.

To navigate to the different programs, use the start menu or the home menu. The following programs come pre-installed:

Internet explorer
Pocket Word
Pocket Excel
Windows media Player
Reader
Microsoft Money
OmniSolve (a fancy calculator)
Solitaire

Other things in the Home or Start menu include the file explorer, calendar, notes, contacts, tasks, backup, settings, and help.

Typing

Since there are only 8 buttons on this PDA, the only keyboard is the one that pops up on the touch screen. The individual letter "buttons" are very small and it is impossible to push them without the stylus. There is also a character recognition option you can use instead of the keyboard. It works ok, however in my opinion neither one is very easy to use. It really slows down typing for me. As a result, I don't really use many of the programs on this PDA.

What do I use it for?

The Windows Media Player is the most used program on my Jornada. It makes a great mp3 player. You must have a compact flash storage card to put your songs on; the tiny internal memory can barely hold one song. I admit it is a little large for an mp3 player but it does at least fit into my pockets.

The other thing I use this for is the alarms. You can set up to 4 alarms at a time. They are much louder than a watch alarm so I never sleep through them.

Battery life

The Jornada has a lithium rechargeable 5 volt battery built in. It is not replaceable.

When just using it as an mp3 player with the screen off, the battery can lat a good 5-8 hours. For regular use, the battery life is a good bit shorter.

The power cord is about 6 feet long and it plugs in on the bottom. Right beside the power port is another port you must use if you wish to connect it to your PC. The time it takes to recharge the battery varies, depending on how much it was used, but it rarely takes more than an hour.

Connecting to a PC

This is a fairly simple process. Before connecting it you should install the Active Sync software on your computer, which is required for it to communicate. Your PC also needs to have a serial port to plug the cable into. The other end plugs into the bottom of the Jornada.

The Active Sync software allows you to transfer and or synchronize your data. I think it works well, though I do not have installed on my current computer now because I don't use it. The only data transfer I have needed to do recently involve the compact flash storage card; I just take it out of the Jornada and put it into my PC.

Problems

I have had the PDA freeze up a few times. When this happens, use the stylus to press the reset button on the bottom of the Jornada.

Conclusion

To me, the purpose of a PDA is a small portable computer to carry around. It should be able to do some basic tasks, and keep me entertained. In that sense- this PDA has failed me- the keyboard is too slow to use, there is only one game (Solitaire, which gets boring), and overall it is slow (only 16 MB of memory)

I have managed to find a use for it- as an mp3 player and an alarm clock. But overall I don't use it like a PDA because it's very limited. It was manufactured around the year 2000, so even though it was brand new when I started using it, the Jornada 540 is simply outdated.

Considering all of this I would only recommend this to someone looking for only a very basic PDA.