HP Jornada 565 32MB Pocket PC

With two new Pocket PC 2002 PDAs, Hewlett Packard might at first seem to appear greedy to grab a large slice of the market. In fact the two devices are identical except that this model, the Jornada 565 has 32MB of RAM while its alter ego, the Jornada 568, has 64MB. In all other respects the two machines are identical.

The Jornada 565 has been really well designed. A robust flip lid protects the screen, application shortcut buttons and the 4-way cursor control we see on most PDAs these days. Hewlett Packard goes one better than the rest here, though, and adds a "select" button beneath it, making it even more like a mouse to use than before. The two-tone grey and black is appealing, and everything feels like it will take some pretty hefty knocks.

The Intel StrongARM processor running at 206MHz is standard across all machines running Pocket PC 2002--it certainly provides a speed improvement over earlier Pocket PC hardware. Also standard is the inclusion of support for Compact Flash, though oddly, the Compact Flash support is only Type I. This is becoming less of an issue over time--manufacturers have recently announced a 1GB Type I card for example--but with other Pocket PC 2002 PDAs offering Type II support and in many cases also a MultiMedia Card slot, Hewlett Packard seems a bit behind. One plus point: you can remove the back of the slot cover, allowing support for larger cards such as LAN cards.

Hewlett Packard has always been good at providing extra software, and the new Jornadas are no exception. The range includes a useful application close tool which we saw on earlier Jornadas. Now that Pocket PC 2002 lets you shut applications while in them instead of through the Settings tools, this may seem less useful than it was before--but it does allow you to "close all" with a single click which can be very handy. Other supplied applications include an alternative icon driven menu screen and a facility to back up data to an 8Mb area of Flash ROM. This is very clever as you won't loose data if your battery fails, but don't require a memory card or any other medium to back up to.

The screen supports 65,536 colours and the battery, Hewlett Packard says, can keep these new Jornadas running for 14 hours. If you need more it can be swapped, just like a mobile phone battery, for a fully charged second one or an extended life one which can run for a staggering 28 hours.

It has to be said that if we were choosing a Jornada we'd pay the extra few pounds to double the RAM and go for the Jornada 568. Only if money is really tight is it worth choosing the 565 as an alternative.--Sandra Vogel