HP is taking on the handheld computer world on all fronts, having just launched a new high-end model, the iPaq h5450 with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and fingerprint recognition, and the h1910 with none of these things.

The h1910 is the company's stab at the budget market, though it is rather more expensive than other budget machines - a whole £100 more, for example, than the Mitac Mio.

Still, the h1910 is a desirable machine in many ways. First off it is very small and light - its 120g are on a par with many mobile phones and it is small enough to rival the tiny Palm Tungsten T.

The processor is a 200MHz Intel XScale - not the fastest but fast enough, unless you are heavily into watching video or playing games on your Pocket PC.

And HP has squeezed a large screen - 3.5in measured diagonally - into the casing. Its quality is high and it looks larger than it is because it runs almost to the side and upper edges of the casing.

It is not all good news, though. To cut costs the h1910 comes without either a protective cover or case or a docking cradle, though a cable is provided for PC synchronisation.

Only 46MB of the 64MB of memory is available for data and applications - the rest is locked away by HP for its own use, and the battery lasts a rather poor four hours.

The good news about both these facts is that you can add to the memory using a Secure Digital card, and you can buy a spare battery to swap with the one provided. One day all handhelds will come with removable batteries.

In the final reckoning, the iPaq h1910 is a very nicely designed handheld and will be easy to carry around, though it is rather over-priced considering its low battery life, the loss of some memory and the lack of a docking cradle.

Oh, and its small size means it is not compatible with existing iPaq jackets, either. HP will have to try harder than this to attract budget-conscious buyers.

Contact: HP 01344 360000
www.hp.com/uk

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Mitac Mio 338
Great value Pocket PC.