Digital Trends

At first sight, you'll notice the device's unusual design. HP designers allowed their imagination free rein and hx4700 resembles a futuristic communicator rather than 2004 PDA. Forget about silvery plastic - the body is made of magnesium alloy so that it is as light as plastic but incomparably more durable. Its dark colour with metallic shine makes the device appear smaller than it is. Instead of a common joypad, this iPAQ features a unique touchpad, the same as that used in laptop computers. It can work in two modes - either as a rather unusual joypad or as a normal touchpad which even shows a pointer on the display! It remains to be seen if it is an ingenious innovation or a dead end - now, it's too early to judge. For a device with two expansion slots (SDIO and CF type II), it is extremely thin - it looks gorgeous with its 15 millimetres. Other dimensions are bigger than usual, but it is due to a giant display. Display protection is almost perfect. Compared with a plastic shield in iPAQs h3000 series.