A Truly Personal PDA

Built-in fingerprint reader enables biometric security for IPaq H5450.

Talk about having a personal touch: HP's new IPaq Pocket PC H5450 is the first mainstream personal digital assistant to offer biometric security via a built-in fingerprint reader.

The reader is a small, thin, unobtrusive strip beneath the navigation button on the newly streamlined IPaq case. To use the reader, you must first train the included software to recognize the print of at least one of your fingers (HP recommends training it to recognize two fingers so you have a backup).

Training with a preproduction unit took about 20 minutes because the software rejected my first attempts to scan in a print of my index finger. But once the device accepts seven out of eight consecutive attempts, you are permitted to "enroll" that digit and designate it either as the sole acceptable form of identification or in combination with a typed password. When I tried to log in using an enrolled finger, the device usually granted me access within at most three attempts. (You can set the device to do a data-destroying hard reset after a user-specified number of unsuccessful log-in attempts.) More important, it shut out all others, which might justify its admittedly steep $699 price tag for some security-minded users.

The H5450 also boasts built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapters; a Secure Digital media slot; a removable, rechargeable battery; and a fast 400-MHz Intel XScale CPU. Overall, the H5450 is a top-of-the-line PDA for executives who are willing to pay top dollar for security and connectivity.

--Yardena Arar

Buying Information

Hewlett-Packard IPaq Pocket PC H5450 4 stars (01/10/2003) Street: $699