give your opinions on which is the best!!

Just the pure fact that the HP Ipaq has Microsoft WIndows mobiles as it's operating system makes this device a piece of crap. I have had several Ipaqs, since the first ones and up to a very recent model. All of them suck, being the operating system's fault. The hardware may be nice, but the os is pure crap.

On the other hand, the Nokia IT having Linux makes it a superb device in terms of expandability, easy to install any applications, easy to develop any apps...in short, open !

Room to improve, of course, but that is why there is a huge worldwide community that works on linux, maemo and hopefully Nokia keeps the I.T. open, even more on each iteration of the device.

On the hardware side, the Nokia's screen size beats the ipaq easily. On the connectivity side, also Nokia wins with a much better WiFi functionality than the crappy Windows mobile network features.

Just my 2 cents.

With the iPAQ and WinMo there are plenty of commercial, third party apps. These will nickle and dime you until you have spent over $100 dollars on trinkets just to make your "Today" screen... or your browser... or your WiFi connection.... or your file manager usable.

Each one of these apps must be registered and a password or hash entered.

Once you got it set up to your liking (about 2 weeks worth of searching, tinkering, and trial and error) the iPAQ becomes a joy to use if the app you're using would not benifit from more screen real estate.

But don't let the battery run down.

Then, unless you backed up and saved to the precious space on the memory card, you get to start all over again. Except this time you have to find all the e-mails with various registration codes and make sure you set up your ActiveSync partnership and name the device the exact same way you did the first time the apps were installed, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Not a very portable solution. You are SOL if your away from your home computer for any length of time.

My N800 took half the time to set up even with the Linux (new to me) learning curve. The apps were free and available in repositories reachable by the device wherever there is internet access.

A dead battery doesn't cause a hard reboot either. (I have never found a WinMo device that could maintain the included back-up, coin cell battery correctly. After a few months use the back-up batteries are worthless.)

I've not seen one of those in a pocket pc since the first generation. My iPaq 5555 was great. Didn't have too many problems with it, in fact, if I turn around I'm looking at it on my other desk. Never had problems with setting up the wifi, or bluetooth. It syncs with my computers, even my mac. The sdio camera I picked up for it blows away the joke of a camera on the N800. It could use a better screen. Oh, try to put a full sized pcmcia card in your N800! It backs up to internal flash, so in the event you do let it die all the way, it's pretty easy to get back to where you had it. I guess I'm getting picky in my old age (ha ha) I'm just not that impressed with any of the newer handheld devices on the market right now. What really sucks it most of the manufacturers are going to "smart" phones. None of my cell providers up here support them. Sharp killed the Zaurus line, so that's now pretty much a dead end, I'll probably keep my Z till it dies. I like the hardware of the pocket pcs, or whatever they are calling them these days. The os is okay, not the best though. You have to be careful with some of the software, it could do evil things to data. Most of it is okay though. I don't really use my N800 as a "pda", more as a quick web browser/gps device. I don't watch movies or listen to music on it, that's what my iPod is for. Like I've said, the camera is worse than the one on my 4 year old cell phone. Yea, it runs linux, which is cool, I wouldn't call that a plus. Most of the apps aren't really finished. I think the coolest app I run is Maemo Mapper, and that eats cards. I've had to reformat my mmc card twice now because of it. Not a big deal, but kind of a pain. The browser is adequate. Would like to see a port of firefox, not minimo, cause that's just crap. It's got to be the worst laid out web browser I've ever seen. I think the whole os needs a "red pill" mode for the non-linux newby folks. Something so we can actually tweak the power settings, and some of the other settings Nokia locks down.