Socket Mobile, Inc. HC2002-1387 SoMo 655 Wireless Handheld Computer with Extended Battery

This unit have been sent back in 4 times for repair. The plugin for the head phones keeps breaking and loses sound. I have had Dell and Hp units that are still in service after years of use and have never had this problem. I would guess it a fault in design. Other wise unit preforms as should.

I'm an online seller and I've been using PDAs such as this for about ten years now. I've previously owned and used HP iPaqs and Dell Axims. Hated . . . no, DESPISED both. It's been awhile since I've used the HP, but the Dell I used up until recently drove me insane. Constant shut downs due to the battery cover "being removed" when no such thing happened. Bluetooth shutting off at random moments. General instability.I've seen lots of other people using the new Socket PDAs and was told they were better. Well, I'm not seeing it. I briefly used the earlier model, the 650, and it acted just like the Dell Axim with random shut downs due to the battery cover being removed - again, when in fact no such thing had occurred.So I purchased the 655. Paid several hundred dollars for it. This one doesn't shut down unexpectedly from the battery door error. This one has such a flimsy battery cover that it actually does pop off! Given that these things are frequently used in commercial settings I'm flabbergasted that Socket would 1)not be aware of this problem with other PDA models and 2)go ahead and design a PDA with a flimsy battery door. And when that cover comes off, the PDA shuts down. Lots of bad things can happen.The battery door isn't the deal breaker, however. You can tape that sucker down if necessary. What has infuriated me is that I have a Socket brand laser scanner in the CF slot and on a regular basis it just stops connecting with the scanner. I have to remove the scanner and reinsert it to get it to work again. In an hour's worth of use I probably have to do this three times.I also found the PDA to be on the slow side. The fastest Dell I ever owned felt faster than the 655. Which is just mind boggling given the number of years that separate the two models and their production dates.Is it Socket? Is it the Windows operating system? Both? Incompetence all around as far as I'm concerned. I've yet to own or use a solid functional PDA. And I've had at least half a dozen or more. They've all sucked. And there's just no excuse for it. The 655 costs as much as an iPhone without a contract and yet it functions like a device built in 2005 instead of 2015.Giving the 655 two stars because it works enough. It's just unreliable. Just like very other Windows PDA I've owned.