PDA/Router choice

[Shaun]

My other half is thinking of buying me a PDA thingy for Christmas (yay), but I've no experience with them.

What I'm hoping for is a handheld that will allow me to surf the net and access my mail when I'm away from the computer (via the wifi network we'll have by then).

I've looked at this one from Dell, it seems to do all I want and if we buy it at the same time as his new computer then I can get it for £199 (which is about my limit, don't want to be too cheeky )

I was wondering if this would be the best buy, and would it do everything I want?

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...=uk&l=en&s=dhs

[erol]

Do you mean this one

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...=uk&l=en&s=dhs

Yes it would do what you describe above. Personaly I dislike win ce handhelds and prefer Palm OS based machines - but the wifi ones are few and expensive at the moment (when will there be a T3 with built in wireless ? - my dream pda)

Another thing to remember with pda and wifi is that wifi hammers battery life.

(the 300mhz processor machine, stand alone + wifi comes in at 227 inc VAT and to be honest you will be v hard pushed to find a wifi able machine for under this,imo)

I would have to agree with erol (I knew I would sooner or later ) ... beware of Pocket PC / Win CE devices. They are not the package they appear to be at first. Think about what you actually need a handheld to do and how often you want to do it before you buy anything. When you've done that, you'll find that an OS designed for handheld devices - i.e. Palm OS - is much better suited than an OS that was designed for a desktop and then scaled down (i.e. Windows).

Also bear in mind that in the realm of handhelds, M$ are not the market leader, so if you want the best and widest selection of apps (especially freeware), it's on Palm OS, not Pocket PC.

As for hardware, as erol says beware of battery life and be sure you need WiFi badly enough to put up with the power drain. AFAIK Bluetooth is less power hungry ... most Palm, Handspring and Sony devices (all Palm OS) either have Bluetooth built in or can take a Bluetooth expansion card, so this option plus a compatible mobile phone may be better for you.

Pocket PC devices appear to me to be somewhat bulkier than comparable Palm OS handhelds (especially compared to the delicious Palm Tungsten-T3) And finally, don't be fooled into thinking you're getting more hardware for your cash with a Pocket PC ... they apparently have more RAM, but what they don't tell you is that they need twice as much RAM as a comparable Palm OS device because the Windows OS is so bloated.

Best buy is prolly the Palm Tungsten T and the best price I could find via Kelkoo was £249.99 with £6.99 delivery.

[altis]

Go and get this month's PC-Pro magazine. It has a huge review of loads of machines.

[Shaun]

Cheers guys, I'll have to do some surfing and have a look

[MadGamer]

Have a look around they have some pretty nice ones.Here

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by WNA

Have a look around they have some pretty nice ones.Here

Cheers WNA, but have you seen the prices??

My limit is about £200 and from the look of the sites I've visited I think the one I've linked to above is the best I'm going to get.

Taking on board what the others have said I think I'll buy the extended battery (3100mA??), but as ling as it does what I want for the money I'll be happy

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by dellwear

Cheers WNA, but have you seen the prices??

My limit is about £200 and from the look of the sites I've visited I think the one I've linked to above is the best I'm going to get.

Taking on board what the others have said I think I'll buy the extended battery (3100mA??), but as ling as it does what I want for the money I'll be happy

Just a thought but did you try going to Dell?

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by WNA

Just a thought but did you try going to Dell?

Originally Posted by dellwear

I've looked at this one from Dell, it seems to do all I want and if we buy it at the same time as his new computer then I can get it for £199 (which is about my limit, don't want to be too cheeky )

[Undisputedtruth]

The Axim X3 has just been released by DELL last Wednesday. So may wish to wait for a bit longer for it.

Here's a link

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topi...=us&l=en&s=gen

You may agree it does look a bit better than the Axim X5.

The Tungsten T3 can be bought for £285 but it does not have bluetooth. It looks good and is very good value at the price. However, my preference is probably the HPs, they can also be used as a TV remote control as well. I think the HP4155 will be the model to go for. Built in WiFi and Bluetooth.

I've got the O2 PDA with all the toys Sat Nav phone, SMS Messaging service built in etc etc, it's good when I'm sat in the Taxi bored I can surf the web. Just had my bill for the last 7 weeks a whopping £20 Mine cost me £250 with the Tom Tom navigator charger the lot. They are well good I'd recomend one to anybody.

[Lew]

Originally Posted by towny

I would have to agree with erol (I knew I would sooner or later ) ... beware of Pocket PC / Win CE devices. They are not the package they appear to be at first. Think about what you actually need a handheld to do and how often you want to do it before you buy anything. When you've done that, you'll find that an OS designed for handheld devices - i.e. Palm OS - is much better suited than an OS that was designed for a desktop and then scaled down (i.e. Windows).

Actually I think you'll find that PocketPC was designed from the ground up. It just looks like Windows. From what I've seen on the iPaqs that a lot of people where I work use it's a pretty good OS

As for hardware, as erol says beware of battery life and be sure you need WiFi badly enough to put up with the power drain. AFAIK Bluetooth is less power hungry ... most Palm, Handspring and Sony devices (all Palm OS) either have Bluetooth built in or can take a Bluetooth expansion card, so this option plus a compatible mobile phone may be better for you.

Pocket PC devices appear to me to be somewhat bulkier than comparable Palm OS handhelds (especially compared to the delicious Palm Tungsten-T3) And finally, don't be fooled into thinking you're getting more hardware for your cash with a Pocket PC ... they apparently have more RAM, but what they don't tell you is that they need twice as much RAM as a comparable Palm OS device because the Windows OS is so bloated.

The latest iPaq models (the HP branded ones) seem to have a pretty good battery life. Someone I know has the high-end one (the one with built-in Bluetooth, WiFi and the fingerprint scanner (which works very well)) uses his all day for web browsing via Bluetooth to his GPRS mobile and has no complaints about batter life.

[Tricky]

I've seen the latest IPAQs 2210 & 5550 on ebay (Depends if you're bothered about being new) - I use a 2210 personnally and would highly recommend it to anyone. battery life is excellent especially compared to my older 39xx model.

Originally Posted by Mimizuku no Lew

Actually I think you'll find that PocketPC was designed from the ground up. It just looks like Windows. From what I've seen on the iPaqs that a lot of people where I work use it's a pretty good OS

That may be, but the assumptions behind its development are those of an organisation with a culture of over-written code ... end result, a pocket-sized OS with a desktop-sized mentality. Why else would a PocketPC device require twice the RAM of a comparable PalmOS device to perform essentially the same set of tasks?

[erol]

Originally Posted by Undisputedtruth

The Tungsten T3 can be bought for £285 but it does not have bluetooth.

Small point. The T3 does have bluetooth built in. It does not have wifi built in however and without a cf slot, just an sd one, wifi is hard to add atm. There is a SD based wifi expansion card but I do not think it currently supports Palm OS, but that it should do in comming months.