Need to buy a handheld....what advice?

Dr. Nick

My job's changing and I think one of these would help.

My basic needs:
Phone nos., Addreses etc
Calendar
XL and word
ease of use

non-basic:
voice recording
mp3
photo (can do without)

Really, I need a good all-rounder.
I've looked at Dell's options and Tungsten T from Palm on the net, also HP alternatives, but I'm afraid I'll pick the wrong one, it's difficult to pick these things without seeing them and the shops here are populated by muppets who know less than their customers about products.

Would appreciate advice here.

Thanks.

Dooom

have you looked at the sony eircson p800? its got all those things you want. camera wouldnt be the best but its good enough..i dont think they're out here but a mate of mine picked one up on ebay for about €300 ish

Dr. Nick

Originally posted by Spike
have you looked at the sony eircson p800? its got all those things you want. camera wouldnt be the best but its good enough..i dont think they're out here but a mate of mine picked one up on ebay for about €300 ish

given that most things in my house are sony, i should check that. thanks, and goodnight.

Captain Trips

I'd recommend the iPAQs. I use a 3970 for work. No WiFi, but it can be added easily if you need it. The new HP iPAQ 5450 or something is apparently quite buggy. A friend of mine bought that one and has found it to crash quite a bit. The old Compaq ones hit the end of the line and have several fixes, etc., firmware updates and so on. They are bulky compared to Palm OS ones though, although less gimmicky by far.

New Windows Mobile 2003 (or whatever this years update to Windows CE is called, they changed the name again) is available for 30 quid for it, don't know if the less popular PPC corps have similar upgrades available yet. My 3970 with the firmware update is rock solid and has bluetooth to connect through my 6310i.

It works great for me, battery lasts me for aroudn 3 days, maybe using it 2-3 hours a day.

It has voice recording, but I don't use it so I don't know how good it is. Again, comes with pocket excel, word and powerpoint. If you are feeling ultra cool get a bluetooth/infrared enabled projector and run your slideshow from your pocket.

RicardoSmith

You should consider what size you'd be happy with. Personally I like the DELL but its too bulky. But its has the most bang for buck and will be well supported. Compaqs have been a bit patchy on the support end in the past. Palms aren't as well integrated with word/excel as the Pocket PC's. But they are smaller and lighter.

Tom Dunne

Originally posted by Dr. Nick


Really, I need a good all-rounder.
I've looked at Dell's options and Tungsten T from Palm on the net, also HP alternatives, but I'm afraid I'll pick the wrong one, it's difficult to pick these things without seeing them and the shops here are populated by muppets who know less than their customers about products.

I recently ordered a Dell Axim with CF WiFi.

What swung it for me was the two slots - CF and SD which can be used at the same time. There are loads of gadgets you can get for both these types of slots, for example a SD camera (very small, I believe), extra memory for storing MP3's and even a CF card that turns your hand-held into a GSM phone (much like the XDA). Yet, you still retain all the other functionality, such as pocket Word, Outlook and Excel, which is standard among Pocket PC devices.

TD.

Dr. Nick

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
You should consider what size you'd be happy with. Personally I like the DELL but its too bulky. But its has the most bang for buck and will be well supported. Compaqs have been a bit patchy on the support end in the past. Palms aren't as well integrated with word/excel as the Pocket PC's. But they are smaller and lighter.

Thanks. Leaning towards the Dell. Wonder where's the best place to get a demo?

RicardoSmith

Dell usually bring them along to every trade show. Find when something similar is on and you'll find 'em there. Alternatively talk our IT manager into talking a Dell guy into coming in to the office for a demo. They are similar to the older Casiopeia units or the older larger ipaqs.

sci0x

The Palm Tungsten C is a fast wireless PDA that is let down by its screen and it is also a bit pricy! However for your needs i'd look at the Sony TG50. It has a 200MHz processor. It has a lid which can be annoying however it does protect the screen. It has a 320 x 320 screen which is bright and clear. It has tiny buttons however they are still easy to use. It uses Graffiti 2 handwriting recognition. Also includes Bluetooth, infra-red and Memory Stick. There's also a shortcut to make voice memos on the left-hand side, while LEDs on the op of the device flash to indicate whether it is activated for Bluetooth, or recording. Perfect for all the requirements you mentioned!

RicardoSmith

A Pocket PC comes with Pocket Word and Pocket Excel witch integrate very nicely with the office versions. Which was part of Dr. Nick's original posts requirements. How does the Sony/Palm handle the word/excel integration and do you need to buy 3rd party software to do it. (You don't on the Pocket PC)

Dr. Nick

Originally posted by denis_o_leary
The Palm Tungsten C is a fast wireless PDA that is let down by its screen and it is also a bit pricy! However for your needs i'd look at the Sony TG50. It has a 200MHz processor. It has a lid which can be annoying however it does protect the screen. It has a 320 x 320 screen which is bright and clear. It has tiny buttons however they are still easy to use. It uses Graffiti 2 handwriting recognition. Also includes Bluetooth, infra-red and Memory Stick. There's also a shortcut to make voice memos on the left-hand side, while LEDs on the op of the device flash to indicate whether it is activated for Bluetooth, or recording. Perfect for all the requirements you mentioned!

Yeah, good question. anyone, anyone, Bueller, anyone?

RicardoSmith

I should add the the Pocket PC versions are cut down and theres limited functionality. If you need full WP and Spread Sheet functionality you'd probably buy some third party that does this better.

I actually preferred the Pocket PC primarily for the ability to handwrite full sentences rather than just single characters.

Fabre

+1 for ipaq

solaris

The tungsten T has everything you asked for, apart from a camera (it does include a photo package for displaying photos downloaded from your PC). It includes "Documents to Go" to sync Word, excel, powerpoint. It has built in bluetooth functionality - particularly useful if you happen to have a bluetooth phone (for web browsing, email etc). Otherwise IR works fine. It has an SD/MM card slot. I added a 128MB card to mine (cheap at 7dayshop.com). Voice recorder via a dedicated button at the side of the unit. The mic is sensitive enough to record a meeting. The T2 has just been released last week (more memory and better screen) so the T should be available cheap on ebay. Only downside with the Tungsten is the protective cover included with the unit is crap. A decent aluminium one will cost you another 50 euro. Note that the T2 has grafitti 2, which is generally considered to be less accurate than the original palm grafitti. They had to change it due to Xerox copyrite issues rather than to improve it.

Hope this helps!

RicardoSmith

The Palm Zire 71 has a integrated camera. No bluetooth though. Though you might not need that. BTW "Mr Calculator" off grafton street will let you look at these units (other than the dell) in your hand and that might be off some help. But I wouldn't buy there as they are expensive IMO.

The one thing I dislike about the palm units is grafitti 1 or 2. I've had a few Palms over the years but I think the Pocket PC transcriber application is light years better for text input.

Dr. Nick

Originally posted by solaris
The tungsten T has everything you asked for, apart from a camera (it does include a photo package for displaying photos downloaded from your PC). It includes "Documents to Go" to sync Word, excel, powerpoint. It has built in bluetooth functionality - particularly useful if you happen to have a bluetooth phone (for web browsing, email etc). Otherwise IR works fine. It has an SD/MM card slot. I added a 128MB card to mine (cheap at 7dayshop.com). Voice recorder via a dedicated button at the side of the unit. The mic is sensitive enough to record a meeting. The T2 has just been released last week (more memory and better screen) so the T should be available cheap on ebay. Only downside with the Tungsten is the protective cover included with the unit is crap. A decent aluminium one will cost you another 50 euro. Note that the T2 has grafitti 2, which is generally considered to be less accurate than the original palm grafitti. They had to change it due to Xerox copyrite issues rather than to improve it.

Hope this helps!

Thanks. just about the best post so far.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
I actually preferred the Pocket PC primarily for the ability to handwrite full sentences rather than just single characters.

AFAIK the tungsten T (or any palm based device) only allows single character input. Which is a lot slower than writing full sentences on a Pocket PC. But if you don't intend writing much text the its not much of an issue.

Personally I don't like the sliding graffiti area on the tungsten T. Something else yo break and Plam are not great at repairing units out of warranty. Its also a lot deeper than older palm units.

Dr. Nick

Thanks to all, I'm ordering the Dell AximTM X5 Dell Pocket PC tomorrow.
They've knocked 50 bucks off the online price since this thread started - maybe that was the clincher.....good ol' Michael

Anywho, it has what I need for now at the price.

flywheel

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Compaqs have been a bit patchy on the support end in the past.

with Compaq the iPAQ was one of the best suported handhelds out there, with regular patches, rom updates and the were the only handheld to offer the PocketPC 2002 upgrade. now with the move to HP it has migrated to offer the same level of support with patches and the update for the PocketPC 2003 beginning to ship for the 39xx models with the 38xx and 54xx to follow shortly. for anyone buying one of the higher end (i.e. more expensive) models a carepaq would be a good investment that can offer a next day unit replacement

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
or the older larger ipaqs.

the iPAQ size has stayed pretty constant from the 36xx to the 38xx, 39xx and 54xx and through to the latest 51xx and 55xx units - this was because they had promised to maintain support for the expansion jacket system for a number of product cycles

their consumer 19xx and their new midrange 21xx units split from this jacket support constraint to offer different form factors

Originally posted by Dr. Nick
I'm ordering the Dell AximTM X5

one of the best PocketPC's to arrive on the market - mainly because it pulled the floor from under the competition by driving the price of PocketPC units down from their lofty heights when DELL enterted the market

they have also won a lot of praise for the way they handled the isues that affected the units when they began shipping them with the latest Windows Mobile 2003 (PocketPC 2003) OS where slowdowns were happening on the units - they pulled them pretty quickly after the problem was found to fix it

with the arrival of the 21xx iPAQ it has come in for a bit more competition now there is an iPAQ with dual expansion built in and Bluetooth - it's also a more svelt unit to the DELL - but it currently has a higher price as it's just entered the market and has Bluetooth built in

BrianG

RicardoSmith

I should have clarified what I mean. On the original Ipaqs there were lots of issues with dust in the screen, and other minor hardware issues that Compaq where very slow at resolving and the RMA's seem to have been difficult. Thats said I'm only commenting on what I read at the time since I've never owned one.

Personally I prefer the smaller Ipaqs I didn't realise it was a different "consumer" range. The Dell looks to be a very good unit and support does seem to be excellent. Its size would be the only snag for me. But other than that I think it would be what I would buy if I could afford it. Incidentally I saw a 1910 for about 245 in dixons (not that I'd buy one there). But its seemed a good price. The 2210/2215 will be better units perhaps but they will be a good deal more expensive I'd reckon. But the size of the 1910 /2210/2215 is a big plus in my books. I lugged a Casiopiea EM500 around for a few years and the size does become annoying. I'm using a Vx as a backup at the moment and the small size is a definate plus.

http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/ipaq_2215.htm

Dr. Nick

Originally posted by RicardoSmith

http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/ipaq_2215.htm

nice site, thanks. dell is ordered anywho

jimhenson

Personally I would stay away from the Palms, the only decent thing about them is the battery life.

The Dell is a bit chunky but rather cheap when compared to the HP Ipaq.

I use an Ipaq with bluetooth and CF Jacket and i have no problems with it.

But I got a chance to try out the latest sony clie and i am definitly going to buy one. You can buy them of the net right now but I am not sure how much.


http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/3837.html

solaris

Originally posted by jimhenson
Personally I would stay away from the Palms, the only decent thing about them is the battery life.

What do you base this opinion on ?

RicardoSmith

...especially since the Sony Clie ARE estentially Palms...:D

Dr. Nick

Originally posted by Dr. Nick
Thanks to all, I'm ordering the Dell AximTM X5 Dell Pocket PC tomorrow.
They've knocked 50 bucks off the online price since this thread started - maybe that was the clincher.....good ol' Michael

Anywho, it has what I need for now at the price.

Guess what? Dell sucks the big one!

THEY cancelled MY order without telling me. Problems with credit clearance (on a f*cking credit card that I have 16 years and used yesterday FFS!).

Their Indian Customer service gives the usual rhethoric - 'you are a valued customer, please allow me to re-order'

eh....NO thanks. I'm not a Dell customer no more.

What REALLY got up my nose is that they don't tell the customer that, by the way, they've cancelled the order. Never mind about telling him.

I'm now the happy owner of an HP Ipaq 1930, WHICH I BOUGHT IN ARGOS (SHAME ON ME )

RicardoSmith

Nice unit, its a lot neater than the Dell too.

Moving to low cost countries has a lot of side effects other than just the cost saving that the bean counters envisage. 1) Lots of people will not buy from Dell just because they know that ultimately the move costs jobs at home. 2) Tech support if hard enough without putting a language barrier and a cultural barrier between the customer and the support person.

If you've been reading "The Register" lately you'll have seen how HP is having problem with its recent move to India too.

How much was it in Argos BTW? Where else did you price it?

sci0x

Its €335.06 from Komplett anyway.

flywheel

the iPAQ 1930 is Eur 380 in the argos catalogue

as a comparison - in the US HP are offering a $50 rebate on it (until 31 Jan 2004) - so you can currently pick it up there for $200 :eek:

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by DubWireless
the iPAQ 1930 is Eur 380 in the argos catalogue

as a comparison - in the US HP are offering a $50 rebate on it (until 31 Jan 2004) - so you can currently pick it up there for $200 :eek:

Thats whack...:mad:

sci0x

Here are a few Handheld websites worth checking out:
Dave's PDA Place
Brighthand.com
CEWindows.NET
Pocket PC freeware.