Best and cheapest wireless palmtop?

luckat

What's the best and cheapest wireless palmtop?

flywheel

well here's some examples (assuming by Wirelss you mean WiFI, but some also integrate Bluetooth) - don't know what you mean by best though (best can mean different things to differnet people)

pocket pc: cheapest integrated would be the Axim 3Xi - then maybe look at the iPAQ 4000 and 5000 series

palm os: tungsten c, or clie ux50 (definatley not cheap) or upcoming clie TH55

if you want cheaper than that try picking up an older model that has a CF slot and using compatible CF WiFi card

BrianG

luckat

DubWireless, yes, WiFi. Thanks. CF slot?

flywheel

grand - CF = Compact Flash used for memory cards and peripheral cards such as WiFi

while it might be more convenient to get a PDA with integrated WiFi, but if you look around you might be able to pick up one with a Compact Flash slot and use a CF WiFi card where required and get a cheaper deal... just research compatibility though beforehand...

there are also SDIO - Secure Digital Input Output cards - with two WiFi cards on the market currently from Socket and Sandisk, however these need a SDIO slot in the PDA (some Pocket PC's can only use memory), there are no Palm OS drivers currently available (so Pocket PC only), and the drivers have some issues with some Access Points (some multi-mode 802.11b/g) - plus they are more expensive than the CF WiFi cards

BrianG

Krusty_Clown

Hey DubWireless, I have a tungsten-c in work, and the WiFI reception is very poor in comparison to laptops with built-in or PCMCIA wireless cards..

Is this to be expected for a PDA with built-in wireless?

Capt'n Midnight

I would guess so.
Reception depends on orientation, antenna gain & quality, and the recieve sensitivity of the wifi card.

Sometimes the internal antennas are well designed:
eg: Apple laptops have the antenna in the LCD display so it can be bigger, vertically polarized and further away from some of the RF noise of the motherboard.
Usually with PC laptops's the built in antenna in a PCMCIA card gives better results than the one in the notebook.

One of the advantages in getting a PDA which takes a card is that some, but not all, cards can take external antennas.

flywheel

a PDA's rather puny battery (compared to a Laptop) can be an issue - using WiFi can be a bit like turning on a power tap for PDAs - although it's improving with implementation from the likes of SyChip which are good at power management

and as Capt'n Midnight says the antenna and orientation will be another factor to bring into the comparison

drivers can be another issue so always good to keep an eye on any updates provided by the PDA manufacturer (if integrated) or Card manufacturer

only seen PC cards with an external antenna connector - so it would pretty much defeat the idea of portability using a PDA for me (if a PCMCIA jacket, wire and antenna were also needed) turning it into a bit of a brick - unless you can make a nice hat to attach the external antenna to

BrianG

Capt'n Midnight

An 8dB panel antenna is about the size of a PDA and about 1cm thick. could give you 4 times the range of the equilivant PCMCIA card.

Some WiFi cards can use up to 350mA when transmitting (compare to the rating on the PDA battery.)

flywheel

for most people using / thinking of getting a Portable Digital Assistant the portable aspect is usually pretty important - so the prospect of carrying around a PDA as well as a PCMCIA jacket, card and antenna may not be that appealing - unless it was for a special purpose/application - much more likely to find someone opt for the integrated or fit a CF or SD card instead

on the power side in the CF card I'm currently use with an iPAQ is based on a SyChip implementation and some power management features to try prolong the battery life as much as possbile...



BrianG