I want an e740, right?

[Gallivant]

My Palm IIIxe is outliving its usefulness. I need a minicomputer, not a AAA-powered daytimer with delusions of grandeur. I've mostly concluded that I need/want an e740, but I figure some bright soul out there might offer a solution that won't make my wallet scream quite as loudly.

My needs are these:

I need expandability; not neccessarily CF, but I intend to use my PDA as an MP3 (music and audiobook) player, which means 256-meg cards.

My primary "real" use for the PDA is note-taking in class. I need to be able to type - as in, on a Stowaway. There isn't one yet, but I'm betting there will be soon enough. The neccessity of an adapter is annoying and costly, but I'll survive. Unless somebody knows of another highly-portable full-sized keyboard I could use?

I need really good battery life *without* an add-on battery. Between music and eBooks and note-taking, a 7-hour lifetime under standard conditions is basically a minimum.

I need the thing to be lightweight and, especially, small. Not much bigger than my IIIxe. My PDA is with me wherever I go; I can't have to worry if it's making an embarassing bulge in my pocket.

Price - it'd be really nice if it's cheap, really it would, but I've given up on finding what I need in an inexpensive unit. The Maestro would work, but no Stowaway could be made for it (it's a USB slave, not host, to save money), and its battery life is - to be polite - crappy.

So is there anything I should be looking at other than the e740? Anything that gets the job done better in any way?

[Jason Dunn]

Honestly? Grab a Jornada 565/568. They're cheap right now, you can get a Stowaway keyboard immediately, and the battery life is fantastic.

[JonnoB]

I have to agree with Jason. The HP Jornada 56x line is a deal these days now that they are on the way out. There were plenty sold, so you can expect support for them for some time. Battery life is great and CF memory expansion inexpensive. You can use a Stowaway or a thumb keyboard.

[Gallivant]

Hmmmm... I am intrigued...

What about the size and weight, though? I seem to recall mentally filing the Jornada as "Best damn brick on Earth.

And what's with these "567" models I see popping up?

[spursdude]

The Maestro would work, but no Stowaway could be made for it (it's a USB slave, not host, to save money), and its battery life is - to be polite - crappy.

The Maestro just had a keyboard announced for it, and it doesn't look too bad. Check Pocket PC Thoughts' front page.

The battery life, frankly, is pretty bad. For doing notetaking, the battery may last you 4 hrs at best.

The size and expandibility, though, are great.

[Gallivant]

Yeah - for a while, I thought the Maestro was my end-all be-all holy grail. Tiny, expandable to the nines, cheap...

Then I found out about the battery life and its un-Stowawayability (that's a word, dammit, if I say it is). I know it's got that absurd keyboard announced for it, but it's got to have its own power supply, its not pocketable like the Stowaways are, it's got that unfathomable gap in the middle, and I don't think it's full-size like the Stowaway is. Frankly, Targus/ThinkOutside has produced something that I'm not sure could be improved upon in any way without violating the laws of physics to make it even smaller. It's an ideal product... and the Maestro can't hack it.

Never mind the battery life. I swap out NiMH AAAs from my Palm about 1.5 times a week - On a normal day, I'd drain a Maestro before lunch.

[JonnoB]

Hmmmm... I am intrigued...

What about the size and weight, though? I seem to recall mentally filing the Jornada as "Best damn brick on Earth.

And what's with these "567" models I see popping up?

Actually, the 56x is one of the lightest PDAs around. The 567 is the online/web etail version of the 568. Exact same hardware specifications although I believe some of the bundled software is different. Same with 564 vs 565.

[Gallivant]

"Light weight" is relative. It's half again as heavy as my Palm, and a bit taller. I'm surprised it's no wider, though - it *looks* quite wide. Is the screen smaller?

Ugh. The weight's *probably* okay, but I can't be sure, and I'm not sure I could convince a Circuit City salesman to let me walk around with one in my pocket for a couple of minutes. Suppose I can always try, though.

EDIT: And now I'm reading about a nasty dust-in-screen issue. Is this something I should be massively concerned about?

[Jason Dunn]

EDIT: And now I'm reading about a nasty dust-in-screen issue. Is this something I should be massively concerned about?

Not really - early units, it was a problem, but I had my reaplced two months ago and it's quite clean.

Regarding weight and size, remember that you're not buying a Palm, so don't expect it to be exactly like a Palm. It's a Pocket PC baby! :D

[Gallivant]

Turns out that my Great and Wonderful summer-job-spawned fund will be $500 smaller than I thought it would be... $500 that I'd earmarked for a PPC.

In other words, buggerall, looks like I probably won't get a new PDA for another year.

I just hope something that meets my requirements is available then... maybe there'll still be 568s for sale.

Why can't the iPaq be something I *want*, for once?

[ppc_addictted]

I seem to recall mentally filing the Jornada as "Best damn brick on Earth.



ok.

I think maybe a toshiba e310.

they have great battery life and use PPC 2002, they have a headphone jack and a SD card slot.

all in all this great little toshiba unit is probably what you need.

I think that they are around the $400 mark.

[Gallivant]

Yeah, the e310 *is* exactly what I want - except that I pretty much *need* a Targus Stowaway keyboard, and due to a design choice made to keep the e310 cheap, a Stowaway *cannot* be made for it. It can't function as a USB host, which means it can't dish out power to an attached device - like a keyboard.

[Nikhil]

Belkin is going to be releasing a keyboard for the e740/e310 soon. The keyboard is identical to the Compaq Foldable Keyboard (I wonder who designed them) and the LOOX's keyboard.

[PeterChenoweth]

Just an FYI, but Stowaway keyboards are not USB keyboards. They connect through the regular sync port and have nothing to do with USB. If there is enough of a market (if Toshiba sells enough of them), then I'm sure Stowaway will make a keyboard. You're probably thinking serial ports. The e310 and e740 do not have an integrated serial controller, making serial cables a more difficult (and expensive) accessory to make. This is one, of several, reasons I'm not buying another (already returned one...) e740 yet, as a serial cable is a necessary accessory in my PDA world.

However, there is an expansion sleeve that lets you use VGA out & a real USB keyboard with the e740. I've heard some so-so reviews of it, but this would let you use an honest to goodness normal USB keyboard (and monitor - slowly) with your e740.

But it seems it's just the e740 -> monitor part is slow, the keyboard -> e740 sounds fine.

So who cares if Stowaway makes a keyboard! It sounds like you could use a regular USB keyboard :).


Yeah, the e310 *is* exactly what I want - except that I pretty much *need* a Targus Stowaway keyboard, and due to a design choice made to keep the e310 cheap, a Stowaway *cannot* be made for it. It can't function as a USB host, which means it can't dish out power to an attached device - like a keyboard.