Consumer Reports Talks PDAs

[David Prahl]

I just recieved and read my copy of Consumer Report's 2004 Buying Guide. They're a great organization, but their PDA reviewing department needs help.

Almost ALL of the content and issues of discussion are about a year old.

--CR repeatedly says that Palms are compatible with Macs, but PalmSource just told us that support will only last for a few more months.

--The AudioVox Thera, Palm m515, and "Compaq" 3955 are listed in the ratings.

--Battery life estimates of color devices (Palm and PPC) are unrealistically short.

--Wireless connectivity is barely mentioned (wifi and BT).

--The highest rated device? The Zire. :idontthinkso:

--The Palm m515 screen was given the same rating as all of the Pocket PCs. Have you seen a m515?

--Devices running the same OS are given different levels of "Convenience" and "Ease of Use".


Why do I get the feeling that some overworked editor just copied and pasted last year's report into this year's publication?

[Jacob]

Their reports are based largely off of Consumer reports no? (I'm guessing that's where the name comes from)

If the majority of the consumers who subscribe to their magazine report using and liking the Zire, then that will end up being higher rated.

Consumer reports isn't a great magazine to find out what you want. It's more of a magazine to think "I know the options of what I want, do these things have a bad rep I don't know about??"

[Kati Compton]

I normally don't trust their opinion on electronic gadgets... But they're good for reliability ratings of appliances, cars, etc.

[Pat Logsdon]

I agree. An organization that published a grudge match between Bounty and Brawn paper towels (http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv3.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=29163&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=29151&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=333143&bmUID=1078876183970) is not the first place I'd go for accurate electronics analysis. :roll:

[Jacob]

Isn't part of the problem that electronics go obsolete quite faster than the rest of the other products?

People are still interested in car reviews a year after the car has been released. However a comparison of PDAs that are a year old will get a lot of people rolling their eyes.