Need a suggestion for a Wifi and Non-Wifi PDA

[windmiller]

A coworker wants to get a PDA for his wife and I have been using a pocket pc phone and smartphone for the last 2+ years so I am a bit out of the loop on current models.

What are some solid options for a Wifi and a Non-Wifi PDA for $300.00 and under?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[pocketpcadmirer]

I recommened you HP iPAQ 1950(since you have posted this thread under hp section. It has got wi-fi(but alas no BT). But cheer up, its cheap and cheerful !!

For a non-wifi pda I recommend you to go in for hp ipaq 1940(if u can find one). It has BT..no wi-fi

Do ask if u hv any queries on your mind..this is a great site

Sunny

[heov]

i DONT recommend the rx1950. it's a horrible device.

a) it's SLOOOOOOOOOOW!

b) it has a HUGGGGGE bug! if you put in an SD card, and leave the unit off for an extended period of time, say like 1hr+, the unit WILL NOT TURN ON! you have to soft reset the device, which takes more than a minute to complete.

hp knows of the issue, and i tlaked to their "engineering" team after bitching on support, and they said they are aware of the problm, but they havne't even started trying to fix it yet. they're unsure if it's hardware or software, either. rumors have been saying a rom fix is coming in deceember, but i doubt it, cvause i litterally talked to them.

go check my rx1950 thread a few posts down. just stay away! oh and the wifi reception sucks, if you ask me, compared to the TX.

I think teh TX is your best bet. it's solid- nice screen- fast, AMPLE RAM!- bt and wifi, and a great browser! blazer on teh palm was faster than pie on the ipaq.

or you could wait for those crazy dell coupons and try to snag an axim for < 300.

[pocketpcadmirer]

heov wrote,"hp knows of the issue, and i tlaked to their "engineering" team after bitching on support, and they said they are aware of the problm, but they havne't even started trying to fix it yet. they're unsure if it's hardware or software, either. rumors have been saying a rom fix is coming in deceember, but i doubt it, cvause i litterally talked to them."

Its really :?: strange to see this. Anyone here on this forum posseesing a 1950 please confirm if this problem is haunting you also.

Sunny

[heov]

heov wrote,"hp knows of the issue, and i tlaked to their "engineering" team after bitching on support, and they said they are aware of the problm, but they havne't even started trying to fix it yet. they're unsure if it's hardware or software, either. rumors have been saying a rom fix is coming in deceember, but i doubt it, cvause i litterally talked to them."

Its really :?: strange to see this. Anyone here on this forum posseesing a 1950 please confirm if this problem is haunting you also.

Sunny

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=967404

[haesslich]

I have an rx1950 and I've been using it for two weeks now. As far as the issues heov has raised, I have yet to encounter the SD bug, and I've been using a SanDisk blue card (aka standard speed) 512MB SD card in it without any issues. It's a decent machine, and handles video well... but it's main Achilles heel is the relative lack of RAM in which to run programs. I can run maybe two programs, or three programs if they don't take a lot of memory, at once - any more than that, and the other programs get shut down automatically by the OS.

After the initial startup delay following a soft reset, I find it speedy enough - it can take a few seconds to open up large PDF files, but it's not much slower, if any, than some of the previous iPaqs I've handled, outside of the high-end ones. Most of the speed issues that heov reports here are due to the changes made with the persistent memory model WM5 uses... and of course, the fact that the machine as such little RAM that it means it may take a few seconds to close out other processes in the meantime. My WiFi reception's pretty good - I can easily pick up my router halfway down the block - though the WM5 Wifi manager software's less intuitive than it could be... and I found at least with mine, it had the annoying habit of locking onto the wrong signal, even though I had set up a 'preferred' network for it by entering settings for my router. This is more the fault of the OS than the unit itself, unfortunately - if I was using a third-party WiFi manager, it'd be less of an issue.

It's not bad for the price, as far as WM5 machines go, but the Palm T|X is probably better in terms of memory (it has oodles more of it, compared to the 1950) and speed... but I've been hearing reports about its reliability as well. Blazer is a better browser than PIE is, no doubt about it - and if the 1950 had more memory, I'd be using Minimo or something else like Netfront. That's the BIG problem here - not enough RAM. It'll do the basic functions pretty well, and its battery life kicks that of the Palm T|X pretty hard (I can get 5-6 hours out of this with WiFi on, 8+ with WiFi off with medium backlighting, versus the 2-3 hours you'll see with the Palm T|X_, but the T|X has a higher resolution, Bluetooth, more memory, and is the 'top-of-the-line' Palm, whereas the 1950's an entry-level machine for a PocketPC.

If you want a cheap WiFi enabled machine, the 1950 will work, if you can live with the RAM limitations - I haven't had as many problems as heov has - it doesn't turn on by itself and stay on till the battery's dead, it recognizes SD cards fine and doesn't lock up unless I have a lot of RAM gone, and I don't have to soft-reset it except when I need to free up memory. But if you're looking at anything remotely akin to power-user applications or heavy gaming, then look for either a Dell X51v or chase a Palm if you want to go with that OS.

Incidentally, my soft resets take about 30-40 seconds to finish... but again, I'm realistic about my expectations for the machine, and handle the startup items accordingly - PocketWeather is the only startup app I have outside of Wisbar Advance 2 (to handle the Start Menu and task management), and PocketBreeze is installed in main memory to avoid problems with startup programs not loading correctly off the SD card.

[heov]

that's weird hwo you don't have that problem, because it's actually an WM5 bug, but there have been some reports that some ppl "fixed" it by installing some keybaord drivers or enabling the owner info, according to the link i provided.

regarding softresets, yes this device takes forever. i haven't done formal tests, but i'd say my hx2495 gets to teh "Windows Mobile" splash screen in a third of the time. And the "Windows Mobile" part is basically teh same.

But what the rx1950 has that no other PPC has is it's SIZE. that is the original reason I bought it, and I was willing to put up w/ it's lack of ram and processing power for it. But the SD card bug really nailed it.

Also, the rx1950 has noticably better battery life than my hx2495, and noticably less than teh Palm TX.

[haesslich]

Either I've been lucky, or else I've had enough 'good habits' that I don't stress the little thing beyond its limits. I've yet to have any problems outside of a lockup which Battery Pack Pro 2.1 from OmegaOne caused after a few minutes running on the Today screen, which I was able to fix by uninstalling the application - I suspect the issue there was RAM related, as the program was running from the internal storage instead of off the card.

The 1950's problems mostly seem to stem from the lack of RAM - if it had double the amount of space (64MB instead of the 32MB it supposedly has), then it'd probably be more stable and more versatile. The major battery drain issue with my 1950's mostly been WiFi - I get around 5 minutes per percentage point in normal usage, while having WiFi on doubles the drain, averaging around 2 minutes per percent of battery used. Without it on, I can usually go 3-4 days without a charge, assuming minimal WiFi usage (10 minutes or less a day). Most of the figures I've seen based on testing of the T|X suggest you'll get around 5 hours of battery life on the outside with the backlight at medium-low and with WiFi and Bluetooth enabled.

Otherwise, the Palm T|X is a superior machine - of course, given that it's the top-tier Palm unit right now (the LifeDrive is in a different category, given that it has a microdrive), I'd expect it to have some horses and some memory over this little entry-level machine. Otherwise, I'd have to vote the Dell X51v as a 'best value' machine due to its capacious internal storage (roughly 200MB usable), good RAM, VGA support, and good aftermarket support (ignoring the phone tech support).

I honestly don't know what everyone else is doing to make Mobile 5 so unstable. :D I've yet to see the flaws others have reported - but then again, I've had it in a case which protected the keys from Day 1, I've stuck with fairly reputable brandnames for flash cards, and I keep my startup programs all in internal storage to avoid problems with the Storage Card not initializing in time for startup programs to run.