Investigating my Pocket PC options...

[metatron]

Hey everyone, it's my first post here.

I'm soon to be in the market to purchase a new Pocket PC / PDA. Currently, I use a twoish year old Casio Cassiopeia and am looking to upgrade. There are a couple features that I'm looking for, but I don't know if they ar standard in some setups or what.

Basically, I'm pretty much in the dark and need your help.

Here's what I'm looking for:

1. Windows Mobile 5.0 - that persistent memory is a BIG draw for me. I'm one of those types that forgets to plug his PDA in and has had all his data get poofed away several times. In fact, I stopped using the PDA for a while because I was tired of all my data vanishing when I forget to recharge.

BlueTooth and Wifi While I do have my laptop everywhere I go (my job has me on the road and pretty mobile, so my office is Panera Bread a lot of the time), having wifi would be great. Also, I don't want to have to mess with wires just to sync up my PPC with my laptop and the other good stuff you can get with Bluetooth.

I don't need a camera or GPS - I have no need for either of these things, and unless I can get a PPC that is comperable in price and performance to one without them, I won't consider buying a machine with these features.

I've heard good things about HP's iPAQs, but I don't know enough about anything to have a firm grasp on what I should be looking for. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Darius Wey]

Welcome to Pocket PC Thoughts.

So, would you be interested in a converged device - one that integrates both the functions of a PDA and a phone?

If not, and you're after something with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Windows Mobile 5.0, but with no real need for a camera and GPS, then you have a few options.

There is the Dell Axim X51/X51v series - the X51v is the high-end model featuring a VGA screen (480 x 640) and an Intel 2700g GPU (so 3D graphics should look better; the GPU also supports video-out which is great if you wish to make presentations - here's a review (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,41409) if you're interested). Both the 520MHz X51 and 624MHz X51v have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Note the low-end 416MHz X51 does not.

As for the iPAQs, there is the hx2490 and the hx2790. They only have a QVGA screen (240 x 320) so text and pictures won't look as sharp as they would on the Axim X51v. But all-round performance is great. I haven't really spoken to a single person who isn't happy with either of the two devices.