Did I make a mistake?

[Monty Gibson]

I have had a Jornada 56x series, a Nokia Communicator and now I have the XDA from VoiceStream. I always wanted a PocketPC/Phone combo and now that I have the XDA I don't know if I truly made a mistake. Obviously, I took back the Communicator because it ran Symbian, and finding games, software (medical in my case) and even simple eBooks was difficult at best. So, when VoiceStream/T-Mobile offered a Microsoft Powered PocketPC that was a phone I jumped. The reason why I think I may have made a mistake is because:

1.) It only carries an SD/MMC slot. If it had a CF slot I could do so much more in my profession such as read oxygen levels in patients bloodstreams, read ECG's at the bed side etc., etc. as these items use CF technology to plug into the PPC. I thought I would see more hardware navigate toward the slimmer SD/MMC's but I guess I was wrong.

2.) Only 32 megs of on board RAM. Sure, there is an upgrade available, but what about battery power? Will it fry the main system over a period of time? Et al...

3.) I don't even know if most programs and/or games can be even ran from the SD/MMC cards... can they? Back when I had the Jornada most could not. Can they now? If so, then I won't worry so much and transfer eveyrything to a 256 or 512 SD card and be done with it and settle for the 32 on board speed. If not then the 64 Meg upgrade along witth the 256 or 512 SD card is what I am going to have to live with.

So, did I (we) make a mistake? I would love the Jornada 928, but when I called them, they said it was not coming to America (this is the Pocket PC team in Singapore) but that they were working on a Compaq/HP version that won't be out for quite some time. Who knows what it will have on it.

The XDA is by far the "best" PPC Phone on the market right now, but like I said... did I make a mistake?

Best regards,
Monty Gibson

[Brad Adrian]

1.) It only carries an SD/MMC slot. If it had a CF slot I could do so much more in my profession such as read oxygen levels in patients bloodstreams, read ECG's at the bed side etc., etc. as these items use CF technology to plug into the PPC. I thought I would see more hardware navigate toward the slimmer SD/MMC's but I guess I was wrong.

There are a few interesting things happening, like SD cameras, but I wouldn't look for a lot of devices that plug into the SD slot for a while, especially those as specialized as the medical devices you describe.

2.) Only 32 megs of on board RAM. Sure, there is an upgrade available, but what about battery power? Will it fry the main system over a period of time? Et al...

I've not heard of any long-term effects of adding memory on the system.

3.) I don't even know if most programs and/or games can be even ran from the SD/MMC cards... can they? Back when I had the Jornada most could not. Can they now? If so, then I won't worry so much and transfer eveyrything to a 256 or 512 SD card and be done with it and settle for the 32 on board speed. If not then the 64 Meg upgrade along witth the 256 or 512 SD card is what I am going to have to live with.

Most applications can run from the storage card.

So, did I (we) make a mistake?

Well, that's kind of subjective, but it sounds like the only thing you won't be able to do is plug in the medical devices you mentioned. In the final analysis, you need to decide how important it is that you have a combined PDA/phone device. If you use (or will use) wireless data services a lot, like SMS or accessing the Internet, then the Pocket PC Phone Edition may be just what you need. If you typcially use (or will use) the PDA features in "disconnected" mode and simply need wireless voice (and not data) capabilities, you might be better off getting a Pocket PC that has all the bells and whistles you need and a separate phone.

You know what they say about opinions, and these are just mine. Anybody else have some helpful advice?

[Mr. Anonymous]

I made the switch from the Jornada 568 to the T-Mobile myself, and I couldn't be happier (well, an integrated flipcover would come close). Sure, you'll give up 32 megabytes of internal memory but many programs install just fine to an SD card.

The only thing I miss from my Jornada is the ability to access ethernet networks (I used a wired ethernet CF card, not a wireless one). Not having to carry a PDA and a phone around all day is very nice though, and I always have the internet accessible when I need it (comes in very handy for looking up information when out and about with friends).

Having said that, my partner is a registered nurse and decided to stay with his Jornada simply for the larger and cheaper CF cards that are available. He has lots of huge medical applications that while they could easily be installed on an SD card, we've got a lot of CF card lying around that we've already bought.

One more thought: do you spend more than say 30 minutes on your cell phone during the day? Do you hate using a hands-free? If you answered yes to both questions, my gut feeling would be that the size and data orientation of the T-Mobile might leave you disappointed.