PDA Choice.......help!

[kruger]

Hi all

OK I am pretty new to PDA about 48hrs in fact, I need a little advice please, I have chosen pocket pc os as it looks the best for my business and what I will need but I have no idea what make or model to get!

I want something to slip in my pocket for daily use for making notes and such but also something that will store a couple of mp3's ect and also wireless would be great.

Whats the top PDA at the moment? Or would anyone suggest anything else, I don't want to buy a PDA thats been out for 2 years and will need updating within a few months.

Thank you all

Kruger

[DigitalD]

I love the (see below) it great for all my buisness needs. It pleanty of power and none of the overkill like a built in qwerty key pad (that takes up space) and a biometric figerporint security (I don't store NSA material)

so specs
http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/ipaq_2215.htm

I love this ppc, its got a consumer grade IR, works great to beam and use a an universal remote (I have 11 devices in my home, not to mention office tvs, projectors ect)

dual SD & CF programs and buisness on one and movies music on the other

for wifi buy a CF adapter

doesn't have a record button but you can 'map' on of the buttons to do it

good size, case feels more rugged that 19xx and 4xxx/5xxx

[VisualMonster]

If you're on a budget and want as many features as possible, I would look at a toshiba e755. They have a 400mhz pxa255 xscale processor, 92mb memory (counting the 32mb flash rom), compact flash and secure digital expansion, 802.11 WiFi, and bunch of other cool features. You should be able to find these for about $350.

Consider the toshiba e805 if you want an even better device :-).

[omikron.sk]

OK, criteria, which u should consider:

1. do I need a CF (compact flash) slot?
2. do I need a SD (Secure Digital) slot?
3. do I need my SD slot to be SDIO?
4. do I need BlueTooth?
5. do I need Wi-Fi?
6. do I need VGA (480x640 instead of classical 240x320) screen (currently only Toshiba e805)?
7. how strong battery do I need (ranging from cca 900-1800 mAh)?
8. do I need a Consumer grade IR (for controlling devices such as TVs, ... and for long-range beaming)?
9. do I need a high-end models features (vibrating on alarm, finger scanning)?

answer these questions and I'll tell the exact model to you :wink:

[PetiteFlower]

Axim x3i is a good possibility if you're on a budget.

[kruger]

Hi guys

Thanks for all your replys, I have been looking at the IPAQ H5555 which looked nice.

But to answer your questions:

OK, criteria, which u should consider:

1. do I need a CF (compact flash) slot? - yes
2. do I need a SD (Secure Digital) slot? - not sure what this is?
3. do I need my SD slot to be SDIO? - again not sure what this is?
4. do I need BlueTooth? - yes might be handy in the future
5. do I need Wi-Fi? - defintily
6. do I need VGA (480x640 instead of classical 240x320) screen (currently only Toshiba e805)? - not sure but would like best screen.
7. how strong battery do I need (ranging from cca 900-1800 mAh)? - not really a problem

8. do I need a Consumer grade IR (for controlling devices such as TVs, ... and for long-range beaming)? - I didnt know they could do this but yes that sounds great, would love that.

9. do I need a high-end models features (vibrating on alarm, finger scanning)? - Vibrate sounds good.

Hope thats some help

Thank you

Kruger

[omikron.sk]

Hi guys

Thanks for all your replys, I have been looking at the IPAQ H5555 which looked nice.

But to answer your questions:

OK, criteria, which u should consider:

1. do I need a CF (compact flash) slot? - yes
2. do I need a SD (Secure Digital) slot? - not sure what this is?
3. do I need my SD slot to be SDIO? - again not sure what this is?
4. do I need BlueTooth? - yes might be handy in the future
5. do I need Wi-Fi? - defintily
6. do I need VGA (480x640 instead of classical 240x320) screen (currently only Toshiba e805)? - not sure but would like best screen.
7. how strong battery do I need (ranging from cca 900-1800 mAh)? - not really a problem

8. do I need a Consumer grade IR (for controlling devices such as TVs, ... and for long-range beaming)? - I didnt know they could do this but yes that sounds great, would love that.

9. do I need a high-end models features (vibrating on alarm, finger scanning)? - Vibrate sounds good.

Hope thats some help

Thank you

Kruger

OK, first I will explain the terms you didn't understand: SD = Secure digital = storage cards similar to the CFs, but they are smaller (physically about 1cm×2cm×3mm), little bit fascer and currently the biggest is 1GB of storage. They are slowly becoming a standard for Pocket PCs. SDIO = secure digital input/output slot = you can plug a devices into a SD slot such as GPS, Wi-Fi etc. About VGA: I don't think you really need this, but if you are interested, the Toshiba e805 is the only device with such display. About your h5555 - quite cool device, but doesn't have a CF slot (but do have a SD slot, which is SDIO). If you really want a CF, you miqht think about iPaq h2210 (2215) with a Wi-Fi card plugged into a SD or CF slot. also Asus has an a716 model that ihave everything you want except for customer grade IR and vibration. It is also a little bit oversized.
Vibration is generally only a privilegium of high end models (h5555 has it).

[rhmorrison]

Wait for the new ASUS A730 coming this Summer and you can have everything you want + 128 MB memory and 1.3 Megapixel camera!

[Dolphin]

I like the small iPaq's you cant beat the size. But what I would really like is a small ppc that has a nice camera for photos and videos. Viewsonic has one but I just wasn't sure about it. Looked kind of cheap. Anyone have one? I'm interested in the camera/size thing. Power is not a concern. Oh... and a phone!

What's everyone think of the Samsung i700?

[kruger]

Hi all

Thank you for the advice and information it helped me a lot, I went ahead and purchased a IPAQ 5555 last night and love it so far, still getting used to it, works great on my wireless network but can't get Messenger working for some reason something about not the correct version! Its charging up at the moment as I wore it out yesterday.

Be interested to hear from any other 5555 owners, thanks again all.

Kruger

[omikron.sk]

Congratulations!

Welcome to our comunity :wink:

To get Messenger work download and install update:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/resources/msnmessenger/pocketpc.mspx

[Dolphin]

Kruger,

I'm curious...what made you get the 5555 over the smaller iPaq's. I love the size of my 1945. I don’t even need a case for it... just slide it in my pocket, screen faced in, and I don't even know it's there! And now HP has faster ones that are the same size and have wifi & bluetooth to boot!

[kruger]

Hi Dolphin

I checked out HP and could not see another IPAQ that was faster than the 5555? 400mhz and 128meg Ram, it seemed the fastest and people seem to like Ipaqs, size isnt a problem for me at all, I love the unit.

Thanks

Kruger

[omikron.sk]

Kruger, just one point:

almost all current HP iPaqs have 400MHz X-scale processor (except for 19xx ones) and bigger RAM in Pocket PCs doesn't mean higher performance, but mostly more storage space. iPaqs typically use 10-20MB of RAM as a program memory and the rest is for your documents, apps etc (storage memory).
But...you're right you've got the most powerful iPaq (no matter it is the same power as my h2210 :wink: ). If you don't care about the size the h5555 might really be the greatest choice for you. For me size was one of the main aspects why I decided to buy my current PPC.

[kruger]

Hi guys

Hmmm I don't really have a answer for that but I did want the extra storage space and the thumb scan thing looked cool, to be honest its my first ever pda and I only really am 4 days into knowing about so if I did make the wrong decision then hopefully this model will let me see what features I like or would want when I upgrade in the future. Its just a stepping stone really.

Thanks for the MSN update, going to update that now.

[omikron.sk]

I don't think you did a wrong choice. H5555 is pretty cool, in fact HP declares it as their best PDA and it was the only Pocket PC in space (really, I'm not kidding). The bigger memory is surely good, my 64MB (of which are only 57MB accessible for user and another 10-20MB consumes the OS and running apps and I've got only about 40MB for my apps) forced my to buy a storage card only a few weeks after buying a PDA. 128MB (about 100MB for your apps) will may be let you use it even without storage card.

[kruger]

Hi folks, sorry for being dumb but I have been trying to work out how to update MSN Messenger from the file I downloaded.

Its downloaded "PPC 2003 - MSN (R) Messenger Update" into my MS Activesync folder but not sure how to upload it from here? Anyone any ideas?

Thank you again

Kruger

[omikron.sk]

MSN update is a regular "setup" file - simply run it on your Desktop PC, while you have iPaq craddled and synchronized via ActiveSync (green icon in the tray). Most of the application must be installed onto your iPaq via Desktop PC. (Note: PPC accepts .cab files as an installation files and only these can be installed directly on your PPC without Desktop PC).

[kruger]

Thank you, thats great, I needed to soft reboot the ipaq for it to work, all done now and messenging everyone :)

Is there a list of software avaible to pocket pc's on the net anyway? I was doing a search on this forum and came across ICQ for the pda which amazed me and wonder what else is out there?

Thanks again for your help

[omikron.sk]

The best Pocket PC resource is at
www.pocketgear.com , www.handango.com and www.pocketpccity.com
if you are looking for freeware try:
www.pocketpcfreewares.com or www.freewareppc.com
If you want something about one concrete product or want to find product that can do this and this... or if you have ANY questions about PPC feel free to PM me.