Lost my x50...what should I replace it with?

[Stake]

I lost it a few weeks ago on the bus. I have no idea what happened to it but it's gone. It was a sad day.

I've been a WinCE/PPC fan from day one (I owned the Sharp Mobilon! I think I even have it...somewhere.) Since then, I've gone through a few PPCs but I'm wondering if it's worth it to replace it. I do want high portability but there are alternatives now (UMPC, Sony's ultra portable, PPC phones, TabletPC, etc) which begs the question, what should I replace it with? Or better yet, should I even replace it at all and stick with my IBM T40? I'd like to replace the T40 as it's starting to show it's age.

If anyone has had experience with UMPC and PPC phones, I'd like get some input under real world conditions. I'm particularly interested in what works and and what doesn't.

[Darius Wey]

I think now's a convenient time for you to upgrade to a Pocket PC Phone Edition, simply because convergence is too good a thing to miss out on. One device, one set of data, and if you want to go the extra mile, push services via MSFP and Exchange Server 2003 SP2. But I guess at the end of the day, this question is best answered by a breakdown of what you demand from mobile computing.

[ADBrown]

I wouldn't recommend the UMPCs. They're much larger than a PPC (6x larger than an Axim, for instance) and expensive to boot. Likewise for tablet PCs. There's an argument to be made for PPC phones, but I'd recommend you check out the Dell Axim X51v. Not only is it a stellar device, but you can get it for as cheap as $250 on eBay.

[JesterMania]

I think it's about how much money you're willing to spend. Probably the cheapest solution would be the Axim x51v if you don't care about phone capabilities. But like Darius said, the PPC Phone does offer many advantages and you might want to shell out a little more for one of them. One thing on PPC Phones though...if you're on a GSM operator you'll have a lot more choices. For CDMA, I think you're left with only the Treo 700 or the UTStarcom 6700 (both being good, but just less models to choose from).

[Stake]

Price is a factor. I would like to get a device with some kind of keyboard. It would be really nice to get a PDA only with a slider like the 6700. It would probably be thinner that the current models.

I don't mind the size of the Q1, I like the screen size and the ability to use it at home for various functions like remote desktop but the lack of a real keyboard bothers me to a point. The other is the price and the short battery life.

A converged device might be out too since I am with Sprint which limits me at the moment. The Treo is under powered. The x6700 is tad chunky, a bit underpowered and has questionable slide mechanism. If anything, I'd wait until Q107 to see if the new PDA phones are carried by Sprint if I were to consider one.

Which leads me back to the Dell...

I'll have to think about this some more...

[isajoo]

This question is for anyone with a ppcpe aka pda phone...Just curios, what is the talk time on those things and do I have to charge them daily? Because I have both a ppc and cellphone and usually charge them every 3-5 days. Also...Does the phone part of it meaning gsm have to always be on 24 hours...Or can u turn it off. wouldn't that extend battery life...Maybe?

[isajoo]

opps double post

[Nurhisham Hussein]

For PDA phones, the GSM radio continues to operate going into standby - in other words, unless you turn on flight mode (all radios off) or deliberately do a shutdown as opposed to a suspend, the phone part will continue to operate. I don't think the power drain there is that significant compared to the other parts of the PDA - you might save a little bit turning it off, but not so much that you'd really notice.

[Menneisyys]

This question is for anyone with a ppcpe aka pda phone...Just curios, what is the talk time on those things and do I have to charge them daily? Because I have both a ppc and cellphone and usually charge them every 3-5 days. Also...Does the phone part of it meaning gsm have to always be on 24 hours...Or can u turn it off. wouldn't that extend battery life...Maybe?

You may have missed this frontpage story (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=416675) ;)

Please DO check out my PPC PE-related articles. I've elaborated a LOT on these issues.

To summarize them: yes, it's the GSM radio that consumes the most, depending on the local field strength. With strong field, I've measured between 7-9% battery depletion a day due to ONLY the GSM radio. With weaker fields, the figures would have been far worse.

[The Silverdude]

My Trion lasts about 2 days with moderate phone use and other Pocket PC-related activities... but once I start using the WiFi and/or Bluetooth, I'd probably have to charge it almost every night. So I guess if you don't want to be tethered to an AC outlet on a semi-constant basis you may want to stay away from PE devices.

[Menneisyys]

you may want to stay away from PE devices.

I'd say that this can NOT be stated in general. While there are PE models that do chew through the battery really fast (for example, the HTC Universal), my HTC Wizard can generally be used w/o recharges for 2-3-4 days with moderate (2-3 hours a day at most) PDA and BT use (no Wi-Fi - Wi-Fi, of course, consumes a LOT of power.)

That is, there are PPC PE models with moderate power consumption. Most models aren't like this, sure. The Wizard is.

[Stake]

I think I've decided to wait at least for the next gen UMPC from Intel before I finalize a decision to buy a laptop or a PPC. It's amazing how small it is. You need to see this picture:

http://www.eweek.com/image_popup/0,1871,iid=148843,00.asp

It's closer to a PPC in size, has WiMax and WiFi and since I do have Sprint, it may make more sense to stick with them when they deploy in 2007 (hopefully I'm right.)

Any options on this updated Ruby concept?