03.10.03

Time to buy a new PDA

Posted in Geekdom at 2:25 pm by Leopoldo

I have had a Palm V PDA for about four years now. The little guy has been a life saver for me, I call it my brain because it remembers everything I do not (where I am supposed to be and when, phone numbers, passwords, shopping lists, etc…). I have had a desire to replace it for some while now, mainly because I ran out of memory on the device about two years ago when I started syncing it against Outlook at work. When I first ran out of memory I dealt with it by deleting a couple of applications I had installed and did not use. Since then the memory situation ha gotten worse, forcing me to delete apps and utilities I was using. The system freezes every so often, the cover is broken so it barely hangs on and worst of all the device looses alignment with the stylus regularly forcing me to go back to the setup utility and re-calibrate. In short, it is time to buy a new PDA.


My original intent when I bought this palm was to wait for Cell Phone/PDAs to become inexpensive and small, then upgrade to one of those. The mixed devices that have come out (like the Treo 300) have been too expensive, bulky and force into service contracts that are simply not as lucrative as what I pay for my AT&T Cell phone. The idea of merging my cell phone and PDA is quite attractive, that would be one less belt tumor to lug around. I have however gone to some length to find a cell phone that is small enough to slip into a pocket and does not have an antenna that will poke me every time I bend over (a Nokia 3360) and have no desire to go back to a bulky model.

I started thinking last month about what I want from a PDA and started to look at the available models. The features that I want (more or less in order from most to least important) are:

- Rechargeable battery: This is a must. I must be able to cradle my PDA and have it recharge, playing with batteries is NOT an option.
- Small: No protruding antennas or bulky devices.
- Compatibility / Available Software: I considered getting a PocketPC but the lack of software plus loosing use of the Palm software I have purchased make this a loosing proposition for me.
- Plenty of memory and expandable memory: I knew when I bought my Palm V that 2MB would eventually prove to not be enough, but I was surprised with how quickly I used those 2MB up and needed more. I would also like to load MP3s and movies into my PDA, which leads us to:
- Audio Jack and MP3 player: Music to go? Sure, sign me up!
- Keyboard: I hate graffiti and it hates me.
- High-resolution color screen: Multimedia on the hoof!
- Reasonable price: I know you pretty much get what you pay for, once I decide on a model I will do some price hunting.
- Sturdy: I doubt anyone is making flimsy PDAs, but I want to make sure the one I buy can survive living in my pocket.

At first I thought a Handspring Treo 90 was the model for me. It is small, color, has lots of RAM, is rechargeable and sells for under $200 (a lot of web sellers have these guys on sale). I got a chance to play with a co-worker’s Treo 90 though and found that it feels a bit flimsy, has a low-resolution color screen and does not have any audio option. The Palm m515 seems to be similar to the Treo 90 in features and in price.

The Palm Tungsten T is more attractive with a high-resolution color screen, a hidden graffiti area (the button box at the bottom slides open), audio jack all for $400. It also got rave reviews from PC World who put it atop their Top 10 PDAs and rated it Best Buy.

At that price range the best contender though seems to be the Sony Clie PEG-TG50 which has all the features of a Tungsten T plus a jog dial and an integrated keyboard. The only worry I have about the Sony device is that it seems to only accept Sony made memory cards for expansion (which may not be a bad thing since all I currently intend to do with memory cards is carry files like spreadsheets and music files around). The Sony site also cites Windows as a requirement for the host PC. I have not been able to find any information on the Sony site about Macintosh compatibility yet, if the Clie is truly not Mac compatible it will be an immediate deal breaker.

I would love to get advice from anyone who knows about PDAs or has an opinion on what model to get. Anyone using a Clie out there who would care to tell me how well they like it? Any other model suggestions? Anything else I may want to consider as I choose a model?

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