How To Select a PDA/Phone
Here are some thoughts on what you might consider in choosing a PDA/Phone device, besides the obvious: price.
What Is It For?
Just like buying anything else, prioritize what you want it for and what you wish to do with it. Is it mostly for telephone calls, or do you want a calendar system? Or is it primarily for email? Do you want to take notes with it or surf the Internet? Do you want to take pictures, transfer files, edit documents, update spread sheets or database? How about play videos, play music, read ebooks, receive GPS signals and show maps, or control your TV, VCR or other equipment?
If you want to do all or most of these things, write down in priority order what you want to do the most. This will help you decide what to get. You should also keep in mind how you work. If you are travel often, battery life is may be more important to you than some other features.
Two Devices?
Most comments here presume you wish to carry only one device, not a phone and a separate PDA. However, if you don't mind having two devices, and you don't need Internet access over the cell phone, a small phone and a separate PDA will be cheaper and perhaps less complicated at this time.
Currently, I'm in between. I carry a Samsung i600 Smartphone all the time to check email and do all the PDA functions, but sometimes I take a Pocket PC to a meeting to take notes on.
It would be interesting if a Pocket PC or non-phone PDA or laptop could connect to a phone and use it's data connection to access the Internet.
Phone Service
In most cases, you will have to buy the device from your wireless provider. They put things in the phone to make it work with their network. (I was surprised that taking the SIM card out of a GSM/GPRS Blackberry, and putting it in Siemens SX56 (that was from ATT but not activated) worked fine. My Samsung i600 with Verizon CDMA service doesn't have any card to move to another device.) In a big city, there are lot's of choices and you might pick the device before the provider. You lucky dog.
But where I live, the FIRST thing is to choose a provider that has a signal that reaches most of the places you spend most of your time. Here there are few choices, and very little coverage at my house. Verizon CDMA turned out to be just a little bit better than ATT GSM/GPRS, but others have the opposite experience. Talk to friends and invite them to your house or office to see how many "bars" they get on their phone.
Also check the cost of data service, and be prepared for a pretty expensive addition to the calling plan and SMS service.
If you pick your wireless provider first, your choice of devices will have narrowed significantly.
Size Matters
One of the first things you should think about is how you wish to carry the device. If you don't mind hanging something on a belt, you can go pretty big, but if you want to put in your pants pocket, you might need something smaller unless you always wear those cargo pants with the huge pockets. If you always were a suit coat, then you have a lot of pockets and size may not matter that much.
If it hangs on your belt, and you need to answer the phone often, be sure you can pull it out easily. For example, the Blackberry has a wonderful hard case/belt clip, and it is very easy to slide in and out. The Siemens SX56 is almost impossible to remove from its case without taking the whole thing off your belt. Also, the Blackberry is very snug against the belt, while some other cases stick out and get caught on things.
I don't like things on my belt (but carried a Blackberry like that for about a year), but I also have trouble getting a phone out of my jeans pocket, particularly while driving.
Input Methods
Closely related to size is the user interface for the device. Basic choices are:
- QWERTY keyboard: a full set of tiny keys, like a Blackberry
- Telephone keypad: 12 or so keys laid out like a standard telephone
- Touch screen: use your finger or a stylus to navigate and launch programs, use an on screen keyboard or handwriting recognition to enter text and data
- Voice recognition: some devices can recognize or be trained to recognize voice commands to dial the phone or select programs; this would usually be used in addition to keys.
I thought the keyboard and thumb wheel on the Blackberry was very nice and fairly easy to use, but later found I liked the touch screen of a Pocket PC for navigating. The Siemens SX56 was a bit to slow in the handwriting recognition department, but the Dell Axim X30 has a lot of CPU power and keeps up nicely.
If you would like to do many things with one hand, a configuration like the Blackberry, rolling a wheel to select icons and other items and clicking the wheel to select that item, works pretty well. Most traditional cell phones can be navigated with one hand as well, but you would find it difficult to hold a Pocket PC and use the touch screen at the same time with just one hand.
Entering more than a little bit of text with a phone keypad is exceedingly painful, even once you get used to it. Some phones have external keyboards, and I got one for the Samsung i600 that works ok. That might be a good option if you are only occasionally enter a lot of text or reply to emails.
The HP iPAQ h6415 Pocket PC phone has the touch screen and a snap-on keyboard.
Hardware Features
Battery
Battery life is a real challenge for many of these devices. Don't go by the vendor's claims. A lot depends on how you use it and the signal strength at your location. Some devices don't have replaceable batteries, or they are difficult to replace. You may want a spare, or a larger battery for trips.
Expandability
Many devices have a slot for SD (Secure Digital) or CF (Compact Flash) cards, or both. Some SD slots support SDIO (but the OS might not). Most people use expansion cards for added memory, but there are many that have I/O functions such as Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, GPS. etc. There are even CF cards to turn the Pocket PC into a cell phone, so you may not have to wait for the cell phone provider to support the device you really want.
Screen
Screen size, resolution, clarity and brightness are highly variable and can be important. If you work outside often, a screen that is visible in full sunlight might be important. Screens that are the same size and resolution can differ in quality. For example, the Dell Axim X30 screen doesn't display small characters as well as the Siemens SX56's screen; at some angles black letters will look red (same on my Dell laptop).
Connectivity
These devices have all kinds of connection options.
It is important that one the communication methods supported by the device is available on your computer. Almost all do USB these days, but my Blackberry's docking station was serial and many laptops don't have serial ports any more. Connection methods include:
- USB
- Infrared
- Bluetooth ("local" wireless)
- WiFi (802.11b)
- Wireless (over the phone's data connection)
So far for me USB is usually the easiest and most reliable, but I've used the infrared with several devices and a laptop when I didn't have a cable handy. More recently I'm using Bluetooth with ActiveSync Sync over the air is usually slower and lest reliable, but of course more convenient.
If you think you might want to use IR (Infrared) to connect to your laptop, note what side the IR port is on the device and on your laptop. If they are on the same side, you'll end up positioning the device upside down, and sometimes you'll need to read what is on the screen.
Also, do you want to use the device's phone/Internet connect as a modem for your laptop? That may or may not be feasible. Instructions for doing this with the Samsung i600 are here, and I followed them and did make a data connection with a laptop using the phone as a USB modem.
Cradle or Docking Station
Most devices come with, or have an optional, cradle or docking station that simultaneously charges the battery and connects it to your desktop computer. There is remarkable variation in usability of cradles. Features to look for:
- Lights to tell you the battery is being charged.
- Space for a backup battery.
- Easy insertion and removal of the device (some require two hands for removal).
- Button should not be covered up by the cradle.
- Removable cables help with routing the wires and if you use Bluetooth for a connection it is nice to not have the USB cable hanging around.
Other
Memory, processor speed, dedicated buttons, soft buttons, speaker placement, and speaker quality are all other hardware features you might consider.
Information Synchronization
If you usually use a desktop or laptop computer for email, contacts, notes, calendars and task lists, you are going to want to synchronize these objects with the device. Capabilities, methods and ease of use vary widely here and it will be important that the programs you use on your "main" computer are supported by the synchronization software.
You need to be sure the information you wish to use is supported on the device and is synchronized by the software. I use the "Notes" in Outlook for several kinds of fairly static information (shopping lists, books to read, CD's to buy, various numbers), and was shocked to find that Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone doesn't support these Notes. I've moved some of that information to Tasks, and some to web pages that I've manually copied to the phone. The provided software doesn't synchronize arbitrary files either, but third-party software is available that does.
If you plan to change and update your calendar, contacts, notes, etc., on the device, check how the synchronization software resolves changes made to the same object on the device and on your computer.
Software
OS
Check that the device ships with the current version of the operating system. For example, as of this writing (Fall, 2004), many Pocket PC's still ship with Windows Mobile 2003, even though Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition was released 6 months ago, and most vendors do not supply an upgrade.
Email is complicated because there are several different protocols, and you usually want email synchronized between your desktop or mail server and the handheld. Besides receiving messages (or copies of messages) sent to your email account(s), you want to be able to send messages and replies and move or delete messages, and have these replies and changes reflected on your mail server or desktop.
See the separate discussion about EMail here.
Web Browsing
Some devices support only certain kinds of web pages and/or don't support html features like frames.
Third Party
No device comes with everything everyone wants to do, and so there is a big market for additional software. You might look around for free software or shareware and compare what is available for different platforms.
Support
If you aren't very technical and don't have a personal technical support person, then support may be important for you. It looks like most phone devices are supported by the wireless provider. Check their support pages for knowledge bases, tips, downloads, etc.
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This page was last modified: 12/18/2006 3:01:17 PM.