Pocket pc/PDA

Reading one of the other topics proded me to ask this.... how useful is it to have a PDA -type pcket pc for travel? My only real need is to pick up email, though the odd look at a site is useful. I tried asking in PC World (the guy was totally clueless, all he wanted to do was tell me about his mobile phone package!!!)

Can these be used at wireless hotspots in the same way as a laptop is, or do you need yet more kit to get online when using them?

Do any of you think it's worthwhile to get one? I do have a (very recently acquired and thanks for the info about battery life - interesting to read how a widescreen also saps energy, as mine is widescreeen) - but I can't be bothered woth lagging it around with me, it's really not practical and the thought of yet more security checks bores me totally numb.

Actually, how easy it it to get onlien with them at home? I assume they have some sort of bluetooth etchnology? Or technology even...

Any recommendations?

Thank you, pals.....[y]

Some do have wireless built in, but not many. You can usually get a slot in CF card that will connect you up to wireless hotspots though - check out ebay. However I find mine vital for travel. I use it (with the phone connection ie GPRS) to do my email. This can be done anywhere anytime, and is not too expensive (about £7/month for me and I get about 80 emails a day - much less than a wireless subscription!). I also use it from time to time to look at the web (Find directions for example or to look at V-F) both with wireless and GPRS. It is a little slow on GPRS, but very usable if you set it not to download images. I also use it as a simple word processor with a bluetooth keyboard.

They are certainly not a replacement for the PC. The screen size can be limiting, but not too bad. Good enough that on some trips, if I am not going to be doing traditional PC work or if there is a PC on site I can work at, I only take my PDA. The other potential drawback is that they have limited memory, so you have to be careful about deleting old files and old emails rather than saving everything - remember you can 'sync' it with your PC very easily so you can always keep copies of everything on your PC. You can also set it so that emails you download on your PDA also appear again when you do your email on your PC, so you have a permanent record. Do make sure you go for a PDA with as much memory as you can afford though, and buy an SD memory card to go with it. They do not have as much battery life as a phone - with normal usage I get about 48 hours, but I also keep a spare battery source.

If all you will do is email, look at blackberry. However they are otherwise pretty limited. If you want to do more (word documents, internet surfing, wireless, games, play movies, ect) then go for a PDA.

So my verdict would be that although a PDA is not a full substitute for a PC, and they do take a little effort to get used to, I could not live without mine these days.

+Easy to carry
+versitile
+can use it for most things you would use a PC for
+Easy to keep in touch
+not too expensive to use for data

-Input is not as easy as a PC, and if you use handwriting recognition it can take time to get used to.
-Battery life not as long as a phone
-A good PDA is not cheap
-A bad PDA is not worth the money

BTW - I working on my PDA with a bluetooth keyboard and a wireless connection at home at the moment - which shows it is pretty usable once you get with it.

[mitchja]

I've also looked at Blackberry's but they only tend to come with 12 or 18 month mobile phone contracts (T Mobile, Vodaphone, Orange and O2 currently offer them) so you will be paying £25+ a month to use them. They also cost around £120 (one off payment)

They can replace your contract mobile phone but for those of us who just use PAYG phones for occasional calls/texts it's really not worth it.

I've often wondered though if an un-locked Blackberry would work with a PAYG SIM?

Regards

I don't know about unlocked blackberrys, but you can use an unlocked PDA with a PAYG SIM. But it is damned expensive in the data bundle I believe.

You are right about the phone contracts - all the blackberries and PDAs tend to come with business contracts, and often they are over a year (although year contracts are available with Vodafone I believe), which is fine but only of you are going to be giving it a hammering. I must admit I had assumed that the OP was asking from a business perspective, although that may not be the case. The alternative is to buy your PDA and then just buy the contract you want. They are not cheap still, although a really great guy was selling a couple of used PDAs on ebay recently - IIRC his user name was Yachtsman99, although who that could be I don't know . Nevertheless, decent ones do come up on ebay from time to time in the sub-£200 range. Alternatively they are (or at least used to be) cheap as chips in Singapore.

PS - The £7 I mentioned earlier is just the data charge. The phone charge comes on top and is the level that Mitchja was indicating. But I do hammer it (never use my land line) and use all my free minutes.

I gave up carrying a laptop a long time ago. Now I just use one of my 3 Pocket PCs.

Windows Mobile Smartphone is a Pocket PC with a phone added; you may hear some people mention getting one. Well, it's a great unit, if you can stand the initial cost and the monthly access fee (both are pretty steep). It's NOT so great, though, when the crews can't tell it's not being used as a phone. There are a few threads on here about problems with that - even though you can use it in non-phone mode, some airlines don't care and just ban them all. VS just made an announcement allowing them for use onboard in non-phone mode.

DON'T get a wireless card if you are offered one, if all you want to do is check mail. They're not worth the money, as they are far slower than an older cable-linked card. The service fee is just another headache, IMHO.

I can do almost as much with a PPC as I can with a laptop (you can get keyboards which are functional, notice I said keyboard, not thumbboard). Write in Word, use Excel, any matter of things, even download news and other info (like a current copy of the Underground map). You can surf your mail, use them as mp3 players or even watch video on them, and with either SD cards or CF cards, you can expand your memory capacity as far as your wallet will allow.

If you choose to get an older model, get a color one, and one with at least a StrongARM processor or newer. Don't even bother looking at no-name models. The peripherals are nowhere to be found. You can find iPaqs on eBay quite easily, and most of them are ARMs.

I can't imagine traveling without one. But you will need a computer at each end of your trip, so you can upload/download needed files and get updates by sync. This will take a bit of work, because both destination and home computers will need sync software installed.

A Pocket PC won't replace a laptop, but if you have both it will certainly make your carry-on lighter!

And last, but not least, DON'T GET A PALM. They are not the same critter!

Here's a site to read for more info about all things Pocket PC: http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/ (I would shorten the link, if I only remembered how, gomen nasai, scusi![:I] The FAQ link to it is still going to the old site... sorry, mea culpa...)[:I]

Originally posted by catsilversword
Any recommendations?

Yes - I am just about to write a review of the T-Mobile MDA Vario II in this very forum!

Cheers, Howard

Originally posted by vs_itsallgood

DON'T get a wireless card if you are offered one, if all you want to do is check mail. They're not worth the money, as they are far slower than an older cable-linked card. The service fee is just another headache, IMHO.

I manage to get much the same connection speed with my SD wireless card as my PC, so can download emails complete with full attachments. With free hotspots all over the place, particularly in the US, and costing only £10 or so if you search, it seems pretty good VFM to me!

I stand corrected!

Perhaps the SD cards are faster than my slightly prehistoric CF.

Ignore my wireless comments, and go with the above.

(oh, dear, was this a pointless post???)

Oh, I'm sorry, VS_itsallsogoo. I'm anispeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation. It wasn't meant as a slap. CF is a little old hat though!;)

Many thanks everyone - your collective comments have defo gone a long, long way to asnwering many of my hitherto unanswered questions (and I just knew you people would know! ) I was looking to get an alternative for travel, to avoid the need to hunt down internet cafes and such - but reading all your input, it doesn't seem that a PDA is the answer for me. I use a PAYG phone, and my usage is really low, so to get something like a Blackberry (which I'd already discounted because of the hefty monthly fee and the tie-in) is impractical, and from what you're all saying, I don't think the PDA is either.

May the solution isn't around yet! Maybe someone out there needs to think about providing a service to rent something like this on a short-term basis for people on holiday. Being away from TV/radio doesn't bother me at all when I'm away, but being away from email does - sad, I know - and internet access, I've found, can be either feast or famine.

OK, back to the drawing board! [:?]

Sounds like a good decision to me, given your usage levels. Both the monthly fee and/or the initial cost of purchase are pretty steep for a 'nice to have'.

Originally posted by sailor99
Sounds like a good decision to me, given your usage levels. Both the monthly fee and/or the initial cost of purchase are pretty steep for a 'nice to have'.

Exactly, my good man! It was worth airing though, if only to get a better understanding of it all.

And maybe I should be the one to st up such a business....[}:)]

Someone has been there before you I think. You can already hire smart phones (VV expensive though). You need to know your pop/smtp or Imap settings to use them for email though.