Palm or Pocket PC?????

[gazzak]

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place! I have researched palms and pocket PC's and have come up with a shortlist of 2, (1 of each). I'm either going with a Tungsten E Palm or a Toshiba E400 pocket PC. Trouble is I REALLY can't decide which. Everyone I know with a palm says get a palm, everyone I know with a pocket PC says get a pocket PC.

Advice?

[NooNoo]

Get both, send me the one you dont like

[hudsonsmith]

Used to be there was a pretty big price and feature gap between the palms and the pocket pc's. The feature gap has narrowed considerably, especially w/ palm now bundling documents to go (word/excel compatibility), and the prices of the pocket pc's have come way down. You probably can't go too far wrong with either one. I've had the toshiba e310 for about 2 years now and have been happy.

Probably the biggest difference is palm's reliance on graffiti for data entry, whereas pocket pc has pretty decent handwriting recognition. Another feature I like on pocket pc is pocket streets, which allows you to download maps (don't know if palm has this or not). Its great to go on a trip and be able to find streets and addresses.

[Gollo]

Go with pocket pc. Most units now have adapters that will allow you to use normal pcmcia devices. That and there are a whole lot more things you can do with the ppc. Man I want one of those things!! It it were me I'd go with an iPaq though just becuase I know all the features they have (one model has a way geeky biometric device that replaces you inputing a password. very kool)

[WebHead]

The hot item on the market right now seems to be the Treo 600. If you can find one of those,.. snatch it up. And in other news,.. AT&T Wireless is selling the Seimens SX56 (Pocket PC) for a cool $99.99 (normally retails for $549.99). That is one HELLUVA deal. Again,.. if you can find one. Again sold out.

[Stalemate]

Question is: What do you want it for?

Just messing around with a handheld device, looking for multimedia features and Windows compatibility = PocketPC

Function over form, speed and battery life = PalmOS

I'm debating those things in my mind too right now, as I've had 3 Palm-based devices (trying to sell my Sony Clié) and am now looking for something which will do music playback. I'm still not convinced I'll go with PocketPC, but...

[gazzak]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Very helpful. The map feature is superb, I'm always going to new places and have to take a bunch of printouts from multimap. I like graffiti, (currently have an OLD handspring Visor, (NooNoo you can have that)), but like the sound of handwriting recognition better. I need it because everything I do has to be documented before I forget, and I have lots of technical docs to carry around and can't be bothered to get the laptop out every time I need to access one.

Edging towards pocket pc now, it would be the more expensive one wouldn't it?

Thanks again

[confus-ed]

Edging towards pocket pc now, it would be the more expensive one wouldn't it?

Well what are the comparative prices? they always struck me as expensive toys, I just lug my lappie

[hudsonsmith]

Don't know about the UK, but in the US the toshiba is running from $260-300, with the palm $175-200. The more expensive ones are those with wi-fi, wireless, etc.

[Radical Dreamer]

I'd go with a Pocket PC

[Stalemate]

...Edging towards pocket pc now, it would be the more expensive one wouldn't it?

Thanks again

PocketPCs are not really much more expensive than PalmOS handhelds.

I'm looking to spend around 350-400$ CAN for my next one and like I said, the choice is hard to make.

In that price range, you'll get a high quality Palm PDA or an very functional PocketPC

Here's a price comparison in US$ for some models I'm currently looking over

• PalmOS - PalmOne Tungsten T2: 300$
• PalmOS - Sony Clié TJ35: 275$
• PalmOS - Sony Clié TJ50: 290$
• PocketPC - Toshiba e400/e405: 300$
• PocketPC - Dell Axim X31: 300$
• PocketPC - HP h4150/4155: 415$

I like the Memory Stick media (using a 128Mb stick in my current Sony), even if it is proprietary technology. The speed of the Memory Stick Pro (2nd generation) interests me for music playback.

[gazzak]

UPDATE:

Went to PC-World to buy one. PC-World in Hayes in case anyone knows it. There was just one Toshiba E400 left, and that was in the display cabinet. 45 minutes later when they still hadn't found the keys to the cabinet I walked away. They probably wonder why they seem to have a bad reputation for customer service!!!

[SULK] because I wanted to play with it [/SULK]

[delmer_1]

UPDATE:

Went to PC-World to buy one. PC-World in Hayes in case anyone knows it. There was just one Toshiba E400 left, and that was in the display cabinet. 45 minutes later when they still hadn't found the keys to the cabinet I walked away. They probably wonder why they seem to have a bad reputation for customer service!!!

[SULK] because I wanted to play with it [/SULK]

i have the toshiba e740 pocket pc at work, and i really like it, but i have had alot of problems with it. it periodically locks up hard and just refuses to do anything, even turn off. then the only course of action is to remove the battery. this has happened 5 or 6 times in the few months that i have had it. my boss also has one just like it and his does the same thing.

teh battery life is really short. i dont know exact measurements. but one day i had it in my pocket and forgot about it .(it was turned off) when i woke up the next morning and was getting everything out of my pants pockets, the battery light was flashing saying that it was almost dead.

this one has integrated wifi, which is really nice, but it kills the batteries even faster. if you get one with wifi, make sure the wifi is turned off when you dont need it, because it just sucks the life out of the unit.

I dont know how the palms work,but on this toshiba, when the batter dies, it loses everything. all settings, anything stored on the device memory. stuff on a memory card will still be there, but anything contained in the device memory gets erased when there is no more power. so everytime it locked up and i had to take out the battery, i had to set it up all over again. it was a real pain.


but i didnt have to buy it, so i continue to put up with it. it is really nice with the wireless so i can sync it with my outlook from anywhere in the building. so i always have my emails and calendar

[hudsonsmith]

i have the toshiba e740 pocket pc at work, and i really like it, but i have had alot of problems with it. it periodically locks up hard and just refuses to do anything, even turn off. then the only course of action is to remove the battery. this has happened 5 or 6 times in the few months that i have had it. my boss also has one just like it and his does the same thing.

teh battery life is really short. i dont know exact measurements. but one day i had it in my pocket and forgot about it .(it was turned off) when i woke up the next morning and was getting everything out of my pants pockets, the battery light was flashing saying that it was almost dead.

this one has integrated wifi, which is really nice, but it kills the batteries even faster. if you get one with wifi, make sure the wifi is turned off when you dont need it, because it just sucks the life out of the unit.

I dont know how the palms work,but on this toshiba, when the batter dies, it loses everything. all settings, anything stored on the device memory. stuff on a memory card will still be there, but anything contained in the device memory gets erased when there is no more power. so everytime it locked up and i had to take out the battery, i had to set it up all over again. it was a real pain.


but i didnt have to buy it, so i continue to put up with it. it is really nice with the wireless so i can sync it with my outlook from anywhere in the building. so i always have my emails and calendar

Sounds like you've got a short. Battery drain should be minimal when its not on. Also, the e740 is supposed to have a backup battery, so you shouldn't be losing your data if the main battery runs down. Might be worth getting it checked while its still under warranty.

I have the e310 (which, granted, does not have wifi and has a different cpu) and I can go for days between charges, depending on what I use it for. Tends to run down more quickly if I'm listening to music or playing games. I've had it about 2 years and can count on one hand the number of times its locked up - has always been solved by a soft reset. Much better than the pos philips velo I had before.

[rgharper]

I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place! I have researched palms and pocket PC's and have come up with a shortlist of 2, (1 of each). I'm either going with a Tungsten E Palm or a Toshiba E400 pocket PC. Trouble is I REALLY can't decide which. Everyone I know with a palm says get a palm, everyone I know with a pocket PC says get a pocket PC.

Advice?

I have had both a Palm and a Pocket PC (actually, first I had a Handspring, then a true-blue Palm, then the Pocket PC). I would say go for the Pocket PC. I liked my Palm but the Pocket PC is much more flexibile. For example, at work I put a 512mb SD card in it and turn it into portable storage plus scheduling and contacts; at home I swap the SD memory card for a SD wireless card so I can stay connected.