At the outset, please let me make it clear that this review is likely to be biased, because I have always been a Palm Warrior! My first palm was a Sony Clie SJ 20, which was a lovely PDA. I have always felt that Sony made the best Palm OS PDAs, and at the time the SJ 20 beat available palm offerings hands down. Unfortunately Sony stopped selling their handhelds outside Japan in 2004. They were, in my opinion, the best you could get, when you factored in design, Cost, reliablility and value for money. And in sheer quality, ’it’s a Sony’ had no peer.
I had done extensive research on Palms and came across several customer complaints in The US, so I had to be careful here in India, even more so.
Ok, Getting down to brasstacks. Do YOU need a PDA?. If you are going to use it only for addresses and phone numbers, you really don’t. Any decent cell phone is good enough nowadays. You need one if you want to multitask; ie:
You want access to your bank account data, expenditure, work sheets
You want to carry technical manuals and text books in your pocket(great for physicians, interns and medical students: You can have Harrison’s Text book of medicine, Stedmans medical dictionary, the invaluable Washington Manual of Medicine and 6 dozen more in your handheld!)
You want to organise your notes, and want them available at the drop of a hat. great for students and teachers
You want to organise your schedule(Nowadays most cell phones can do this too)
You want to back up all you data on card and PC(Ditto)
You want to listen to music and watch video occasionally(’)
You want to preare, edit, review spreadsheets/Power point presentations
You want to show off your vacation/daughter’s photos
You love to read on the move_ you can store hundreds of e novels on your handheld: this was of great use for me last year when I was in the ICU on vigil, after my Dad had a stroke.
You need access to e mail on the move
Like I said, most of these can now be done in several cell phones, but only a few can do all, and they are prohibitively expensive(like the XDA O2 etc)
So, if you feel you need one, which type do you choose?
There are mainly three types commonly available:
Palm OS
Pocket PC OS(Previously Winows CE/ Mobile)
Others(Blackberry etc)
Let me go over them in brief:
1. Palm: The original Palm’Pilot’:
Pros:
More stable OS(But still crashes plenty!)
More efficient OS: Needs less RAM and memory for programs; Palms are faster at similar CPU clock speeds. If you run a program on PPC and Palm having a processor of say, 400 Mhz, the Palm would be faster as the program is smaller and more’efficient’ so to speak.
3.More intuitive: using a palm is supposed to be easier than using PPC
More freeware: This is, in my opinion, THE MOST important reason to choose Palm over PPC. maybe because palm encourages open source development and is an older brand, there are 20 times more free software sources on the net for Palm software. Often a program debuts in Palm and only later is the PPC version available.
Easy syncing of MS word excel with “Documents to go” software
Cheaper than PPC
Cons:
Very slow company: Palm drags its heels. Even their “latest’ Tungsten 5’ is not’State of the art’(After T3- T4 was never made apparently because of some Chinese superstition regarding #4, I heard!) It does feature stable, unerasable ROM memory, which is a great plus, but lacks a camera(available in the Zire 72), and even WiFi, though it has Bluetooth. Lacking WiFi in the year 2005!(You can add a WiFi card, but that smacks of marketing hustling to buy their card!), and that with their(almost) latest model. Their very latest is the “Life Drive” with a HUGE 4 Gigabytes of ROM memory and Wi Fi. But still no OS 6 Palms have arrived, though the software has. Like I said, . If you want a true state of the art PDA, Palm takes its own time.
Quality. If your piece is good, it is good. But quality is not uniform, going through the numerous complaints that used to dog the company and service isn’t any better I hear. I went ot reviews on several sites when I was researching the M500 and 505 series of Palms(now discontinued) and the sheer number of customer complaints and lack of Palm support swerved me to the Sony side, and I am glad I did!
Display: nowadays very good, but PPCs are better as regards clarity and brightness, but you realize that only when you compare side to side. The T E( latest is E2 with longer battery and better screen) is OK and T3 even better.
2. PPC:
Pros:
Larger Memory: Needed as OS is more “unwieldy”
Clearer Screen
3 types of handwriting recognition. In Palm you get graffiti
2, which is quite good, but I am used to, and therefore prefer the older Graffiti. Decuma is also very good, and came free with the Sony TJ 37, and can be bought. But PPC has inbuilt 3 forms of HR- A graffiti clone, a nice natural write and block.
- Great looks with camera( I don’t like the Zire 72 looks. A Tungsten T3 with camera would be perfect!, but not available L)
Cons:
Cost: More
Less freeware available
Crashes: Its windows after all!
Others: Blackberry, etc mainly meant for e mail on the move. Don’t know much except that BB had a proprietary “push” technology that makes sure your mail reaches you. Available with Airtel services
So, which should you go for:
PALM:
For the budget buyer, I recommend:
Palm Tungsten E 2: great buy, nice design, excellent battery, lovely screen and ROM memory. Plus MP3. No camera though and only 200 MHz processor, but should be fine for Palm programs. Cost 249 USD. Available for 199 at some sites
If you can’t live without a camera: Zire 72: Special Edition(looks better than the original blue, and its paint tend to flake!)
For the loaded: Wait for a few months. If urgent, consider the Lifedrive, The LifeDrive is the first member of palmOne’s new Mobile Manager handheld category, aimed at those who want’Digital everything’: Photos, MP3s, videos, lots and lots of documents and the usual PIM applications to keep track of appointments, contacts and tasks. Yes, many PDAs can handle these tasks, but the LifeDrive sets itself apart by providing you with a whopping 4 gigs of storage .
If you need a phone too, TREO 650 is your best bet now.
PPC:
Budget:
RZ 1715:This new iPAQ will please those on a budget who are looking for a very compact device and have no need for integrated wireless networking. Unfortunately it lacks two key features that the 1945 had: Bluetooth and a user replaceable battery.
For the Loaded:
i-Mate JAM: Similar in size to the very portable and popular Palm OS Treo 650, the JAM has a 2.8’ transflective display, 416 MHz Intel XScale processor, Bluetooth and a 1.3 megapixel digital camera. Plus triband GSM phone.
And of course, the XDA O2, which, I believe is the Rolls royce of PDAs now. Fantastic design, Power and clarity, but at 35K plus, I just can’t afford it!