Which PDA should I buy?!

[-=Wraith=-]

I wanna get a pda sometime in the next couple of weeks. Basically, I'll be using it for:
- contacts, calendar, the usual PIM apps
- games when I'm bored or on the subway/bus
- listen to music when I'm bored or on the subway/bus
- a nice screen would be nice

BUT first, i need to decide whether i'm gonna go with Palm or Pocket PC...so anyone got any opinions? (and I don't really care that PPC is more complicated to use)

[rai_dei]

I wouldn't say that a PPC is harder to use, its an OS preference really.
I've got an Axim, my bro and dad both have Clies, and I would choose my Axim over the Sony any day.

If the budget is not an issue, I would suggest a high end Palm, or a Vga capable PPC.
High end palms (like T3/T5/Clie TH55) have a bigger screen with a virtual graffiti pad, whereas the cheaper ones have a smaller screen area due to the said graffiti pad being a part of a screen.
Clies have the best screens out of any PDAs.
Most PPCs come with a 320*240 screen, no graffiti, they use transcriber (neat handwriting recognition proggie) and on-screen keyboard. You can get a mid-Axim X30 with a pretty fast processor and bt/wifi, or you could go for the vga with Asus 730 (its CPU is slower but its got USB hosting ability which is cool) or the Dell X50V.
One thing to mention, if you go for the higher-end PPCs, you might want to invest in a second battery or the larger-capacity one. The Palms don't seem to drain as much battery as the PPC, but its all relative.
Palms have a simpler interface, but PPCs can multi-task better (and have better games )

thats a long post, so i'm gonna wrap it up

[chatbox]

Using a T3 here and loving it.

The T5 is on sale in Canada Computers on boxing day for $39x.xx (can't remember the exact price). That is a pretty hot deal for a T5. You might want to check that out.

[Barton03]

how does the Tungsten E compare to all those above?

[squall458]

if u want an old school PPC then get the casio be-300! it can be had for cheap on <a href=../autolink/redirectpage.php?linkid=78 target=_blank>ebay</a>, it runs oldie win ce 2.1 or something, but it can be soft modded like crazy.

[-=Wraith=-]

thanx for the advice so far guys

for palm, i would probably get a zire 72 or tungsten E
for PPC, i'm looking at either Axim x30 mid or x30 high

for the x30's, anyone know of any performance differences for watching re-encoded divx/xvid videos on the 2 different models? Watching videos would make commuting a lot easier/enjoyable

[thephenom]

PPC over Palm anyday since it's so much more expandable in terms of functions.

[rai_dei]

for the x30's, anyone know of any performance differences for watching re-encoded divx/xvid videos on the 2 different models? Watching videos would make commuting a lot easier/enjoyable

If you go with the Axim, get the high-end for watching movies, that or go for asus, the 620 models had great movie fps rates (but they dont have wifi).
For the Palm I would recommend the T3, TJ37 or the Zire 72.
I would also suggest getting a unit with user replaceable battery.

[felixdd]

I'd suggest PPC. The fact that Palm OS doesn't have true multi-tasking, that it doesn't support multiple categories for each contact, and that its file structure is proprietary makes it a less attractive choice. Furthermore, Palm OS devices are very hard to get to work with WiFi cards -- whereas with PPC you can use virtually any CF/SD WiFi card under the sun, most Palm incarnations supportly either only the Palm WiFi card, the Sandisk WiFi SD card, or the Sony CF card. All three are ridiculously priced (way more than the $40-60 you'd find for a Dell CF card).

And for those that say PalmOS is more stable than PPC: not true. I haven't resetted my PPC for 2 months (except when I load a program by mistake and I'm too lazy to wait :p).

And PalmOS devices do not necessarily have better battery life. The T|3 was reported to have only around 2 hours and a bit of battery life. My PPC lasts 3 at least; and if I underclock and listen to MP3's with my screen off, it can go 9-10 hours.

All in all...get a VGA PPC if you can.

[snplow]

I used to have the Tungsten E but I didn't like it because I found it to be rather unstable so I now have a Dell Axim x30mid. I find that the OS too simple to be effective on the Palm side. If you are comfortable with working on computers, then I would get a PPC.

As for running DivX on a PPC, I haven't tried it yet, but I know it does a decent job of WMV.

[equalizr]

I just picked up the Toshiba E830 last week and all i can say is WOW.

i think its the VGA screen that did it, and the 520mhz (overclocked to 624 stable), 128meg ram, wireless 802, bluetooth

I use it as a remote control, bluetooth headset, wireless web surfing and IM and games and lots of things. Bought a USB host cable for it too and can now hook up anything USB to it (mouse, keyboard, joystick)

cheapest place is at staples for $550 after $50 inst rebate. get the ext. warranty for $59

[phi]

pocket pcs are always supported by ms and are linux upgradable
now palm source and palm are rumored to be looking at other oses to replace palm os (os 4 was BEOS ) os 5 was an upgraded palm os
if palm source goes linux its possible all current devices won't be compatible
pocket pcs is like a replacement of a pc but in a smaller package
palm has limited functionality except for the tungstens

[phi]

pocket pc does have a similar device that has camera and cell phone capablitiy too

[phi]

palms have a bad bad tendacy to not connect to pcs properly
sometimes you have to reboot the palm or your pc or resit the palm in the cradle
a few times before it connects to the pc to install apps or send data

[klam]

I've used Palms and PPC extensively as a power user. Both systems have their merits. I am currently using a Palm device (Treo 600, previously Palm IIIxe, Vx) and it is refreshing, after several years on the PPC platform (Toshiba e310, HP iPAQ 2215).

If you need Wi-Fi, by all means go with a PPC device. It is much more mature on that platform. However, with add-on software, both platforms can pretty much do anything that you want them to in terms of PIM, MP3, etc.