Phone-PDA opinions

[mubs]

I'm mulling buying a cell-phone / PDA combo.

What's not important:
- data access / email / internet etc.
- music, videos, etc.

What would be nice:
- to be able to read/modify/create Word/Excel docs
- camera

What's important:
- phone performance and usability
- PDA functions: contacts, calendar, etc.
- unlocked (not tied to a carrier)
- GSM
- at least tri-band (850/900/1900); quad band would be better
- Price: < $450

I have a Palm Visor Prism and use the Palm Desktop, so I'm familiar with the Palm OS / interface. As of now I have no allegiance to either the Palm OS or Windows Mobile, but I've heard Win Mobile has several limitations when used for phone / PDA apps. I've read that Treos still excel at PDA functions. However, it appears that Palm OS is on a short lease of life.

I know Fushigi is a proponent of Treos. The 700 series is locked to one or other provider in the U.S. and is available only in the grey market in India for > $900 - not worth it. That limits me to:
* the 650 - n/a in the U.S. but available in India for $700. Older model.
* the 680 - n/a in India but available in the U.S. for $400. Good reviews.

Nokia has the E61 and E62, both available in India, for $450 and $360 repectively (the newer phone is cheaper, presumably because it lacks Wi-Fi). They run the Symbian OS. The E62 has generally excellent reviews (for my uses).

Sony Ericsson has the P990i ($600), W950i ($545) and M600i ($370). No idea how these are.

Blackberrys: The 7100g is available for $250 in India. Three other models also are, but exorbitantly priced.

I'm leaning towards the Treo 680 or the Nokia E62.

I'd value your opinions. Thanks.

 

[Adcadet]

I think for the simple PDA tasks, a Palm OS device would do great, and I see no reason to go Windows Mobile, even if Palm OS is ancient. Doesn't that just limit you to Treos? I've used both Palm OS ad PPC, but I've intentionally avoided the cell phone-PDA thing because of potential medical device interference and attending who would yell about such a thing. And the perception that I do cell phone/non-work stuff while in the hospital.

 

[Mercutio]

Phones are evil and should be killed on sight.

 

[Sol]

I would think with the functionality you want and need an inexpensive-ish palm device (The E2 looks like it has everything you want for under $200) and the most basic phone (tried to find an example but the US phone market is nuts) that meets your requirements would be the best bet in your price range.

A converged device will probably need to compromise in the interface and if you don't want to use email or internet access then the only advantage I can see to convergence is size... For the money and inconvenience, and the size of a stand alone mobile phone these days is it really worth the pain and money?

Also having used both palm OS (on my own pda) and windows mobile (on a work pda), I would never use windows mobile again, it was slow and unstable and every time the battery went flat you had to re-image the device.

 

[Adcadet]

Also having used both palm OS (on my own pda) and windows mobile (on a work pda), I would never use windows mobile again, it was slow and unstable and every time the battery went flat you had to re-image the device.

Not necessarily true with the newer devices that use NVRAM. My Axim doesn't die without a battery.

Also, I don't think the PalmOS is much different on a Treo than on a vanilla Palm (say, E or E2). The only disadvantage as far as I can tell to having a Palm+phone is the size/weight, greater potential for theft and more devastating when lost, and people being annoyed that you're playing with a phone.

 

[mubs]

Thanks for the replies (you too, Merc, for that insight!). Wasn't ignoring you all, was out of town for a few days.

I did manage to palm (no pun intended) and finger an E61 in a store, and was vewy, vewy disappointed. Keys were to tiny for me paws. More on this later.

Me bro is a die hard Palm user. He started with the Visor Prism circa 2000 (even gifted me one) and then moved to a Treo. I asked about his experiences. He currently has a Treo 600 (eeeeowwww) and is "very happy" with it. He syas the phone part is good and the PDA part super. He says the keys are small but that I'll get used to it like he did. His paws are approx the same size as mine.

He will be upgrading in a week or two, probably to the Treo 750. I'll probably play with both a bit when I'm in the U.S. for several weeks starting next week. The Treo 680 unfortunately appears to have a very short battery life.

Sol, even carrying a phone is an irritant to me. Unfortunately it's also a necessity. Carrying two devices would be even worse. That's what's brought me to this point.

 

[Mercutio]

OK, honestly, I can use whatever is put in front of me. My main issues with the Phone/PDA things are size - you want a PDA that is big enough that you can see what's on the screen and has space for input, but you want a phone that's small and not obtrusive to carry around because people expect you to treat a cell phone like it's part of your body.

Those two things are entirely contradictory.

The other issue with phone/PDA-things is battery life. Some of the smartphones that are out in the world won't even run for 24 hours on a charge. During the week, when I'm not using my cell phone much, it usually dies because I don't remember to charge it every THREE days, let alone every 16 hours.

These things are why I do not carry or like smartphones. I barely tolerate a phone. I'd ditch that in a heartbeat, too, if I could get my customers to the point where they'd just E-mail me everything. I'd rather pay $80/month for EV-DO service than $100 a month for a cell phone that barely manages to handle internet access.

 

[Sol]

Sol, even carrying a phone is an irritant to me. Unfortunately it's also a necessity. Carrying two devices would be even worse. That's what's brought me to this point.

I honestly don't really notice my phone, it fits in my pocket and it's not uncomfortable or anything. When I carried 2 phones doing on call work that got annoying, but mostly because I kept them both in the same pocket and it got kinda crowded... I think replacing my small phone that I only charge every 2-3 weeks with a chunky smart phone (And lets face it if it has an interface you can stand to use to edit word and excel docs it's going to be fairly chunky) would annoy me far more than sticking my PDA (about the same size as an E series) in another pocket... And that's only assuming you need to take both everywhere. Sure if your working you will but when you go to the supermarket or whatever your not going to want your PDA (unless you keep your shopping list on it I guess), you'd probably have to take your smartphone though (or be without a phone, which is fine until you get a flat car battery or something and then it's really annoying).

Maybe it's just me but of all the things to be annoyed about in the mobile/pda/smartphone market having to occasionally carry 2 devices doesn't rate highly on my list...

 

[mubs]

Merc, the Nokia E6x smartphones have about 8 hours talktime and a really long standby time (~ 10 days).

Sol, I may just decide, after checking all my options out, that all I'm going to do is buy a couple of new PDAs and keep my existing phone as is, because what you said about not wanting the PDA functions all the time is certainly the first thing I considered. My Visor Prism runs an older version of Palm OS, and the Desktop is ver. 4. The newer Palm PDAs run PalmOS 5.4, I believe. I need two, one to carry on the road, and one for the wifey at home, and I suspect having two with different revs will be aproblem (unless I run one of them in a virtual m/c). So maybe I will need to buy two new identical ones.