Blackberry Versus Ipaq or Other PDA

[Strong Eagle]

I want to buy a combo PDA/phone that will let me read email and runs excel and other applications. Any recommendations or comments as to which way to go? I'll be using it a lot in KL.

[sundaymorningstaple]

SE,

I cannot do comparison as I upgraded my first PDA which was a Palm Zire 71 which was just a PDA period to the top of the line. For Xmas the wife and daughter found out what I was lusting for using trickery and bought me a Dopod 900. Probably the only thing wrong with this is that it only has tri-band and not quad-band. It uses WinMobile 5.0, word, excel, outlook, dual cameras, bluetooth, gps, all the bells and whistles. It is definitely not a Nokia phone (re: sound quality and occasionally dropping calls) and is rather heavy for held to the ear usage as a phone (although it is both for me now) But using a bluetooth headset with the installed voice commander software I find it great as I don't have to take out the unit at all.

I do feel you can do better, but on a price per function basis (if you don't need all that it's got - It's more mini-notebook than PDA). You can buy a centrino notebook cheaper that the dopod 900 (which is identical to the O2-Exec). It is currently around 1800+ SGD. Maybe a $100 less or so if you get it through a package with Singtel or whathaveyou.

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/handhelds/ ... 84p,00.htm

[Bremen]

Hard to say as it depends on your own preferences, but I would say:

- More phone functions: P910/P990
- More PDA functions: Dopod

[sundaymorningstaple]

Bremen,

Darn good point there. The large foldout keyboard on the dopod 900 it a beauty. It's big enough for two finger typing if your are holding it in your hands and if lying on the table can use four fingers. Furthermore if you are used to full keyboards for typing messages you will find this perfect. It does have an online keypad as well for usage with a stylus or in the case of the phone the online buttons are large enough to just use your fingers - but as I said, I use voice commander and bluetooth.

[Bremen]

Yup. You could then toss in the 9500 too, but it's as slow as molasses and has no touchscreen. For me, the P990 achieves the right balance. It's feature-rich, and the battery life is great... Windows-based PDAs die fast.