[thelist] OT: Best PDA or Smartphone for Work and GettingThings Done!

Julian Voelcker asp at tvw.net
Fri Aug 18 05:30:09 CDT 2006


I faced the same problem and have gone with the HTC Universal (sold by 
various phone companies under a number of different names), which is 
probably the top of the range phone/pda thingy.

My reasons for getting this were:
I wanted a windows based phone for good support for Word and Excel and 
wasn't impressed with the options on my old Ericsson P900.

I wanted the PDA form factor, but wanted to be able to protect the 
screen - the HTC Universal is like a mini tablet PC - it opens up with 
a full keyboard, and then you can flip the screen round like a PDA.

It has built in wireless so I can access web and email where ever there 
is Wireless access.

Running Windows Mobile 5.0 it supports Push Email from exchange, etc.

I wanted one that had the memory structured so that if the battery ran 
out I wouldn't loose any data.

Overall after a couple of months I have been very pleased with it, 
except:
It is big and since I tend to do a lot of stuff out in the garden, 
working on cars, etc you have to think about if you are going to have 
your phone in your pocket or put it down somewhere.

G3 mobile and Wireless access saps the battery so with Wireless 
switched on it only lasts about 8 hours although you can get bigger 
batteries.  Without Wireless it will last for several days.  Not really 
a problem since I have it permanently plugged in when in the office.

You ideally need a bluetooth headset with it to use it as a phone, but 
I am surviving without one.

Most PDAs seem to be short on memory for running programs (like RAM) 
and can't be upgraded - if you use too many applications you can fill 
this memory up to the point that it is difficult to make/receive calls. 
 Also a lot of the apps seem to really drain the memory so you do need 
to keep an eye on it - the recommendation is to restart it about once a 
day - I do it every few days.



If you aren't interested in the Universal, consider some of the other 
ones in their range - they are probably the best PDA/Phone manufacurer 
out there at the moment.
-- 
Cheers,

Julian Voelcker
Cirencester, United Kingdom





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