Time for (a) new toy(s) - PDA & phone or smartphone?

That’s what they’re called right? Smartphones?

I’m gonna start lookin for new toys, and a new phone to replace the dinosaur entry model I’ve been using, as well as a PDA are on my mind. But then I was thinking why not one of those combo deals.

So I’m looking for comments on advantages/disadvantages of getting a phone and PDA separate, or a smartphone with em together. I’d also be open to suggestions on models and brands. My budget’s around 10k for now (so I could get one first, or save another month if I choose the combo route.

I’d get a cheap phone with bluetooth and the PDA of your choice. I guess it depends on what you want to do with that setup though.

I thing to think about is you won’t get a cellphone/pda/camera for 10k. But for under 3k you can get a cool camera phone (if you’re getting a new number too).

My Tungsten T is over 2 years old now and it still gets the job done for me. I can send and receive emails and surf the net via the bluetooth phone connection. I have a few games, my Chinese studying software and dictionary on it, plus all the normal PDA things (calendar etc.)

I think you’ll get more for less (money) if you get them separate, but I haven’t looked for a long time.

As far as combos go, a Smartphone is exactly that, a phone with some PDA features, but it fairly limited due to size etc. The other option is a Pocket PC with GSM/3G etc that is more like a PDA with phone capability.

The main difference is size. For me, I’d go for a PocketPC rather than a Smartphone as smart phones seem a bit like wannabe pocketpcs to me and too small to be useful.

The other factor is this: If you use your PDA/Pocket PC while talking on the phone, then you will have to use a headset or handsfree to use a combo. So, you might want to stick with a pure Pocket PC + decent phone as seperate units to give some flexibility (e.g. when you go out to the pub you might want to take your phone but not something the size of pocket pc, which you wouldn’t likely use at that time)

well, the more i think bout it the more i think i’ll go phone first and separate PDA later… I have a good deal for service with work, so will likely not be getting a new number (so new new phone with new service deals)…

that in mind, where would you suggest i go a’lookin? and i should probably say my chinese is limited to bar-ability (where’s the restroom? another beer please. baby, you are hot)

okay so i’ve never actually said that last one, at least not in chinese…

also, anyone want to give me their opinion on their fav phone of the day? i know it’ll be obsolete before i open the box, so i want to make sure i spend my money wisely.

I was happy with the the SonyEricsson t68i and I’m happy with it’s replacement the T610 (which is old now, I think they have T616’s or something).

I take phone buying seriously. You should think about what it is you want to do with it and what options you want and see what phones are left that fit your profile.

My bother, for instance, likes small phones and doesn’t care for color screen, cameras, the Internet on it, etc. He just wants to make phone calls. I’d recommend a different phone for him then for someone more like myself.

Smartphones are the next wave, but I think the current prices aren’t justified, given the processing power, memory, etc that you get. Current Smartphones have PDA functionality without the teeth.

The other side of the coin is Pocket PCs with phone capabilties. There, you’re getting a lot more bang for your buck, but of course the units are larger. Good things have been said about the O2 phones. I think the newer models are going by a different name. The K-Mall has dealers with a range of these types of PPC phones. Be prepared to pay 15-20,000 NT for one.

Total convergence of all these gadgets + high quality digicam + MP3/WMA capability, etc is on the way in a reasonable package. In a year or so, they’ll be fairly common, I think. You can get something decent now, but be prepared to pay a hefty sum for the privilege of being an ‘early adopter’.

In terms of PPCs, I’ve read good things about the new Dells and HPs. There’s a Dell dealer in K-Mall. The newest Dell is the Axim x50v. App. $500 SRP. Got great reviews in Mobile PC mag.

I have a Tungsten T3, I WAS quite happy with it and I also carry a separate phone. The problem is: I always need to bring both everywhere, so why not just carry one thing that does everything. Sometimes I forget to bring one or the other. And you keep 2 exact phone lists, one on your PDA, one on your phone - Annoying!
So if you plan to carry both things with you at all times, just buy a PDA phone.

My bf just picked up the Motorola A780: PDA + phone.
I AM SO JEALOUS! :raspberry:
It’s big, but not as big as my PDA. It’s got number buttons in the front so that you can just use it as a phone and dial, without having to open your PDA/phone. Very sleek. It can take pictures as well, at 1.3 pixels. You can also store MP3s and listen to it. Man, it does everything!

We paid $16,500 for it. It’s about 2000 NT cheaper because we got a new number with it. But we signed up with Chong Hwa, so it was only 2000 NT cheaper. If you sign up with a different telephone carrier, you can get more of an discount, approximately 500-1000 NT more
We bought it at the Xi Men Ting location.
Did I say I was SOOOOO JEALOUS? I think I’m turning green.

[quote=“miltownkid”]I was happy with the the SonyEricsson t68i and I’m happy with it’s replacement the T610 (which is old now, I think they have T616’s or something).
[/quote]

T616 is the American version of the phone for 850 band. The replacement for the T610 is T637. The K700 is the replacement for the T637.

Pocketpcs tend to get really large and would only recommend them if you really need the functions. Smartphones might be better if you want some functions without the large size. I would suggest a Nokia series 60 phone. They are Symbian phones that you can add java applications to. Nokia 7610, 6610, 3600, 3650 are the phones in the series.

My BenQ phone recently bit the dust after just one year. It is warrantied, so I sent it in for repairs, but I desperately needed something in the meantime so I bought a low-end Nokia. All I want a phone for is talking, not playing video games or downloading ringtones and pictures of Ijima Ai.

After looking at what was available, I bought a Nokia 3100, which is considered a minimalist phone by today’s bloated standards. It’s not totally minimalist - you can in fact play games and download photos, ringtones and viruses, but compared to other machines on the market, it’s feature set is pretty small. Plus the phone is small in size, battery life is good, and most importantly it’s cheap.

So am I happy? Not very. The biggest flaw is the difficulty of changing the battery. I could replace the battery in the BenQ is less than 5 seconds - I’d be lucky to complete this traumatic operation on the Nokia in less than 5 minutes. There is no way to get a grip on the battery, other than maybe beating on it with a rock. The engineers who designed this must have thought they were being funny - I think they should be tried as war criminals.

To add insult to injury, when you finally get the battery replaced, the time/date disappears. Seems like they didn’t bother to include a capacitor to keep the time settings during the interlude when the battery is absent (but other settings seem to remain intact).

Another boneheaded feature is that the time and date aren’t displayed in the default screen (as is the case with virtually every other phone on the market). So if you want to know the time and date, you’ve got to wade through some menus to find it. I guess they didn’t want to clutter up the screen and deface that photo of Ijima Ai.

I’m also not real pleased with that bulky connector for the earphones, which seems to be Nokia’s standard. Motorola has got this right, using a small pinhole sort of connector.

Basically, it seems like nobody designs a phone that I really like. Why don’t these engineers consult with me first? I would set them straight.

happy new year,
Robert

"There won’t be anything we won’t say to people to try and convince them that Our way is the way to go. "
–Bill Gates

I don’t think I’ll ever buy another phone in Taiwan again. Damn bloated prices.

My last major phone purchase was a Sony t630 - crap quality camera included but handy for taking pictures of obscure baby products I need to pick up at the store. I would never find them otherwise. Totally over priced at 13k or something. Being a foreigner there was no deal for me.

The best phone I have ever bought was a Panasonic I picked up in Bangkok recently. It’s absent of any fancy features, very small, an ugly coloured yellow so I can see it at a distance, and cost me all of $1,200baht with sim card. Yes it was new and wasn’t stolen. To me that is a reasonable cost for a phone.

I’m intending to purchase a Nokia 6230 (Bluetooth, MMC card, mp3 playback, everything I need), to complement my Dell Axim 3 (lovely machine).

The cheapest I’ve seen the Nokia 6230 is around the $12,000 mark, which looks good to me. It will be the first mobile I’ve bought since my Nokia 7210 died a few months ago.

I thought I saw the Nokia 6230 for $NT9000 (with 2 year contract).

My concern is that everything will be obsolete with 3G hits one of these years.

I’m thinking instead of the Hitachi HTG-660, about NT$3500 (with contract).
eprice.com.tw/mobile/phone/?prod_id=1475

It plays some mp3’s, but no expandable memory, no bluetooth, no camera.
But the price is right.

I have to verify if it has English menus or not; not sold in USA or Europe.

please let us know
what model did you waste your money on?

I would go for the PDA and separate phone option. It is true that you have to carry around both. But on the other hand, you can leave the house with just a phone as well, if the PDA is to bulky. A smartphone does not really have all the PDA options (larger screen, larger button, computing power), and a PDA with a build in phone is just too bulky. I don’t want to carry around such a huge phone all the time. So I rather go for the flexibility and don’t like to make compromises in functionality.

yeah I agree. Of course the ideal solution would be to have PPC with built in Phone AND a seperate phone. Then you can swap the sim around depending what your are doing.

I had a friend with a O2 Smart phone, and the battery life was really bad…like less than a day.

That is another option I did not think about. But it might be a little pricy to have 2 phone devices. I was just thinking about a regular PDA without the phone. Isn’t it a little awkward to hold a PDA to your head? Maybe a BT Headset would aid in usability, and reduces the EM emissions close to your head. Of course I would go for a Palm instead of a PPC, but that is more a philosophical question.

I never considered to have both. I was only trying to decide between a PDA Phone or a Smartphone. I went for a Smartphone, the P800 then I upgraded to a P900. 10K won’t buy you half of a P900, at least when I purchased. I think the price is still high.

I would never want to carry around both a PDA and Phone. Too bulky, unless you carry one of those sissy boy Man purses.

For you I suggest a PDA Phone, see if you can find an imitation O2 XDA I have seen some made by Taiwan companies. Look all around Guanghua Computer market.

By the way, I want to sell my P900, as I am over the whole smartphone PDA phone thing. I never use most of the features. I might be able to part with my for about the budget you are looking at. However, I got some scratches ont he screen. Still completely usuable. I think it would be an excellent compromise for you. Will throw in the big Sony Memory stick too. Send me a PM if you might be interested.

A bunch of my friends in the US have the T-Mobile Sidekick (aka Danger Hiptop) which is a pretty nice combination phone/pda, though you need to use a headset for the phone part. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be offerred here.

Here is a short list of a few interesting PDA Phones.

ASUS P505
ASUS A716
IPAQ RW6100
IPAQ 6315
Samsung i730
BenQ P50
E-TEN M500

Some of them have a smaller 2.8” display, which makes them a little less bulky. A few of those were not released yet, but they might be worth waiting a while. I don’t think you can get any of those for less then 15k.

My biggest concern is short battery life.

Szymon