Well, on the 6th of February I thought I scored a great deal for an ipaq 5555 on Amazon.com from a merchant for 275$ (for 128 mb of memory, wifi/bluetooth, biometric fingerprint reader, HELL YES!). Well, turns out the [censored] ran off with my money (first time thats happend) and I am going to have to go through the lengthy refund process. Well, now i'm stuck back at the drawing board. I have a 300$ cap, and have basically found two hanhelds; Palm Zire 72 for 250$ after rebate plus free 70$ wireless, foldable keyboard and free shipping, this time directly from palm, and the dell axim x30 for 251$ directly from dell. Well, heres the comparison.
Zire 72 -Processor - 312 MHz Xscale -Palm OS (this is what im worried about, there are hardly any good games for palm, and I was really looking forward to playing age of empires and links pocket pc w/friends :/) -32 MB memory (just buy an SD card) -bluetooth (I have WiFi in my house, 802.11g, for my Xbox live, so to get on the internet I am going to have to buy a 20$ usb bluetooth adapter for my computer, and apparently bluetooth is slow and doesnt work that well through walls) -camera/video recording (now this is a nifty feature. I could take pictures instantly wherever I go + capture video. I tried to find another decent handheld w/camera and all of them are way over my money limit.) -free keyboard (great for taking notes in class im sure, burn the notebooks!)
*overall it sounds solid, but I just dont know about the Palm OS, it sounds like sh*t to me. Also, no WiFi? Now THAT is a problem.
Dell Axim x30 -312 MHz Xscale -Pocket PC OS (now thats what i'm talking about, who needs a laptop anymore?) -64 MB (A little more that the zire, but an SD can fix that) -Bluetooth and Wifi (the antenna kind of juts out of the handhelds, but thats ok, its WiFi, is it not?) -No camera (Damn I wanted that.) -No free stuff or rebates (Typical of dell)
*I buy this instantly if it had a camera, I just dont feel like carrying around a digital camera anymore.
As you can see, i'm kinda stuck. I need some opinions from other people. Tell me your thoughts, thanks, and tell me if you find another decent handheld under or at 300$.
Post Extras:
LisaG
Head Honcho
Reged: 07/11/02
Posts: 7884
Loc: Texas
The 32 megs on the Zire 72 is in many ways comparable to the 64 available on the Dell:
1) The Pocket PC OS uses some of that RAM (just like RAM on your PC) and the rest is alloted to storage. You can control that allotment to some extent, but it's a good idea to allow at least 25 megs for system memory especially if you're playing games or leaving several apps running simultaneously. So you're down to 44 megs of RAM for storage.
2) Pocket PC apps are larger than Palm OS apps. So if your Pocket PC apps take up 2x more space as Palm apps, you're now at a draw. But in any case, you can add SD memory cards to either device.
While Pocket PC games were generally more graphically sophisticated, that's changing now that Palms have faster processors. Check out our game review listings-- there are some sweet games and several are available for both platforms, like Tiger Woods Golf, Warfare Inc., Lemonade and Rayman Ultimate. But no Age of Empires, and not as many graphically sophisticated action and RPG games overall.
BTW: while not as modern, complex and networking saavy as Windows Mobile, Palm OS isn't exactly doggie poop. It has its good points like ease of use, stability, and a very efficient file system.
-------------------- Lisa Gade Editor in Chief, MobileTechReview
Do you think with that deal that I should get the zire? I mean, setting up a bluetooth network is cheaper than buying that sd card. Plus, I could just make do with Warfare Inc in the games aspect. I also have some more questions directly related to the zire.
I have a two story house, and if I get a 2.4Ghz 100 meter bluetooth adapter for my computer, would I be able to work seamlessly throughout my house on the internet?
If you could tell me, does the Zire have a decent software bundle? I know its Documents 2 Go program doesnt even have spell check, which is a letdown if you want to do reports and such on it.
I know it has realplayer on it, so it does have MP3 playback built in, but can I convert movies and play them on it with decent picture?
As you can see, I want the handheld to not just be an organizer, but a compact wireless multimedia powerhouse. There is also one alternative device, the HP iPaq rx3115. It was made for multimedia, and you can stream wireless movies and music from your computer. It has a slower 300MHz Samsung processor but basicallly all of the specs are similiar to the axim x30. There is a refurbished one for 279$ directly from hp, but is it worth it? What would be ultimate best buy in your opinion? Thankyou.
Post Extras:
LisaG
Head Honcho
Reged: 07/11/02
Posts: 7884
Loc: Texas
If you're into the camera, the Zire 72 is a good choice in that price range. However, if streaming and watching movies is more important, the the iPAQ rx3115 would be my bet. If you can find a good enough deal, it sounds like the iPAQ rx3715 which has a really fine 1.3MP camera and a faster processor plus all the features of the 3115 would be ideal.
I use the Belkin Bluetooth class 1 USB adapter reviewed on our site. In my 1,100 sq. ft two story home, Bluetooth reaches almost everywhere (the farthest corners get a weak signal). A class 1 Bluetooth device is no more affected by walls than 802.11b.
It is true you have to upgrade to Docs to Go Premium for the spell checker. At least they have upgrade pricing, and to tell the truth, it is a far more sophisticated set of apps than Pocket Word and Excel when it comes to handling, embedded images, tables and graphs. If you need that kind of support on the Pocket PC, TextMaker is a good choice. But you do get spell check in Pocket Word .
All in all, the Zire 72 has a good software bundle.
-------------------- Lisa Gade Editor in Chief, MobileTechReview
The rx3115 sounds very interesting. What do you think I should go with? I found an HP refurbished from HP for 279$ w/free shipping. What, out of these three, do you think I should get? I am mainly using this for Word docs, movies, music, and demanding games. Thank you.
Post Extras:
LisaG
Head Honcho
Reged: 07/11/02
Posts: 7884
Loc: Texas
It's hard for me to tell someone what will make them most happy. But from what you describe, it sounds like the 3115 would be a very good fit. If you decided you wanted a camera later, HP has a pretty good SD camera for iPAQs which you can add on too.
-------------------- Lisa Gade Editor in Chief, MobileTechReview
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