PDA or Laptop??

[5150]

I'm looking at purchasing a 'Portable Computer' and have only recently been looking at Laptops until I had a bit of a brainwave and thought about a PDA also.

Bearing in mind I know little ablut either could anyone advise on the best one to get:

Needs:

Windows Platform
Internet Explorer
Office (for accessing basic devices; word, excel etc)

Not fussed about being able to play games on the thing, but an MP3 player would be handy.

Thanks

[FunkyMunky]

Pocket Internet Exploder in my experience is very limited compared to what the desktop version can do. Chances are, any websites "IE Only" which wont work in the likes of Firefox on the desktop, wont work on Pocket IE either.

Word, Excel etc are also limited by the fact you will be using a stylus to input, either by handwriting recognition (not always accurate) or on-screen keyboard (slow, small).

Have you looked at any of the supermini laptops? Or perhaps something like the OQO - a device not much larger than a PDA, which runs a full Windows XP. It is slightly expensive for the specification however and unless you use a USB keyboard or "docking" station, you still face stylus input or the fiddly-looking pop out keyboard.

[Keef]

I use both. The iPaq does a pretty good job for quick notes while out and about, and Excel and Word on it are pretty capable. Reading files for info is fine; inputting any significant amount is a pain.

The laptop isn't too practical when in the car (not driving, I hasten to add), but in a hotel room or on a train, the laptop has it all the way.

I saw one of those little "palmtop PCs" - it looked brilliant, but I've not played with one so can't say if it does the job of a "full-size" laptop.

[Memetic]

Hi,

I have questions then some possible answers.

You list the follwing needs:

---
Windows Platform
Internet Explorer
Office (for accessing basic devices; word, excel etc)

Not fussed about being able to play games on the thing, but an MP3 player would be handy.
---

First why do you need windows?
If it is to add extra programmes later that are identical to those you will find on a desktop, then you need a laptop as no PDA I know of runs "Windows" as in Windows XP home or professional.

If you specify Windows because you want to open and edit Microsoft document formats, then read on, you may not need Windows.

Why do you need internet Explorer?
Do you regulalry visit sites that are only accessable using Internet Explorer (i.e. badly designed ones :-) )

Or do you need access to websites on the move? If so almost any modern PDA will do, some have better browsers than others. Opera is great.

If you need access to web from a portable device what are you accessing? For occasional use, a small screen on a PDA is fine, but if you need to read and digest a lot of information then a Laptop sized screen is more user friendly. It is also worth remembering that although a PDA can access secure sites it is much slower to visit these sites on a PDA as the processing power to do the required data encryption is not readily avaliable - this is especially true on smart phones.

Also think about connectivity, how are you going to get connected to the internet, GPRS, WiFI, Bluetooth to a base unit etc. Will this vary where you plan to use the device?

Accessing Excel and and Word documents can be done on most modern PDA / Smartphone devices, be they Windows, Symbian or Palm based, but what do you actually need to do while mobile? Read, read and edit or creat new documents? Depending on your answer choose wisely, not all devices can do all the tasks and PDA office packages can not replicate the full functionality of the desktop / laptop version of the office software. You alos need to consider whether you need a keyboard, vital for anything other than minor edits in my view.

You also do not mention email, obvioulsy most PDA devices and all laptops have the capability, but again you need to think about connectivity.

I have a laptop, which is may main machine. I have just switched from the Sony Ericsson P900 which let me www brows, send recieve email, open word docs and pdf files etc. to a Nokia 9500 - whichI am still getting used to!

The 9500 has a keyboard, which I can just about type on. The Psion one was better and I miss the touch screen of the P900 and the Psion's which the 9500 has its roots in. It lets me create and edit Word, Excel and Power Point compatible files, provides a solid www browser, has the usual diary, contacts email functions. Inculdes music and video playing, a camera / video camera and has a growing list of extra software.

Most importantly, it has GPRS and WiFi together with Bluetooth and Infrared, meaning I can get connected from pretty much anywhere, often for free! All of which is great, but it is still not a laptop!

Long post, but in summary, think hard about what you need to do. A PDA and a laptop serve different purposes and in my view are complementary, not replacements for each other at the current state of technological development.


The OQO by the way looks very cool and is now officially on sale in the UK - but you still can't easily type on it!

[5150]

Thanks

I geniunely thought that a PDA was as adequate as a laptop but when put in perspective - it's still not a laptop!

I think the keyboard issue is quite a big one, as writing a short email on a laptop may take two minutes, whereas the same message on a PDA could take much longer.....

For me then, it's gotta be the laptop.

Many thanks for your comments.

Much appreciated