Confused newb here, what do I need?

Because of the fact that you want to use your device on the road, where ever, perhaps outside even in daylight, I don't recommend anything with a DSTN screen, just washes out too badly, and that rules out nearly all the HPC units.

I'd get myself another laptop...

Rich

HPCNEC.COM

I was hoping there would been a better option but I just have not got a warm & fuzzy over any of the new technologies as of yet.

I have been leaning toward the Dell AXIM or something similar.

I've posted this before, but one of my favorite laptops is the Fujitsu P1120. It is about the size of a Mobilepro 900...has beautiful TFT hi-res screen, and is also a touch screen device. You might take a look at it, albeit, it is a little more costly...

Rich

HPCNEC.COM

Cool, I will check it out. Money is not a big issue, but having said that, I would like to spend $1500 or less.

there are TFT hpc's too. i have three devices that are hpc's or at least aren't pocketpc's and have tft: sigmarion 3, bsquare phh, ephone II, the last one is keyboardless though but it has core CE 3, very close to hpc2000. :)

also, a few dstn units are usable in a car, in my experience. :)

the smartphone will certainly not fit the bill for other reasons as well (for example no office! afaik..). and it is only 176x220

I would recommend the Psion Teklogix Netbook Pro.

If I read you correctly, you have to view and/or edit MS Word documents, and view Adobe documents too. That alone would rule out small screen devices. Even the Pocket PC with the largest screen (HP 4700?) would be a bit small for viewing documents designed for PCs.

Yes a notebook PC makes a lot of sense here. Rich's recommendation of the Fujitsu P1000 is not too bad. However that PC has a maximum of 256MB of RAM, which makes it a bit slow for running XP and MS Word. The P1000 has since been replaced by the P1500 series, which has much more up to date technologies. Plus it is a convertible Tablet PC.

I recommend the Netbook Pro instead for several reasons. First, it is instant on. If you want to check email once in a while, it is counter productive to boot XP every time. Surely you can leave your notebook on suspended mode, but than you have to watch your battery charge. That leads to the second reason - battery life. Netbook Pro has an amazing battery life with the standard battery (there is no extended). I bet you won't even need to buy a car charger - it would last the whole day and then some. Thirdly, if you can wait, you can find Netbook Pro on eBay at roughly $500 USD (altho that really depends). So it's much cheaper than a notebook.

That said tho, by using CE, you have to work a bit harder to find compatible hardware and software. Then again, your requirements are quite common, so it's not that bad. Netbook Pro comes standard with Pocket On-Schedule, which should handle your large contact list just fine. Viewing documents is no problem either; it comes with Word and PDF viewers. Altho if you want the official Adobe reader, it will take a bit of fiddling. Same goes for navigation software. Connecting to your cellphone via serial shouldn't be a problem, or bluetooth is just an adapter away. Alternatively, you can also use a PCMCIA (16-bit) or CF GPRS card.

So perhaps I gave you a lot of homework to do... good luck! :)

I want a Netbook Pro too! Good suggestion Takwu. I was sticking only with the WinXP realm for compatibility with his existing software. And even the fastest CE device isn't going to be as fast as a modern day laptop...maybe in mHz, but not thoroughput. Plus the newer Netbooks were upgraded to CE 4.2 which is an improvement over the 4.1 from what I read.

Rich

HPCNEC.COM

quote:Originally posted by takwu
Altho if you want the official Adobe reader, it will take a bit of fiddling.

no if you download it from my site [:D]

quote:Originally posted by Richard Hawley

I want a Netbook Pro too! Good suggestion Takwu. I was sticking only with the WinXP realm for compatibility with his existing software. And even the fastest CE device isn't going to be as fast as a modern day laptop...maybe in mHz, but not thoroughput. Plus the newer Netbooks were upgraded to CE 4.2 which is an improvement over the 4.1 from what I read.

all netbook pro's are cenet 4.2 :)
the plain netbook is EPOC, not CE.

as for WinXP: i bought a subnotebook because of software compatibility. then i got my first hpc. then i sold the subnotebook.

They may be so now Monica, but when they first came out they were 4.1. I'm like you as far as the subnotebook too, had a Fujitsu B142, Libretto 70, etc, Hitachi Traveler, etc....was just never satisfied with whatever I had....

Rich

HPCNEC.COM

quote:Originally posted by Richard Hawley

I'm like you as far as the subnotebook too, had a Fujitsu B142, Libretto 70, etc, Hitachi Traveler, etc....was just never satisfied with whatever I had....

why? :)

Hmm, I was actually quite happy with both of my subnotebooks.

My first notebook was a Panasonic Let's Note A44. It is a Pentium MMX 266, otherwise it's the same as the A77:
http://www.dynamism.com/a77/index.shtml

Now I have a Sony Vaio C1MV/M - the last generation of Picturebooks. It actually does everything ok, and I am planning to retire my desktop completely. As a matter of fact I'm using the laptop to post this in the living room right now (watching another so-so episode of Stargate Atlantis).

It's true that I still prefer my HPC (Smartbook G138) for everyday take-out, but I think this subnote is great for taking everything with me when it's absolutely necessary.

For me, it's clumsy fingers. I have to have a near full-size keyboard for data entry. The other primary reason I don't like subnotebooks...battery life.

Best thing about SG Atlantis...Battlestar follows afterwards! :)

Rich

HPCNEC.COM

Hmm, both of my subnotebooks have the same size keys as the MP's keys IIRC. So if you like the MP, you'd like the Picturebook ;)

Yes battery life is definitely not good for subnotes, especially since they are not instant-on. The only exception maybe the Panasonic R series (R1 to R4). If you like the Fujitsu P1000 or P1500 series, you can get an extended battery that extends in front (since the battery is at the front). Altho making them as large as the Panasonic R series, they are still quite small.

My Vaio lasts 4 hours with extended battery, and 2 with the standard. Pretty bad I know. But one good thing is that the batteries are cheap and easily found on eBay. They seem to be manufactured by several different companies, which is a good thing. So if I use the Vaio heavily, I could just buy a few spare batteries.

OK, now show me a subnote the size of the sigmarion 3 [8D] and whose batteries are 82 g each. (extended batt - 165?)

http://www.flipstart.com/
Sorry cmonex it has not been released yet ;)

I want this FLIPSTART product! This is what I am looking for.

When will it be available?

quote:Originally posted by takwu

http://www.flipstart.com/
Sorry cmonex it has not been released yet ;)

aww i forgot, it needs to have a decent keyboard as well :D

will it ever be released though..

Yeah the Flipstart keyboard looks too small, compared to Sig3's. However I have not seen either of them in person so it's just a guess. Will it be released? Hard to say. The OQO was delayed for a long time but here it is.

I didn't know the Sony U101 is actually almost as small as a Sig3. You can see the comparison in Yahoo HPC group. Picture 20 in the Sig3 folder, titled "S3 and MP900---1". Sandwiched between the Sig3 and the MP900 is the Sony Vaio U101, a Celeron laptop that runs XP. It's thicker but narrower than a Sig3, wow. In that case you might want to look at the U1 and U3, and also the Toshiba Libretto U100. I believe they all have similarly sized keys (between Jornada's and Sig3's key sizes).

nice information.. :) i will check out the pics..

(i still don't think they could be as useful as a hpc for me.. :P )