| I Am Cyborg (part II) |
[Mar. 7th, 2005|09:50 am] |
Geek alert - only read if you care about this sort of thing.
Earlier I wrote that I was looking for a < $500 ultra-portable device on which I can read & write books, listen to music, and occasionally surf the web. I did not want to play games, movies, or compile code. That's what my desktop is for.
My requirements were:
- Full sized keyboard
- Screen capable of displaying a single page in a book
- 4+ hours battery life
- < 4lb
- WiFi + browser
- MP3 player
- RAM (or SD slot) for music
- < $500
I ruled out buying a laptop because of the price & weight. A new ultra-light laptop (weighing less than 4lb) will cost more than $1200. A used laptop in the same class may have reliability issues; in any case I rarely carried my Apple PowerBook because it was too heavy at 4.5lb. I was also constantly nervous of dropping or losing the $1,700 device.
This left PDAs and other related devices. My ideal solution might have been the AlphaSmart Dana; the Dana has a built-in full size keyboard and runs for days on a single charge, but it has an ancient 33 MHz processor, a paltry 16Mb RAM, and a dim LCD screen. I already own a Palm Vx with a 20 MHz chip and 8 Mb RAM, plus a GoType! keyboard, so I saw little value in spending $375 to replace it with a Dana.
I decided on a PDA coupled with a portable keyboard and WiFi card. The major manufacturers are HP, Dell, Palm, and Tapwave (the Sharp Zaurus was too expensive and the Sony Clie is being discontinued). Here is a breakdown of the devices*:
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Dell x50v
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HP hx4705
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Palm T5
|
Tapwave Zodiac 2
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Processor
|
624 MHz XScale
|
624 MHz XScale |
416 MHz XScale |
200 MHz ARM9 |
Memory (RAM/Flash)
|
208 (64 / 128) +16 vid
|
192 (64 / 128) |
256 (32 / 225)
|
136 (128/0) +8 vid |
Screen
|
3.7" VGA
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4.0" VGA
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3.7" HVGA
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3.8" HVGA
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Battery (~life)
|
1100 mAh (2:59)
|
1800 mAh (4:40)
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1300 mAh (4:22)
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1540 mAh (4:00)
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Weight
|
175g |
210g |
144g
|
178g
|
OS
|
Win ME 2003 2nd ed
|
Win ME 2003 2nd ed |
Palm OS v5.4
|
Palm OS v5.2 |
MSRP
|
$499
|
$649
|
$399
|
$349
|
True Cost**
|
$514 |
$535 |
$389 |
$400 |
* All figures from BargainPDA or the Gadgeteer
** Discounted cost from major retailer, includes 4 hour battery and WiFi card. Dell was $425, HP was $535, Palm was $299, and Zodiac was $310. WiFi card for Palm devices were $90, and so was the extended battery for the Dell.
Price:
Right off the bat I can see that the T5 was the cheapest option. This meant that the other devices had to offer me something for the additional cost. My first order of business was to investigate each one in person.
Screen:
They all had beautiful screens! I played with the Dell and the HP and decided that VGA is nice, but on a 4" screen you can't really take advantage of the resolution without straining your eyes. PocketPC seems to use VGA to smooth fonts rather than buying more real-estate. The OS is also a screen hog - with menu bars across the top and the bottom of the screen. I felt like I had more room on Palm devices with half the pixels.
Case:
The HP and the Zodiac have lovely metal cases. That's a plus. The Dell was plastic and had a flimsy battery bay. The T5 was plastic but felt like metal to the hand. The Zodiac had a lot of gaming buttons I didn't need, but they can be re-programmed to navigate the OS, while the HP had a terrible track-pad that was almost impossible to use. The Dell and T5 had nice buttons. Size really isn't an issue for me because I'm just going to toss the PDA in a shoulder bag, but the T5 was the slimmest and lightest of all the devices; it was a real pleasure to hold in the hand.
Performance:
All devices felt responsive. The Zodiac should have been slower due to the slower processor but I didn't notice any lag. This leads me to believe that Windows is a hog (zeut alors!), and that perhaps the T5 uses some sort of emulation to run on the faster XScale processors; where is Palm OS6 - eh? The Dell had a crappy battery. I could actually watch the battery indicator drop as I played with it in the store. Battery life is extremely important to me because I'm absent minded and because I want to write while away from home.
Software:
This is highly subjective, but I liked the Palm OS much more than PocketPC, it used less real-estate to do the same thing, and I navigation required fewer clicks. The Windows start menu was a dumb idea on a desktop and a dumber idea on a palmtop. Both platforms had a nice Office suite. The browser on the T5 seemed superior to the browser on the HP & Dell - it rendered pages more clearly. Internet Explorer scrambled the LiveJournal login page, for instance. I couldn't test the browser on the Zodiac (no WiFi). One open question I had is Linux compatibility. I run Fedora core 3 at home and I'd like to sync from it. It looks like the Palm community has a more mature HotSync for Linux than the PocketPC.
Conclusion:
I bought the T5 with a WiFi card. The T5 was largely panned by Palm fanatics when it was released because it doesn't include a bunch of features like a voice recorder, built-in WiFi, or (insert pet feature here). But I had no expectations so I was able to look at it with a tabula rasa. The Zodiac is a nice machine but I'm indifferent to games, so the video card was meaningless to me, and I wondered if the older processor would be able to run Palm OS6 (if that's ever available). I would like to have dual SD slots (the T5 only has one SD slot) but it's not a deal-breaker. The PocketPC devices had built-in WiFi and better screens, but cost more and ran an awkward OS. I just couldn't justify spending $100+ for VGA when the tiny screen size renders the difference in resolution moot.
When you consider that the T5 will be a replacement for a laptop, an MP3 player, and a book reader, it's a good value.
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| Comments: |
Given I'm partial to Palm myself, (I own a Tungsten T) I think you've made the right choice. Congrats on the new Electronic Brain! :)
I guess my reasons for being so dismayed by the T5, is i already have a palm..
I would like to upgrade, i like new toys - but the T5 isn't a step forward. It's a step sideways, maybe a little gain in memory, but that's drowned out by the new connector meaning none of my existing chargers or keyboard will work, yet the new connector doesn't seem to be an improvement. SD cards are cheap enough now, so it's not worth the move to the T5.
The 5 is a nice PDA is you don't have a palm, or if your PDA is aged and unconnected.. But it's not a anything new.
hmm...sounds like a good opportunity to build a wearable...with optical glasses (like i-glasses), nano-itx MB, and mouse & keyboard...solar/kinetic powered (the latter is my million dollar idea....add a kinetics to wheels on a car w/regenerative braking)....oh yeah add a Sony Abido or LEGO mindstorm robot with a WIFI camera for general info on your immediate surroundings..... I could be dangerous if I had the resources...LOL (okay...this project may have gone a little over buget, but mind you being a government employee, I have come to the conclusion that the lowest bidder isn't always the best deal for the taxpayer's dollars.) =O) http://www.viaembedded.com/product/epia_N_spec.jsp?motherboardId=221http://www.mindflux.com.au/products/io-display/iglassesSVGA.html
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/58878413/1392680) | From: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sirwilliam
2005-03-08 03:45 pm (UTC)
Re: what's the point.. | (Link)
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That is a good point. I wanted to say that for an outsider the T5 is an appealing device, even when compared directly with some of the gadget-laden PPC devices, but if you already have a T3, Zodiac, etc, there really isn't a compelling reason to upgrade. That doesn't make it a bad product per-se - it depends on who the target market is.
I'm a software engineer and I write both Windows and Mac applications (although my past includes a stint at MS, so I lean more toward Windows). I've noticed a similar issues with those platforms. With so many players in the Windows / Intel world there are a lot more price points, gadgets, and applications to chose from. Every year people say that Apple is dead and every year Apple defies their expectations. I see Palm in a similar role, but Palm is coasting right now and will need to come up with something great (aka iTunes) in the near future... | |
