Cell Phone–and-PDA Combo Devices

During the next few months, I’ll be joining the 10-city Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show (http://www.winnetmag.com/roadshows/nas). Because of my heavy travel schedule, I needed to upgrade my mobile-communication capabilities. My goal was to find a combination cell phone–and-PDA device that could handle my calendar, contacts, phone, email, to-do list, and light Web-surfing needs. After considering several factors, I discovered quite a few interesting possibilities.

Considerations
Before I took out my wallet, I needed to pin down exactly what I wanted in the device. I evaluated the available products according to reception, form factor, features, and phone and data plans.

Reception. What good is a phone if you can’t get reception? The reception coverage area is determined by a phone company’s network infrastructure. Three wireless network types exist in the United States: Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). My old mobile phone plan was AT&T Wireless's AT&T Digital One Rate, which uses AT&T’s extensive TDMA network. However, all AT&T's future infrastructure investments are going into its newer GSM network. (Much of the world, including Europe and Asia, uses GSM. Also, GSM supports a digital network called General Packet Radio Service—GPRS—which is important for wireless data services such as email and Web surfing.) T-Mobile uses a GSM network. Sprint PCS uses the CDMA network, which also supports wireless data services. In the United States, CDMA and GPRS data services are available only in major cities.

Form factor. Which form factors are important to you? I refuse to carry stuff hanging off my belt. If a device doesn’t fit in my jacket or pants pocket, I leave it behind. Do you want to enter data through a thumb keyboard—such as the one on Research In Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry—use handwriting recognition, or use a mini-keyboard? Do you want a color screen? Do you want a flip cover to protect the screen? These are just some of the factors that I considered.

Features. PDAs have come a long way in terms of available features. The HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5450 has WiFi (the 802.11b wireless standard), Bluetooth, 64K-color screens, Secure Digital (SD) slots for flash memory, the Pocket PC OS, thumbprint security, and more. Pure PDAs have the most accessories, such as external keyboards, thumb boards, and VGA adapter add-ons. Combo devices, however, often compromise on these features to balance ease of use, battery life, and cost. Combo devices use one of three OSs: Palm OS, Pocket PC, or Symbian. The Pocket PC, for example, includes Microsoft Pocket Word and Microsoft Pocket Excel, which are handy for viewing email attachments. However, you can easily add Microsoft Office–compatible software (e.g., DataViz’s Documents To Go) to the Palm OS.

Phone and data plans. Phone plans are quite competitive these days. For example, AT&T Wireless was offering unlimited nationwide minutes for $99 per month. However, that plan used the company's newer GSM network, which isn’t fully implemented yet. T-Mobile, which has been working on its GSM network for 8 years, was selling 1000 anytime minutes for $39.95 per month. However, both AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile bill their data plans in 10MB increments. We’ve all managed to figure out how to track voice minutes over the years, but tracking data transfers is difficult for both users and phone companies. You could easily rack up a lot of data charges in a heavy travel month.

The Competition
After determining what I wanted from my new combo device, I began my search. The following are a few of the potential candidates that didn't quite meet my needs, but which you might find interesting.

And the Winner Is ...
I chose Sprint PCS's Handspring Treo 300 (http://www.sprintpcs.com/showcase/treo300/index.html) because it’s the smallest combo device around. The device has a built-in keyboard (similar to a BlackBerry), which is pretty handy. I estimate that I can input text about 3 times faster than I can using handwriting recognition. The overall Sprint plan is good: For $85 per month, I get 2000 nationwide anytime minutes and unlimited Internet access; no need to figure out how many megabytes I've used or how many messages I've sent. And connection is definitely faster than a 56KB dial-up line. I downloaded a free 2bAnywhere email client for the Palm OS (http://www.2banywhere.com), and after configuring my two POP3 accounts and MSN Hotmail account, I was sending and receiving email wirelessly. The email client even has basic attachment support, so I can read attached Word or Excel documents. The Palm HotSync Manager lets me synchronize with Microsoft Outlook or Lotus Notes; I use Outlook and can easily sync my email, contacts, to-do list, notes, and Web bookmarks. Several Palm-based solutions exist for synching with Microsoft Exchange Server and Notes, displaying attachments, and editing Word, Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint documents. And the device supports voice dialing for an additional $5 per month. The voice-dialing feature doesn't require any voice training: Simply synchronize your Outlook contacts with the Sprint PCS voice-command system and you’re up and running. So far, this feature has worked perfectly with every entry in my Contacts database.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my Treo 300. I’m sure something better will come out within a few months, but that’s the price of being on the bleeding edge.