Friday, June 7, 2002
Government Computer News tests 5 PDA's
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "ARTICLE" @ 10:35 AM
http://www.gcn.com/21_11/reviews/18661-1.html
We must not have any governmental readers because as far as I know, we've never had a submission from this online site, which is also distributed in paper form. In fact, that is where I got it - my father-in-law saw a copy in his office and noticed an iPAQ as he flipped through it and let me read it.
Anyway, they took 5 PDA's, an iPAQ 3870, Jornada 565, Clie NR70V, IBM Workpad C505 (think Palm M505) and Casio BE-300, and put them through their test lab. One interesting test was their battery drain test. After three hours of continuous use, not specified as to what that is, but assume it is the same for all thus putting them on equal ground, they see what the battery level is. Of course, the Jornada romped with 75% life left. Woohoo! But this was interesting. The C505/M505? 50%. I thought those things lasted 3 weeks or something.
And the Clie? Fuggedaboudit. 10% left. I guess all those pixels really drain it.
I was finally happy to see an independent test with the following quote. "The usual criticism of the Compaq iPaq Pocket PC H3870 is its steep $600 price tag and similarly expensive peripherals. Although $600 sounds like a lot for a digital organizer, it’s not too much for a good handheld computer." Exactly! And when all was said and done, it was one of two "Readers Choices." The Jornada got the other. So, why didn't they like the new super-flip-with-the-built-in-keyboard-and-camera-and-you-have-to-love-my-screen Clie? Pics were low quality, and it tried to do too much with low memory (16MB, the max that Palm OS4 can address) and a weak processor - which is the 66MHz Dragonball - the fastest PalmOS processor right now. Look for some righteous hardware from Sony when OS5 releases and allows StrongARM/X-Scale processors. The 505 got bad marks simply because of its price. For a few bucks more, you can get an iPAQ, or you should save a few bucks and get an M130 or M125. And the BE-300? Well, that is just embarrassing.
We must not have any governmental readers because as far as I know, we've never had a submission from this online site, which is also distributed in paper form. In fact, that is where I got it - my father-in-law saw a copy in his office and noticed an iPAQ as he flipped through it and let me read it.
Anyway, they took 5 PDA's, an iPAQ 3870, Jornada 565, Clie NR70V, IBM Workpad C505 (think Palm M505) and Casio BE-300, and put them through their test lab. One interesting test was their battery drain test. After three hours of continuous use, not specified as to what that is, but assume it is the same for all thus putting them on equal ground, they see what the battery level is. Of course, the Jornada romped with 75% life left. Woohoo! But this was interesting. The C505/M505? 50%. I thought those things lasted 3 weeks or something.
And the Clie? Fuggedaboudit. 10% left. I guess all those pixels really drain it.I was finally happy to see an independent test with the following quote. "The usual criticism of the Compaq iPaq Pocket PC H3870 is its steep $600 price tag and similarly expensive peripherals. Although $600 sounds like a lot for a digital organizer, it’s not too much for a good handheld computer." Exactly! And when all was said and done, it was one of two "Readers Choices." The Jornada got the other. So, why didn't they like the new super-flip-with-the-built-in-keyboard-and-camera-and-you-have-to-love-my-screen Clie? Pics were low quality, and it tried to do too much with low memory (16MB, the max that Palm OS4 can address) and a weak processor - which is the 66MHz Dragonball - the fastest PalmOS processor right now. Look for some righteous hardware from Sony when OS5 releases and allows StrongARM/X-Scale processors. The 505 got bad marks simply because of its price. For a few bucks more, you can get an iPAQ, or you should save a few bucks and get an M130 or M125. And the BE-300? Well, that is just embarrassing.
