This blog was started to document the trials and tribulations of switching from an Psion/Epoc/Symbian pda to a pocket pc. The protagonists is this case being an Ericsson MC218 and an Asus A730W respectively.
Background I had been using the MC218 for a number of years and it had given exemplar service. Unfortunately about a month ago it dieded. Fortunately I have backups of my precious data . So the search was on for a replacement.
Requirements - VGA screen - keyboard - WiFi - Bluetooth - CF & SD slots - plenty of RAM
In addition I wanted something that would eventually be able to run Linux.
The candidates I spent about a week researching current state of the PDA market and what I found wasn't too promising. Sharp is about the only company producing PDAs with keyboards and as a bonus they already use Linux! Unfortunately they seem to have retreated from the international scene and are now only selling to the Japanese market. PS I know there are companies selling English versions of the Sharp units but they were outside my budget.
I didn't want a PDA/phone so that eliminates most if not all Symbian based machines. That only leaves PalmOS based machines and PPCs. Now as there are no PalmOS machines with VGA displays that only leaves PPCs.
Luckily (or unluckily?) there aren't that many VGA PPCs to choose from:
- Asus A730W - Dell Axim X50v - Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720 - HP iPAQ hx4705 - Toshiba e830
Out of these the HP and Dell were ruled out because they both only had 64MB of RAM. Knowing how bloated MS software are I wanted as much RAM as possible. The Toshiba was ruled out because of the flak they had over the e7XX series fiasco. The Loox wasn't available locally so that leaves the A730W the "winner" by default. Unfortunately opting for a PPC meant there would be no builtin keyboard . That is something that I would have to sort out later.
. So the search was on for a replacement.
. That is something that I would have to sort out later.