Pocket PC/Handheld/phone advice needed

tightasagnats

Hello folks

I work online, and I need to access the internet remotely for work, often on the move. I have a laptop and a mobile modem, but it's all too heavy. I've been thinking about getting a smartphone or PDA or pocket PC, and I wonder if anyone can help me.

I want something light, very light - up to half a kilo (my laptop is 2kg), and small. The sites I access for work have security which my current phone, a Nokia 6680 cannot deal with. So the device would need to have a proper browser, i.e. access the web in a similar way to a "normal" browser.

If I can use my current mobile modem that would be great, but I would consider a contract and smartphone.

Budget is an issue so as low as poss!

Blackberrys look great but not sure if they are any good for surfing the web.

Would really appreciate info from anyone who knows about these things! :rotfl:

S0litaire

Have you looked into the "MSI Wind" or "Asus Eee pc"?

Small 7 - 10 inch laptops lightweight you can use your Mobile connection with it. comes in XP or Linux flavours. from around the £200 -£300 mark.

tightasagnats

Thanks, I haven't looked at anything yet!

tightasagnats

Having looked, both those are 1KG, too heavy (I have a very, very bad back and have to travel very lightly indeed) - that's like a bag of sugar all day long

S0litaire

Don't think their is much under 1Kg in regards to laptops. :(

You could look into the "Windows Smart phones" like the
T-Mobile MDA Compact or
O2 XDA Stellar

or if you really want to be a Geek

http://www.openmoko.com/ Neo FreeRunner (Open Source Phone)

almillar

If you absolutely must have as light a laptop as possible at any price, that would be the Apple MacBook Air, 13inch screen, but that's £1,000+. Move down to Asus Eee and all the other wee tiny 9-10inch screened, but you've already said they're too heavy. Then you go down to PDAs. Apple iPhone, Blackberry, PalmOS or PocketPC. Internet Explorer is apparantly rubbish on PocketPC, but you can install Opera Mobile on all these devices except the iPhone. You should really ideally be able to test whatever device you decide on before purchasing it, or at least have more specifications on what security your work requires.
HTH

Fifer

Have you considered the Nokia Internet Tablet?

MORPH3US

I have an O2 XDA Orbit (HTC Artemis which has now been replaced by the faster HTC Touch Cruise) and I love it... IE on it is rubbish but Opera is good... depends on what you want it for though... I am happy to have a quick check of e-mail / websites on mine, and even reply briefly to e-mails when its urgent, but having no keyboard (except on screen) you wouldn't want to be typing much...

You could look at

HTC Touch Pro http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=49518

HTC Tytn 2 http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39030107,49292552,00.htm

Nokias including N810, E90 Communicator, E71, E61i, E61 (got to this link and then tick the box for "Full Qwerty Keyboard" http://www.nokia.co.uk/A4221001

A lot of the other phone makers have smart phones with / without keyboards, but none will be as good as for example, the Asus Eee PC

tightasagnats

Thanks Morph, I wonder whether you might be able to check something for me on your O2 XDA Orbit?

I went into a couple of phone shops today, and they don't have handsets set up for me to test....one guy there kindly tried to access a website that I need to use for work on his mobile, but as it has an IIS authentication layer, it wouldn't work, and he suggested one with windows mobile rather than opera.

The site I have to be able to access is:

https://www.lizardmedia.com.au/admin and it has a pop up window. If anyone would be able to test for me with their phone I would be extremely grateful! It works on any PC or Mac. Or if anyone knows where I can test drive a O2 XDA Orbit or similar! (I am in London).

Thanks y'all.

jaydeeuk1

Try the windows mobile 6 emulator. If it works in that, will work on the phone.

MORPH3US

@ tightasagnats....

I will test it when I get home on my wireless network for you tonight....

Will post back later. I'm not sure how the Orbit handles pop-ups....

M