Which PDA phone to get?

tomos42

Hi all,

I've decided that I want a phone with some pda capabilities, like real web browsing and the ability to view excel/word documents. I'm also attracted by the large screen area that all of these phones have.
I already have a good contract, so just looking for the handset.

My shortlist at the moment is:
Sony Ericsson P900
Nokia 7710

I also considered the o2 XDA Mini and XDA Exec, but they're both a bit too expensive for me at the moment.

Has anyone had any experience with the SE P900 or Nokia 7710? Even better if you've tried both!

Would anyone suggest an alternative handest?

Also, is there much difference between the Sony Ericsson P900, P910i and P990i (not sure if the P990i is out yet - just saw it on their website)?

Thanks for your advice,
Tom

tomos42

Forgot to add that I'm hoping to get a new Sony digital camera in a few weeks, so the Sony Ericssons would be good as they share the same memory.

Tom

mann242

Ive owned P800, P900 now P910i.

Depends what your going to use it for but biggest difference with P910 to P900 is the P910 takes up to 1gig memorystick duo card. P900 only goes up to 128 Mb. That was why I changed.

Nokia v Sony - personal preference really, Ive stuck with the sonys as I am used to them(if it aint broken dont fix it) and find the Noika operating system a bit cumbersome.

The Orange shop in Oxford Street (on RHS going up to Centrepoint last one before Centrepoint) where knocking out P900s (refurbs) for around £85 a few weeks back.

mann242

Should also add I had an SPV2000 (XDA 2i I think) Battery hungry, cant be switched off complete PIA - sold it on after 2 weeeks and got the P910i

tomos42

That's really useful mann242, thank-you!
Do you know what happens if you try a memory stick larger than 128mb in a P900?

Are the Sony Ericssons easy to use for viewing text and spreadsheet documents?
I'm also a bit unclear as to whether they use true html browsing or WAP to view webpages...

Tom

mann242

Quickword and quickexcel can be used on text and spreadsheet docs and works well. Dont use web browser much but not as good as the SPV.

Expansys have a forum page which has a lot of Q&As on the P900/P910 and your best off checking it out for up to date answers.

As far as I know if you try a bigger than 128 meg card it treates it a 128 meg, but I never actually tried.

tomos42

Ok thanks.
Do you think the Orange shop will post me a refurb if they have any left? I've tried phoning but they're obviously closed for today.

Tom

mann242

Doubtfull but give it a try.. The refurbs are in the LGF of the shop if you do visit..

tomos42

I live in York, so I doubt I'll be able to pop down to the shop for a while unfortunately!

LGF = Lower Ground Floor?? Light Green Flange??

mrvolleyball

I also have a SE P910i. Think its a great smartphone. Have never used it for viewing Word or Excel docs, but its great with our companies email system - not sure what its like for an ISPs email system. I love the fact you can 'write' on the screen to write txt messages. It does have a small querty keyboard but I never use it. Its not too bad a size either, bigger than most mobiles these day, but I would think its smaller than most PDAs.

If you are tempted to get one it may be worth considering that SE are due to release a new version, P990, in the next couple of months. Unfortunately the release date keeps slipping. If they do release this I'm sure it will lower the cost of the previous models, P910i, P900, P800.

Hope this helps

mann242

Release date has now slipped to June 2006 (According to Vodafone )

The only thing that puts me off this is the screen is much smaller than its predecessors and it has a fixed keyboard as well as a flip

Must be method in SEs madness but I cant see it