Do you need access to communications wherever you are and whenever you want? Think that means carrying a mobile phone and a PDA and catching CNN in your hotel room? Wrong. Just tote a pager. The Research in Motion RIM Inter@ctive Pager 850 and Motorola PageWriter 2000x will expand your notion of what the once-humble pager can do.
Both pagers let you create, send, receive, and reply to messages. The 6.7 ounce PageWriter 2000x is the larger of the two, edging into tiny notebook territory, complete with a brief boot-up time. Flipping open the pager turns the unit on and reveals a backlit QWERTY keyboard and LCD screen. A clear interface lets you scroll through options for sending and receiving messages. In addition to a collection of games, there are Notepad, To Do, and Scheduler all apps you'd expect on a PDA. Its more than 4MB of memory is ample for saving messages and even optional apps you can download from Motorola's Web site.
The RIM Inter@ctive Pager 850 weighs just 4.1 ounces, and its miniature keyboard is spartan. But the responsive keys are amazingly comfortable to the thumb-type on, and the trackwheel is ideal for scrolling through menus - just click to make a selection. The RIM pager has 2MB of memory and the usual options for two-way paging, including the ability to send messages to a fax machine, pager, or e-mail address, plus a calendar, address book, and the task list.
Each pager comes with a docking station for battery recharging and syncing with PC information managers like Outlook and Lotus Organizer. The RIM pager syncs via Intellisynch. (Motorola uses its slightly more intuitive Truesync Software.)
The RIM is available through SkyTel and American Mobile for $59.95 per mo. for unlimited paging and e-mail. Best feature: American Mobile's eLink service lets you use your RIM to send, receive, and reply to messages using you POP3 home e-mail address. Essentially, the RIM pager becomes a virtual extension of the desktop PC.
The PageWriter is available through SkyTel, PageNet, and PageMart for $25 per mo. for 10,000 characters. For now, the page writer can receive only numeric or text messages sent via a toll-free number. A growing list of optional services for both pagers lets you receive news, stock quotes and trading, and even soap opera updates....(good for the housewife turned career woman!)
The Motorola PageWriter 2000x gives you oodles of memory and lets you play 21 poker in your downtime. But I will take the RIM Inter@ctive Pager 850 for its simplicity and universal access to e-mail.

The Pros for the RIM: Small; simple to navigate; uses regular e-mail addresses.
The Cons for the RIM: Limited additional functions




Recommended: Yes