Jury is still Out
Written: Jan 12 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Combined PDA / Phone
Cons: Size, Weight, Cost, Ease of Use
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| dionyoda's Full Review: Qualcomm PDQ Smartphone |
Some background to help you understand my review: I have used a Palm/Pilot since they were introduced and am very happy with all of the progress on the Palm devices. I am a medium user of cellular phones having a Star-Tac from Motorola for the past 3 years. I should note that my service had been GTE for years and is now Sprint.
The PDQ. I lusted after this for a month before I decided to splurge on the $800 combined Phone/Palm device. I was most anxious to try the wireless internet access.
The device is BIG ! I do not want to meet the hand models they use in photos of this product, their photos make the device look mid-size, so their hands must be huge. The device does not easily fit in a man's coat pocket. However it easily fits in my briefcase.
The good news, it works EXACTLY like the Palm III. The interface is familiar and any Palm/Pilot users will quickly use all of the regular features painlessly.
The phone has some good stuff, like the ability to have it ring differently for different callers based on where you have the contacts stored. So, my incoming personal calls can ring the phone differently than incoming business calls based on where the contact info is stored. And when I look up a contact in the phonebook, I can just hit DIAL. That is the best feature.
Internet access has been a huge disappointment. It was difficult to set up and Sprint PCS service was not helpful in acheiving a proper setup. However one call to Qualcomm solved the problem. Kudos to Qualcomm, their support is great. Shame on SprintPCS for not having any technical people that know this particular phone, their service is good, they just don't know this product.
My biggest complaint is the size of the device, I feel like GI Joe on a 1950's style walkie-talkie. I actually consider my Star-Tac and Pilot to be a better technology combination and deal.
I was told that dual-mode was not available in the SF Bay Area, so I had to buy the digital only. Digital only is not great.
Overall: Wait for the next generation of this combined PDA/Phone devices, Sony, Nokia and others have signed up for the design.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dionyoda
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Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 4 members
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