My mother and I are considering getting me a PDA to help me with my schoolwork and homework. Naturally, we would prefer a pricetag of <$100.
Necessary Features:
Highly useful Features:
Desired features:
Games!
Thanks for your help, all!
Well, for <$100 you’re probably looking at a very basic entry-level PalmOs based model (Say a Zire21 for $99, or a refurbished Palm IIIxe for around $70). Built-in Bluetooth or WiFi is likely right out, that’s more like $300. I wouldn’t recommend trying to squeeze into a 2MB model, but 8MB is livable.
As well as starting at a lower price, palmOs devices have more freeware/shareware programs available. They all come in with grafiti, a basic calculator, and scheduling (calendar) applications. I’m not sure what you want out of a “word processor”, text editing on pretty much any PDA is a tough assignment, although you can get foldable, close-to-full-size keyboards to help things out. PalmOs comes with a simple text editor that’s useful for writing short notes, however.
If you want, say, Ms-Word compatibility, you’d need something like Documents To Go, which syncs between a word document on your computer and a version of it that’s compressed and viewable on the pda screen. Don’t know how well it runs on a lower-end PDA, though.
There’s a ton of games availabe, freeware, shareware, and commercial. But you won’t have a color screen at that price.
-lv
The Palm Zire 21 is one of the best options under US$100, although it has a monochrome screen.
The Treo 270/300 is another option, tagged at US$99 - but it might turn out more expensive when you pay for the phone subscription as well.
Bluetooth is practically out at that range.
Here is a comparison of other Palm models and features:
http://www.palmone.com/us/products/compare/
http://www.mobl.com/software/quickoffice_premier/
Calendar - inbuilt.
Calculator - inbuilt. Complex scientific calculators downloadable.
Graffiti - inbuilt in the Zire 21. Treo 270/300 has Graffiti as well as an inbuilt thumb keyboard.
Web Browser:
Additional software:
Also, Sony has some brilliant products if you’re willing to spend a bit more.
http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/micros/clie/
The PEG-TJ27 has a digital camera, 320x320 Hi-Res Color Display, 23MB usable memory, for US$200.
http://sonyelectronics.sonystyle.com/micros/clie/models/tj27.html