# What kind of PDA should I buy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pda-should-i-buy/327176>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 21, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pda-should-i-buy/327176 "2005-10-21T00:59:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pda-should-i-buy/327176/1 "2005-10-21T00:59:09Z")

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Here’s what’s important to me, somewhat in order:

Easy to use, I am definitely not a techie.  
Able to download all my music: itunes and CDs  
Able to download any other audio files, things like books on tape  
Able to download and modify written files: papers I’m writing, articles off the web

Not important at all: games, photos

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pda-should-i-buy/327176/2 "2005-10-21T01:59:06Z")

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For your audio applications, you need an iPod, not a PDA. An iPod would have much better battery life and easier to use. And it’s more flexible to have separate devices - for example, if you use up the iPod battery it won’t affect anything else.

As for writing and editing documents, what situations do you have in mind? It’s a pain to write or edit files on any PDA because the screen is so small. A laptop would be much better.

Reading articles _is_ practical, because reading is a sequential action (top to bottom, not jumping around). Any Palm would work, but if you can afford one with a high-resolution screen, it would make a lot of difference. (Standard Palm display is 160x160, but high-end models have 320x320 or 320x480.)

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pda-should-i-buy/327176/3 "2005-10-21T02:53:37Z")

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What SCR said. A PDA would be very inefficient and clumsy for the uses you specify. A small notebook PC would be a much better choice.