Some Reflections on My PDAs

I have owned a bunch of PDAs over the years, and was recently pondering which of those were the best. As you might suspect, I concluded that there is no “best,” but that some are better for certain types of activities and some are better for others. The following summarizes my thoughts on which ones were best for me when viewed under different criteria.

Getting Stuff Done

• For implementing David Allen’s GTD System (book available here), I have never found a PDA that beats how well Palm handles GTD. Perhaps that is because I learned how to implement GTD when I was using a Palm device. But I really think it is because David designed GTD around his own use of the Palm operating system. He was, and still is, a user of the Palm platform, and his system is incredibly easy to implement using the built in Palm PIM applications. I personally think I am most productive when using a paper planner (supplemented with a PDA), but, if I set the paper aside, my most productive times were when I used a Palm device to help me organize. With the built-in PIM apps and Bonsai for serious project management, I could stay on top of everything.
• Of course, PIMs aren’t the only thing to consider when you talk about getting stuff done. Modifying and creating documents is also important, as is note taking. In this regard, the Pocket PCs were the winner because I really like using their handwriting recognition systems. The specific PPC winners for me were the Toshiba e805 in first place, followed by my Dell x51v and the iPAQ 2215. The e805 was a real power house: with its 128MB of RAM I never had to worry about having too many documents loaded into my device. Same can be said of the Dell x51v and iPAQ 2215. The latter was especially good because of its form factor, but its battery life was a problem if I wanted to have a long writing session.

Form Factor

In terms of what “felt the best,” I would say the following pretty much tied for first place: my BlackBerry Curve, the Palm T3, and the iPAQ 2215 Pocket PC. Running in second place would be my T-Mobile Dash and Treo 650 or 700.

Eye Candy

The screen on the iPAQ 4700 Pocket PC was unbeatable. For watching movies, viewing photos, and reading ebooks, no other device I have owned has matched it. It had great luminosity and color sensitivity. Interestingly, the device that I consider second place in regard to how great its screen looks was my Treo 650. Its smaller screen did not make it a great device for watching movies or reading ebooks, but its luminosity and coloring were perfect, perhaps even slightly surpassing the 4700.

Closing Thoughts

Out of all the devices I have owned, and there have been upwards of 20, the ones I have remaining are my BlackBerry Curve and my Dell x51v. These are great devices and I plan to keep them for a long while. I can envision replacing the Dell with one of the HP’s at some point. And, if RIM keeps having outages on its BIS network (it has recently had the third in five months), I could replace it with an iPhone. But, for now I am happy.

What about your favorite devices?

Update: I just tried syncing my Dell x51v and encountered numerous connection problems with it, something that seems to be happening more often. I am tempted to unbox my Palm TX (which I had boxed up for selling) and use it instead. ActiveSync sucks. Can’t Microsoft do anything right any more? I try to remain open-minded about various operating systems, for computers as well as PDAs, but I can tell you that I am very glad that I bought an iMac. I am also getting more miffed at myself for having bought the BB Curve when I did … if I had waited another week, the reduced price iPhone would have been available, and I am wishing I had gotten one. Happily the rumors are starting to circulate again about Apple introducing a PDA in the not-too-distant future.

Tagged as: practicality, technology