PDA with camera advice

[a2z]

Can anyone suggest a PDA that can satisfy the following;

- Inbuilt camera (the most important bit)
- Runs Windows
- Touch screen (but possibly with a small keyboard)
- Reasonably priced

Or would I be better off with a smart phone etc

It is needed for in the field surveys of buildings i.e. capturing data on condition and supported with photos, sketches etc. I already have the database side of things sorted, just need to get the hardware.

Thanks in advance.

[Plotloss]

T-Mobile MDA Pro, O2 XDA Exec, Orange M5000

All the same device, cheapest on T-Mobile by a mile.

[malman]

Plotloss said:

T-Mobile MDA Pro, O2 XDA Exec, Orange M5000

All the same device, cheapest on T-Mobile by a mile.

HTC are just about to launch the new versions with 3G so you might want to hang on a bit

More Info

[Plotloss]

That device is already 3G

I have a TMobile MDA Pro and regularly use the UMTS (3G) feature for mobile data as that is the reason I bought it.

[malman]

oops sorry thought it was the smaller one with the slide out keyboard but thats the o2 mini s / various other names.

On a side note how do you find the big one - stable? battery life? keyboard usability?

Edited by malman on Wednesday 28th June 18:01

[Plotloss]

Its pretty stable on the whole, crashed a couple of times in 4 months heavy use.

Battery great (as you would expect, its MASSIVE) for phone and UMTS use, the Wifi eats it though but given the density of free hotspots isnt great its not too much of an issue as I only generally use it at home as I have unlimited UMTS/GPRS data bundled.

I spend days out of the office at a time, so I just divert the office phones to the mobile and as Pocket Outlook can act as an IMAP client it truly is an office in your pocket to coin a horrific marketing slogan.

Keyboard is great once you get used to it but once you are you can touchtype on it no trouble at all.

All in all a recommended device.

My only quibble is its size, once my 18 months is up on TMob and if Orange or Vodaphone get as competitive on their data rates as TMob are I'll probably go for a dual sim deal and get something like a SLVR or that LG Chocolate strictly for calls and use the MDA Pro as a mobile data device only.

[Liszt]

What plotloss said. I have just updated my 02 Exec with the latest bluetooth drivers so now have stereo sound via bluetooth so no need for a separate mp3 player. I also run Tomtom on it fine.

[philip_cooke]

Plotloss said:

T-Mobile MDA Pro, O2 XDA Exec, Orange M5000

All the same device, cheapest on T-Mobile by a mile.

Plotloss, how do you work this one out? The O2 device costs max 149.99, whereas the T-Mobile device costs 179.99 or 199.99

Do you mean in calling costs? If so what tarrif would you recommend for best value?

[SGirl]

philip_cooke said:

Plotloss, how do you work this one out? The O2 device costs max 149.99, whereas the T-Mobile device costs 179.99 or 199.99

It's the same device, branded differently by different suppliers. The O2 XDA Exec costs more than £149.99, I bought one last week after various people recommended it on here.

Anyway. Other than that, I'd agree totally with what Plotloss has said above. The unit is great. My only gripe is that it's a bit short on program memory, and it seems to leak memory a bit too so you have to do a soft reset every now and again. Oh, and remember to close everything down in the Task Manager as well - Windows "helpfully" leaves everything running in the background so that it's quicker to load next time you want to use it. (If you still have a charge in your battery, that is. )

A couple of people have mentioned that they've had problems with this unit having trouble maintaining phone calls. So far, I've not seen any issues in that respect. It's all doing exactly what it's meant to be doing. I'd certainly recommend it.

[medicineman]

Siemens Fujitsu pocket loox 720. Great piece of kit, does VOIP as well.

[pwig]

Orange SPV M600

[andy g bmth]

i-mate jam(qtek) ticks all the boxes

Edited by andy g bmth on Saturday 22 July 19:33