Eric wrote:
Hello Eric - nice to know that there's at least two of us :-)
If you ever do break it, there are second-hand ones floating around - I got
one off ebay.
It's interesting you should mention that. When the REX6000 first came out I
did a detailed tradeoff between getting an R380 and using a REX with a T28.
PRO's of using the R380 were:
- one device
- no need to buy batteries
- backlight
- not as fragile (retrospectively)
CON's
- heavier (164g) and bulkier solution
- no categories
It was the latter point that tipped the scales in favour of the REX for me -
all my contacts are organised into around 15 categories. The P800, which I
suppose is the R380's successor, does support categories, but there are
problems with it - see below.
After the replies to my original post (http://tinyurl.com/g11o if not on
your news server - thanks for all of those BTW) , I did some detailed
investigations of each of the solutions suggested, including trying each of
them out (thanks mainly to a patient salesman in CPW). The main disadvantage
was, as you mentioned, price and bulk. Here's what else I found about each
of these platforms:
P800 - Heavy (148g) and expensive (£280ish on Orange upgrade), but not too
bulky. Symbian7/UIQ OS still has teething problems- for example,
synchronisation is flakey
(http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7856), although UI is very
nice. Also supports calling cards which I use a lot.
Treo 180 - Same weight as P800, much cheaper (£100 sim-free off ebay), but
even bulkier. Palm OS seems mature and probably will have no problems
synchronsing.
SPV - Smaller and cheaper (£30 on orange upgrade, although SPVx/Tanager will
be pricier) than the other two, but still quite heavy. Contacts and Calender
seem OK, but tasks don't seem to have due date, forget about start date.
Data entry will be a bit slow (using Tegic, as opposed to real/virtual
keyboard). Also I, like you, would prefer Symbian/Palm over the fledgling MS
Smartphone 2002 OS.
Grant and I discussed some creative use of non-smartphones to store the
data, but the solutions were not flexible enough to store all my categories
contacts, tasks, notes and calender entries.
In the end I bought, as mentioned earlier, another REX from ebay for £41. I
may be prepared to carry a smartphone in the future once prices come down
and their OS's mature - the prospect of one device is very tempting.
Sohail
