Which Pocket PC? Which GPS?

[H3LL]

There seem to be many types of pocket PC and/or OS and, frankly the plethora of information is a little overwhelming and often product oriented.

Requirements:

<ul>[*]Easy Compatibility with Windows XP pro.
[*]Docking to and use as an in-car GPS navigation system.[/list]

Which type of pocket PC do you recommend?
Which GPS docking system do you recommend?

Budget, mid and high end option will be considered.

Thanks for your help.

 

[PixyMisa]

I looked around for a new Pocket PC a few months ago and ended up with a Palm T3.

This probably doesn't help you, but I'm quite happy with it. I don't do GPS with it, though.

 

[Oleron]

Don't do GPS but my company has trialled about a dozen new PDA/smartphone devices.

We settled on the offerings from Orange. We use the SPV C500 and SPV M2000. Blackberry came out well in the tests but the smartphones have excellent Windows XP integration.

See here for model details (no I don't work for Orange!)

Orange

As a tool I think PDA's are starting to come of age. Up until now they have been an expensive toy but now we are able to use them in place of laptops in some situations.

 

[Wudang]

A good place to buy in the UK is xpansys. Their GPS page is here. I have the Acer N30b without GPS and am very happy with it.

 

[epepke]

There seem to be many types of pocket PC and/or OS and, frankly the plethora of information is a little overwhelming and often product oriented.

Requirements:

Easy Compatibility with Windows XP pro.

Kinda depends. Obviously, a Windows device is going to be more compatible than a Palm OS device, but you'll have to pay out the wazoo for the software.

Palm OS has Docs To Go (sp?), which works pretty well with the standard Windows stuff.

Docking to and use as an in-car GPS navigation system.

The best one I've seen I don't think is made any more. It was a Rand McNally system for the Palm III and was really cool. It even had a suction cup for putting it against the windshield. And it came with a nice atlas of US maps.

 

[cesium]

Palm and Pocket PC will have relatively similar compatability, but the pocket PC is based on windows and had MS word and excel.

As far as GPS compatability goes, most of the GPS units I have seen are for Pocket PC, but there are probably PALM units out there.

You should make sure that the GPS will be able to attach to the device, usualy these use Compact Flash or PCMCIA, so you will have to buy a higher end unit with this connectivity.

The most versitile unit I have seen is the Compaq (hp?) Ipaq. These are used for many applications, from GPS to wireless lan analysis to interactive multimedia devices at some resteuraunt (ESPN Zone somewhere I think).

Whatever you do, dont let the salesmen tell you that the manufacture of the device will be rolling out all sorts of adapters and accessories in the near future. I bought a pocket pc which was discontinued 3 months later.

 

[H3LL]

Thanks everyone.

The T3 with Tom Tom GPS looks good and I will use it as a benchmark for further searching and cost reduction.

The accessory tip is one I hadn't thought of. Thanks.

Orange GPRS is a little unclear as to what they offer. It seems locating more than navigating.

 

[malbui]

FWIW, for over a year I've been using a Tungsten T2 with the Kirio & ViaMichelin (? - too sore to get up and read the box) Bluetooth GPS wotsit. No complaints at all: I stuck in a 1Gb SD card and I've got detailed maps of the whole of France and Switzerland loaded, plus room for some mp3s. I doubt the T2 is still available (this market moves really fast) but I won't be needing to upgrade for a good while.