Buying a PDA-2: Design

PDAs come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes with heavier devices generally having more features. Sometimes PDAs are classified into palms and handhelds.

Palms, like the Palm Zire 31, are smaller and lighter and operated by stylus rather than keyboard. They weigh around a couple of hundred grams and are small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. They are ideal for carrying basic information like contacts and personal appointments. However data entry is limited to stylus and a touch screen along with hand-writing software and this can be relatively cumbersome if you want to enter a lot of data. Their smaller size usually means a smaller, less powerful processor as well.

Handhelds, like the MDA IV, are larger and may not fit in your pockets. On the plus side they have a separate keyboard which allows for much speedier data entry. They have a larger screen which is ideal for watching video or surfing the Internet and they have the more powerful processors necessary to run such applications. Handhelds themselves come in a wider range of sizes: the smallest are only a little bigger than palms while the largest can weigh more than a kilo.

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