Three for the Road

By Anita Hamilton

Remember when hand-held computer gadgets were cool? When strangers on a bus would cast envious--or at least curious--glances at geeks and road warriors tapping away on their Palms and Blackberries? Lately the novelty has worn thin. With look-alikes proliferating and disposable income shrinking, sales of pricey personal digital assistants (PDAs) have sagged.

But things may be picking up in PDA land. The latest models have new personality and a lot more pizazz, thanks to smarter designs and slick add-ons like phones and cameras. The new features should help drive sales up 18% annually during the next five years, according to estimates by the research firm In-Stat/MDR. Prices are still steep, and getting these babies to work as advertised can be a struggle, but some of the new PDAs are definitely worth looking at.

SONY CLIE NZ90 Weighing in at 10 oz., this hefty handheld, which runs on the Palm operating system, is not for neophytes. But its high-end features are tough to resist. It is the only PDA with a 2-megapixel digital camera built in (with flash and zoom!). The large swivel screen displays 65,000 colors--great for running miniature slide shows on the go. And I loved the gorgeous stereo sound on the headsets when I played MP3s. The only things missing on this $800 device are easy-to-use Web browsing and e-mail. Synching up with a PC to communicate is an ordeal that few should have to endure. If you want to go wireless, you'll have to either go through a Bluetooth-enabled phone or PC or buy the optional Wi-Fi card ($149).

PALM TUNGSTEN W Palm just axed 19% of its employees, but the cuts might not have been so drastic had the company been able to get products like this wireless wonder out the door a little sooner. Designed primarily for communicating--via the Web, e-mail and a built-in cell phone--this thin, trim handheld is a well-focused success. You won't find any multimedia extras, not even an MP3 player, but you will get an unheard-of 10 hours of talk time, a sturdy metal stylus and a crisp 320x320-pixel display. The AT&T service lets you download data at a reasonable 40 kbps. My only quibble: at $549, plus at least $30 a month for Web and e-mail access, plus the cost of a voice plan, the W is no bargain.

SONY ERICSSON P800 This silver-and-blue gizmo looks like a phone with a camera fused onto its backside, but the P800 packs a surprisingly decent PDA (using the Symbian operating system) under its lid as well. I admit I had my doubts at first. The cheap, plastic stylus and the miniature virtual keyboard that pops up onscreen do not immediately inspire confidence. But with a little practice, anyone with good eyesight and a steady hand can get used to writing with it. The PC software that Sony Ericsson includes for loading MP3s onto the phone never did work for me (despite hours of tech support), and the screen is too narrow for Web browsing. But snapping photos with the 640x480-pixel camera and e-mailing them to friends was a lot of fun. An ample 12 MB of internal memory plus 16 MB on the Memory Stick Duo card--together, enough to store hundreds of snapshots--are included in the $649 retail price.