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PRODUCT SHOOTOUT
Wireless email roundup
By Ron Herardian
As new wireless services, email, and devices hit the market, I wondered what the best wireless email devices were for business users. I rounded up five of the most popular devices and gave each of them a test drive. The devices I looked at were the Palm i705 (at http://www.palm.com/us/products/palmi705/), the RIM 957 (at http://www.blackberry.com/products/rim857_957/index.shtml), the Handspring Treo 270 (at http://www.handspring.com/products/treo270/), the Siemens SX56 (at http://www.my-siemens.com), and a Danger Hiptop (also known as the T-Mobile Sidekick, at http://www.danger.com). The Palm and the RIM devices I reviewed are first-generation wireless PDAs, while the Treo and the SX56 are the latest PDA/phone combo devices with high-speed GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Internet access. The Danger product provides an interesting alternative, although it wasn't originally designed for business users. Absent from this review were the Palm Tungsten W and the RIM 6210 PDA/phones.
When looks are (almost) everything
If this were a beauty contest, the winners would definitely be the sleek Handspring Treo (a Palm OS device), reminiscent of the original Start Trek (the Old Generation) communicator, and the gleaming Siemens SX56 Pocket PC 2002 with its incredibly crisp display. Both products have strengths, but I was surprised to find that having a pretty face isn't necessarily the most important thing for wireless email, although it will definitely impress your friends. All the devices I reviewed had advantages and disadvantages.
The convenience of having just one device as a PDA and mobile phone is compelling. Unfortunately, the PDA form factor and interface is different from the mobile phone you're used to. If you're comfortable with a hands free kit, the promise of voice activation could make this combination the wave of the future, but today's PDAs don't provide a phone experience anywhere near the level of the top mobile handsets like the Motorola T720 or Ericsson T681. However, they do get the job done, and the PDA interface is great for your address book (although taking notes on your PDA during phone calls can be tricky).
The Handspring Treo
The Handspring Treo, pictured in Figure A, is an elegant and sophisticated device with Macintosh-like ease of use, but its tiny keys are hard to use (especially one-handed), and the phone interface isn't as easy to use as it looks.
FIGURE A
 
The Handspring Treo is an elegant and sophisticated device. Roll over picture for a larger image.
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