Laptop and a PDA?

cloud171

Member
Mar 9, 2004
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I am like itching to buy something and a ipaq is something that appeals to me. I want to get it but I fear it will become obselete when I get my laptop for college. What do you guys think?
 

Mermaidman

Diamond Member
Sep 4, 2003
7,987
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Originally posted by: cloud171
I want to get it but I fear it will become obselete when I get my laptop for college. What do you guys think?
That really depends on how old you are, doesn't it? ;)

I don't think PDAs are sensible electronic toys. If you have a true need for one, then buy it. If not, blow the dough on something else. Uncle Sam says: "The economy needs YOU!"
 

jdiddy

Diamond Member
Feb 6, 2004
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Just get a really small laptop. A Sony x505 or X series thinkpad. I have x31 and its really small I carry it around everywhere I might need it.
 

Wuzup101

Platinum Member
Feb 20, 2002
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Just get whatever notebook best suits you for school. Most of the time you will not be taking notes with it anyway. They are more for portability so you can do work outside of your dorm room rather than great note taking aids in class. As for a PDA, I doubt you'll need one. After getting my notebook (a new apple powerbook - see sig) I definitely don't have any need for a PDA. My schedule goes in here. If I need to check it I open it up. People's phone numbers stay in my cell phone... that's just how I work... :)

Anyway, there are legit uses for PDA's but I doubt you'll need one for college. Spend the extra few hundred on upgrades for your laptop or a nicer machine overall...
 

zensafari

Junior Member
Aug 10, 2004
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I have a PDA that I use, and I just bought a notebook. I don't really use the PDA all that much. When I was in college I kept my schedule in the PDA up to date which was nice b/c each morning I could quickly view it to see what was in store for the day. This can be done, however, with a $2 calendar from Wal-Mart of course.

I'd say that if you plan to take your notebook everywhere you go then there is no sense in having a PDA. I often used mine for games and storing MS Office docs on. Whenever I had a presentation I would keep the PowerPoint slides on the PDA so I could reference them on the PDA instead of looking at the screen behind me. That was a nice feature. Other than that, I havent found it to be a major help. The only thing that is really nice is that when I would write a list of things to do on paper, I would always lose it. At least in the PDA everything stays put.

Hope this helps!
 

vegetation

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2001
4,270
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PDAs just aren't useful to me, either as a tool or a toy. Foremost, the screen resolution is too poor -- maybe when 640x480 screens become mainstream I'll reassess the situation but up until now I've just hopelessly given up on 320x320 screens. Second, even though all these new PDAs have high MHz processors, when you give them a big task it seems my old Pentium classic was just faster at number crunching. Finally, call me foolish, but I'm reluctant to get my electronic devices "dirty", in the sense I would need to for a PDA to be useful to me in the field. I like to baby things, keep them in nice cases and such. I feel afraid of breaking the fragile screens on these devices by stuffing them in my pocket and what not. PDAs just not for me, and I've gone through owning several of them, both Palm and MS types.