About a year or so ago, Sony rolled out a pocket PC. I have wanted to get one, and I checked it out in a Sony store. however, the model they had on display was not a working unit (it was refurbished and the battery was dead) and they wanted $1200 for it. Has anyone seen any developments in pocket PC’s in general, or on this specific model?

Definitely take a look at Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine! If you can, go to the library and see if they have it! It’s a great magazine that will help you out. 😉 For a website, I suggest bookmarking Pocket PC Central. My friends gave me that link a long time ago and it’s good to just keep up with the latest news about Pocket PC’s.

http://www.pocketpcmag.com/
http://pocketpccentral.net/

I don’t know that much about Pocket PC’s, but if you’re looking for some, talk to the people at Best Buy or browse online reviews. They’re very helpful and the best part is that they’ll be able to answer all your questions and concerns. 😊

First, the sony pocketpc you see that costs $1200 is not a pocket pc… it’s a UMPC. a mobile pc that runs the full blown windows XP or Vista. pocket pc is more like this: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx

I currently use a smartphone (pocket pc + cellphone) powered by Windows Mobile 6. if you’re up for a new cellphone plan, you can get a pocket pc smartphone for free.

tsunzilla - 01 June 2008 12:36 AM

First, the sony pocketpc you see that costs $1200 is not a pocket pc… it’s a UMPC. a mobile pc that runs the full blown windows XP or Vista. pocket pc is more like this: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx

Ok, to me that doesn’t make any sense. A piece of equipment that is basically a phone with some computer capabilities is a pocket pc, but a small computer that does everything a full computer would do is not? sounds like a weird conundrum to me. but then, when does technology have to be logical? (or am I the one with the fuzzy logic?!)

and thanks for the links jess1ca. i will check them out here shortly.

I am not an expert at this, but here are my thoughts:

1) If you are going for portability, but want full… I lost the word… but you get what I mean: I’d go with either a tablet PC, or something like an Asus EEPC. The cool thing about the EEPC is that you can replace the screen with a touch screen!

2) If you are looking to be really mobile, look into the blackberries or even an iPhone.

3) Also, I would recommend going for an “internet tablet” such as the Nokia N810.

4) As I said, I do not know much about Pocket PCs, that is why I didn’t answer with too much information for you about them. Instead, I thought I’d give you some alternate options so you can explore all of your choices.

tsunzilla - 01 June 2008 12:36 AM

First, the sony pocketpc you see that costs $1200 is not a pocket pc… it’s a UMPC. a mobile pc that runs the full blown windows XP or Vista. pocket pc is more like this: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx

No.  The key word here is PC.  Any device that runs Windows Mobile is not a pocket PC.  Windows Mobile is designed for and only used on cheaper Windows-based Smartphones.  A pocket PC is exactly what it sounds like, a PC that fits in your pocket and sometimes has a cell phone built into it.  A UMPC generally has no phone capabilities and is larger and more powerful than a pocket PC, yes, but that’s doesn’t mean a pocket PC doesn’t count.

Here’s a list of basic differences:

Smartphone (Windows based):
- Open and read Office documents (Word, Excel)
- Basic games, Messenger, etc.
- Sync with Outlook
- Send/receive email through your cell provider
- Surf the internet through your cell provider (not recommended on most data plans)

Pocket PC with phone capabilities:
- See above with the ability to create and edit Office documents

UMPC:
- Runs full-on Windows XP (or other OS)
- It might have Wifi, depends on the hardware

The Asus EEE PC started a trend in UMPCs, so there’s more than just it as an option now.

If you are looking for another type of UMPC, the Samsung Q2 is really sleek:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/07/samsung-q2-umpc-revealed/

That website doesnt really give it justice but the touchscreen portion of it is really sleek.  The keyboard and touchscreen controls are in the corners of the screen and it seems very intuitive to me.  Perhaps Windows Seven will follow this sort of idea when they introduce touchscreen to larger laptops?