Determine what kinda stuff you're going to use your pda for. From that on you can determine your actual budget, or kalu tak cukup budget, can start kumpul to cukupkan budget tu, make sense? ;)
If you're using it for daily stuff like me - appointments, budgets, expenses, phonebook, ebooks etc. - go for Palm. Reason - Palm is definitely much more stable and battery-wise is good compared to ppc.
Stable you ask? Well palm device is using Palm OS and ppc is using Windows so which OS you think is more likely to hang/crash more? :) I'm not saying ppc ni selalu sangat hang but chances are if you're using ppc, keberangkalian nak hang tu memang ada la compared dgn those yg pakai palm. Palm pun ade gak crashnye but in terms of stability, ask any pda user, and they'd say it's Palm all the way. Now, mungkin ade lak yg tanye - appointment? phonebook? cant todays handphone do this too? Well, if you're using those smartphone with big screens then maybe you're satisfied with your current setup but if you're using one of those normal h/p, memang jauh bezanye pakcik cakap sama lu. E.g. phonebook - it's just not your normal phonebook - but you can include addresses, all the details you want to sumbat, more than gizzilion numbers for that particular entry, birthday date, anniversary date, pictures as well, well you have to see it for yourself la senang cakap :) Some ppl prefer to have an-all in one device like those who use a smartphone, some like me will always be a 2-device kinda guy :)
Why? well you can only do so much on a smartphone but with a pda, the sky is the limit (well maybe that's too reaching), you can do your stuff, play games, listening to mp3s without worrying that your phone is draining batts like crazy. Well that's my reason anyway. What about ppc? - well ppc is Windows, if you cant live without it, then stick to it. It can read native windows files like excel/words without having to convert them to readable formats like what palm users have to do.
So is that means those yg nak pakai Palm kena convert files like excel/words in their pc and then transfer them back to their pda? Well the only Palm that can read native Windows files now is the T5, other than that yes, you have to convert them first. But hey, it's not such a big deal ok. Be it a ppc or palm you still have to connect them to your pc to install new proggy or do backups. Converting windows file to palm readable formats is just a matter of minutes aje tanyele saya kalu tak percaya :) In other words, it's not such a hassle like they think it'd be. E.g. you got this new ebook of Lord of the Ring in Words format. Kalu you pakai ppc, you hook your ppc to the pc yg ada that file, and upload it straight to your pda. For palm, you drag the particular files to
the converter where it'll convert it to readable format tak sampai 2 seken pun ;) and upload it straight to your palm for your perusal. Tak le susah sgt kan? ;)
Of course it's a different story all together when someone is sending you these excel/words files via h/p or ppc, then wat palm user can do is just scratch their heads helplessly ;)
On behalf of Palm defense, ppl say excel/words in palm are much more true to their native format compared to excel/words viewed in ppc. Go figure :)
Things yg. aku buat dgn pda aku. Before that let me tell you that i'm using an OS4, Sony Clie SJ30 which is using palm of course. Too bad Sony no more producing their pda, so kalau nak pakai PalmOS, the only brand now is of course PalmOne. Ebooks; Appointments/To-do; Budget; Day-2-day expenses; Phonebook; Password Keeper; Notes/Words; Baby progress checker (i'm using HeyBaby) - really cool proggy that let you know on your wife pregnancy progress; mini-blogg (where i wrote memorable events or happenings that i need to refer back to); games; pix viewer; etc. these are things that i regularly do with my pda. There're other good progs out there depending on your needs, all you have to do is know where to find them ;)
Enough about Palm, you probably wanna know what more can the ppc offer. Well the thing is ppc is getting slimmer and slimmer and the current offering like the latest from Dell Axim is really enticing with built-in wifi and bt. Bside the native file stuff mentioned earlier, palm can do what ppc can do as well. But from what i noticed - in terms of multimedia, especially in terms of videos and games, ppc has a lot more to offer than palm, main reason is becoz there're many types of files which
Windows already supported. But if you're talking about surfing using your pda, both types of devices give more or less the same performance. Still, nothing beats surfing using your old desktop :)
So read le all of the above again and again :) it all goes back to what you want to do with your pda, and if you can live with the minor stuff mentioned above. Go test drive both type of pdas and see which one suits you best,. go set your budget straight as well :) you dont want to buy an expensive pda just becoz it got wi-fi or bt but later on realized, you dont use them as much and can live without them after all :) better use that extra cash to buy something else rite? Also make sure when you beli this thing called pda, you, yes you are going to use it. i know someone who use his Ipaq strickly for alarm clock now, i kid you not :) Ong-putih cakap, jgn hangat2 tahi ayam aje...ahaks!