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Welcome back to Palm Discovery.net. This is Part 10 and the last part of Palm Discovery.net’s 10 part series on Choosing a PDA. Here’s a list of the top 10 things you should consider when choosing a PDA:

1 - Standalone PDA or all-in-one smartphone?
2 - Wireless connectivity?
3 - Touchscreen or non-touchscreen PDA?
4 - Graffiti or on-screen input or keyboard/keypad input?
5 - Palm, Pocket PC, Blackberry or other similar devices?
6 - Screen resolution
7 - Memory (RAM)
8 - Battery (life and removable or non-removable characteristics)
9 - Processing power (clock speed)
10 - Expandability and accessories

10 - Expandability and accessories

Although I’ve put this as the last part, this is by no means, the least important feature to consider when deciding on a PDA. Whether a PDA has the potential for expansion with regards to software as well as hardware should also be something that potential PDA consumers should consider.

Unfortunately, nowadays, the likelihood that there is much of any software updates or upgrades are very minimal at best. Think of the last time you’ve heard that Palm has provided a software or firmware update, especially for models that have been released a year ago. Back in the much earlier days, Palm used to provide periodic updates for their operating system allowing users to enjoy more stability, more enhancements and compatibility with third party applications. Remember way back when? This hasn’t happened in a very long time and obviously won’t likely be happening ever. Ever since Palm OS 5 came out, I haven’t seen any updates provided by Palm. Although the operating system has been updated in newer Palm devices, Palm has not provided any updates on their website. Either you get a new Palm device, or you are out of luck.

Alternatively, on the Windows Mobile side, Microsoft is providing updates for supported devices to update to their newer Windows Mobile 6 from Windows Mobile 5. How’s that for comparison? But is that alone enough to convince you to get the HTC Advantage or whatever else device? That’s up to you.

Another consideration you should think about is another form of expansion or expandability of the PDA. By that I am referring to the external expansion, or more specifically, the flash memory expansion cards. Most PDAs offer expansion card slots to allow users to store programs, data, files on a flash memory card in the form of Compact Flash, Memory Stick, mini-SD, SD (Secure Digital), xD, etc. Basically, they are all flash memory cards but they act very similar to floppy disks of yesteryear. They allow you to store data physically onto a disk but unlike floppy disks, there are no moving parts and are less likely to be damaged compared to those old floppy disks.

Many PDAs have different size or capacity support for the expansion card. It’s important to take note of the maximum capacity of the flash memory card that your PDA supports. Older PDAs will likely support up to 1GB cards while newer PDAs will support 2GB. Current PDAs and smartphones will support 4GB or more depending on whether they support the higher capacity SDHC cards. This is very important as you never know when you will need more storage capacity for your PDA. If you plan to load up maps and video, you’d better make sure your PDA can support higher capacity flash memory cards.

Besides expansion, you should also consider third party accessory support. How many different types of accessories can you find for your PDA model? Let’s face it. The likelihood that we will want to get different accessories to enhance and expand on the capabilities of our PDA is usually quite high. It would be very handy to be able to do a lot of extra things with that one PDA if there is accessory support. Wouldn’t you want to have GPS, Slingbox, remote computer control, etc at your fingertips? Maybe not, but a lot of us would. I remembered how excited I was when I got the Zire 71 that I had to jump to get the only SD Wi-Fi card that worked on a Palm device. Of course, that was before Palm came out with its own branded SD Wi-Fi card that worked on only a select few models of Palm devices. Having Wi-Fi on a PDA at the time when it wasn’t as popular then was quite something.

Take a bit of time to research the choice and types of accessories available for your preferred PDA because there’s nothing worse than being stuck with a PDA that doesn’t have much accessories available.

Again, these 10 features I’ve listed are in no way a comprehensive list. Hopefully, it’s a start. Other considerations to ponder: software availability and support (how much software choices are available and are they continually being updated and supported?), community support (the community of users available at various enthusiast forums) and many others.

That’s the end of part 10 - Expandability and accessories) and the entire Palm Discovery.net’s series on Choosing a PDA. I hope that you have found it informative and helpful and that you have a much better idea of how to narrow down your choices and find something that will not only suit your budget but your individual needs. If you have not read the entire series, please check out Part 1: Standalone PDA or all-in-one smartphone?

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