From business-like QWERTY with Blackberry to quirky SideKick, which of these combo PDA phones would be right for you?

I have been using the old iPAQ h6315 PDA phone for about the last three years.

While initially impressed with it's abilities over a regular cell phone, I quickly found out that the device was not as great as it was hyped up to be.

Service was terrible, thanks to the piggyback network offered by T-Mobile. The device's inability to get a signal, drop calls and perform other insane things due to firmware and hardware problems have left me with a less-than-satisfied impression.

T-Mobile quickly withdrew the device from the market.

What they should have done was have HP recall the device and correct the hardware.

Other than the above, I love the device. It beats the heck out of any ipod as far as features go, is way smaller than a portable DVD player or laptop, and the plan T-Mobile gives lets you have unlimited free data access.

The fact that I can have a phone, camera, GPS, watch hours of movies, listen to music, play games, chat, text, email, surf the web, watch photos, record voice notes, and keep a calendar, appointments, notebook, to-do list etc.. all in a single device that goes in my pocket has changed the way I live my day

...so long as the damn thing works and you can get a signal!!!

It is, of course, THG's job to evaluate all these kinds of things. I just can't help wondering why someone would spend so much more money on something that has only limited extra convenience. There must be a market for it, but I do not see why or where. I think I must be getting too old for this stuff: Most of the time we are not mobile (i.e. in transit), and if to continue working while mobile is all that important, wouldn't a person just get himself a laptop instead of playing with his thumbs (I mean, I am not a ten-finger blind typist myself but I use more than a thumb)? If not, wouldn't a simple cell-phone do? By the time people are able to afford such things as PDA phones I'd say they have someone to delegate their most urgent jobs to anyway, plus, by that time they'd probably love to be incommunicado for the time they are in transit to try to reduce stress and the resulting chance of their ulcers flaring up so the only reason they would buy a PDA phone is to impress others, i.e. for status. And that is something I never really understood, no matter what my age.

The market is simply for people who need a PDA and a phone but just want to bring one device instead of two (e.g. for convenient, save pocket space, bring less charger, sync contact/calander/notes/to do list on one device instead of two .... etc).

Then why there is a need for PDA instead of notebook? Can I put the notebook into my pocket? Can notebook instant on within seconds? Can notebook be use as a portable GPS and put it on the windshield? Can a notebook be used as a "portable" video/MP3 player?

BTW, this articles has quite a few of errors on page 3. Asus P525 (which I have one) has the numeric pad which is work like a real phone. And most Windows Mobile PDA phone has only QVGA (320x240) resulotion. So far, there is only one VGA PDA phone from HTC.

Say, which of these PDA's have front VGA cameras for video conferencing?

I hope The blackberry pearl is good, i was told it is. I ordered one yesterday.