What operating system does the device run and how easy is it to find applications that run on it?
Futureproofing
How easily can the device be expanded to meet with your future needs for storage and functionality?
ROI
Do the features, usability, and performance justify the price?
Service
How long is the warranty? What service and maintenance contracts are available?
What to look for
- Battery life: the longer the better.
- Robustness: do the products bounce well?
- Ease of input: do you have sausage fingers that press four keys instead of one on the device's mini keypads? (If so you may have trouble with the Treo 600.)
- Removable memory: pick one type and try and ensure all your devices have the same type; there is nothing more annoying than having five devices with five different removable memory card types.
The devices reviewed here serve more than one purpose. While a PDA/phone might be ideal for your needs if you are simply looking for good communications between the office and roaming reps., more powerful computing needs would be better served with separate phone and portable PC (whether it be a pocket PC or a full laptop).
In terms of value, it's a competitive market and so you generally get what you pay for, whatever the brand. If you pay for a lot of features you don't need, that's where you lose out on value for money. Also make sure that your network actually supports all the features your device's hardware is theoretically capable of.
One of the main problems I see with all the phone/pda's is that they seem to forget about phone functionality and concentrate on the PDA side of things. For example handsfree dialling/answering. Most of the end user I talk to want the phone features first and the PDA features second.