Best PDA for christmas gift?

Question

I want to buy a PDA, but have never used one, so I'm not sure what kind would be the best value. The gift is for a upperclassman college student, so I'm looking for something that would work at school and in the working world.

I really like a feature for reading/editing documents like Word, Powerpoint, and PDFs. A decent amount of memory and fairly long battery are a must. A voice recorder would be a nice plus, as would viewing photos.

Answer 1

If you are on a budget and simply CAN'T afford a Cell phone/PDA combo, I would suggest the Palm Tungsten E2. I used its predecessor the Tungsten E for years, I used it to keep track of my appointments and to-do lists, read ebooks, play games, listen to mp3 files (pretty good sound, I think), store and show photos (Ok for casual use, but not up to professional standards),and write, store, view MS Office documents. The great thing about a Palm based device is that they are true handheld computers and a LOT of free or low cost software is available for them, which isn't true for a lot of the 'Smartphones' many people might suggest in this situation.

The E2 is small, and light weight and very professional looking, your student won't be embarrassed to pull it out in a business meeting.

I have since upgraded to a Palm Treo 700p, which I am delighted with. But for a good multipurpose PDA at modest cost, it's pretty hard to beat a Tungsten E2.

Answer 2

If the individual has a cell phone, the best thing to do is to buy them one that can act as both cell phone and pda. The reason for this is that combining the two items is natural and much more conveinient than needing to redundantly store information about contacts in two places.

Answer 3

probably the best would be an 02 XDA, as these also have mobile phones built in. They also look really good. The official website is here
http://www.seeo2.com/