Two new PDAs give you a real choice in price and design

In the world of personal digital assistants, most of the attention has been on models that can connect wirelessly to the Internet or double as a cell phone. But late last year there was good news for people who just want to use a PDA to link to their PCs, not to the wider world.

Two new models, from Dell and Palm, are breaking new ground. But these two new PDAs, Dell’s Axim X5 and Palm’s Tungsten T, are diametric opposites.

The Dell, at just $199, is the least expensive PDA ever to use Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system, and it is full featured and very capable. But it is so big and bulky that you really can’t carry it in a pocket or small purse comfortably.

By contrast, the Palm is sleek, small and handsome, with a clever expandable design, plenty of power and a bunch of innovative features. But at $499, it is really high-priced for a non-Internet model.

I’ve been testing both models, and both work generally well. I still prefer the Palm operating system, with its clean, elegant user interface, to the Pocket PC system, which I find too cluttered with long menus and file folders. But both of these products will keep your calendar, contact list, memos and to-do lists quite well, and both synchronize fine with a computer.

For those who are attracted to the Pocket PC, the new Dell Axim 5 is a rare bargain — as long as you are willing to carry your PDA in a briefcase or large purse. At $199, the Axim offers pretty much the same PDA feature set sold for $500 or $600 18 months ago.

Axim has two models. The $199 base model has a sharp, color screen with 240 x 320 pixel resolution, 32 megabytes of memory and a processor running at 300 MHz. There is no cradle for synchronization and battery recharging. Instead, you have to use two clumsy cables. The $299 model has twice the memory, a 400 MHz processor and a cradle.

There are two expansion slots — one for compact flash cards and one for the newer, smaller Secure Digital cards. And its rechargeable battery is removable.

But it’s big. It’s over five inches long, 3.2 inches wide, and about 0.7 inches thick. It weighs 6.9 ounces, a lot for a PDA. Even the charging cradle is very large and kind of garish, with a mirror-like coating on it. And there are a couple of other downsides — a jog dial on the side is flimsy, and so is the stylus.

Pocket PC fans who crave a modest price but seek a smaller device might want to wait until January for the Hewlett-Packard Ipaq h1910, a $299 model with 64 megabytes of memory that is very thin and light.

Palm’s Tungsten T is the best looking new Palm I’ve seen in a long time. Its dark-gray metallic case is very short, at just four inches. The bottom part of the device slides down to reveal the area where you enter text with the stylus.

The Tungsten is three inches wide, 0.6 inches thick and weighs 5.6 ounces. It easily fits in a pocket or small purse and feels very sturdy. As on other recent Palms, there’s an expansion slot that accepts SD cards.

The Tungsten is the first Palm to use the new, more capable 5.0 operating system and a new, faster line of processors. It also has a new 320 x 320 high-resolution screen, which allows for better color, much sharper text and much more detailed graphics. The unit has 16 megabytes of memory, plenty for a Palm.

A couple of the Tungsten’s new features are catch-ups to the Pocket PCs: a five-way navigation control that replaces the up and down arrow keys, and a microphone and speaker for dictating and listening to voice memos. There’s also bundled software that allows you to read and create Microsoft Office documents.

Unlike the Dell, this new Palm is compatible with the Macintosh as well as Windows and can synchronize with a variety of PC programs.

One feature of the Tungsten sounds better than it is: built-in Bluetooth wireless connectivity. Theoretically, you can use this to connect to the Internet via a compatible cell phone. But there are almost no Bluetooth-equipped cell phones in the United States today. What’s more, I have found Bluetooth to be difficult to use.

The Tungsten comes with a cradle, but it’s Palm’s universal version, meant to fit a variety of models, and I found it to be a clumsy fit with the Tungsten.

The biggest downside for the Tungsten is its $499 price. This is what top-of-the-line, non-Internet Palms cost years ago. Such a price tag is hard to swallow today, when you can get a light, elegant Palm-compatible Handspring Treo 300 with a color screen, built-in cell phone and high-speed Internet connectivity for as low as $299 on Amazon.com.

For those with deep pockets who value style and compactness, the Palm Tungsten T may be just the ticket. For those with tight budgets who don’t mind bulk and a more complex software interface, the Dell Axim is the better deal.

Walter J. Mossberg, a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal since 1970, has been named as the most influential journalist writing about computers for seven years in a row, from 1995 to 2001, by Technology Marketing magazine. He is the recipient of numerous other awards for his columns on technology and electronic gadgets, including the 1999 Loeb award for Commentary, the only technology writer to be so honored. E-mail Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com.