Which Handheld Should I Choose?

Science and technology has taken many leaps and bounds in the recent years. Apart from the advancement in technology, one more thing that has drastically changed our lifestyle is the human need to have small or portable yet useful things. If you have a close look around, you will find that gadgets or devices have undergone a drastic shrinkage in size during the last couple of decades. Like every other electronic device and gadget, our computer has also been reduced in size to form a completely new series of gadgets called handheld computers. Being uniquely small, lightweight and surprisingly powerful, handheld PCs are used by users who are always on the move and need to be connected with their work 24×7 through mobile computing.

While the need of a handheld PC is quite evident, the first thing that you would need to figure out is which handheld PC to choose. Even though there are plenty of options, picking one from Palm OS and Pocket PC will be the ultimate decision you will have to make. In this article, we will try to give you a basic knowledge of the two mobile operating systems.

While a Palm based handheld would run on the Palm OS, a Pocket PC uses Windows CE as its operating system. While a Pocket PC is meant for handheld PC, it has an interface that resembles that of a windows operating system and thus enjoys instant adaptability. Along with advanced integration with all the windows based PCs, Pocket PC is definitely the thing to have if you will be transferring a lot of files from your PC to your computer and vice-versa.

While both of these mobile operating systems do have common or identical features, they are different in their own way. As email, contact management, to-do list management and calendar event management is available in both Palm OS and Pocket PC, it is the Pocket PC that steals the show because of its MS outlook client application. As far as handwriting recognition is concerned, both these operating systems have a learning curve and work more or less in the same way. Even though no inherit fault of Palm OS, Pocket PC wins as an entertainment powerhouse because of the huge applications that are available for extending its codec support and therefore assisting in playing a wide variety of music and video files. Internet browser capability is an important aspect for a handheld PC. Therefore both these mobile OS perform at pas with each other.

While being comparatively cheaper, Palm OS is also lighter than Pocket PC. Because of this reason, it is also only available only in handheld PCs with slow processors. While they are easier to use and provide automatic sync backup, Palm PCs do not provide the advanced features given by a Pocket PC. Advanced integration with windows OS, windows office and other such Microsoft applications make Pocket PC a must have for any Windows user.

In the end, although a Pocket PC is definitely something that you should have; if you are a casual user who requires little features to perform low end computing tasks with a handheld, a Palm OS is a good option because of its low cost handhelds.