After some hesitations while being at MEDC 2007 in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, I decided to buy a new Windows Mobile Device. When the first Windows Mobile powered Smart Phones came to market, around 5 or so years ago, I didn’t really like them that much. I thought data entry was a pain, the screen size too small and the capabilities too limited compared to a Pocket PC. Since that time lots of things have changed. Pocket PC’s and Smart Phones got more and more similar functionality. In other words, the Pocket PC became a phone and the Smart Phone became a Pocket PC. Right now, an important distinction between different flavors of Windows Mobile powered devices is presence or lack of a touch screen. More and more devices ship with full keyboards, get a decent amount of memory and reasonably fast processors. When looking for a new device I had a few important requirements. The device should be able to run Windows Mobile 6 and, if not yet installed, upgrades should become available in the near future. The device must be easy to use and have a full QWERTY keyboard. The device must have a great screen and at the same time must be small enough to carry around in my pocket. Even though originally I was still more willing to buy a new device with a touch screen, I finally made a different decision. The device I bought has a full keyboard, nicely under the screen so no need to perform some actions before being able to use the keyboard. Even though the keyboard is very small, it only took a few hours to get used to it. In fact, this keyboard can mostly be used in one hand operations. In the few weeks I am using this new device I have not yet missed touch screen capabilities. In fact, it seems right now that I can enter data faster on this new device. In other words, I am quite happy with this brand new device. Not only is it smaller than my previous device, the screen is better readable, I can enter data much faster and the device is smaller and lighter than any previous Windows Mobile device I have owned. Oh, not to forget of course, I can even use the device as a phone. Until know I was always much more charmed by Pocket PC type of devices than by pure Smart Phones. However, with the most recent devices that grow more and more towards each other, my opinion has changed. I like the Smart Phone that I am currently using very much. With the possibility to upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0 I probably will use it for quite a long time.

Maarten Struys