PDA Cell phone

[jonhktuenmun]

I'm looking to buy a PDA cell phone to use with Pleco. I live in Beijing and I have never puchased a PDA before so I'm not 100% comfortable dropping 5000+RMB on a cell phone if i'm not sure it will work with Pleco. From what I can tell, any phone using the Windows Mobile 5 will be compatable with Pleco. Is that correct?

What about other cell phone / pda operating system combos?

Right now I've got my eye on a nokia phone but from what I can tell (i cant speak chinese well enough to talk to the dealers) the nokias use their own operating system. If this is the case then that makes it incompatable with Pleco, correct?

Any suggestions or advice would be MUCH appreciated. The only reason I want a pda/cell phone is for pleco. It's a significant investment just to carry around 1 device over 2, but I think it will be worth it if I can find a phone that runs Pleco.

 

[mikelove]

Yes, any Windows Mobile 2003 or Windows Mobile 5 phone should work, though depending on the phone's internal memory capacity you may need an add-on memory card in order to store all of PlecoDict's data files.

A Palm OS-based phone would also work, though the only one of those in wide circulation is the Treo 600/650 - they're both quite capable of running PlecoDict, but both of them would also require an add-on memory card in order to hold anything more than the Basic version.

These memory cards are quite inexpensive, though - a 128 MB card would have more than enough room for all of PlecoDict's data files, and you can find those for as little as US$10-$20 depending on the exact type of card your particular phone takes. Most, including the Treos, take SD cards, which would be on the lower end of that range - a few, however, take slightly less common formats like miniSD that might cost a bit more.

And you're correct that the Nokia wouldn't work - Nokia's smartphones use their own operating system called Symbian and we don't currently offer software for that (nor do we plan to do so anytime soon). Most of the Nokia smartphones also lack touchscreens, which means that even if we did develop software for them you wouldn't be able to handwrite characters with it.

Of all the options out there I'd probably go with a Treo 600 or 650 - as PDA/phone combos they're just generally better designed and integrated than any Windows Mobile smartphone I've seen. And they've been out for long enough now that Palm has managed to fix most of the bugs in their operating system (which can't be said for the extremely-buggy Windows Mobile 5).

 

[lmcjipo]

I have a Treo 600 and use it with PlecoDict. It works great. The only minor issue with the Treo 600 is that it is low resolution (160x160) which makes some Chinese characters in PlecoDict impossible to read if PlecoDict didn't come with a magnifier feature.

I have no hesitation in recommending a Treo 600 with PlecoDict.

I run PlecoDict almost entirely off my SD card and I've never had any issues running it on my Treo 600.

Most of the bugs have been worked out of the Treo 650 so I would recommend that you get a Treo 650 if you can't find a Treo 650 or if you want a higher resolution screen. I will be updating my Treo 600 to a Treo 650 the moment the Treo 700P (or whatever the next PalmOS based smartphone is called). The only reason I'm waiting is that my Treo 600 still works and I believe that the price will go down the moment the next version comes out.

 

[Jim]

I noticed you live in Beijing. Zhong Guan Cun is the place to look for a Treo 650. I haven't seen any 600s though you might find a used one somewhere at a good price on the internet.

There is a Chinese version of the Treo 650 labelled CECT. It is listed at 5500 RMB but there is probably some room to bargain. You can also find some 650s that were brought from Hong Kong with the English OS and a CD that includes CJKOS. Not sure what the current price is but these were about 4500 before the CECT version came out and may be even lower now.

The Chinese CECT version will operate with English or Chinese menus as will the ones from Hong Kong. The only real difference is that CJKOS is in ROM on the Chinese version and is added to RAM on the Hong Kong version. TheOS with CJKOS in ROM can be added quite easily to the Hong Kong version. It is also possible to create custom ROMS in which you can add or leave out what you want with a few exceptions.

I have been using the TREO 650 with Plecodict for almost a year now and it is a great combination. It is stable and gives me no problems.