Who needs a laptop?

[MixedPlateBroker]

The thought occurred to me today that with the advent of more processing muscle and high-speed mobile Internet access, PDA phones are finally poised to deliver on their promise to replace the need for laptops. I find myself using my workhorse laptop more for downloading and watching hard-to-find TV episodes than actual work now that I have my PDA phone optimized for my daily routine. High-speed mobile Internet, Windows Mobile 5 and a Bluetooth keyboard keep me humming along just fine.
I was curious as to how many other HTers have migrated away from laptops and how it's working for them.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Who needs a laptop?

I just purchased a WiFi SD card for my Treo 700wx so I can access the internet without having to pay Verizon's internet package on it.

I'm not one that text messages so I use my Treo for basic email. Thru Windows Mobile 5 I can sync my computer's Office Outlook to my Treo to update contact, calender and notes.

Because it also syncs to Windows Media Player (10 or better) I can download podcasts and my own media library (including video) onto the SD storage card for playback.

These smartphones have gotten to the point where it can literally replace the laptop for most mobile applications. What would be nice is if you could dock a smart phone to a USB port of any computer and use it as a mass storage device instead of having it convert it to a file that the smart phone recognizes.

[TATTRAT]

Re: Who needs a laptop?

I use my ipaq pone for email mainly. good to get online every now and again, but I have no plans of ditching the lap top. I like the ability to sync data to take with me though.

[MixedPlateBroker]

Re: Who needs a laptop?

What would be nice is if you could dock a smart phone to a USB port of any computer and use it as a mass storage device instead of having it convert it to a file that the smart phone recognizes.

Let me know if this works for you.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Who needs a laptop?

Thanks for the link...I'll probably use it one day. I'm a bit bummed though as most of the software on that website is for Palm based OS treos. Oh well.

[kiwidiva]

Re: Who needs a laptop?

Oh, I clicked on this coz I thought you might be giving yours away!

I don't even have one yet and they are already becoming obsolete??

So, I should just save the money I would spend on buying a laptop and get one of those fancy phone thingamajiggys instead???

[MixedPlateBroker]

Re: Who needs a laptop?

If I'm ever so fortunate to be able to give my laptop away, Kiwi, you'll be the first to know.

I'd say that a PDA phone works better for people who need to have constant access to their work/personal e-mail accounts, deal w/multiple contacts/appointments/time-sensitive tasks everyday or need to travel light while still having Internet access. Anyone who writes for a living, runs alot of multimedia content or uses software unavailable for mobile platforms would be better served by a laptop. This is assuming that your primary home computer is < four years old.

[kiwidiva]

Re: Who needs a laptop?

Mahalo for the consideration, MPB!