Hitachi PDA/Phone Is Loaded for Business

Lets start by admitting that PDA/phone combination devices just cant be as small and light as regular cell phones. Crucial PDA considerations, such as display visibility and input convenience, work against size and weight. But if you dont insist on a tiny form factor, youll find highly functional and reasonably mobile multipurpose devices. The new Microsoft Windows Powered PCS Phone SH-G1000 by Hitachi ($650 street), with service provided by Sprint PCS, is the current category leader.

The SH-G1000 is a fully powered Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition PDA with a built in CDMA/1xRTT single-band phone, an integrated QWERTY keyboard, a 640-by-480 resolution digital camera, and even an SD slot. Small its not, but the SH-G1000 may have enough power in its individual components to convince you to use it as your sole mobile tool for making phone calls, sending and receiving e-mail and text messages, reading and editing Word and Excel documents, tracking appointments, storing contacts, and even capturing digital images. For a device that actually weighs only 8.4 ounces and measures 5.6 by 3.2 by 0.8 inches (HWD), plus an extra 0.8-inch of height for the antenna, the SH-G1000 delivers a lot of features.

The SH-G1000, like most Pocket PCs, is really too big to carry comfortably in a shirt pocket, but it fits well in the included leather belt pouch, which has a swivel belt clip. The device doesnt run the most recent version of the Pocket PC OS, but most wont miss that, since the greatest advantage of the new OS is easy wireless connectivity—a need the SH-G1000 meets via its 1xRTT data connection that operates at what Hitachi estimates to be 70-Kbps, on the average. A 400-MHz Intel XScale processor backed by 32MB of SDRAM and 32MB of Flash EEPROM provides the muscle. The SD slot mounted on the left side of the SH-G1000 can also handle MultiMediaCards.

For the whole story, check out the PC Magazine article.