SonyEricsson
P800 or P900 - A Symbian-OS powered smartphone with built-in web
browser and email software
The
real advantage of the one-box solution is the simplicity - there's a
lot less fiddly setup needed, and the solution just works.
Two-box
solutions
Two
box solutions (a seperate phone and computer) tend to be cheaper
options, and if you're really budget-conscious and not looking for the
most up-to-date stuff, end-of-line models, or even second-hand
machines can be the way to go. The down-side is that in order to
connect the handheld computer to the phone, you need to connect either
with a cable, or more commonly, wirelessly using either infrared or
Bluetooth - all of which can be a little fiddly to set up.
Ways to connect
If
you're using a one-box smartphone, you'll probably have all you need
already. For a two-box solution, you'll need to have the following:
-
A
handheld computer that has Internet / email software
-
A
mobile phone with a built-in data modem
-
A
way of connecting the two - most commonly you'll need both boxes
to have Infrared. You can also connect via Bluetooth, or in some
cases via a dedicated cable connection. Infrared is the most
common, requires the two boxes to be in line-of-sight with each
other, and is the least complcated to set up.
You'll
also need an Internet service provider (your existing provider should
be fine), and a mobile phone account with a network operator (such as
Vodafone, o2, Orange, T-Mobile, etc). Note that your mobile phone
service must be "data-enabled". A phone call to your network
operator will get this done, and there's normally no charge for setup.
Running
costs
The
most common way of making a connection to the Internet when on the
move, is via a dial-up service... In other words your smartphone or
pda/mobile dial a phone number supplied by your Internet Service
Provider (Tiscali, BT, Freeserve, etc). You can expect to be billed
for every second that you're online. Some things to note:
-
In
the mobile phone world, don't expect a low-call 0845 or a
local-rate dial-up number to be cheaper... Commonly you'll be
paying the standard rate for a call to a landline number (check
your network operator's tariff)
-
Your
mobile operator may offer you free minutes, but internet numbers
may not qualify - so check your contract/tariff to confirm this.
If you don't get free minutes, consider shopping about for a new
tariff.
-
Connection
over a dialup service from a mobile phone is slow. You're looking
at data speeds of 9.6kbps - a PC modem is 56kbps
-
Consider
using GPRS instead of a dial-up service. GPRS is faster than
standard dialup, but is billed differently (per megabyte, not per
second). It's also not available on all handsets, has to be
enabled by your network operator, and can be a little quirky to
set up.
Case
Study 1: Two-box solution
PDA:
Dell Axim Pocket X3 Pocket PC
Phone: Nokia 6100
The Dell Axim X3 is one of
the cheaper Pocket PCs on the market, but has excellent reviews and
contains a fair amount of power for it's size and cost. This comes
with all the software that you need to connect to the Internet. For
the handset, we're using the Nokia 6100, which is a medium-range
handset with a built-in modem and infrared connectivity for use with
the Pocket PC.
If
you're looking for a handheld way to connect to the Internet for email or
web surfing, there are two options open to you - using a dedicated
all-in-one "smartphone", or using a handheld computer coupled
with a mobile phone.