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A PDA is a 'personal digital assistant' and is a device primarily used to maintain and manage personal information like To Do Lists, calendars, and contacts. However, like everything else, the computing power of PDAs has increased dramatically in recent years and now PDAs can be used like portable PCs to run word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and you can also browse the web with some PDAs that are wifi enabled. You should think about how you are going to use your PDA and buy only those functions that you need because you will pay extra for added functionality.
A basic PDA is for people who just want the basic functionality of a PDA and they don’t want to spend more than $100. A Basic PDA is good to get organized, keep a calendar, and maintain contacts. It does not have 1) wireless functionality like Bluetooth/Wifi 2) phone 3) GPS. Palm has traditionally made very good basic PDAs.
If you want to connect your PDA to the web for browsing you need wifi capability which can be either 802.11b or 802.11g (faster than b). If you want to connect your PDA to Bluetooth enabled devices like phones, keyboards, and printers then you need a Bluetooth enabled PDA. Many of the latest PDAs and Smartphones are being released with both wifi and Bluetooth but they do cost more than a basic PDA so you should only get one of these if you want the added functionality. Both Palm and HP make the top Wireless PDAs.
This is a PDA that also has a GPS receiver and GPS software built into it. GPS PDAs are more expensive than either basic PDAs or basic GPS but you get the convenience of having both functionalities combined into one device. In the past, devices had either good PDA capability but not very good GPS functionality or good GPS but poor PDA functionality but you can now buy devices that are actually good at both functions. We think HP currently makes the best GPS PDA devices (Garmin makes the best pocket GPS devices but they do not have much PDA functionality).
Smartphones are devices that combine the functionality of PDAs and phones. You can now buy Smartphones that have excellent PDA functionality and also work very well as phones. The price of top Smartphones is coming down but they are still pretty pricey and you can easily pay over $400-500. The best option is to buy them with a big discount from your cell phone carrier but you will get locked into a long term contract when you do this. Smartphones have become major status symbols and the stakes have been further raised with the introduction of the iPhone. There are several top makes of Smartphones including Palm, Motorola, Blackberry, HP and now Apple.