Acer N30

At first glance the Acer n30 looks the part, with a slick body casing, and the new Windows Mobile software 2003SE. However, given that this has been dubbed the "wireless wonder" by Acer, there are several annoying omissions.

The first of these is the lack of built-in wifi support. To use a wireless connection, you will need to purchase an SDIO card which has this functionality. Having said that the n30 seems to play well with most of the SD cards out there, and has enough battery power to last the course with wireless addons.

The second annoyance is that a lot of USB devices, which support the mass storage option do not work with this device. This is due in part to the poor usb support in Windows mobile 2003SE, which does not seem to support any but the most simple devices. Other devices require drivers, which will probably not be available for Windows Mobile.

Thirdly, the amount of memory the device has is small and, whilst it can be expanded by SD card addons, it cannot be used simultaneously with the wireless connection, which would make this device a real winner. Added to this, the device is sometimes slow to respond to user input, even with no programs running, and it takes a while to do a soft reset.

Finally, the quality of the build is poor, so that subjecting the n30 to any slight knocks or bashes will quickly disintegrate the casing. Whilst the unit still functions perfectly, the look of the case is that of a second hand unit very quickly.

On the up side, the functionality of the applications is excellent, and there were no problems syncing to a desktop machine. Everything just worked out of the box. I was able to quickly master the various PIM functionality within the ROM and if that is not enough power for you, you can buy more advanced applications and put them onto the machine with no problems.

The look of the Acer n30 is very slick and professional, although as I have mentioned the casing is easy -- too easy in fact -- to damage.

Overall, I would say that the Acer n30 is a good bet for someone looking for a cheap pda, that will do the basic PIM functions, and if they are willing to treat it with respect it will last a long time.