Gadget overload – is it possible?

2710p_and_oqoYesterday was a typical weekend day at Mobile Tech Manor and I needed to get some serious writing done but the distractions were making that difficult.  There were carpets being steam-cleaned, furniture being rearranged and people in and out of the house.  I decided to head to the local coffee shop to get some work done and started getting my gear bag ready to go.  One of the results of having so many gadgets to evaluate means I usually stop to decide which gadget(s) to bring with me for a given trip like this.  I’m not complaining, I realize I am fortunate to have a lot of gear to play around with, but I need to get my work done just like you so this decision would be important for this given work session.

Since my session was going to be mostly writing, I gave serious thought to just bringing the OQO Model 02 with me.  It’s a full Vista machine so it would work just fine.  Serious writing did mean that the thumb keyboard wouldn’t suffice so I’d have to bring my portable keyboard with me too.  The stand the keyboard has won’t support the weight of the OQO so I’d have to find a way to prop it up at the right angle for viewing.  I also didn’t know how long my writing session was going to be so I had to consider whether the poor battery life of the OQO (<2 hours) would be enough.  I decided these factors would be a distraction from getting the work done so I decided not to bring the OQO as my only machine.  I thought about bringing the HTC Advantage with me since my session was a writing session and the Advantage works well for that.  If I brought my portable keyboard with the Advantage I could take my smallest gear bag and get my work done no sweat.  Upon further thought though I considered what if I ended up needing to run one of my Windows programs that the Advantage doesn’t have?  That would be a bummer so I ruled out the HTC for this trip.

Once I decided to bring a full-sized Tablet PC with me I had to decide between the Fujitsu P1610, the Lenovo x61 and the HP 2710p.  The P1610 was my first choice being smaller and lighter than the other two but since my work was going to be writing I felt the smaller keyboard of the P1610 might not be the best choice.  I can touch type fine on the Fuji but for extended touch typing sessions the small keyboard can get a little uncomfortable so I decided a bigger device would better serve me this time.  I thought about bringing the Lenovo with me because it’s such a sweet, fast device but it’s also the biggest of all these devices and I’d have to bring a bigger gear bag than I wanted.  That would entail having to transfer anything in my smaller gear bag to the larger one and that’s a hassle for a simple trip to the coffee shop.  The HP 2710p is a fast and smaller Tablet so I decided to take that one for this trip.

Having decided that, I had to think about what I was going to be writing about in this session, and since one of the articles I am working on is a review of the OQO, I needed to bring that with me too.  This is no problem because it is so small it fits in my smaller Booq bag with the 2710p so all was set.  I threw the two devices into the bag and off I went.  At the coffee shop I was set up in a couple of minutes and began writing in earnest.  The keyboard of the 2710p is a very good one and it’s a comfort to type using it.  The Lenovo keyboard is better but I am still glad I went with a smaller device.

While I was working I realized that my little thought process to determine which device to bring with me for this mobile work session is the same process that consumers must make when trying to decide which mobile device to drop their hard-earned money on.  It’s a matter of determining how the user works and analyzing which device will get the job done best.  It’s not a simple process, either, with the wide range of mobile devices now available.  There are Tablet PCs, handheld PCs and UMPCs to consider, and it’s especially tougher with UMPCs now available at widely different sizes, with and without keyboards, and with different screen sizes.  All of these factors must be weighed carefully against the way you work to make the right choice for purchase.  I hear from people all the time who buy a mobile device and then shortly after return it or eBay it because it just didn’t work as anticipated for real work.

This is why Kevin and I rarely write typical device reviews like can be found on most mobile enthusiast web sites.  We prefer to cover devices from a "real world" perspective so better decisions can be made by our readers.  We actually use the devices we cover because how we use them and their suitability for those tasks can go a long way toward making an informed buying decision.  That’s why we will continue to do what we do.

BTW, the 2710p and the OQO worked well for this session, I was able to get a ton of work done with no compromises.  I was able to be productive without even thinking about the devices being used, and that’s the acid test for suitability.  You should be able to just get your work done without thinking about what you’re using to do it.

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