Can you recommend a good PDA for under #400

asks JacksonC

A. There are lots of PDAs on the market that you can buy for under �300, but if you're prepared to pay a bit more you will get a much better product�- so they are worth investing in. Some of the best on the market include the following:

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IBM Workpad c505

Price: �370

Website: http://www.pc.ibm.com/europe/workpad.html

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The Workpad uses the Palm operating system (version 4.0), so is one of the best you can buy�-�but without an internal modem it does not connect directly to the internet; you have to use a mobile or a separate modem. It comes with EasySync software as standard in all models which means you can swap files with your PC very quickly. It has a 160x160 colour LCD display screen, Li-Polymer rechargeable battery, 8MB storage, and it only weighs 0.141kg.

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HP Jornada 525

Price: �300

Website: http://www.hp.com/jornada/products/520/overview.html

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The Jornada 525 packs a lot in to one small machine. It is a Windows-powered PC with 16MB of RAM. It comes complete with a 133MHz 32-bit Hitachi processor and a colour 240x320 pixels LCD screen which supports 256 colours. Its PC connectivity is via a serial connection rather than the more conventional USB, which may take some getting used to but it works well.

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Every model comes with handwriting recognition software, built in Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery and the following software as standard: Pocket Outlook (manage calendars, tasks, and contacts); Pocket Internet Explorer Plug-in for AvantGo; Pocket Word (view and edit Word documents); Pocket Excel (view and edit Excel documents); Microsoft Reader (read electronic books) - with Microsoft ClearType display technology; Windows Media Player (for digital music); Note Taker; Voice Recorder, a calculator; solitaire; and File Explorer.

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Handspring Visor Edge (�329)

Handspring Visor Prism (�349)

Website: http://www.handspring.com/products/visorprism/index.jhtml sub_nav_section=Overview&prod_cat_name=Prism and http://www.handspring.com/products/visoredge/details.jhtml sub_nav_section=Details&prod_cat_name=Edge

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The Visor Edge is a great little machine, it is really lightweight and sleek. It comes complete with 8MB of RAM, mono LCD screen and a Palm operating system (version 3.5.2H3); and a 33MHz Motorola Dragonball VZ processor. In built software includes Graffiti handwriting software, support for Lotus Mail, Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express and Qualcomm Eudora.

It also has links to AOL, Lotus Notes, Netscape and Pop3 mail. It comes with either Windows 98, Windows Me or Windows 2000 with USB port or Windows 95 and NT 4.0 with a serial port. The Visor Prism is basically the same machine but with a colour screen, and is therefore a bigger and bulkier machine - which is worth the �20 extra if you're going to watch films or play a lot of games.

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Palm m500/m505

Price: �329 (m500), �399 (m505)

Website: http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds

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The m500 and m505 are the virtually the same machine, with the m500 being the monochrome model and the m505 the more expensive colour version. For PDA officiandos, Palm is the only machine to have as it was the original PDA on the market and in many respects is still the best as it's really easy to use and, more importantly, it is incredibly fast.

Both models come with a Palm 4.0 operating system, USB HotSync cradle and software that is both PC and Mac compatible. It has 8MB of RAM, measures 4.5x3.1x4 inches and has inbuilt date book, handwriting recognition, address book, note pad, calculator etc. as standard.

Earlier Palm models were often criticised for not being compaible with Word and Excel documents -or rather it had to convert them to pocket versions before it could do anything with them -�but both the new m500 and m505 have Dataviz's Documents to Go software as standard which sorts this problem out. Both machines are small, light and slim so easy to carry around.

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by Karen Anderson