Another Try

[tamaranth]

I've asked about battery-powered PDAs before, but perhaps I wasn't quite clear about my requirements.

I do not want a PDA with a rechargeable battery, no matter how whizzy it is. I do not want to have to carry a charger with me. I want to carry a spare pair of batteries. I am regularly away from a power point for longer than the 6-7 hours that a rechargeable battery will last me, and the Visor is often in more-or-les constant use on long journeys / at the beach / in the park etc.

So ...

Requirement: Palm OS, battery-powered PDAs for which a full-size keyboard is available.

Or, if you prefer, what was the last model of your preferred PDA which was battery-powered?

Comments

Hey we tried ...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... I found you external battery packs that would give you "a spare set of batteries", external packs that would recharge your PDA, solar cells that would recharge or power your PDA while on the beach/in the park, alternate power options etc. but I couldn't find a PDA that runs on normal batteries ...

... the Psion 5 was the last one I had that ran on normal batteries, and it's not Palm OS.

Good luck

Expandability

[autopope.livejournal.com]

If you want expandability, why not go for a TRGPro or Handera 330? (Both made by TRG). The TRGPro is basically a Palm III-alike with a CF-card slot -- you can put any CF flash memory card you like in it, and I know from experience it'll take a 256Mb card. The Handera 330 is a slightly larger successor with a 240x320 grayscale display, CF card slot, and IIRC an SD slot. (Never played with one, but the owners rave about them.) Both are battery powered (not rechargable) and as TRG stopped making 'em earlier this year they're available for a song on places like eBay.

[neilf.livejournal.com]

As has been mentioned by others, the Palm M105, the TRG and the Visors are probably your best bet.

Not Palm OS, but a Psion of some sort (keyboard included of course) would be an alternative option.

Not aware of a modern Pocket PC/Windows CE device that ran on regular batteries, the HP I have is donkeys years old.

The Plam M105 used the 'universal connector' which means that modern keyboards should work with it, assuming they have drivers for which ever version of Palm OS the 105 has. One downside of the 100 series was that they weren't flash upgradable.

Very few (probably read none) modern PDAs use regular batteries simply because they all have colour screens and they just eat batteries. That's why all the new ones are rechargable.

- Neil.