managing a pda and phone

This is sort of a thinking out loud exercise about the merits or tradeoffs of getting a pda with phone capabilities, like the Audiovox SMT5600, versus getting a separate phone and PDA.

I'm wondering how other people handle this.

I don't yet have an X50v, and I'm between cell phones. Actually my phone was stolen over a year ago and I wasn't too keen about it anyways since it was kind of big and not convenient to always carry and I kept forgetting to keep it charged. So when it was stolen instead of getting another phone I got a pager since I need something so my company can get ahold me after hours.

For the phone I'm thinking of getting one that's small, for example, the Samsung SGH-c207 or SGH-n625. The c207 is also a fairly basic, no frills phone. I want something I can stick in my pocket and not have to worry about. I wear jeans and they don't have roomy pockets like slacks do.

So the phone I want to have with me all the time. The PDA I won't take with me when I go to lunch or out for coffee breaks. And yet I'm wondering how much of a hassle it would be to have a belt clip for the PDA. I'm a little leary of that because I once had a pager fly off my belt and take a swim in the toilet. And I'm no longer slim like I was in my younger days and when I wear someting on the side it tends to catch on the arms of my chair.

Anyhow, sorry to ramble on, but I was wondering how others handle this and if you have any thoughts or advice. Thanks.

[Computer_Czar]

Although I've had my Axim X50V a couple of weeks I've some small experience in this area. I have an Audiovox SMT5600 smartphone. I carry the Audiovox everywhere as I think you mentioned as an option. Additionally, I've paired the phone and X50V through bluetooth. In my case when I'm at work I need to answer emails, and edit files away from my PC (the X50V works great ... I even picked up a bluetooth keyboard and mouse which are really helpful). I can't however access the corporate intranet with the X50V because it doesn't support our particular authentication method. The SMT5600 while small and powerfull is inadequate for answering IM's and emails (the typing is far too tedious). Plus when I'm in places without WIFI the phone has access and with the pairing the X50V has Internet access whenever its in bluetooth range of phone (which is usually in my pocket). The jury is still out as its only been two to three weeks. I've had the phone since its release and can't complain about it. Like you I not too big on carrying a PDA due to the size (I use a notebook like case that has a notepad, room for foldable keyboard and small mouse).

Thanks for the response.

For me the primary use of the phone is for people calling me. I don't think I'd use it for network connectivity or data transfer. A smart phone is interesting for its calendering capability; I'm always forgetting meetings. Ideally what I'd like in a phone is some sort of wireless way for it to have my calender in it and to automatically keep it up to date, or at worst every day I start some app on my pc to update it. Something either would email my phone with my calendar as an attachment or would sync with bluetooth or something like that. I suspect part of the problem is that there may not be any agreed upon standard for calendaring data.

I just got a really cheap Samsung phone and it has a calendar but I have to enter things manually. But it does allow me to have multiple entries per day. This will do until my money situation changes (pesky mortgate is almost paid off) and perhaps there will be some new and interesting smart phones by then.