When considering the purchase of any piece of mobile technology it is important to consider the entire real cost of the item including the accessories. The devil in certainly in the details and with PDA and smartphones especially, you should expect to spend almost the cost of the base unit on the requisite cases, batteries and chargers.
For example, the new HP iPaq h6315 smartphone/PDA costs much more than the attractive base price of US$499 (with activation, US$599 without).
Look at these extra expenses as Total Cost of Acquisition (TCA) and if you dive in and purchase the new iPAQ (or any mobile phone or PDA, for that matter) prepare yourself to buy the following (almost immediately). Read more…
When considering the purchase of any piece of mobile technology it is important to consider the entire real cost of the item including the accessories. The devil in certainly in the details and with PDA and smartphones especially, you should expect to spend almost the cost of the base unit on the requisite cases, batteries and chargers.
For example, the new HP iPaq h6315 smartphone/PDA costs much more than the attractive base price of US$499 (with activation, US$599 without).
Look at these extra expenses as Total Cost of Acquisition (TCA) and if you dive in and purchase the new iPAQ (or any mobile phone or PDA, for that matter) prepare yourself to buy the following (almost immediately):
Must Buys
- SanDisk 1GB Secure Digital (SD) Card – SASD1GB US$79.95 on Froogle. Get one of these on day one and make backing up part of your evening re-charge ritual. You’ll be glad you did when your iPAQ runs out of juice and it hard resets wiping out all your data. Revel in the fact that SD media is one-fifth the price of Memory Stick.
- h6000 Slim Battery (0517777 – FA235A#AC3) US$49.99 – Run, don’t walk to get an extra battery for this phone. GPRS, WiFi and Bluetooth are all battery hogs, so plan ahead and always bring an extra battery with you.
- Extra AC Adapter EU-US (0496213 – FA130A#ABA) US$27.99 – Although you don’t need the whole cradle an extra AC adapter is a good idea. Plan on charging the iPAQ every night and don’t forget your adapter at home or at work. I sometimes buy two extra.
- h6000 3 Pack Stylus (0517781 – FA237A#AC3) US$12.99 – Let’s face it, a stylus is probably the easiest thing on the planet lose and it doesn’t help that they’re tiny and black. You’ll lose the factory provided stylus within 24 hours. All of the above are available from http://www.shopping.hp.com/.
- Retractable USB Charger – These are available from a number of vendors (Boxwave’s miniSync (US$14.95) is my favorite) and are better for your gear bag than a traditional AC adapter because they are tiny. iPAQs can charge and sync via USB eliminating the need to be chained to your AC adapter.
- Auto Charger – The Boxwave VersaCharger (US$24.95) is the coolest auto charger for the iPAQ, it features a female USB port so that you can plug in your retractable USB cable. What’s better is that the Boxwave auto adapter has flip down prongs and morphs into a standard AC (wall) adapter.
- Screen Protectors – Remember WriteRight PDA overlays from back in the Palm days? Well the older ones don’t work well on color PDAs like the iPAQ because they can distort the image on the screen. Several vendors now make crystal clear screen overlays for all PDAs. In fact, they’re available for mobile phones, digital cameras and iPods too. If you don’t like scratches on your expensive screen, pick up one of these US$13 doodads.
- Jabra FreeSpeak 250 – US$99.95 – You’ll need a Bluetooth headset to avoid having to hold the huge iPAQ up to your ear and I still like Jabra’s fit the best. The iPAQ ships with a corded handsfree which makes an excellent backup. I am currently coveting the Sony Ericsson HBH-660 Akono Bluetooth Headset because it has a small caller ID display on the side, but it isn’t shipping yet.
What are your must have accessories? Does it bother you that most vendors leave so much out of the retail package?
Price Check the HP iPaq h6315.
