April 3, 2004

My mobile device history

This is a list of the various electronic organizers and PDAs that I’ve owned over the years. Some folks are interested in this kind of stuff for whatever reason!

PDA and Organizer History

Sharp 128K Wizard

  • Status: Gave to a former girlfriend
  • OS: Proprietary
  • CPU: Unknown
  • RAM: 128 KB
  • Screen: 16 character, 4 line black and white display, no backlight
  • Misc: Keyboard input, clamshell case

Casio 256K B.O.S.S

  • Status: Stolen
  • OS: Proprietary
  • CPU: Unknown
  • RAM: 256 KB
  • Screen: Black and white, EL backlight
  • Misc: Keyboard input, clamshell case

Texas Instruments Avigo 10

  • Status: Sold
  • OS: Proprietary
  • CPU: Unknown
  • RAM: 2 MB
  • Screen: 160×240 (I think) 4 grayscale, EL backlight
  • Misc: Built-in protective flip cover, touch-screen stylus input, on-screen keyboard, and T9 predictive input

Uniden Unipro PC100A

  • Status: Sold
  • OS: Microsoft Windows CE 2.1
  • CPU: 33 MHz MIPS
  • RAM: 8 MB
  • Screen: 240×320 4 grayscale, EL backlight
  • Misc: Built-in 28.8 Kbps modem, CF II slot

Palm m505

  • Status: Sold
  • OS: Palm OS 4.0
  • CPU: ?MHz Dragonball
  • RAM: 8 MB
  • Screen: Reflective TFT, 160×160 16-bit color

Casio Cassiopeia E-200

  • Status: Exchanged under CompUSA warranty exchange for Toshiba e740
  • OS: Microsoft Pocket PC 2002
  • CPU: 266 MHz Intel ARM
  • RAM: 64 MB
  • Screen: Reflective TFT, 240×320 16-bit color
  • Info: I went through four defective units before finally deciding to make use of my CompUSA TAP to get a erent model Pocket PC.

Toshiba e740

  • Status: Exchanged under CompUSA warranty exchange for HP iPAQ h5455
  • OS: Microsoft Pocket PC 2002
  • CPU: 400 MHz Intel Xscale
  • RAM: 64 MB
  • Screen: Reflective TFT, 240×320 16-bit color
  • Info: Two defective or malfunctioning units made me use another CompUSA TAP to get the following Pocket PC…

HP iPAQ h5455

  • Status: Exchange under CompUSA warranty exchange for HP iPAQ hx4700
  • OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC (Upgraded from Pocket PC 2002)
  • CPU: 400 MHz Intel Xscale
  • RAM: 64 MB
  • Screen: Transflective TFT, 240×320 16-bit color
  • Info: The first h5455 I bought had a defective touchscreen, but the second one performed virtually trouble-free for about thirteen months. It developed a problem with the charge/sync connector which I lived with for nearly another year. When plugged into a PC, Windows would display an error bubble which stated “Unrecognized USB Device.” I tried three different cradles on four different PCs with both Windows XP and 2000 with the same results. Additionally since the connector was damaged, I could no longer charge the device in a cradle. Instead, it had to be placed flat on the desk with the charge cable plugged directly into it. In order to make contact, something had to be placed under the charge connector to hold it up at an angle. Aside from that problem, I loved owning this device and had no complaints whatsoever. To date, I owned that Pocket PC longer than any other PDA.

HP iPAQ hx4700

  • Status: Actually still have this. My mom uses it to play a couple old games that do not exist for modern devices.
  • OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC (Later upgraded to Windows Mobile 6 via cooked ROM)
  • CPU: 624 MHz Intel Xscale
  • RAM: 64 MB
  • Screen: Transflective TFT, 480×640 16-bit color
  • Info: Wow. Just wow. This was the best Pocket PC I ever owned or used. The large VGA-resolution LCD was simply stunning for its time. The CPU was speedy and for everything that’s crammed inside, it’s remarkably thin. It’s also nice to have dual card slots back so I can use large CompactFlash cards again.

Palm Treo 700w

  • Status: Sold to former coworker
  • Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  • OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5
  • CPU: I don’t remember
  • RAM: 32 MB
  • Screen Transflective TFT, 240×240 16-bit color
  • Info: Aside from the front-facing keyboard, this phone was very disappointing. Not enough RAM and the tiny screen really killed this one for me. Simply loading a Web page in IE would consume so much RAM that all other apps running in the background would quit.

Verizon xv6700

  • Status: Donated / recycled
  • Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  • OS: Windows Mobile 5 (Upgraded via cooked ROM to Windows Mobile 6, which really revitalized it and got rid of a lot of the useless Verizon crap. I used this phone for almost another year because of that upgrade.)
  • CPU: Don’t remember
  • RAM: Enough to get by
  • Screen: Transflective TFT, 240×320 16-bit color
  • Info: Slide-out keyboard. Very brick-like, even for its time, but a very capable phone. The keyboard backlight was blue, and very difficult to see. I believe the Sprint version had a white backlight, which would have been much more usable.

Samsung BlackJack II

  • Status: Gave to a coworker, whose wife needed an AT&T phone
  • Carrier: AT&T Wireless
  • OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition
  • CPU: Don’t remember
  • RAM: Don’t remember
  • Screen: Non-touch transflective TFT, 320×240, 16-bit color
  • Info: Probably the best non-touchscreen Windows Mobile device made. Lack of touch really got frustrating, though.

Palm Treo Pro

  • Status: Sold
  • Carrier: Unlocked, used with AT&T Wireless
  • OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition
  • CPU: Don’t remember
  • RAM: Don’t remember
  • Info: Best. Treo. Ever. (In my opinion.) Still like this phone, but finally so frustrated with Windows Mobile that I felt I needed to move to something else…

Google (HTC) Nexus One

  • Status: Sold to a coworker’s son, who needed a new AT&T phone
  • Carrier: Unlocked, used with AT&T Wireless
  • OS: Android OS 2.1
  • CPU: 1 GHz Qualcom Snapdragon
  • RAM: 512 MB
  • Screen: AMOLED 480×800, capacitive touch
  • Info: My first non-Windows Mobile Phone in almost twelve years. I was expecting the transition to be painful, but I miss only two things about Windows Mobile: seamless Exchange support, and S/MIME support for e-mail. Seriously, that’s all I miss. This is one amazing phone. It has some growing pains to get past which I hope will be addressed with a future software update, but I really love this phone quite a bit.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Verizon)

  • Status: Sold to former coworker.
  • Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  • OS: Various versions of Android, ending with the official 4.2.2 release
  • CPU:
  • RAM: 1 GB
  • Screen: AMOLED 720x1280, capacitive touch
  • Info: Overall, the best smartphone I’ve owned. (Not the best one; just the best I’ve owned.)

Nokia Lumia 928

  • Status: In storage
  • Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  • OS: Windows Phone 8.1
  • CPU: ?
  • RAM: 1 GB
  • Screen: AMOLED 768x1280, capacitive touch
  • Info: My first foray back to a Microsoft mobile OS. Overall a positive experience, but the OS has not been without its share of frustrations, mostly around app availability. This is improving on a regular basis, but I doubt Windows Phone will ever get above third place in mainstream mobile OSes.

Nokia Lumia Icon (929)

  • Status: In storage
  • Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  • OS: Windows Phone 8.1
  • CPU: ?
  • RAM: 1 GB
  • Screen: AMOLED 768x1280, capacitive touch
  • Info:

Google Nexus 6P

  • Status: In storage
  • Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  • OS: Various versions of Android, ending with the official Pie release
  • CPU: ?
  • RAM: 2 GB
  • Screen: AMOLED, capacitive touch
  • Info:

Google Pixel 2XL

  • Status: In storage
  • Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  • OS: Android 10
  • CPU: ?
  • RAM: 4 GB
  • Screen: AMOLED, capacitive touch
  • Info:

Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max, Space Gray

  • Status: Current primary mobile device
  • Carrier: Verizon Wireless
  • OS: iOS 15.6
  • CPU: Apple A13
  • Storage: 256 GB
  • All technical specifications
  • Info: