.KEYWORD prophone
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE PDA Pro Phone case
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Want a case that provides hands-free access to your Palm handheld? Senior Technical Editor Claire Pieterek reviews the PDA Skins PDA Pro Phone case, which you can use to carry your Palm OS handheld, your cell phone, and your wallet, plus it opens to create a flat workspace for your PDA.
.AUTHOR Claire Pieterek
The PDA Skins PDA Pro Phone case promises a lot, but it doesn’t quite deliver on all counts. The manufacturer, PDA Skins (at http://www.pdaskins.com), says you can put your Palm handheld and cell phone in it, clip it on your belt or wear it over your shoulder, use it as a wallet, and operate it one-handed, but you might not want to consider doing all of those things once you see it in the field.
The PDA Skins PDA Pro Phone case is pictured in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A You can carry your Palm handheld, cell phone, and wallet in the PDA Pro Phone case.
.H1 Carrying the case
For the most part, the PDA Pro Phone case is nicely made, with the major exception being the shoulder strap. The shoulder strap is cheap, with frail, pot metal clips that don’t look up to holding anything for the long run. The strap is pictured in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B The strap didn’t look sturdy enough to me.
Suffice it to say, I would not trust my Palm handheld, let alone my Palm handheld, cell phone, and wallet contents to this shoulder strap. I think I’m qualified to judge shoulder straps, based on the sheer number of purses, briefcases, and backpacks I’ve lugged over the years. This is the weakest one I’ve seen in a long time. On the other hand, the D-rings on the PDA Pro Phone case are sturdy looking and are affixed to the case pretty well.
My big problem here is-what if you use this case as intended, and the strap breaks? You have just lost your entire life! Your PDA, your phone, and the contents of your wallet are gone. In this day and age of identity theft, that is a major blow. Needless to say, I consider this a real design flaw.
I have a friend who would kill for a product like this. She was enviously eying the PDA Pro Phone case until she saw the shoulder strap. The shoulder strap’s fragility really blew the deal for her. She’d also like this case to be a little larger, but, unfortunately, this product doesn’t really seem to be targeted toward women PDA users. The clips on the shoulder strap and the strap itself are not very sturdy. I don’t think a woman had any say in this particular decision.
On the other hand, the belt clip, shown in Figure C, is rather nice.
.FIGPAIR C Thought went into the belt clip design.
It’s obvious that a lot of thought went into the belt clip design. It has a good grip and a hinge, unlike the holster designs that seem to have become popular lately. It’s sewn in well and reinforced. It’s obvious that much more thought was put into the belt clip than the shoulder strap.
The belt clip is sturdy and reinforced for the long run. The only problem here will be if the fashionistas declare wide belts back in style.
.H1 Carrying your phone
There’s no doubt about it: if this case takes a dive or you slip and fall, your cell phone will be the sacrificial lamb. If you and your business depend on your cell phone, this may not be the case for you.
Also, if you have a stylishly small cell phone, it might be difficult to reach in and grab it out of this particular case, as you can see in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D This is a Nokia 8290 in the PDA Pro Phone case.
Can you find the phone in that picture? Unfortunately, it’s extremely hard to get small phones out of this case. There really is a phone in there!
The PDA Pro Phone case is better suited to the larger models cellular providers give customers "free" when they start service. I found it hard to retrieve either a Nokia 8290 or Samsung N105 out of this case and answer it before the call went into voice mail.
.H1 Carrying your Palm handheld
The PDA Pro Phone case relies on Velcro to affix your Palm handheld to the case. This will also allow you to take advantage of the "hands-free" operation, which also relies on an adjustable Velcro "hinge" to create a flat working surface, no matter whether the case is clipped to your belt or on the shoulder strap. The hands-free position is shown in Figure E.
.FIGPAIR E The PDA Pro Phone case creates an instant flat surface.
The PDA Pro Phone case is a convenient way to have your Palm handheld at the ready for all kinds of operations in the field, especially if you know you’re not going to have a flat surface and need both hands free. You can see how it works in Figure F.
.FIG F You can use your Palm handheld hands-free with the PDA Pro Phone case.
However, I would be very hesitant about using the manufacturer-supplied shoulder strap unless I had one of those rugged Palm OS handhelds from Symbol Technologies or a Palm handheld with a plastic screen!
I would also like to see a little more protection for the PDA. Even though the PDA gets some protection from the cell phone, it’s bound to get bumped around a bit as the day goes on, no matter whether you wear the PDA Pro Phone case on your belt or over your shoulder.
.H1 Conclusion
I do like the PDA Pro Phone case, but there are two things that PDA Skins could do to make a good case even better.
First of all, the shoulder strap needs drastic improvement. If someone is going to put several hundred dollars’ worth of equipment plus cash, ID, and credit cards into this case, then provide a shoulder strap and hardware that look-and act-like they will hold up their end of the deal. Even low-end point-and-shoot cameras come with better straps than this one. If you’re going for the "mini man bag" market, you’ve got to come up with something more macho than this!
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Second, a thin piece of aluminum or extremely sturdy plastic (such as Lexan, a polycarbonate plastic product made by GE Plastics, or Kevlar) as reinforcement in the outer wall of the case between the phone compartment and the PDA compartment would really increase my comfort level with this case. I usually carry a Coach bag and put my HandEra 330 http://www.handera.com in my trusty JetPac (at http://www.jpsolutions.com) when I’m not testing other cases. I like the security of a hard case, but it would be nice to have the luxury of leather, too.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on the PDA Skins PDA Pro Phone case, visit http://www.pdaskins.com.
For more information on the HandEra 330, visit http://www.handera.com.
For more information on JetPac, visit http://www.jpsolutions.com.
For more information on Kevlar, visit http://www.dupont.com/kevlar/.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
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.BIO
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