.KEYWORD pdq
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE QUALCOMM’s pdQ 1900 Smartphone
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY The QUALCOMM pdQ, in development for over a year, is the first example of a Palm device built into a cellular phone. Is the pdQ the greatest thing since sliced bread, or just another geek gadget? Contributing Editor Jason Perlow gives you the scoop.
.AUTHOR Jason Perlow
I learned about QUALCOMM’s plans to build PalmOS functionality into a phone over a year ago. QUALCOMM announced in the summer of 1998 that they were going to license 3Com’s PalmOS for use in their phone products. Incredibly excited about the prospect of a new, non 3Com-built Palm device in a phone, I made incessant inquiries to QUALCOMM over the next few months.
Before I knew it, it was the summer of 1999. Sure enough, at the June 1999 PC Expo in New York City, I found a few of these new gadgets on display at Palm Computing’s partner pavilion. Unfortunately, the Sprint PCS (Personal Communication Services) CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) mobile network that the pdQ was designed to run on wasn’t ready for the pdQ’s Internet access capabilities. So I had to continue to wait some time until the whole thing was ready for review.
Finally, in late November of 1999, QUALCOMM began to ship limited amounts of the pdQ to Sprint PCS stores, and I was able to get a hold of one in December. Needless to say, the product has an impressive first showing. Reactions to it are mixed, however, largely due to the somewhat dated Palm technology that’s in the phone.
[On December 22, 1999, QUALCOMM announced it was selling its phone division to Kyocera Corporation. Based on the press release details, it appears this phone may also go to Kyocera. However, no mention was made of the pdQ phone specifically, nor the Palm license. Stay tuned to PalmPower News each day at http://www.palmpower.com/news/news.html for the latest information on this interesting development. — DG]
.H1 It’s a Palm… no, it’s a phone!
The QUALCOMM pdQ is large for a cellular phone, although it has the advantage of large buttons and an oversized display. It’s not the kind of phone you can just shove in your pocket or purse. It’s more suited to briefcases and large pocketbooks, and it’s about twice as heavy as your average PCS phone. If you intend to carry it around as your primary PCS phone and PDA, you’ll want to invest in QUALCOMM’s pdQ leather case with belt clip or a 3rd party belt pouch to hold it.
When the pdQ is in phone mode, as shown in Figure A, it exposes about 50 percent of the Palm display, with the cellular phone keypad/flip cover obscuring the remaining half of the display, the Palm computing buttons, and the Graffiti area. The keypad buttons are oval in shape, covered in a rubber material, and have good spacing between them. The unit is constructed of a rugged ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) plastic compound and should hold up well to heavy phone usage and general knocking around.
.FIGPAIR A When the pdQ is in phone mode, it exposes about 50 percent of the Palm display, with the cellular phone keypad/flip cover obscuring the remaining half of the display, the Palm computing buttons, and the Graffiti area.
In phone mode, the keypad can be used to search through the Address Book database to pick out phone numbers for quick dialing. This is one of the best features of this device, and nicely demonstrates the kind of tight integration between phone and Palm device that’s possible. You can also flip up the keypad, pull up the Palm Address book, shown in Figure B, choose an Address Book entry, and dial a number from a pop-up list.
.FIG B When searching for an address, you can flip up the keypad, pull up the Palm Address book, choose an Address Book entry, and dial a number from a pop-up list.
In PalmOS mode, shown in Figure C, the cellular phone keypad flips forward to expose the four core application buttons, the up and down buttons, and the Graffiti writing area. On the pdQ, the application and directional buttons are rubberized just like the cellular phone buttons. While we understand that the designers probably wanted to do this to keep out the elements, it detracts somewhat from the PalmOS experience and doesn’t have the same clicky/snappy feeling that I am used to from a Palm device. This is just my personal preference, of course. The target audience for this device may never have used a Palm device before and might feel differently.
.FIGPAIR C In PalmPilot mode, the cellular phone keypad flips forward to expose the four core application buttons, the up and down buttons, and the Graffiti writing area.
The screen on the pdQ is somewhat disappointing, as it uses the 4-shade greyscale backlit technology used by the older Palm IIIs and PalmPilots. This is understandable, as the design for the pdQ was finalized well over a year ago, before the Palm IIIx’s, Palm V’s , Visor’s, and TRGpro’s superior 16-shade greyscale reverse backlit screens were introduced. The screen area is also somewhat smaller, to accommodate the smartphone form factor.
Personally, I think they could’ve gotten slightly more screen real estate out of the pdQ by eliminating the sidebar on the right part of the screen area. This bar has silkscreen buttons for contrast, phone power, call log, and HotSync, functions which could’ve easily been duplicated by using "soft buttons" like the Visor and Palm V use.
One of the other problems with having the screen area on the front of the device where the headset, microphone, and phone buttons are is that when you speak into the phone, the screen has a tendency to build up oils from the user’s face and accumulate moisture from breathing into the microphone. I don’t really know how this problem can be solved, short of putting the Palm screen on the rear of the device where the battery is, and having the phone part of the device use its own small LCD screen for displaying phone numbers.
It’s possible that the current 16-greyscale and the upcoming color Palm screens won’t exhibit these kinds of problems on future pdQs and Palm-based phones from other vendors like Nokia and Motorola, but if you’re seriously looking to replace your Palm device and cellular phone with a PalmOS-based phone like a pdQ over the next year, you may want to carry a handkerchief as well to wipe off the screen periodically.
The pdQ comes with a very basic, no frills plastic stylus which is stored in a recess on the left side of the unit next to the volume control buttons. As a writing implement it’s pretty mediocre, and QUALCOMM doesn’t supply any other alternatives. I’m guessing here that the QUALCOMM engineers thought that prospective pdQ users wouldn’t use the stylus and write in Graffiti as often as your typical Palm device user. If you’re up to buying a pdQ, I strongly suggest investing in a Cross Digital Writer or similar premium pen/stylus combo.
The pdQ is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, from which you can expect to get about two hours of talk and 11 hours of standby time if the phone/modem is powered on. We were able to go a whole day with the phone on before we saw the battery go to critical. pdQ owners will want to make sure that their pdQ’s charged in its cradle every night, especially if you intend to keep your phone on at all times. The charging sync cradle is oversized, and the pdQ uses a completely different pinout than your typical Palm III, so don’t even think about using Palm III accessories with it.
As a phone, you can expect the same crystal-clear digital PCS quality you’d expect from any CDMA phone from QUALCOMM — assuming you’re within an access area. The pdQ’s headset speaker is especially loud, so those who like to talk on their phone walking down busy streets in major metropolitan areas or in any area with a lot of background noise will have no problem hearing their conversation. The volume on the the pdQ can go very high, so if you’re borderline deaf, this is definitely the mobile phone for you.
.H1 pdQ tech
The pdQ runs on Palm OS 3.0 from the time of the original Palm III and includes the original Palm III desktop software. I’m hoping that Kyocera, the new owner of QUALCOMM’s phone division, provides a Palm OS 3.1 or 3.3 update soon, so users can take advantage of the bug fixes and performance improvements of the newer software.
Running in pure Palm III mode with the cellular phone/wireless modem turned off, the pdQ benchmarks at 100 percent using Neal Bridge’s benchmark utility, or about the same as a Palm III, as shown in Figure D. Performance is a little slower when the phone or modem is running.
.FIG D Using Neal Bridge’s benchmark utility, the smartphone rates itself against other products.
Like the original Palm III, the pdQ has IR (Infrared) beaming capabilities and is equipped with 2MB of RAM. If you’re just a casual Palm III user who only plans to use the big four applications and not keep a lot of email on the unit, 2MB is more than sufficient. Power users, however, who’ve stretched their existing 2MB or 4MB units to the limit, will probably want to wait for the next version of the product or a similarly designed PalmOS-based phone from Motorola or Nokia. After loading on a few large .DOC files and some of our favorite games and utilities, we found we only had about 100K of memory left.
The 14.4K wireless modem built into the pdQ is used to transmit digital data over a wireless provider’s CDMA phone network –
