3970 v's e740

[MattD]

Your advice & experience is appreciated, After a long wait, I'm upgrading from a PalmIIIc to either a 3970 or an e740. Can decide. e740 looks better on paper but I hear has a few bugs. iPac 3970 is tried and tested with heaps of accessories but no CF.

Has anybody had a similar expeience and can help with the decision. Thanks

[kb244]

I dont have a 39xx series, but I do have a 3835 (same as 3850) , which i am quite impressed with.

If CF slot is your main concern, you can purchase one of the following:

1) A Simple CF Expansion sleeve (thin, cost bout 40$)
2) CF Plus Expansion (CF Sleeve with screen cover, and removable battery for 99$)
3) PC Card Sleeve bout 150$ , but allows you to use PCMCIA Type II cards, or CF type I and II card via a PCMCIA adapter
4) (what I have) a Dual PCMCIA sleeve, quite thick, but has twice as much battery as the single PC card sleeve, supports Type II and III PCMCIA cards, and CF I & II , very useful if you want to use one slot for storage such as how i'm using a PNY 256Meg CF card in the second slot, and using a Belkin Bluetooh CF card in the first slot ( belkin PCMCIA adapters however are only compatible with laptops, so you have to get the CF card at the same price and just use a PCMCIA adapter like the one that comes with the sleeve )

The #4 option will run you about 200$ though.

Aside from Compaq's brand of sleeves, there are 3rd party sleeves, such as I think its called NexiPlus or something. They have one thats a Dual CF ( not dual PCMCIA) sleeve, with a 920ma battery on it.

They're the same company that make NexiCam turning the back of the ipaq into what looks like a 35mm camera ( does 800x600 ).

Compaq did recently release a new expansion sleeve called Memplug , couple different variations of it, one that does sony memory stick, one that does smart media, etc. But if you get a PCMCIA sleeve, you can get PCMCIA adapters for CF, SmartMedia, but not certain about MemoryStick or SD ( although SD is already existant on the top of the iPaq )

The main advantage i see with ipaq is expandibility. It comes with only one slot for starts, a SecureDigital slot. Which is a better improvment from the old 37xx series which had no slots at all. Toshiba would be nice if you wana get the device with no need to buy sleeves etc to expand, but I cannot vouche on its quality for I have not owned one. I played with display models of the thoshiba, they're ok , they take good use of the screen area by having very little margin around the edge. it just doesnt have the right "feel" in my hand though when holding it.

But overall seems on par with least my 3835 , I did note some extra features, and control pannel items on the toshibas, but cannot remeber what they were.

[broken]

i actually had an e740, for about one day, didn't even open it.

I promptly took it back for my H3835 which i love! the e740 was nice but not as expandable, as kb244 expressed. the 802.11b is nice, but i don't have wireless capabilities. for the same price, actually less because best buy pricematched and I'm a money hog so i shopped for 3 days, i got a ppc that has more accessories and more expandablility than any toshiba. i really liked the toshiba, don't get me wrong, but after i saw the iPAQ, i couldn't resist. I think you'll be more than satisfied with the iPAQ and its ability to expand w/ CF.

cheers,
slim

[vsat]

I did a lot of research on the two models and finally opted 3955.
I don't think bluetooth is mature enough and I don't need Wi-Fi so the 3955 was a better buy (it's less by $100)
I got it at compusa for $550 (mail in rebates of $150)

If you compare aesthetics of Toshiba and ipaq, ipaq is way ahead of Toshiba. And 3955 display is too good compared to 3855.
Expandability is anyway the best in iPAQs

[ctitanic]

The first question you should answer yourself is what you need. As you can see from the answer of the other users, it's a matter of preference.

I had an iPaq and now a e740 both are good units but I ended with an e740 because I needed WiFi and the e740 was cheaper and with the WiFi integrated I did not need any sleeve. If I you want a iPaq with the same capapilities than a Toshiba e740 you will have to add around $150 more to the cost of the iPaq which is already higher than the cost of a Toshiba that can be found for $450 already.

The sleeve system is very flexible but it add an extra size to your pda and the majority of them are ugly.

[jmagid]

I had initially purchased an e740 and within 2 days returned it beacuse of its poor battery performace. I was initially impressed as it had built in WiFi as well as a CF and SD slots ..... expansion and WiFi were my reasons 1 and 2 for purchasing it.

The battery performace was terrible ..... with the WiFi on and no other items in the CF or SD slots it lasted about 1.5 hours.

When I returned the unit Toshiba sent me another one and this time under the same conditions the battery lasted about the same amount of time.

I gave it up then and purchased the IPAQ 3950 new for $522.00 from Thinkpaddepot.com. I then purchased the Socket WiFi CF card with the IPAQ CF expansion sleeve.

To date I have had very good performance from the unit running it about 6-7 hours on a single charge. Not great but it is better than the e740.

One other comment here ... the IPAQ TFT is superior to the e740
also.

I think in time Toshiba will fix the battery issues but for now the 3950 has my vote.:)

[Brian_S]

Hi, just so we aren't comparing apples to oranges. Does your Ipaq have a WI-FI card running like the E740 did? Without fail running 11 Mbits back and forth is going to make a big dent on battery life VS no WI-FI.
Thanks
Brian

[jmagid]

Brian,

Yes, the IPAQ has been running with the WiFi. The comparison I made was between the same functionality on both.

Also like I said the Screen technology on the 3900 series is also another reason I selected it.

Joel:)

[Brian_S]

Thanks Joel, I too was looking at an E740 but I may stick with my Ipaq 3635 and just buy a Wifi Card.
Thanks
Brian