There have been various posts recently about the quest to find a suitable handheld device that can actually function as a phone as well as an internet device from Stephen Fry to Charlie Stross. I must confess: I’m no different.
As a fellow gadget head I’ve had my fair share of devices but have yet to find the holy grail. Indeed my last attempt, the brick like XDA, left scars so deep that I went running back to dependable but slow Sony Ericsson vowing to give up on any future gizmos – no matter how shiny or cool they were.
Now times seem to be changing. For the first time – although at prices that make the eyes water – you can actually get mobile broadband that is actually approaching…well…broad. And you can pick up an ultra-portable for under three hundred pounds if you know where to look.
At the same time my commute is driving me to lunacy and leaving me exhausted to the point where doing anything other than flumping on the sofa is quite difficult. Recent appearances of fecundity are in fact simply me utilising older content that never made it. In short I need to be mobile, properly.
My quest is two-fold:
1. I need a decent, mac compatible, handheld – with phone connectivity (that means no lag between me answering and the call being picked up) and fast internet access (ideally 3.5g).
2. I need an ultra portable that I can type on at full speed on a train seat with a small footwell and no table/seat tray. That precludes the Macbook Air (shiny though it be at thirteen inches it’s just two wide). Oh and it would be cool if it could be tethered to the device required in item 1.
My question – Has anyone reading this found the promised land and solved either of these?