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.

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.

FIGURE 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 -­ in this case, Sprint PCS and Bell Atlantic Mobile. Unfortunately, the modem doesn't comply to the same TCP/IP application standards that the Palm VII, Minstrel III, or OmniSky modem uses. Therefore, PQA applications and any other TCPIP Palm applications like AvantGo, MultiMail, or ThinAirmail won't run on the pdQ either.