Dedicated vs. PDA

[frankp]

Hi, I was hoping someone could help me decide between buying dedicated handheld chess computer or a low end PDA and chess software for it.

I am interested in buying this for my son. Right now he isn't very good (he's young) but I want something he can grow into, so I want it to be decently strong. More importantly is fast. We have a table top chess computer right now and he never plays it anymore because at the level where it is a challenge for him it moves too slowly and he gets too bored waiting around.

I've been looking at the high end dedicated handhelds, like the now obsolete Excalibur Talking Chess Deluxe (I was thinking about looking at the new one when it comes out next month) and the Novag Star Ruby.

But I realized I'm getting up in the price class where I might just be better off buying something like a Palm Z22 with HIARCS on it.

So, aside form the obvious extra features I get with a PDA, if we pretend I will ONLY use it for chess, what are the pros/cons for one vs. the other?

For example, I haven't seen a Z22 up close and personal ... how would the graphics on the Z22 compare to the excalibur deluxe? What would be one model up from the Z22 in terms of graphics, but still not too big a price jump?

What about features?

And also important would be battery life and how fast it plays?

Anyone have good tips and advice for me?

Thanks!

Went through the same issue last year. I bought a Palm Z22 (60 GBP) and downloaded OpenChess, Fruit and a few others at no cost. Graphics are far superior to dedicated handhelds and the Z22 is of course much more flexible than a chess handheld eg other games and pim. Battery life is fine. Hiarcs, Tiger, ChessGenius are probably stronger than Fruit but cost a fair fraction of the cost of the Z22.