mobile pro 780, or jornada 680e

i am trying to decide which handheld to get and i cant decide between, the jornada 680e and the mobile pro 780. can someone list the pros and cons of both?

One huge difference is the J680 is much cheaper. You can get one in like-new condition for $109 to $129 plus reasonable shipping. The 680\90 is famous for a terrible speaker and lack of head phone socket. The NEC 780 has a nice, tiny speaker and a headphone socket. Another significant difference is the size. The 680 is about as small as you can make a clamshell handheld PC and still input data at a reasonable speed. The 780 is significantly bigger such that it is less mobile than the 680.

The NEC 780 borders on being a mini-notebook, whereas the J 680 is, in my opinion, as big as a handheld gets and remains a handheld.

Some users say the NEC780 has a brighter screen. Before I would lay down $300 plus for a used NEC780, I would look into a used Sharp Zaurus SL C800 to C1000, truly remarkable devices!

Before emotions heat & hot exceptions hurl, I say all the above...In my humble opinion!

--Bruised

If portability is an issue, go with the 680...if not, consider the 780. They both have the DSTN screen, both have the same resolution, and depending on your particular machine, both have the same screen brightness and functionality.

Both have pcmcia slots, both are touchscreen, however, I'm not sure on the audio specs of the 680e....seems there has been a lot of talk about this lately.

Does the 680e have a CF slot? I know we can't compare the speeds because one uses the SH3 and one uses the MIPS processor, but I would assume that the thoroughput is about the same.

I disagree with the comment about price however...I can go on eBay right now and find many Mobilepro 780s for less than $150 and have seen many nice ones sell for around $100.

Actually I always thought the 780 sound was crappy through the speaker, but nice through headphones. It is only mono however and doesn't take a standard size ear phone plug...you have to use a modified adpater to use standard headphones.

Actually, my advice: Buy both of them and keep the one you like and sell the other.

Rich

Edited by Rich Hawley 2005-04-01 4:46 PM

i am perfectly satisfied with the Mp780 (aside from some probs. withe wlan) but i have never had any experience with the j680.

I recently bought HP J680e at $119.99 Plus s/h. It's good but when I tried PCMCIA CARD, after several use, it froze. Then, I have to do soft reset, then hard reset. Now, it's not working. It won't turn on anymore. The PCMCIA slot work for several days and working fine, then suddenly it broke. I'm sure I inserted it correctly, that's not the problem. Unless, anybody else has some explanation for that. Any thouhgts, though? Thanks.

780 is big enough to touch type fairly comfy, while the 680 isn't unless you might be a child :-) it is pretty small.

680 is big enough to type on it fast and comfortably. i can't do touch typing (never tried to learn, not on even my PC), but i'm almost as fast with my 728 as with my desktop PC (meaning pretty fast!)
and i'm not a child

Susie, which card were you trying? did the card work at all?


anyway... i'm so sad to learn about your story (( another dead hpc...

Edited by cmonex 2005-04-01 9:31 PM

If you want NetBSD, then you want the 780, but if you want JLime, you want the 680...

If size does not matter and you want the speed - 780, same with if you want the integrated flash, and more available software.

They each have their own qualities, it all comes down to what you want. They both have a CF card slot, a pcmcia slot, the same version of CE.

If you want a nice little Jornada, get the 680! Jornada's are nice...heheh but NEC's are also great. In other words, I can't give you an answer of which is truly better.

HPC's are not young anymore, cmonex, and the 680's are now 6 years old...

My 720 is rock solid so I expect it to last a really long time, but other HPC's not as solid could start breaking down...

-I like my 720 (umm, where did the smily I just made go? is not on the list anymore...)

EDIT: HAHA I just didn't scroll over all the way - is still there...eh

Edited by ProgramSynthesiser 2005-04-02 2:11 AM

i have the jornada 680 (the same as the 680e only includes a modem) and it is fast enough for what i want it to do. i have found that there is a lack of software avaliable for the jornada 680. the keyboard is big enough to touch type but i only have small hands, like someone said earlier, it may big enough for a kid. i agree with that im 14 and can type much faster than i can handwrite.
if you want software for your machine find out how much is avaliable for the mobile pro 780. trust me, it cant be less than the amount for the jornada 680.
so if you want it for 3rd party software go with the mobile pro.

Actually I think the J680/e and the MP780 have the same OS, so the software selection would be pretty much the same.

Kind of but not quite.. the 780 has a MIPS processor while the 680 sports an SH-3 CPU, no? However, most of the software available for one will most likely also have been compiled for the other.

Hi,

If I may make my own 2 cents worth here.. Get Neither.

You'd be much better off in getting a Jornada 7 series, or even the Mobilepro 900 series, in other words, anything that runs HPC 2000. There's still a fair amount of software development, and there is the possibility of getting software on the PPC platform to actually work on HPC 2000 devices. Ditto for the 780 or the 680e.

Both HPC 2000 devices I've mentioned can be bought at a fair price on Ebay, as low as USD 130 I think, and they offer so much better value for money in the long run.

Or the Mobilepro 790.. which is a HPC2000 device with a mips CPU as well... and would be a bit cheaper than a 900 on ebay.